New Website C&C

[vibhav]

Hi Everyone,

I am still in the process of completing my new website and just wanted to get your opinion on how it looks and any pointers to how make it better in experience. Thanks!

Be the Explorer - Vibhav Gupta Photography

[dmcantrell]

Pros :
* The page graphics do not take away form the photography
* The photos look really nice (nice work!)
* I like your color scheme

Cons :
* The images in the front page slide show took a while to load. Can these be pre-loaded?
* the text (font) on the front page looks jagged or something -- not smooth.
* When you click off the home page, the navigation links move to the top of the screen -- this seems weird to me

[vibhav]

Thanks David for the detailed c&c.

For the Cons:
1. These are hosted on Zenfolio and it has been quite slow today. This is something not in my control.

2. I agree with the text on the logo. I used .gif format to preserve transparency, maybe that is causing it to happen. I need to try .png or put the background color behind the logo in the exact same color as the page background. I will make that change.

3. There is an option to put the home page navigation links right below the logo on the top but that pushes the pictures way down, therefore I put them at the bottom. Let me see if I can rearrange it. I still like the navigation links on the top for various pages as they feel more intuitive in my mind.

Thanks so much! I really appreciate it.

[jeffkohn]

I think David makes some good points. But I also understand the limitations you're working under by using a site like Zenfolio. I've got an account there as well, that I plan to use as a portfolio, so I've been playing around with the new homepage and theme options. The new homepage layout/slideshow is a vast improvement, and the custom theme support is a step in the right direction; but the layout customization is still pretty limited. But Zenfolio has show a lot of progress, and a willingness to take feedback from users, so I'm hopeful things will continue to improve.

I think the homepage menu might be better above the slideshow, as right now it kind of gets lost with the other stuff at the bottom. I really wish they had an option to move the guestbook off the homepage and onto its own dedicated page. I really prefer the homepage to be clean and simple.

On the logo, try creating the text on a layer in Photoshop, with a transparent background. Then save it as PNG and I don't think you'll get the aliasing you see now.

[Some Idiot]

I like it, looks great, I use Zen too, love it

[vibhav]

Thanks Jeff and R.F.

Jeff... I agree, I have been watching Zenfolio for about last year and a half and it has made significant progress, whereas Pbase is still stuck in the old.... I have moved the menu to the top instead of the bottom, see how it looks. I have also corrected the logo on the front page using .png. I am still to correct the logo in the interior pages. Let me know how it looks now... Thanks again!

[jeffkohn]

I think the changes are a definite improvement.

And I know what you mean about PBase, they just haven't kept up with the times.

[plph56]

The website looks pretty cool, I like the colour scheme that you have going on it.