Thank you all for you responses, you've been very helpful.
I would think, that depends Tim. If you are in the high price segment, I guess they do care a lot about secondary informations on the service and product on offer.
See, my line of thinking is this, your presentation is crucial. If you are "sloppy" with the presentation of your product, it will inevitably reflect on the product!
Thanks Georg. I think you're absolutely right, and I've now put up a page detailing this information. Sale of prints is important to me but is isn't my primary goal, so I guess I hadn't give this aspect of the site enough attention, and that was an error.
Hi Tim,
In summary, nicely done! I liked what I saw during my quick walk-thru. The design is graphically crisp, visually clean and comes down swiftly. Your Flash-based portfolio galleries display well.
Actually, it's not flash. I don't like flash. It's just javascript.
My only criticism: I wonder, however, about that embedded menu facility at the top-level. I am not a fan of mouse-over menus. If you were pressed for vertical space I would understand. But you have oodles of white space. Why not just spread the whole menu out? I think it will be visually richer and much more compelling.
The gallery index may see another overhaul at some point. I hoped that the interactive nature would compel visitors to roll over and take note of each gallery on offer. Perhaps I'm wrong.
You might also consider putting a little eye candy on the "Me to You" page. It's lots of small text with no visual relief.
I know what you mean but I'm not sure what to put. I'll have to get some photos of me taking photos!
I cannot offer an opinion on your new site's congruency with your business strategy or goals.
I can. It's not there yet because the commercial gallery isn't finished. Without the right photos to sell my intended services the site isn't yet serving it's purpose. This'll change soon, but for now I wanted to concentrate on the design and get that out the way.
The interface with the underlined text does not look clean and alert but studious stuttering. There is no sweep to it.
I tested your comment by removing the underlines and changing the colour of the links. You were right, that looks better, so I've made the change permanent. Thanks.
Look at this as an example
here. There is a slight loading delay but then everything works beautifully and one can explore. One feels one had control. The images appear instantly.
It's all subjective, but I'm not keen. Lots of waiting about.
Is there anything lacking?: The gallery is not attractive. I dislike the strip at the top. It's IMHO not good enough for your work.
OK. Which part don't you like, the index page or the galleries once they're opened? What aspects are cause for concern?
Your images speak for themselves, and have great cohesion. I'm not much of a fan of flash galleries, but the one you are using is a clean design. I missed the option to see the thumbnails at first. I'd prefer to have them on by default, but that's just personal preference.
It's actually "John's smooth gallery" and it's written in JS. There isn't currently an option to have the thumbnails on by default, but I my have a look at the source, or I may make the option clearer.
Is the design strong enough? It's perhaps a bit too clean for my taste. It doesn't detract from the images, which is great, but at the same time I don't think it really adds to them either.
I understand what you're saying. I tried adding more fluff (logos and what not) but it because too complicated. I'm up for suggestions
Thanks all, much appreciated. The changes I've made at your suggestion make a difference I feel.
Tim
P.S. You may need to do a force refresh to get the site working again now.