Jani, I found that site to be very usable. I go through it, enjoyed the work and I thought the design was fine..clean and crisp and It went with the general palette of the guys work. You may be misunderstanding the context of the guy's site.
How much more do I need to understand? His site has an obvious target market..high end advertsing..Why should he even consider any other demographic?
Jacob's work is familiar to me, Jani. I take him with the appropriate grain of salt. He has good practical ideas and observations about functionality, many of which I agree with. However, he is a bit extreme in many ways. IMO of course.
Most of his opinions and writings swirl around sites that are viewed by the greater world..commerce, public resource..on and on. His actual site is a menace to my eyes in some ways and I don't think it's organization is reinforcing all of his beliefs. He could use a good designer : )
I strongly feel that context is very important here. Photo portfolio sites, targeted to potential clients, tend to exist in a somewhat confined world where they need to project a certain image, an understanding of style..Photographers are appealing to designers, art directors, art buyers for work. Those folks look at lot of work and they do develop impressions about artists based on the look of a site...they are also very keen on usability and they hate clumsy sites. I am pretty damn sure that most who look at Randal's site, in his professional world, will have not many problems with his appraoch. Im sure he will tell you this and it's probably accurate.
Randal's site didn't cause me any problems. It was fast and friendly for me, I didn't have to move my mouse at all, once i was inside a gallery...just a click and a new image. I didn't find that the arrows were to small at all and the fact that they stayed in the same place, pictue to picture, was good. What resolution is your monitor set to?
The little series of boxes you mentioned in an earlier post? Those just show you where you are in the gallery..near the beginning or near the end, strictly navigation on a line.
Why aren't there any thumbnails on that site? Well, that is a decision that a person needs to make...Many times, when a photographer is planning a book for snagging clients..he spends much time on the order and rhythm of the images, how and when to introduce spreads...there is a considered rhythm and order to the whole plan. Some photogs like to keep the next page as a surprise, like looking at an actual portfolio, where you don't see whats on the next page until you turn it over. There is merit and virtue in both approaches. There are also many designers in general that appreciate the fact that artist put energy into details of the ordering when presenting their work. So, to thumbnail or not to thumbnail?...I don't think you can argue for or against either one. It's a definite personal and conceptual choice that has much to do with how you want your work, to work.
Im not a fan of flash at all, I prefer HTML. However, if it's working ok and is relatively fast I can deal with it.
