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kikashi
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« Reply #40 on: January 18, 2009, 01:29:56 PM » |
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5. Special for Jeremy: The arrow keys now should work to go through a gallery: right arrow is "next", left arrow is "prev", and up arrow takes you back to the gallery index page. But you can also navigate to any of the main pages from any page, because of the navigation panel.
6. I now have Safari, too, as one of my five browsers, and it seems to work there too (at least on Vista). The price was right for Safari, but I'm not about to invest in a Mac just to check on how it works there. Maybe Bernard can tell me of any Mac problems he sees. Thank you! It looks much better now. The arrow keys work well in Safari on a Mac and the use of the up-arrow key is an unexpected bonus. A few comments: - I think you could use a smaller font for the navigation bar, and reduce the amount of space it takes up. The current font isn't unpleasantly large, but I think it's rather bigger than really necessary. You could make the text "(opens in a new window") even smaller, since it's not particularly important and that line is far longer than any other. - I'm not really convinced that using red text in the navigation pane to indicate pages I've visited is a good idea. It looks rather loud, out of keeping with the nicely restrained design of the rest of the site. How about a paler shade of blue? - Residence detection would be nice: you could then spell "colour" properly for those of us from England. (That's a joke, by the way.) - I think you could reduce the space taken up (wasted?) by the masthead. I realise that a masthead of some kind is useful, but most of the time it's just wasting space. It's particularly true for your site when the gallery name takes up more than one line (the rock music gallery, for example). Those of us who are vertically challenged (and I'm referring to my laptop's monitor here, not me, although I've often felt that my BMI would be improved if I were to grow a couple of inches) have to scroll when viewing the individual photographs, which is less than ideal. Could you perhaps confine the masthead to the navigation bar area, leaving the display area full height? - The tiny photo at the top left is intriguing, but I can't get information on it, which is frustrating. Making it a link would be nice. Jeremy |
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« Last Edit: January 18, 2009, 01:32:47 PM by kikashi »
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jule
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« Reply #41 on: January 23, 2009, 05:00:55 PM » |
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Hi Eric,
I have just visited your website since your last changes, and it is wonderful. Everything seems to work well for me.
I particularly enjoy your sand images. The fluidity of movement - not just the subject matter - but the general visual movement in these images I find particularly beautiful. The tonal graduations are lovely. Your respect and admiration for Paul Caponigro show through your images, as they too - as his do - show a reverence for the natural world.
Julie
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Eric Myrvaagnes
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« Reply #42 on: January 23, 2009, 06:39:35 PM » |
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Hi Eric,
I have just visited your website since your last changes, and it is wonderful. Everything seems to work well for me.
I particularly enjoy your sand images. The fluidity of movement - not just the subject matter - but the general visual movement in these images I find particularly beautiful. The tonal graduations are lovely. Your respect and admiration for Paul Caponigro show through your images, as they too - as his do - show a reverence for the natural world.
Julie Hi Julie, Thank you very much for the kind words. Yes, Paul Cap is one of my "gods". Eric |
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Eric Myrvaagnes
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« Reply #43 on: January 23, 2009, 07:00:59 PM » |
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Thank you! It looks much better now. The arrow keys work well in Safari on a Mac and the use of the up-arrow key is an unexpected bonus.
A few comments:
- I think you could use a smaller font for the navigation bar, and reduce the amount of space it takes up. The current font isn't unpleasantly large, but I think it's rather bigger than really necessary. You could make the text "(opens in a new window") even smaller, since it's not particularly important and that line is far longer than any other.
- I'm not really convinced that using red text in the navigation pane to indicate pages I've visited is a good idea. It looks rather loud, out of keeping with the nicely restrained design of the rest of the site. How about a paler shade of blue?
- Residence detection would be nice: you could then spell "colour" properly for those of us from England. (That's a joke, by the way.)
- I think you could reduce the space taken up (wasted?) by the masthead. I realise that a masthead of some kind is useful, but most of the time it's just wasting space. It's particularly true for your site when the gallery name takes up more than one line (the rock music gallery, for example). Those of us who are vertically challenged (and I'm referring to my laptop's monitor here, not me, although I've often felt that my BMI would be improved if I were to grow a couple of inches) have to scroll when viewing the individual photographs, which is less than ideal. Could you perhaps confine the masthead to the navigation bar area, leaving the display area full height?
- The tiny photo at the top left is intriguing, but I can't get information on it, which is frustrating. Making it a link would be nice.
Jeremy Jeremy, Thank you (I think) for feeding my new website addiction. I'd have more time for photography if I could ever stop tinkering with the site, and if you stopped giving me good (sigh!) suggestions. 1. I have a test version in progress that will reduce the navigation font size (and still smaller for the "blog" footnote). 2. Chris_T suggested that distinguishing between visited and non-visited sites isn't important. So I will either go for the lighter shade of blue you suggested, or make "visited" the same as "non-visited". Do you have a preference? 3. Enogh of yor ouff-coulour jokes!!! 4. I have done some experiments, and I think I agree on the masthead issue. My test-site-in-progress has the full-width masthead only for the home page, and nestles it just above the navigation panel for all other pages. I think that will retain a sense of consistency without taking up so much space. 5. The little picture is a blanket. It will be a link in the next version, and it will have a page of its own to explain it. (Watch this space!) 6. I expect to have these revisions in place about February 1, so come back then and check it out. I have been considering also having a small, vertical set of about three to five thumbnails to the right of each enlarged picture, to show you the next and previous ones. I may or may not have that working by February. But thanks for the good ideas. Eric P.S. For the Residence detection, I will require you to wear an ankle bracelet with a GPS system so I can track your location at all times. |
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Anthony Mann
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« Reply #44 on: January 24, 2009, 12:09:15 PM » |
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Hey Eric,
I like your B&W work on it. My 2 pennies worth would be to update your meta tags to include a ditty about yourself and to put in some keywords! Currently, your site only has:
<meta name="description" content="Eric Myrvaagnes Photography, with CSS b" />
<meta name="keywords" content="Eric Myrvaagnes Photography" />
When someone does a google search for you ("Eric Myrvaagnes Photography"), it ends up reading funny. Also, a lack of keywords limits hits to your website during keyword searches.
Here is an example of my description and keywords:
<meta name="description" content="Anthony Mann specializes in wildlife, environmental... (bla bla bla)." />
<meta name="keywords" content="photography, nature, environmental... (bla bla bla). />
Google my website "Anthony Mann Photography" and see how it reads on the search.
I also added a few other extra html tools to mine that you are free to copy/paste if you like, including fade transitions between pages, a popup copyright notice when you try to right click on my pics, and a disable for the automatic windows copy picture popup box when you hover the mouse over an image... Hope this helps!
Cheers,
Anthony
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Eric Myrvaagnes
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« Reply #45 on: January 27, 2009, 05:19:55 PM » |
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Anthony,
Thanks for the tips. I hadn't yet looked into search engine optimization at all yet, but at your suggestion I have improved the meta tags on my home page. I think it will take a few days before the changes show up in Google or Yahoo.
I have some other changes in mind, too, but I'm planning to save the next major changes until some time in February.
-Eric
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Eric Myrvaagnes
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« Reply #46 on: January 27, 2009, 05:22:04 PM » |
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Hi Eric,
I have just visited your website since your last changes, and it is wonderful. Everything seems to work well for me.
I particularly enjoy your sand images. The fluidity of movement - not just the subject matter - but the general visual movement in these images I find particularly beautiful. The tonal graduations are lovely. Your respect and admiration for Paul Caponigro show through your images, as they too - as his do - show a reverence for the natural world.
Julie Hi again Julie, I just wanted to say that I just revisited your website and I was blown away by the gorgeous images you have there. You give abstraction a good name! -Eric |
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Anthony Mann
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« Reply #47 on: January 28, 2009, 05:14:19 PM » |
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Eric,
your updated meta tags look good, and I'm impressed with your experience! The change should show up rather quickly on google. As for optimization, the key is the keywords; yours should work out well. I once noticed on an education web site I put together that doing frequent page updates to keep the site fresh and active, even when just the main front page was updated, seemed to upgrade the site's standing on the search lists - Well, perhaps not more than what the number of monthly hits did to the standing, but it seemed to help quite a bit between months when the hit counts were stable.
Anyways, good luck with your site!
Anthony
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Eric Myrvaagnes
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« Reply #48 on: January 28, 2009, 11:14:25 PM » |
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Thanks again, Anthony.
Some more tweaks will be up in a couple more days, and I'll mention it here. Then I really need to get back to the camera!
-Eric
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jule
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« Reply #49 on: January 29, 2009, 02:43:51 PM » |
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Hi again Julie,
I just wanted to say that I just revisited your website and I was blown away by the gorgeous images you have there. You give abstraction a good name!
-Eric Thanks Eric for your kind words and taking the time to go through my galleries. My website is coming together, and is a 'works in progress'. It should be completed in the next few weeks....when I will post a thread asking for feedback as you have done. I am very excited to be exhibiting in Brisbane at the moment. http://www.museumofbrisbane.com.au/Exhibit....aspx?ItemId=33 http://www.brisbanemarketing.com.au/news-a...cle.aspx?id=624 Julie |
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Eric Myrvaagnes
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« Reply #50 on: January 29, 2009, 08:00:25 PM » |
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Julie, This is a great place to get valuable feedback! I'm sorry Brisbane is a bit too long a walk for me to get to your current show. I'll just have to visit your website again. ---------------- Jeremy and Anthony, I've finally put up another modified version of the new website, and I think I've incorporated most of the suggestions. The little "mystery photo" is now a link to a new page that shows it larger and offers some explanation. Happy Groundhog Day to all! -Eric |
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kikashi
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« Reply #51 on: February 02, 2009, 02:48:06 AM » |
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Jeremy,
Thank you (I think) for feeding my new website addiction. I'd have more time for photography if I could ever stop tinkering with the site, and if you stopped giving me good (sigh!) suggestions.
1. I have a test version in progress that will reduce the navigation font size (and still smaller for the "blog" footnote).
2. Chris_T suggested that distinguishing between visited and non-visited sites isn't important. So I will either go for the lighter shade of blue you suggested, or make "visited" the same as "non-visited". Do you have a preference?
3. Enogh of yor ouff-coulour jokes!!!
4. I have done some experiments, and I think I agree on the masthead issue. My test-site-in-progress has the full-width masthead only for the home page, and nestles it just above the navigation panel for all other pages. I think that will retain a sense of consistency without taking up so much space.
5. The little picture is a blanket. It will be a link in the next version, and it will have a page of its own to explain it. (Watch this space!)
6. I expect to have these revisions in place about February 1, so come back then and check it out.
I have been considering also having a small, vertical set of about three to five thumbnails to the right of each enlarged picture, to show you the next and previous ones. I may or may not have that working by February.
But thanks for the good ideas.
Eric You're very welcome! I think you now have an excellent site. In particular, I like the speed; the lack of wasted space, now your banner is only on the left; the ability to use arrow keys; the blanket (nice story!). The idea you mention of having "next" and "previous" thumbnails is interesting, but I'm not really sure that there's much point in it. I love your b&w work in particular: they're beautiful images. P.S. For the Residence detection, I will require you to wear an ankle bracelet with a GPS system so I can track your location at all times. Nice try, but my views on spelling don't change when I move around. Jeremy |
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« Last Edit: February 02, 2009, 09:19:29 AM by kikashi »
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kikashi
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« Reply #52 on: February 02, 2009, 09:21:18 AM » |
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Jeremy,
2. Chris_T suggested that distinguishing between visited and non-visited sites isn't important. So I will either go for the lighter shade of blue you suggested, or make "visited" the same as "non-visited". Do you have a preference? Sorry, I didn't deal with this one in my last post. No, I've no preference. I like to think I can remember which pages I've looked at, although I may be deluding myself! Jeremy |
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« Last Edit: February 02, 2009, 09:21:37 AM by kikashi »
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Eric Myrvaagnes
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« Reply #53 on: February 02, 2009, 10:54:03 AM » |
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Jeremy,
Thanks for the kind words, and for all your good suggestions. I'm hoping to leave the website alone for a while now, except for adding content.
Now it's out for some photography (especially black-and-white).
Eric
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kikashi
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« Reply #54 on: February 02, 2009, 05:31:27 PM » |
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Jeremy,
Thanks for the kind words, and for all your good suggestions. I'm hoping to leave the website alone for a while now, except for adding content.
Now it's out for some photography (especially black-and-white).
Eric I look forward to seeing the results. When you return to site design, you could add an RSS feed... Jeremy |
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DarkPenguin
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« Reply #55 on: February 02, 2009, 06:14:07 PM » |
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Hi Eric,
The site looks good except the fonts are somewhat badly aliased on my browser. (Firefox 3)
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Eric Myrvaagnes
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« Reply #56 on: February 02, 2009, 08:10:42 PM » |
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I look forward to seeing the results. When you return to site design, you could add an RSS feed...
Jeremy You really are hard to please, aren't you, Jeremy! Or maybe you're just trying to keep me from photography as long as possible. As I see it, having an RSS feed would sort of obligate me to add new content more often than once a month... I'll look into it, some day. -Eric |
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Eric Myrvaagnes
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« Reply #57 on: February 02, 2009, 08:17:38 PM » |
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Hi Eric,
The site looks good except the fonts are somewhat badly aliased on my browser. (Firefox 3) Hi Tom, Can you give me an example? Page, location, text? On my screen (1920x1200 px) the fonts look pretty good on Firefox 3. The appearance of fonts changes substantially when I change the size (CTRL-Plus magnifies; CTRL-Minus reduces; CTRL-0 reverts to normal -- all on the numeric keypad, in Windows; perhaps COMMAND for CTRL does the same in Mac). Fonts are now pretty easy to play with, thanks to CSS. -Eric |
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DarkPenguin
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« Reply #58 on: February 02, 2009, 08:46:53 PM » |
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Hi Tom,
Can you give me an example? Page, location, text? On my screen (1920x1200 px) the fonts look pretty good on Firefox 3. The appearance of fonts changes substantially when I change the size (CTRL-Plus magnifies; CTRL-Minus reduces; CTRL-0 reverts to normal -- all on the numeric keypad, in Windows; perhaps COMMAND for CTRL does the same in Mac). Fonts are now pretty easy to play with, thanks to CSS.
-Eric Actually, I can't. Seems fine now. |
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Eric Myrvaagnes
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« Reply #59 on: February 02, 2009, 11:10:07 PM » |
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Actually, I can't. Seems fine now. Good. Maybe a couple of the tweaks I did in the last day or two fixed something. Let me know if anything else suspicious crops up. Eric |
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