Feedback on my website?

[bwhatnall]

Hi Guys,
Have been running a couple of websites for a while ago, and have recently updated them, and am sticking them up here to get some honest feedback.

The first site is my personal folio site - http://www.brookewhatnall.com

This site is primarily used to show my photo's to the world, host my blog, to keep it interactive and keep people updated, and take contact info via the contact page, it is relatively simple, and I am trying to think of ways to spice things up!

The second site is - http://www.sportsnap.com.au

This site is the home page for my sports photography business, SportSnap Photography. Essentially a site that allows people to view photo's that we have shot at events, and purchase them using an online contact form, which then, later down the track, is turned into a photo sale.

This site is made to hold a lot more info, and was written in iWeb, whereas the other one was in dreamweaver. No way to integrate the blog yet, though working on it.

Feedback would be awesome
Cheers
Brooke

[elwolando]

Hi,
I like http://www.brookewhatnall.com more as it is clearer in view and presents nicely. The only two changes I would made if it was my personal website is a) font doesn't look smooth when is large so maybe replace it with the image b) background in simpleviewer would match the colour of the website background.

http://www.sportsnap.com.au - personally I prefer to look up images on the bright background. Except that i would be clearer if blog opened in a new window - from a user point of view. And not sure what is 'contact complete' tab.

Hope thats helpful. Feel free to have a look on mine websites and say what you think.

http://www.halo-photo.com
http://www.photo-graphers.co.uk

Cheers

Elwolando

[NeoTiger]

Is the "Home" page at http://www.brookewhatnall.com/ supposed to be blank?

All I see is a blank white page, and keep waiting for something to load.....

[muzz]

Is the "Home" page at http://www.brookewhatnall.com/ supposed to be blank?

All I see is a blank white page, and keep waiting for something to load.....

Me too. At least on Firefox 3.0.8 on MacOSX.

[Ant]

I would make the blog the homepage in Brookewhatnall.com. The original homepage with just a title and some links feels like something is missing. It is also difficult to work out whether this is a personal site of a commercial site, ie. the layout etc. feels like a personal site but the content seems to be selling.

Ant.

[bwhatnall]

Thanks guys, yea, I am strung between going commercial from just a personal thing last year.

Not sure where the site should rest on that.

The home page is blank at the moment, sticking the blog there is a genius idea, never thought of that, but it makes sense, keeps fresh material coming to the site withought people having to browse through, and home page is editable from anywhere

[team piggy]

The BrookeWhatnall site is pretty bland on homepage, I didnt like the font or the logo. A Blog here would be a great idea, or better front page.

Maybe post copies of the items on your clients page that you have shot before, instead of just syaing you did it. People like seeing the item/article. Also then adds no doubt that it has actually occured. (Without sounding nasty, there is a lot of togs out there with bogus resumes) so standing out is a milestone in this industry.

Sportsnap.

The blog breaks it and takes you away from the page, never to return as the back button doesnt work.. or you have to be real quick to grab a link in the pause of a 1/2 a second. Maybe have it load in a new window?

Contact complete? gets a 404. I would just list your details all under "contact" its the web standard.

Galleries, On the index page a mouse over would be great, you cant really see any feedback on a gallery (Index) until it pops up. Kind of flying blind.

The loading of a page (for me anyway) seems "clunky"? Seems to lock up scrolling up/down for a bit.. (Maybe stuff loading in background?).

Order page, not sure how it works, looks like just an email contact form, a checkbox/cart arrangement would be great here? Allowing people to see what they have ordered and change before submitting?

Just some feedback on my thoughts after going thru the sites. Hope it helps

[terminator]

Both sites look pretty good.
I would change the title page on the first one..(not a fan of white minimalist title pages...black looks more classy IMHO)..
I like simpleviewer and use it on my site..
Really love the pic of Ayres rock in your portfolio by the way...some great shots there!

[SuperJT]

Both sites look pretty good !

I agree that the BrookeWhatnall site is pretty bland on the homepage. I think that if you had one picture (possibly from your portfolio page) on the front page that would be cool. And if you could have it change daily (eg cycle through all the pictures on your portfolio page), that would be very cool.

I really like the shots on the portfolio page.

[bwhatnall]

Hi Guys,
Thanks for the feedback, its awesome, bringing up many bugs that got by my eyes. I have had a run over http://www.sportsnap.com.au, and it is running a bit smoother, with no mysterious 404 error, contact complete page, or redirection of the blog. In fact, the blogger blog is gone, and in its place, is a blog that came with the iWeb theme, inserted into the page, no leaving http://www.sportsnap.com.au.

Now off to work with the other site, I love having sundays off

[Frankenstein]

I like the feel of your personal site - clean and crisp - but I agree that it's too sparse, and adding the blog will be the perfect solution. And you have some wonderful images on display!

And if I may suggest, being the stickler for punctuation that I am (gee, now the pressure's on me), there is no apostrophe in "photo's" in the way you're using the word (ie plural of photo) on the SportSnap site. Absolutely nothing to do with your site design, but it is distracting.

Frank

[stubbsy]

Brooke

I have little to add to what's been said already other than to suggest you remove the random dissolve in the slideshow that goes out of focus before it brings in the next image. That effect seriously hurts my eyes which try to bring the bloody thing back in focus