Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: Alexandre Buisse on December 09, 2009, 04:18:54 am

Title: Climbing photography website
Post by: Alexandre Buisse on December 09, 2009, 04:18:54 am
Hi there,

I recently finished redesigning my portfolio website to make it more friendly both to me and to viewers. I quite like the new version, but I suspect that I may not be the most objective person on the topic... So if you could take a few moments and give me your thoughts on the user experience of browsing through the site, how pleasant it is and how difficult information is to find, I would greatly appreciate it!

Here is the link: www.alexandrebuisse.org (http://www.alexandrebuisse.org). My thing is climbing photography and landscapes, but there are also significant wildlife, urban and people galleries.



Here's a screenshot too, to give an idea of the look it should have:

(http://www.alexandrebuisse.org/scrot-statement.jpg) (http://www.alexandrebuisse.org)


Thanks!

Edit: and of course, my host chooses exactly now to go down... Sorry about that, hopefully it will wake up soon. If you can see the screenshot, then the website is back up and running.
Title: Climbing photography website
Post by: dchew on December 09, 2009, 06:16:54 am
Well it's back up, and what a joy to see.  You put my favorite image on the home page, which reminds me I need to send you a pm to get a print...

Not sure what to critique. There were a couple of times where the structure requires the visitor to click twice to get any info. Examples are "About" and "Writings."  You might consider putting the "Bio" right on the About landing page to make it a little less "clicky," but that's nitpicking.

I like the way your "Fine Art Prints" page is so simple.  I struggled trying to explain print, paper and mat sizing and jumbled the whole thing up. I like your approach better.

Very nice.  And as always, wonderful images, especially the previously-mentioned NW ridge of Chopicalqui and the Atacama Desert.

Dave
Title: Climbing photography website
Post by: Alexandre Buisse on December 09, 2009, 07:14:20 am
Quote from: dchew
Well it's back up, and what a joy to see.  You put my favorite image on the home page, which reminds me I need to send you a pm to get a print...

Not sure what to critique. There were a couple of times where the structure requires the visitor to click twice to get any info. Examples are "About" and "Writings."  You might consider putting the "Bio" right on the About landing page to make it a little less "clicky," but that's nitpicking.

I like the way your "Fine Art Prints" page is so simple.  I struggled trying to explain print, paper and mat sizing and jumbled the whole thing up. I like your approach better.

Very nice.  And as always, wonderful images, especially the previously-mentioned NW ridge of Chopicalqui and the Atacama Desert.

Dave

Thanks Dave, that's exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. I hesitated a lot about splash pages for About and Writings, and you just tipped me over the edge: both are now gone, "About" points to "Bio" and "Writings" to "Books".
Title: Climbing photography website
Post by: Chris_T on December 09, 2009, 09:04:40 am
Definitely one of the best sites posted here, with great images to match. A few simple improvements would make it even better. Try slogging through this thread, or at least get the recommended book:

http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index....showtopic=13890 (http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=13890)
Title: Climbing photography website
Post by: Alexandre Buisse on December 09, 2009, 09:27:45 am
Quote from: Chris_T
Definitely one of the best sites posted here, with great images to match. A few simple improvements would make it even better. Try slogging through this thread, or at least get the recommendated book:

http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index....showtopic=13890 (http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=13890)

Thanks, I will take a look. I have also read quite a few books and online articles on the subject. Do you have specific improvements in mind?
Title: Climbing photography website
Post by: PeterAit on December 09, 2009, 10:19:53 am
Quote from: Alexandre Buisse
Hi there,

I recently finished redesigning my portfolio website to make it more friendly both to me and to viewers. I quite like the new version, but I suspect that I may not be the most objective person on the topic... So if you could take a few moments and give me your thoughts on the user experience of browsing through the site, how pleasant it is and how difficult information is to find, I would greatly appreciate it!

Here is the link: www.alexandrebuisse.org (http://www.alexandrebuisse.org). My thing is climbing photography and landscapes, but there are also significant wildlife, urban and people galleries.

Very nice - not only the web site but also the photographs. I like the clean design and the lack of "gimmicks."
Title: Climbing photography website
Post by: RSL on December 09, 2009, 03:26:56 pm
Splendid stuff, Alex. I agree with the others. Not only is the web very good, the photographs are excellent. No gimmicks. Nowadays that's unusual and very refreshing.
Title: Climbing photography website
Post by: Chris_T on December 09, 2009, 05:37:57 pm
Quote from: Alexandre Buisse
Do you have specific improvements in mind?
From my WinXP, IE7, and 21" CRT.

Overall comments:

A simple, yet arrogant site. Consistent layout, usage of colors and font styles on every page. White text on black background is as contrasty and legible as you can get. Would prefer larger font sizes and line spacing, you've got room to spare. Red against black is also very contrasty. The combination of these three colors suggests masculinity, very suited to your photo genre (and yourself?). No one will mistaken this to be a "girlie" site  

On my monitor, I don't have to scroll at all on (almost) every page. But I feel that there are too many pages. Combing some may work better. Again you have room. More on this later.

I like a menu button turning red when hovered over, indicating a selection. It would even be better if hovering instead of clicking the button can immediately bring up the sub tabs. Hovering over Alexandre Buisse Photography at the top also swaps the black and red colors. But that does not serve the same selection indication purpose, and makes me wonder why.

Adding a footer on each page would be nice. More on this later.

Splash page

I consider a splash page without any information a waste. Adding a brief intro can turn it into an informative home page. For example, something like "I am a climber and photographer from Sweden. My photography ..." will tell a visitor what your site is about and grab his attention. It will also complement the mountain image very well.

Bio page

Hovering on some links result in only parts of the link turning red, e.g. juried exhibits.

Statement page

The first half of the quote "..." is at the bottom of the line instead of the top. Quote is not credited.

Climbs page

There is too much space between the text and the image. For those who are land bound, we can use some explanation of what AD, PD, etc. mean. I would delete Ice, until there is something to tell. This page can be combined with the Statement page into one.

Licenses and Fine Art Prints pages

These two pages can easily be combined into one. In the US, the $ sign is in front of the numeral.

Articles and Trips pages

Each entry is dated, thank you, thank you, thank you. Undated online articles annoy the hell out of me.

If the image is positioned horizontally next to the text, the space would be better utilized, and I won't have to scroll. OTOH, if I have to scroll anyway, why not combine the two pages into one?

Unlike the images on the About pages, hovering on these pages' images does not show any descriptive captions, only boring jpg numbers.

Subscribe to this page is positioned with way too much space above it. Even after linking to another page, I still can't figure out what it is.

The full article page's line length is too long for easy reading. Also, by the time I scroll down to the end, I wish there is a footer with links. That would save me from having to scroll up to the menu at the top.

News page

Here's a great place to tell visitors what changes have been made to the site, and when. Something few sites care to do.

Contact page

The image has no caption when hovered on. I dislike contact pages that ask me to fill out info in a form. Clicking on a link that opens a normal e-mail message box is my preference. I would use an image link to hide my e-mail address.

Photoblog page

It is so different that I didn't bother finish loading it.

Galleries

Now we finally come to the meat of a photo site.

I would like to know how many image are in each gallery BEFORE entering it, just like I would like to know how many pages are in a book before reading one. Hovering on a thumbnail has a few problems. The corresponding menu button does not turn red. Instead, the image goes black, and then replaced by another one. Makes me wonder what's going on, and should I hover again to see a third one. After waiting and seeing no further action, I finally click to get to another thumbnail page. They are all square, making me wonder if the enlargements are also. If I happen to hate square images, I would not proceed further.

For me, a photo site's gallery is THE most important part. Upon entering a site, I want to select a gallery and view an enlargement asap, i.e. with the fewest clicks possible, and without any hesitation along the way. Now let's see what I have to do to view an enlargement at your site.

1. Enter the splash page.
2. Click on Gallery button.
3. Hover on an image and ponder about the black out. Also wonder how big each gallery is.
4. Take the bite and click on a thumbnail.
5. On the page with all square thumbnails, wonder again should I proceed.
6. Take the bite again and get to view an enlargement, finally.

Your galleries are relatively small, making a separate thumbnail page from the enlargement pages not much of a problem. But what if you have 30 images in a gallery? My preference is to have paginated thumbnails next to an enlargement, all on the same page.




 

Title: Climbing photography website
Post by: Alexandre Buisse on December 09, 2009, 06:26:46 pm
Thanks to everyone for the great feedback. And thanks very much, Chris, for your detailed analysis. I'll respond to each point separately:

Quote from: Chris_T
From my WinXP, IE7, and 21" CRT.

Overall comments:

A simple, yet arrogant site. Consistent layout, usage of colors and font styles on every page. White text on black background is as contrasty and legible as you can get. Would prefer larger font sizes and line spacing, you've got room to spare. Red against black is also very contrasty. The combination of these three colors suggests masculinity, very suited to your photo genre (and yourself?). No one will mistaken this to be a "girlie" site  

Interesting thought. I was looking for "elegant" more than "arrogant", and I actually think that humility is a very worthwhile skill in the mountains. I have been using red and black on my websites for a while, so am just staying consistent (plus I like the combination .



Quote
On my monitor, I don't have to scroll at all on (almost) every page. But I feel that there are too many pages. Combing some may work better. Again you have room. More on this later.

I like a menu button turning red when hovered over, indicating a selection. It would even be better if hovering instead of clicking the button can immediately bring up the sub tabs. Hovering over Alexandre Buisse Photography at the top also swaps the black and red colors. But that does not serve the same selection indication purpose, and makes me wonder why.

This is just a way to make it a little bit more interactive, and also to let the reader know that something happens if she clicks the image (it takes her back to the frontpage).


Quote
Adding a footer on each page would be nice. More on this later.

Splash page

I consider a splash page without any information a waste. Adding a brief intro can turn it into an informative home page. For example, something like "I am a climber and photographer from Sweden. My photography ..." will tell a visitor what your site is about and grab his attention. It will also complement the mountain image very well.

I have been thinking about this a lot, and had almost decided to go for it. You may just have convinced me to give it a try. I'm from France and live in Denmark, though, no Sweden involved


Quote
Bio page

Hovering on some links result in only parts of the link turning red, e.g. juried exhibits.

That's because they are two different links.



Quote
Statement page

The first half of the quote "..." is at the bottom of the line instead of the top. Quote is not credited.

That's on purpose (I think it's called a German quote), I like the way it looks. And the quote is not credited because it's mine, and crediting my own quotes on my website would definitely be on the arrogant side of things


Quote
Climbs page

There is too much space between the text and the image. For those who are land bound, we can use some explanation of what AD, PD, etc. mean. I would delete Ice, until there is something to tell. This page can be combined with the Statement page into one.

In my mind, the "Climbs" page is simply a service to fellow climbers, hence the technical details. I think photographers will be more interested in "Statement", and climbers in "Climbs". I'll have climbed ice before the year is over, so it won't stay empty too long. I agree though that it looks kind of ugly.


Splitting the post in two, as the forum complains I am quoting too much...
Title: Climbing photography website
Post by: Alexandre Buisse on December 09, 2009, 06:27:18 pm
Continued from the previous message


Quote
Licenses and Fine Art Prints pages

These two pages can easily be combined into one. In the US, the $ sign is in front of the numeral.

Thanks, I'll make the change about the $ sign. I agree they could be merged, but I quite like giving people the option to see only what they are interested in (in my experience, people who want prints are not interested in licenses, and vice and versa).


Quote
Articles and Trips pages

Each entry is dated, thank you, thank you, thank you. Undated online articles annoy the hell out of me.

If the image is positioned horizontally next to the text, the space would be better utilized, and I won't have to scroll. OTOH, if I have to scroll anyway, why not combine the two pages into one?

Unlike the images on the About pages, hovering on these pages' images does not show any descriptive captions, only boring jpg numbers.

Subscribe to this page is positioned with way too much space above it. Even after linking to another page, I still can't figure out what it is.

The "Articles" and "Trip Reports" are actually run by a blog engine, hence some of the limitations. I hadn't paid attention to the absence of meaningful alt text and will fix it. I also haven't quite found yet how to put the image to the left side, but it's on my todo list. I also think that both pages serve quite different purposes, so I would rather keep them separate. And I intend to add a lot more content over time. "Subscribe to this page" is a RSS feed of the articles/reports. I'll change its name to something different if it is so confusing.


Quote
The full article page's line length is too long for easy reading. Also, by the time I scroll down to the end, I wish there is a footer with links. That would save me from having to scroll up to the menu at the top.

That's a good idea, I hadn't thought of that.


Quote
News page

Here's a great place to tell visitors what changes have been made to the site, and when. Something few sites care to do.

I ultimately will, especially when adding new images. Since the site is brand new and still being worked on a lot, I haven't put a detailed changelog up. Maybe it would be fun to see when it gets in a really stable state.


Quote
Contact page

The image has no caption when hovered on. I dislike contact pages that ask me to fill out info in a form. Clicking on a link that opens a normal e-mail message box is my preference. I would use an image link to hide my e-mail address.

This is already the case. If you read the text, it says that you can email me at address blabla OR use the form. Spambots read mailto links anyway, so an image is not going to help, and I'm ready to deal with the spam.
Thanks for the alt text, I'll fix it.


Quote
Photoblog page

It is so different that I didn't bother finish loading it.

Fair enough. The design is a bit old now, and I have planned to freshen it a bit when I have the time. The point is mainly for people so interested that they want to see more of my images.


Quote
Galleries

Now we finally come to the meat of a photo site.

I would like to know how many image are in each gallery BEFORE entering it, just like I would like to know how many pages are in a book before reading one. Hovering on a thumbnail has a few problems. The corresponding menu button does not turn red. Instead, the image goes black, and then replaced by another one. Makes me wonder what's going on, and should I hover again to see a third one. After waiting and seeing no further action, I finally click to get to another thumbnail page. They are all square, making me wonder if the enlargements are also. If I happen to hate square images, I would not proceed further.

I hid the number of images in a gallery in an attempt to stay minimalistic, but may have gone too far. I think I'll add them back. The hovering black thing is a problem with image loading, as no preloading seems to work for some reason. I think I'll remove this behaviour entirely and keep regular thumbnail links instead. Square thumbnails is the only way to keep a consistent look in a thumbnail list, I'm afraid, and I don't really see any alternative.


Quote
For me, a photo site's gallery is THE most important part. Upon entering a site, I want to select a gallery and view an enlargement asap, i.e. with the fewest clicks possible, and without any hesitation along the way. Now let's see what I have to do to view an enlargement at your site.

1. Enter the splash page.
2. Click on Gallery button.
3. Hover on an image and ponder about the black out. Also wonder how big each gallery is.
4. Take the bite and click on a thumbnail.
5. On the page with all square thumbnails, wonder again should I proceed.
6. Take the bite again and get to view an enlargement, finally.

Your galleries are relatively small, making a separate thumbnail page from the enlargement pages not much of a problem. But what if you have 30 images in a gallery? My preference is to have paginated thumbnails next to an enlargement, all on the same page.

This should be a portfolio website, so I don't intend the galleries to get bigger than 15 images or so, and will remove old ones when adding new ones. It is difficult to find a good navigation system, but I agree that having too many layers of indirection is unfortunate. I really dislike rows of thumbnails next to an enlarged image, though, as I think they are very distracting. Maybe I should remove the thumbnail page entirely and direct to the first image right away. I'll think about it.

Thanks again for taking the time!
Title: Climbing photography website
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on December 09, 2009, 08:09:35 pm
Definitely a stunning and elegant website, with beautiful photography. Very nice indeed.

I don't think it need sny changes, but I'll tell you what Jeremy Kikashi will want: Can you add left- and right-arrow navigation to the galleries? And perhaps up-arrow to take you back to the index page.

I've bookmarked your site so I can get into the mountains vicariously whenever necessary.

Eric

Title: Climbing photography website
Post by: EduPerez on December 10, 2009, 09:26:40 am
I liked both the site and the photographs; very nice.
Title: Climbing photography website
Post by: Blair McDougall on December 10, 2009, 03:42:19 pm
The work is top notch. The site is clean, fast and well laid out...I like it...a lot
Blair
Title: Climbing photography website
Post by: Alexandre Buisse on December 10, 2009, 05:58:27 pm
I'm very grateful for all the feedback received so far, thanks a lot! And glad that people seem to like the site (as well as the photos, of course).

@Eric: good idea. I'll try to add this feature next weekend.
Title: Climbing photography website
Post by: Chris_T on December 11, 2009, 10:00:53 am
Quote from: Alexandre Buisse
Interesting thought. I was looking for "elegant" more than "arrogant", and I actually think that humility is a very worthwhile skill in the mountains. I have been using red and black on my websites for a while, so am just staying consistent (plus I like the combination .

I did intend to say "elegant" instead of "arrogant". Perhaps it's a case of senior moment, which seems to creep up more frequently.

Quote
This is just a way to make it a little bit more interactive, and also to let the reader know that something happens if she clicks the image (it takes her back to the frontpage).

I only checked it on the splash page, which does not take me elsewhere. From other pages, it will take me back to the splash page. That is consistent and makes sense.

Quote
I'm from France and live in Denmark, though, no Sweden involved

Oops. See what I meant by frequent senior moments, and why I prefer larger font sizes?  

Quote
That's because they are two different links.

"juried" took me to a forbidden page, and "exhibits" took me to an external page. As worded, I would interpret the two words to mean a single link. Same problem with photo magazines. Similar problem with photocompetitions, which are indeed two separate links not separated by any spacing. Without a spacing, I would think of it as a single link. Better wording and clear separations would fix the problem.

Quote
That's on purpose (I think it's called a German quote), I like the way it looks. And the quote is not credited because it's mine, and crediting my own quotes on my website would definitely be on the arrogant side of things

OK. I learn something new. But you seem to have gone to great lengths to target the US viewers (print size in inches and prices in US$). This is a curveball that we Yanks can't handle.  

Another way to emphasize that statement is to put it in italic, instead of in quotes. Quotes suggest by others.
Title: Climbing photography website
Post by: Chris_T on December 11, 2009, 10:23:03 am
Quote from: Alexandre Buisse
Continued from the previous message

"Subscribe to this page" is a RSS feed of the articles/reports. I'll change its name to something different if it is so confusing.

The font size is also tiny.

Quote
I ultimately will, especially when adding new images. Since the site is brand new and still being worked on a lot, I haven't put a detailed changelog up. Maybe it would be fun to see when it gets in a really stable state.

Keeping a site revision history is really helpful for return viewers.

Quote
Square thumbnails is the only way to keep a consistent look in a thumbnail list, I'm afraid, and I don't really see any alternative.

I don't crop all my prints to be square just so that they can be consistent. Why would I want to do that for thumbnails, and lose the compositions I work so hard for?

Quote
This should be a portfolio website, so I don't intend the galleries to get bigger than 15 images or so, and will remove old ones when adding new ones. It is difficult to find a good navigation system, but I agree that having too many layers of indirection is unfortunate. I really dislike rows of thumbnails next to an enlarged image, though, as I think they are very distracting. Maybe I should remove the thumbnail page entirely and direct to the first image right away. I'll think about it.

Designing a site with many galleries, or with large galleries has its challenges. To let a viewer quickly and easily select and view one gallery from many, it is critical to keep this goal in mind when planning and implementing the navigation scheme. How to display a large gallery's thumbnails and enlargements well is yet another challenge. Perhaps that's why few photo sites with lots of galleries or large galleries are designed well.
Title: Climbing photography website
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on December 11, 2009, 10:43:15 am
Alex,

Chris_T is an excellent website critic, and his ideas are worth paying attention to.

I benefited from his advice and that of several other LL forum members when I built my own website a bit over a year ago. But now that I see your site, I'm strongly tempted to redesign the whole thing again. It's a very classy site. But I'd rather spend the time doing photography.

@Chris_T: Will I get my website rebuilt before you do?   

Eric

Title: Climbing photography website
Post by: Alexandre Buisse on December 11, 2009, 10:45:12 am
Quote from: Chris_T
I did intend to say "elegant" instead of "arrogant". Perhaps it's a case of senior moment, which seems to creep up more frequently.

That's actually a big relief, since passing as arrogant would definitely not be ok to me.



Quote
"juried" took me to a forbidden page, and "exhibits" took me to an external page. As worded, I would interpret the two words to mean a single link. Same problem with photo magazines. Similar problem with photocompetitions, which are indeed two separate links not separated by any spacing. Without a spacing, I would think of it as a single link. Better wording and clear separations would fix the problem.

Point taken. I was trying to find a slightly more interesting way to display those links, but I see it is not providing a good user experience. I'll go back to a traditional list, I think.


Quote
OK. I learn something new. But you seem to have gone to great lengths to target the US viewers (print size in inches and prices in US$). This is a curveball that we Yanks can't handle.  

Another way to emphasize that statement is to put it in italic, instead of in quotes. Quotes suggest by others.

You have a point, though I think this kind of quote is also present, if maybe not common, in American English. Actually, take a look at what the quotes look like on this very forum.  
I understand how a quote could be confusing, though. I'll experiment with italics.
Title: Climbing photography website
Post by: Alexandre Buisse on December 11, 2009, 10:52:01 am
Quote from: Chris_T
The font size is also tiny.

This may be browser dependant, it's very readable on my screen. If I keep the link at all, I'll make sure to increase the size a bit.


Quote
I don't crop all my prints to be square just so that they can be consistent. Why would I want to do that for thumbnails, and lose the compositions I work so hard for?

Well, the point is that the thumbnail list is merely a navigation help and here to give an idea of the subject matter, nothing more, so I find crops acceptable, even when they destroy composition. But I think I will soon get completely rid of this thumbnail page and direct to the first enlarged image.


Quote
Designing a site with many galleries, or with large galleries has its challenges. To let a viewer quickly and easily select and view one gallery from many, it is critical to keep this goal in mind when planning and implementing the navigation scheme. How to display a large gallery's thumbnails and enlargements well is yet another challenge. Perhaps that's why few photo sites with lots of galleries or large galleries are designed well.

It is very true, and quite some thought has been given to how I want to present my galleries. But my goal has always been to present very few images of the highest possible quality, and direct the few who are looking for more to my photoblog, with its roughly thousand images.


Thanks again for the detailed feedback. I just want to add that I am not making some of the suggested changes right now because of an issue with my webhost (ssh access not working), but will fix some/most of the issues you mentioned as soon as possible.
Title: Climbing photography website
Post by: Chris_T on December 12, 2009, 09:10:42 am
Quote from: EricM
Chris_T is an excellent website critic, and his ideas are worth paying attention to.
Thanks, Eric. My comments are based on a few books I have read and my personal likes and dislikes after viewing numerous photo sites. Sadly, most of their images are far better than their site designs. When I make subjective comments, I always try to explain WHY I feel a certain way. That's what makes criticisms meaningful.

Quote
I benefited from his advice and that of several other LL forum members when I built my own website a bit over a year ago..
Thanks for crediting (blaming  ?) me.

Quote
But now that I see your site, I'm strongly tempted to redesign the whole thing again. It's a very classy site. But I'd rather spend the time doing photography.

@Chris_T: Will I get my website rebuilt before you do?   

Eric
I feel your pain. Every new book I read and new site I visit lead me wanting to incorporate something different in my own site. I promise myself to get it done this winter when I don't shoot as often. What I need is a good coder.
Title: Climbing photography website
Post by: Chris_T on December 12, 2009, 09:34:29 am
Quote from: Alexandre Buisse
This may be browser dependant, it's very readable on my screen. If I keep the link at all, I'll make sure to increase the size a bit..
Making a site look (equally) good on different browsers, revisions, and window sizes is a major challenge, even for the most sophisticated professional designers. That's one hurdle I keep changing my mind on for my own site. The appearance of font style and size is but one of the problems. The ultimate solution is to have a site viewed and tested on every browser, revision, and window size. Pragmatically, at least on the ones you care about.

This latest book I read finally explains where the difficulty comes from. It blew me away, and made me feel less stupid with my own struggle. Web site design languages and tools are still in their infancy and are far from user friendly, even after many attempts for standardization, etc.

http://www.amazon.com/Everything-You-Know-...7975&sr=1-4 (http://www.amazon.com/Everything-You-Know-about-Wrong/dp/0980455227/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260627975&sr=1-4)

Quote
Thanks again for the detailed feedback. I just want to add that I am not making some of the suggested changes right now because of an issue with my webhost (ssh access not working), but will fix some/most of the issues you mentioned as soon as possible.
You are welcome. I have no expectation that readers would either agree with my comments or make changes according to them. But it's always good to know that some do.