Hello, I am not too sure if this is the correct forum for this post. Please move it to the correct forum if this one isn't right.
My girlfriend made me a photo website about a month ago as a present. I love it but am unsatisfied with the final product (not to demean her good intentions) and am looking for feedback on the format.
Would adding a mirror effect on the bottom of images add to or detract from the images?
Is it common sense that the viewer would click on the image as a link to the next image? If not should there be instructions or arrows guiding the browser?
Any other comments would be most helpful. Thank you in advance for your time.
My instinct is anti mirror effect, but I'd have to see it in action to be sure. You already are using a lot of real estate North to South on your site, people hate scrolling.
The click the image as a link is a common interface out there and is fine as long as you include explicit controls somewhere on the site, which you do. That said I think it's confusing that your site tools (about, RSS) are in the same space as your portfolio navigation (previous, next, random).
I'd recommend moving or at least visually separating the portfolio nav tools out. Most people are accustomed to a prev/next nav centered directly above or below the picture. That route isn't required, but some change would be a good idea.
Finally, your image sizes vary rather dramatically. At least one image is a giant strip that requires side scrolling, which is a big no-no. Most of the diffs are from crops, I'd recommend putting black borders on the smaller crops so the overall space that your site takes up is uniform on every page. Keeping that space the same maintains the focus on your work instead of forcing the user to adjust to a new visual space each time.
I'd probably just separate them out and put them in order.
If you/your gf have the time, this could also be solved by another common practice in photo sites, a thumbnailish type view... organized into galleries/categories/emotions/whatever. If so you could just have one screen with thumbnails of the whole sequence so the user understands they are joined.
