website advice help!

emma*1976

GettingItRight wrote: »

Hi Emma,

From what I see, you have the following challenges with your website:

1. Website name is a little on the long and complicated side. If you can find a new domain name which easier to remember, then it might work for you. Sorry that is not a layout issue and will add cost.

2. Your website graphics take a while to load and that is me saying this while using 4.5Mbs broadband. Compressing your graphics will help. If you know someone who has Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop, ask them if they can help you in performing this task.

3. Your photos look like they may have been resized manually, I could be wrong. I am sure I noticed photos of work hanging on the walls seem to "break" around the edges. By this I mean one part is slightly higher around the edge of a hanging picture - hope that makes sense, but viewing the photo with the red sofa on the home page wil give you an idea about what I mean.

Try to use a graphics package (like Adobe Photoshop) which can automatically adjust .jpg files to the size you want.

4. Try to reduce the length of scrolling required for some pages. Does "contact.php" really need to be so long? It's purpose should focus on providing contact and delivery information to the visitor. However, it seems you have extended it into a gallery selling page

5. Your horizontal navigation menu is almost invisible. Were the current page tabs not highlighted within the menu, I'd not know straight away that such a menu was present.

6. Lose the big brown graphic which features on every page. All that room it takes up is your prime selling space and the graphic is slow to load. A user might be dissappointed with what he/she had been waiting for, once it appeared.

7. Try to reduce the number of text colours you use. Use one type for headings and use a different colour for paragraphs if needed. Think about colour association and do not use too many text colours.

8. Remove underlines, they are not really required and do not look attractive on a site. You could style the text, by sizing or use colour to highlight emphasis. If you are going to use underline, use it only for page links that are outside of your navigation menu.

9. Keep your fonts the same. For example, the web page contact.php uses 3 different styles of fonts, when all that is needed is perhaps one. Again use emphasis by sizing your text where needed.

10. Perhaps consider having your contact details (business address, email and business number) centralised in a smaller font size, as opart of your footer at the bottom of each page (just above the graphic in the footer). Still keep the contact details page though.

11. I am stepping out of my depth here as I do not have much of a clue about art. Your artwork gallery is great in my opinion, but could you possibly add titles to your pieces? Again I do not know much about art, but maybe a good title for each piece of work (or to some) could make them sound more unique or attractive to potential buyers.

12. As the previous poster stated, grammer is essential on any business website. It can be a major no-no for some visitors.

13. Reduce the amount of white in the background. Perhaps consider giving the background some colour and then adjust text colour accordingly. To get ideas browse websites.

14. You need to ensure you add "keywords" to you web pageem, titles, links, paragraphs and images where possible.

15. You should add brief descriptions to your photos. If a user is waiting for a photo to load, they may want to know what is going to occupy the big blank white space on their screen. If you add a description using the ... alt= "" ...option witihin a link, the visitor can read what to expect.

e.g alt="A photo showing the inside my shop"

Of course by having good text content visible from the top your web page, this can help while the image loads. Text uses less memory than photos, so will appear on screen first. If the image does not display, at least the alt option, allows the user to read what would have been there.



Sorry, I think that is enough to be looking into. The above are just ideas you might want to look at. Others may agree or disagree with what I said. At the same time I am not trying to bash your website in a negative light, just give you some pointers.

From viewing your art gallery, it can be clearly seen that you have a great talent. I only wish you took my GCSE art exam for me at school, about 14 years ago

If you can improve your web page layout, your website will have a greater impact on visitors.

I would also consider looking into the deviantart website as suggeted, if you have not already. I believe it is free and I found out about this website from a friend in Sao Paulo. He uses it to promote his freelance graphics work for clients to view. It might pay to make regular uploads there for your profile.

Just remember when it comes to layout and design of your website, "form follows function". That is the bare bones of website design, as I was taught.

Good luck, I really do hope you can improve the site. You produce good work and business is probably not easy in your field. Hopefully one day a rich Japanese guy will come and find your site, then ask you to do x amount of work and kit out his entire house with paintings - you never know :cool:

thankyou so much for great advice and encouragment, everything youve said makes much sence;)