Website Redesign...

I think it looks pretty good.

Perhaps the name of the business is referenced too often on the individual pages. Some more of those can be converted to "we" without any loss to the content, with maybe just one reference to "Direction One" in the opening paragraph. This would make it a little smoother to read from beginning to end. If you assume that people are jumping in mid-page, then it would make sense to leave it like it is.
 
Nice job, Vince. Navigation seems very intuitive to me, except for the plus sign on the bottom right. Is that supposed to suggest additional content that is not part of the commercial site? If so, it does not seem necessary because that content is in the menu. But that's a small concern.

I'm viewing on an iPad, where it seems sluggish and a little unresponsive sometimes.

I would reconsider the "headshots" label and maybe use "portraits" instead. Only a few are what most would consider headshot.

Overall, I really like the look. It's clean, contemporary, and shows your work well.

John
 
comments:

1. The images in the portfolio are really nice.

2. Porfolio is kind of hard to get to as the links for it are at the bottom of the verbage in each section. Develop and icon and put it at the top of the page in each of the section and label accordingly - like architecture portfolio etc. Icon could be the showcase shot.

3. I think many will think the written part is tl,dr. I do like that you give some specific examples of the challenges but it would be good to immediately see the example solution.

4. the background image is nice, although high bandwidth etc. You could call up the respective portfolio in a smaller window and give the background image a blur out and hide the type - kind of like going to the launcher on Mavericks etc.

Just my 4 cents. Overall, it's nice.
 
Thanks for all the replies so far.. I'll see if I can address a few of them:

-I'll have another read of all the pages to see if 'Direction One' is in there too many times. As you say, 'we' might suffice after a while;

-I did wonder about the '+' sign as well, since all the info is under the 'menu' anyways. Might have to do with SEO;

-One of the things I wanted was for the photos to look as good as possible on the largest screen possible (likely a 27"), so that may possibly be why they're a bit sluggish on an iPad. I guess that's the tradeoff, but I'll go over that with my web person;

-'Headshots' -- Yes, I wasn't too big on the term either, but my web person told me that term is actually searched more than 'portraits' (that whole SEO thing!). I'll see how much more it's searched than 'portraits', because I prefer 'portraits' too;

-I was concerned about people navigating to the portfolios as well. If you go into the menu and click on 'Portfolio' rather than each individual category, it takes you to another page that has six photos, each labeled in their respective category. From there you can click on the small image and it will take you directly to the portfolio, and not the page with the text overlay. I was afraid that people would click on the categories under the 'Portfolio' heading, rather than the 'Portfolio' option, hence your being taken to that page with the text, then having to find that link at the bottom of the text. I think we need to iron that out too, so thanks for mentioning that;

-Don't think I'll be getting rid of the Graphic Beans mention at the bottom. I see the name of who developed a website on tons of website homepages, and it doesn't bother me (besides, they are a good client of mine as well as friends). Appreciate the suggestion, but it's going to stay.

One thing I was wondering was if 'Menu' was too small -- is it? And did any of you have a look at the Blog, Capabilities, About or Contact pages?

I'm having a meeting with my web person today, so I'll mention all these points and see how we can tweak some things. Thanks again!
 
On the whole it's OK. were many shots taken with the Monochrom..?
A few comments.
About the menu, personally I don't want to click to open another area to find the menu, when I click what I think is a specific portfolio expecting to see pics, I found a lot of text that I'm unlikely to read.
I was confused with the link to Flickr, which I may be wrong be seemed to also include personal pics.. maybe including Flickr doesn't give the right professional impression
 
Vince Lupo said:
Just redesigned my website: http://www.directiononeinc.com

Would be interested to know how it is to navigate etc.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Overly complex and a little confusing.
Red triangle expands the "mission" statement but there is no way to close it.

Right-hand menu seems uncommon to me. I´d prefer direct access rather than having to expand a list, chose one item, then having to expand the list again.

There is a lot of copy on individual topics. How about a summary for introduction? I would prefer to separate pictures and copy rather than having copy on the picture.

I am not a fan of the logo btw. Hard to read and there is no cognoscible link between icon and name.

Now on the positive side, I like the restricted color palette. The headline typography is fine.

My general advise would be to make things simpler and always think content first.
 
Thanks again for the additional comments.

-I do agree with the sentiment of having to click back to menu, then to the submenu to get to a portfolio. And if you click on a given portfolio first, as opposed to 'Portfolio', then you have to scroll down the text to find the link to the actual photos. I'm not a fan of that either, and would like it simpler and more direct, so thank you for pointing that out;

-Great point about the Flickr. Maybe what I should do is to make those 'personal' albums viewable to me and friends etc only. There aren't too many in there -- the kitchen renovation and a few others, but I'd probably leave the black and white ones viewable. That's something I can do at my end, so that's easy (actually, I just did it -- removed about 7 albums and made them viewable to me only). BTW there are a couple of shots with the Monochrom on the website (Homepage, 'About' page), but I think that may in fact be it. My hope is to set up a 'companion' website for the black and white work.

Getting back to Flickr for a second -- The one reason that I do include the Flickr link is that people can see things that I've just shot, maybe even the day before. This is particularly relevant for potential customers who are looking for something in the same field of business that they are in, and they can see an entire job - or many of them - at one time (I just had this happen last week with a retirement community prospect, and it proved immensely helpful);

-I too would like to be able to close that 'red triangle', so thanks for pointing that out;

-A lot of copy, indeed. Will potential clients take the time to read it? Dunno. Maybe we can shorten all of them but still provide concise info;

-The logo? Sorry, that's not going to change (I've had it for over 17 years, not done by the current web designer). Direction One -- focused, singular. The icon -- like a sight, focused in the crosshairs. I see the connection. The only problem with the actual company name is that I have been confused with the boy-band One Direction! No kidding.

I'll go over all these items with the web designer later today. One of my main issues has been with me trying to make it simple and have the photos be the primary focus, and the web designer being 'focused' on SEO. Both are important, of course. SEO helps drive people to your site, but once they're there, it's the content that keeps them there, and the 'call to action' that makes them contact you for work.
 
Vince,

I have been writing HTML for many years and still don't like java (sorry)

The three bar menu smacks too much of Android for me and I wasn't keen on the navigation, especially in IE6 (yes, there are still people who have to use old browsers!).

Great photos though :)
 
I'm not personally up on web designing, programming, code, etc (that's why I hire web designers!), but I do know that this was done in Wordpress. And for me to change photos etc is very easy -- and believe me, I need it to be easy!
 
I see what you mean about the Portfolio link, and I completely missed that link, assuming it was a menu heading. Not exactly sure what I would do about that, but the portfolio image page is a better way to present your galleries than the menu list is, so I'd figure out some way to make it more obvious.

I'd be inclined to lose the flyout menu altogether and list the key menu items across the top right. The flyout is nice, but since every visitor need it to take the next step, why require that extra click? Doing so would compromise your design but seems better from a usability perspective.

John
 
Yup absolutely. While I do like the clean look and the little 'Menu' up the corner, I think (and others have pointed out to me) that I'm making the visitor do too much. Click here, then click here, then scroll down to click here. Too much. Hopefully the designer and I will be able to figure out a way to maintain the design but make it more easily accessible. I do like the 'Portfolio' page with the six images, but I also do like that landing page for each portfolio with the text overlay.

There was also mention by someone about the use of black background vs the use of white background. Perhaps it may be more 'au courant' to use white, but I could really go either way myself. Guess we just sort of defaulted to black, as the last version of the site was black.
 
Just a quick comment - in the "western world" we read from left to right, top to bottom, so our eyes automatically gravitate to the upper left corner of the screen. You may want to use that real estate for your menu or whatever you want to highlight. Good luck.
 
When coming into the intro screen I was a bit puzzled about what to hit, it took a little before the b&w picture appeared as well as the menu: why not show that all upfront. I would go for a website were people have to click as little as possible....
 
kxl said:
Just a quick comment - in the "western world" we read from left to right, top to bottom, so our eyes automatically gravitate to the upper left corner of the screen. You may want to use that real estate for your menu or whatever you want to highlight. Good luck.
Click to expand...

Interesting thought. Originally the 'Menu' was in the upper left, but then I had it moved to the upper right. My point of view was that since most people (not that I've done a survey, but just from what I've witnessed) have their mouse to the right of their keyboards. So for me to go from a mouse in your right hand to move the cursor to the upper left seemed a bit counter-intuitive. Moving the cursor to the upper right seemed more natural -- at least for me, who lives way out east :)
 
Ron (Netherlands) said:
When coming into the intro screen I was a bit puzzled about what to hit, it took a little before the b&w picture appeared as well as the menu: why not show that all upfront. I would go for a website were people have to click as little as possible....
Click to expand...

We wanted to have as clean a homepage as possible -- single large photo, the words, the logo and the menu. Maybe the menu headings should be featured across the top or down the side.

I'm having a meeting later today, so we'll explore all these options. Thanks for the additional comments.
 
Just finished my meeting with my designer. She agreed with all the concerns (except for getting rid of Graphic Beans!), and we're going to make adjustments. I actually showed her this thread, and was in total agreement regarding the 'menu' navigation. So changes are a comin'.

Many thanks for all your feedback today, and I'll let you know when the changes have been made -- hopefully for the better!
 
Just made the changes to the site. While we didn't end up reinventing the wheel, the portfolios are much easier to get to now. I had to strike a balance between making it easier for viewers to access parts of the site, but without having to spend more $$$ in completely retooling things.
 
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