New Website Critiques please

[younes]

I have finally launched my website and would love nothing more but to hear your

thoughts on the overall look, design and ease of navigation. Your help is

appreciated. <a href=http://younesbounhar.com>http://younesbounhar.com</a>

 

Cheers

[piers_ede]

Excellent site, younes. Beautiful shots, and it's easily navigable.

good work!

[blowingsky]

I had no trouble navigating, though I did have to figure out that when I wanted to get out of a gallery, I had to click on one of the opened images.

 

The photographs were well presented, I think the black background works best for this type of photography. And your artist statement was in line with the images you've created.

 

As a marketing person, I would have worked in a tag line that helps the viewer along the channel of aquisition, as I assume that the working purpose of this site is to sell images and to maybe get assignments based on your portfolio.

 

Also you might want to consider a bit about the limited time these images will be available to the public in their given sizes and the merits of bringing these vibrant spaces into ones own space...something like that. Pitching your wares can be done at a very aesthetic level, one that matches the aesthetic wavelength of your photography.

[jgalyon]

I'm far from being one with expertise on the subject...but from the level of the common person who might visit your site, I think it is very well done. The aspect that stood out the most to me was the clean, uncluttered design. Very simply, but simply elegant. Two things annoy me most about too many websites: cluttered design that distracts me from seeing what I'm intended to see...and navigational complexity that leaves me wandering around like I'm in a maze. In the next few months I plan to launch my own website and would I would be elated if mine turns out so well... best of luck! john

[karl.jahr]

Beautiful pictures. A suggestion: Put the forward/backward << >> buttons in the same spot, regardless whether the picture is portrait or landscape format. That way, one does not need to move the mouse to click from picture to picture and can keep watching the picture without disturbing technical moves.

[sketch_tbhotmail.com]

Great photos to choose from Younes, the website is very easy to navigate and it looks great.

[alberto_c]

Great pictures and very user-friendly website (and bandwidth friendly, too)! I even resized the window to check whether the images are smart enough to change their display size. Very well done! I'm not sure about the thumbnails being square regardless of the format of the actual picture. It can be misleading when composition is an important part of the picture.

 

As a suggestion, you could add something like a "buy this image printed" link. I think that is more or less what Peter Mead says.

[younes]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to look at the site and comment, I really greatly appreciate it.

Karl, this is definitely one of the things that bugs me, however, I am bound by my gallery generator...so that won't change unless I find something else.

Peter and Alberto: Thanks for the idea, I am still trying to find a way to do that. As for the thumbnails Alberto, the reason I chose the square format is because I do not like the "messy" look that results from having the thumbnails respect the aspect ratio.

Again thank you all! Cheers, Y.

[motleypixel]

I love the theme color...it's the same as mine ;-)

 

-Roy

[JAPster]

Dear sir, I checked your site, and was STUNNED by the sheer

beauty of your nature photographs. You obviously have a passion

for what you do, and the talent to back it up.

One comment may be useful. The permission scheme on your site

does not prohibit anybody from Right-Clicking on any of your

beautiful photographs, and then doing a Save-As, and save the

image back to their client PC. Just as a test, I was able to

download 2 of the smaller Thumbnails, along with 2 of the

somewhat larger image files, using the Save-As feature. (Of

course I deleted the image files, after doing the test.) My

concern, for you the Artist, is that anybody could do this,

from anywhere in the world, and thereby steal you photos.

Once the image is on their PC drive, its completely out of

your control, and might be used in all kinds of things.

I noticed that your site does have a "copyrighted" blurb

somewhere on the main page. This would indicate that you

do want to Copyright your pictures, and therby, do not want

just any old folks doing a Save-As, and downloading the image.

But, none of the images themselves have any kind of stamped

or impressed "watermark signature" that this is your work,

and that you retain full copyrights & commercial rights.

In light of these observations, you may want to rethink

your posting strategy, and also have a good long talk with

the System Administrator and/or Web-Designer for your site.

You need to discuss and see if there is a way to block that

Save-As feature, when you Right-Click on the image. You may

also want to consider designing and implementing your own

digital logo / signature mark, and stamp it on all the posted

images, possibly with a Serial Number. That way, if you ever

did have to go to court against someone who has stolen one

of your photographs, at least you can say that you made the

effort to visibly copyright the image file itself.

Of course, if you *want* people (all over the planet) to

make a personal digital copy of your posted images, using the

Save-As function, then you don't have to do anything. Just

leave it the way it is, and people will be able to do that.

Other than that, I loved your pictures, and found your

site quite attractive and easy to navigate. The response time

was very acceptable on my Gateway laptop, and the images came

up nice and quick.

Thank you for making the Web a more beautiful place!

{ Alan at email: JapPtcGa@hotmail.com }