John Riley Photography

I've just launched an all-new website which is half and half a business site and a personal site. Do please check it out and let me have some opinions.

Knowing how we dislike flash I've made it as simple as possible, but I have put in a couple of automatic slide shows. No music! I'm particularly interested in how you respond to these as I'm not sure yet.

I have two web addresses and they both take you to the same place:

www.johnriley1uk.org

www.johnrileyphotography.co.uk

John

An instant response for what it's worth!

Nice site to use and look at - I don't think we'd expect less really. I'm not sure about the 'contents list' style of links but I did find it very easy to use. I know almost every graphics design person I come across would say it's old hat but it's dead easy to use.

I can't say I'd have

Welcome to johnriley1uk.org and johnrileyphotography.co.uk

on the home page. I don't give a flying wotsit what url I'm at. I do care that it's your website though.

And personally I don't think using a virginnet email address looks as professional as you are if you follow.

Mike

Mike

Mike pointed it out clearly with his direct honesty.

It's balancing on a point that you don't know what it is exactly business or a site for your hobby, it does give your business a personal tint but I don't think it's that professional.

The aragement is very clear though and fast site to surf over.
The slide show... well I don't know it was a bit distracting while reading, I would rather see something clickable that goes to a slideshow. It would be a plus if the slide would have a pause button and a next and previous button. If you're looking for business you want fast clear results and not wait till you see the whole slideshow.

I've writing my comment in all sincereness and I hope you don't take any offence or disrepect in them, because I've nothing then repsect for you John.

Good luck and hopefully some helpfull comments,
Stefan

I asked the question to invite answers, so please carry on. I am interested in improving the site.

No offence will be taken and you won't find me arguing against anyone's opinions either!

John,

I agree with Mike - it would look a bit more 'professional', as a business site without mentioning the site address at the page itself and having your own domain email address (like john.riley @ johnrileyphotography.co.uk). They aren't big issues though.

The web page is clear an easy to navigate, however you could copy navigation links from the top of the page to the bottom too. And maybe they should be green like the other links are.

Then to the right - there are 'Internet Activities Links', but after first three there are 'unclickable' pictures which not being separated in any way might be a bit confusing.

And I did not find any link to a gallery - which I expected to find there, actually It could be linked to these pictures. Still, I'm not a web designer, I'm not an expert, so I might be talking rubbish

In general I like your page. It's really, really clear and easy to read, easy to navigate. The colours used don't burn my eyes and the whole page is nicely arranged.

I like the simplicity of the site. Excellent and very useable design.

I agree that mixing business and pleasure is a little odd. I would separate them.

Khyyam is more usually spelt Khayyam. Did EFG prefer the former?

G

As already mentioned, I would not mix the business with the personal either, and as you have 2 domains could I suggest :-

www.johnriley1uk.org for personal use

and

www.johnrileyphotography.co.uk for for business use, also using this domain name for business email such as johnriley @ johnrileyphotography.co.uk or sales @ etc.

Some people may not care about the actual domain name, but in business it does give a far better image to the general public, and does give more of an impression that you are serious about what you are doing. Also people are far more likely to remember johnrileyphotography than they are johnriley1uk.org. Less confusion, cleaner and looks a lot better on a business card!

Lose the mobile number too! I know all too well how annoying that can be! Far better to have a normal landline number that you can turn an answering machine on at say 6PM! You can always divert all calls to the mobile, and although some people do not like that, if mentioned, just say you are out shooting on location, sounds much better!

The site is a great start. Nice, clean and simple, exactly what is needed. Would expect more photos, as mentioned, but you are selling a lot more services than just the photography, so perhaps the balance is right? No expert on this myself, but I'm sure you'll get there.

Most of all, best of luck!

John, I like the clean uncluttered look but I have a few reservations: I, too, think you should separate personal from professional although I think I've made a similar mistake in my own one.

'John Riley Photography' isn't displaying correctly for me I think; it is Arial but the descenders are being clipped by the dotted line below. Are you using a font I don't have? If so, make your name into a jpeg.

'Welcome' will do just fine without the rest.

I dont think any web site should need an explanation of how it works these days - it should be intuitive - so I made a point of not reading it


I have a personal dislike for pages that force a viewer to scroll down, I once read somewhere that the majority of net users wont scroll.

I wouldn't put external links on the first page (or any page for that matter!) people might navigate away and not come back! The ePhotozine one should make it clear that this is your portfolio, as it is it looks like a link to some unconnected site. |Initially, I thought the pictures beneath the links were links too. You might want to use proper desciptive tags on your images rather than file names.

I like the banner composites at the top but I think your portrait is too dominant, only people who know you will recognise you, others might think it a portrait taken by you.

The green links at the bottom of the pages are reminiscent of site maps, I think using a menu like the ones at the tops of the pages might be better and placed at the top too. I think its better to have all the navigational links in a consistent place.

I dont intend any of this to sound at all negative rather, I just think that less would definitely be more here.

Ken

I agree that the site has an attractive clean look, and that the need for scrolling should be kept to a minimum.

There should be a clickable link to the Picture Library. It would be good to have a few larger images directly on the site as well. I would like each one of the smaller images linked to a larger version.

Hi John,
Most has been said already, but for me the biggest change you should make for the better is: More visible separation between the two websites.

And a minor thing which can be considered nitpicking.
Why has the ADAPS logo a ugly Canon Eos model as basis??
Placed beneath the official Pentax User logo. It kind of curses

Oh......, you could leave out the word links under: Internet Activities. It's kind of obvious they are links.

Martin.

It might be an idea to keep the front page of your site business only
so remove these from that page;

The Riley Family
Cherished Poems
Michael Riley Website
The Scollon Family
The Balfour Family
The FitzGerald Family

You would still have the link "family" you might wanna change that to something like "more about me" to be sure there isn't any confusion and it will keep the frontpage clean and professional.
It's quite simple to adjust that and everyone interested in you personally wouldn't mind to click an extra time.

Just an idea that is hopefully worth to concider as a short term solution.

Many thanks for all the good ideas. Over the next few days/weeks I'll be doing regular updates and modifications and will be taking on board many if not all of the things that have been mentioned.