Website Critique request :)

<p>Hi! I just got a new website & would like a critique please (all feedback & constructive criticism welcome).<br>

<a href="http://www.wix.com/seraphimage/home">www.wix.com/seraphimage/home</a><br>

On my computer it loads instantly, but on my work computer it takes awhile. Does it load at a good speed for you? If not, how do I get it to load faster? Its a flash website, but I did resize all my images to 4x6" @300dpi. I posted my flickr.com account on my website for those with slower computers.<br>

Also, my wedding gallery is supposed to slide when you place the mouse over it, on my computer it does that, but my work computer does not.<br>

Thank you :)</p>

<p>Hi Sera,<br>

I visited your site from a very high speed connection and the loading speed was acceptable. I do want to ask why your photos are 300dpi? Computer monitors are 72 (or in some cases 96), so your photos are not optimized for the web. <br>

Also, the message to visit Flickr if your site is too slow is odd. People will reason "If the site is too slow and they know enough to put up a message about it, why not just fix it?"<br>

The wedding gallery does not slide on my system (Windows with Chrome).<br>

-Matt</p>

<blockquote>

<p>I do want to ask why your photos are 300dpi? Computer monitors are 72 (or in some cases 96), so your photos are not optimized for the web.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>This is totally wrong. The dpi setting is completely irrelevant. There are no "inches" (the "i" in "dpi") for digital images. Once you fix the pixel dimensions, there is nothing else that matters. "DPI" is a header for printing, that's it. Even then, it's not often necessary. Monitor dpi is not relevant. Choose size by pixels instead.</p>

<p>Also, although it comes up fast, it doesn't look real professional. If you want free software that does a good job, check out some of the jalbum skins.</p>

<p>Thank you, I did not know about dpi for printing, I assumed it would also work for monitors, so thank you! What is a good pixel size for the web?<br>

I'm going to create a more professional website sometime later this year. I just had a few inquiries and they wanted to see my work asap. I have a Mac that is very fast, but I wasn't sure how fast it would display on older computers so that's why I put the flickr note in there. Its only temporary & I'll get that changed out in a few days (after I change all my images to the correct pixel size). I will look into jalbum as well!</p>

<p>Ok I was completely wrong when I said the DPI, I meant the Resolution was set to 300. Should I keep the resolution at 300 or does that matter for web use?<br>

I keep getting conflicting answers online, most say use 600 pixels wide for web use. Is that right?<br>

Can someone confirm this with me because I don't want to change all my images & than have this not be correct. Thank you :)</p>

<p>Jeff is correct when he says that you should simply size by pixel for the web. DPI is only meaningful when you are printing.<br>

On my site I output images in Lightroom with the long edge either 640 or 1024 px.<br>

I double checked Jeff and exported an image at 72 dpi and 300 dpi. There was no difference in file size. I recommend that you output JPG images at a pixel size that works well for your site and a compression amount that is a good balance between file size and image quality.<br>

If you have questions, feel free to email me offline and I can help give you more information.<br>

Thank you again to Jeff for clarifying for me dpi and web images.<br>

-Matt</p>

<p>With a fast connection, the site loads fast enough. <br>

Almost all photos are extremely blurry. This could be a software issue, sending preview images only, or a restriction of the WiX version you are using. I can impossibly be your style?! Anyway, you will not get into business with this.<br>

I hate the WiX advertisement. You should advertise only for yourself, not for the web tool you are using. Maybe that is just because you are using a test version of WiX?<br>

The scrolling worked, but I had to figure it out first by accident.</p>

<p>If you care about how your site looks on different platforms with different browsers, check this out:</p>

<p>http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=41252</p>

<p>I'm not keen on Flash, so I'm biased.<br>

I learned to program Actionscript, build animations and sites in Flash, and it's great software, but I'm not convinced it's great for the Internet..</p>

<p>My first reaction is - yuck, the whole thing, including menus is a big fat Flash site that won't scale or fit in my browser window. Also, I'll be lucky if I ever see it on a mobile device.</p>

<p>I'm using the free version of Wix to see if I like it, but I don't. Using a slower computer, it takes too long to open. I generally don't like flash sites but there's not another option if I don't know HTML right? I don't know much when it comes to building a website, but I'm trying to learn. All advice here is appreciated :).<br>

Can anyone recommend a free website that isn't flash? I don't know HTML. I'm planning on learning HTML this year & I have the Adobe web design CS4 software to learn on. For now I just need something that will display my work while I learn the software.<br>

Thanks for that link, RobertK!<br>

@ReneGM I'm not sure why my pics are blurred online, I'll look into that. Thanks for letting me know!</p>