Guys Take A Look At My Site And Give Me Some Feedback

[SamIchi]

Links in the sig. It's basically a portfolio site for my art (also my first site I've ever created). A couple of my friends said certain things, but I'll let you guys browse and I'll see if the same crits come up. Thanks!

[zioxide]

It looks cool and all, but navigation is too complicated. Hovering over random parts of images to find a link is not good.

[furious]

Keep it simple. Your sit is too hard to navigate.

[yetanotherdave]

It looks good, and for the first site you've createad? Nice!
But as others have said, the navigation is not best, the links are not intuitive to what they link to. Text or something more graphically representational would be good. I think the links should also stand out without having to mouse over them. And I spent a while moving the mouse around to actually find the links, which is also bad.

[Abstract]

*close tab*

Um.....it looks nice.

[psychofreak]

For the Portfolio link, I have to move my trackpad around that whole area to make certain there are only two faces which 'work'...nice looking though...

The Stuff bit looks very out of place, and even rushed...

[Silver-Fox]

i dont like the searching the image for a link part that is very confusing, but the site does look ok

[iBlue]

You had this title all in caps, didn't you? (bless you vB "shouting filter")

Like everyone else has been saying, the hovering images to navigate is really not good. It wouldn't have been so bad if that trend did not contiune throughout almost the entire site.

It looks cool, just needs better (easier/simpler) navigation.

[edesignuk]

Nice, but as others have said: It's too hard to navigate. No one likes having to hunt their way round a site, especially when it's only a few pages and should be simple as pie.

[iMeowbot]

Some explanation of why this kind of navigation is a bad idea.

One plan might be to keep the current page around as some kind of alternative, just so that you can demo it as a neat toy (do keep it as a demo, this kind of navigation is in demand for game-like promo sites), but have conventional links too for those who don't want to mess around.

[Nicolasdec]

It look nice, but very hard to navigate.

[epicwelshman]

I stumbled across your site before from another thread. It's a very nice looking site, very professional and clean. However, like others said it's very hard to navigate. You seem like you have skill though, which is good. I think if you tweak the navigation a little it'll be just fine.

[SamIchi]

Ok thanks for all the feedback. The navigation seems like the problem I've been hearing, but the reason I did that was because I wanted to keep it minimalistic. I guess I was trying to find a balance between being artistic and functional. So everything wasn't completely straight forward. I wanted people to search and take in the imagery. There are text links on the bottom. Except for the portfolio page where you choose "Tradi" or "Digi" I didn't have direct links. I thought that maybe people would understand the type of navigation after a couple pages.

It is a personal site, not a professional site, but at the same time it is my portfolio site. Hmm... I'll see what I can do to make easier the navigate.

Originally Posted by iBlue

You had this title all in caps, didn't you? (bless you vB "shouting filter")

Nope... I didn't know there was such a thing. I'll have to try this sometime

[fugeelama]

Originally Posted by SamIchi

Ok thanks for all the feedback. The navigation seems like the problem I've been hearing, but the reason I did that was because I wanted to keep it minimalistic. I guess I was trying to find a balance between being artistic and functional. So everything wasn't completely straight forward. I wanted people to search and take in the imagery. There are text links on the bottom. Except for the portfolio page where you choose "Tradi" or "Digi" I didn't have direct links. I thought that maybe people would understand the type of navigation after a couple pages.

It is a personal site, not a professional site, but at the same time it is my portfolio site. Hmm... I'll see what I can do to make easier the navigate.

Just a thought... you could try making the hotspot/link areas of the navigation a slightly different color, say a pale orange or grey?

[richardjames]

Argh, the old "mystery meat navigation" is a nightmare. If you are going to have something like that I could at least be expected to click on something that looks like what I am going to, not a random part of a random image!

It is my firm belief that a site should not involve any work on my side to use. If it does then I won't want to spend any time with it. Lots of people really do think this way and you can potentially lose a lot of visitors (I assume you are trying to attract visitors to look at your portfolio and contact you for work?).

Let's say for example I want to see some examples of your digital photography, it is not obvious in the slightest where to find it. People are primarily coming to your website for information. Looking nice is good for a few seconds but I'm not here to look at a nice but useless website. Can you name a successful website that has this kind of navigation throughout? I don't think amazon will be rushing to add it.

What you really need is some more text. Describe where I am, what I am looking at, where I can go from here. etc.

Sorry if that sounds a little harsh, it looks nice and with a little more work you can have a good site on your hands. Keep at it!

[iBlue]

Originally Posted by fugeelama

Just a thought... you could try making the hotspot/link areas of the navigation a slightly different color, say a pale orange or grey?

Not a bad idea.
Perhaps also (and this is a long shot) if there were a way to fit text into those clickable pieces? It isn't completely straightforward and obvious but it makes it a bit more evident and might suit your chosen style more. It's not a professional site, as you say, so you have a larger margin for what you want it to be like.

[SamIchi]

Originally Posted by richardjames

Argh, the old "mystery meat navigation" is a nightmare......

Sorry if that sounds a little harsh, it looks nice and with a little more work you can have a good site on your hands. Keep at it!

That's fine, that's why I wanted some feedback, I'm used to it. Well it's only recently that I've decided to show it off as my freelance portfolio, so your points make good sense. It started as a personal thing, but as I get more side jobs and start looking for work, I guess making it user friendly is the smart thing to do.

Originally Posted by iBlue

Not a bad idea.
Perhaps also (and this is a long shot) if there were a way to fit text into those clickable pieces? It isn't completely straightforward and obvious but it makes it a bit more evident and might suit your chosen style more. It's not a professional site, as you say, so you have a larger margin for what you want it to be like.

Yea, I'll figure something out.

[akabenlee]

I for one think your site is awesome. I love the look, navigation, use of characters...it has a lot of personality and again looks great.

I think a lot of the comments you've received so far are from non-artist, programmer types who appreciate function over form. Navigating your site was not 'work' for me...it was enjoyable. If I'm looking to hire an artist to do some work his site/portfolio should stand out and be memorable. Yours was definitely that.

Great work.

[Les Kern]

Originally Posted by akabenlee

I for one think your site is awesome. I love the look, navigation, use of characters...it has a lot of personality and again looks great.

I have to agree... remember who your audience is... navigation is not THAT hard, and it showcases your work. You're not selling widgets here, your selling your designs. The only thing I can say even remotely negative is difficult to put into words... the site is too clean and sober... it doesn't have enough "snap", the links don't jump, and the opeing to each page looks too static and not organic enough.
And to conform to univarsal access, you should really consider putting a site map or even a bottom series of text links.

I like it... nice work

One more thing... consider dropping those ">" arrows... they look like samples from Adobe ImageStyler of 7 years ago. Design your own!

[ezekielrage_99]

I like the look of the site however the Navigation and Orientation is horrid, most stupid user wont get the way you first "move" throught the site.

Being creative is a very good thing however you have to remember if a user can't navigate your site you will ultimately loose people using you web site which is a very bad thing.