Portrait Artist Willzart.co.uk

Could i please have some comments about the website i have created,

many thanks,

Lee of RXMedia LTD

I personally don't like all flash web pages, but if that's your style, then that's ok.

I think the page is crying for a bit of a border, especially the gallery page on the left side. I also think the page needs a picture on the top like on the front page on every page, otherwise it looks too bland.

otherwise, it's ok.

Immediate thoughts were that the site looks nice and the art is good.

The noises were really annoying though, and actually got me into trouble as I was supposed to be getting ready to go out and my g/f heard the sounds and realised that I was up to something else instead If you were promoting music then maybe fair enough, but as you say a picture says 1000 words, so don't spoil it and divert attention with silly noises.

Navigation was ok, but the menu shifted position when clicking on Gallery. This may be to save space but causes problems for someone clicking across the menu as one moment it's there and the next it's somewhere else.

The contacts page saves space by putting labels in the form fields. This is fine, but if you click in the fields without entering anything then the field labels are gone and you then can't use the form. If a field is empty when losing focus then put the label back. A further problem with the form is that tabbing into a field blanks the field even if valid input has been added. Only blank it if it has the default "label" value.

The "Upload an image or photo" (what's the difference?) didn't work. A form would typically have a text field and browse button for a file upload, and this would be more usable. As well as the 500 error having checked the upload box, it wasn't clear how checking the box would allow someone to upload an image, and what if they want to upload multiple images?

The contact page says "3 easy ways" but there are actually four if you include email. The page could be reworked to cut down on words and give more space for an easier to use form. How about having the form on the left side, with proper right aligned labels, and the contact details in a column to the right of the form. Inviting people to send photographs need not be repeated for every form of communication, and stating this just once would be sufficient.

If you have them, linking to images from the projects pages would be a good idea so that visitors can associate the brief and the finished result.

In firefox at least, and probably other browsers as it's flash, some columns have either a white or grey rectangle to the left at the top of the column. It's unclear why some are white and some grey, and also unclear why they are there at all.

Being able to viewer larger versions of the images would be nice.

The next/previous navigation regions on the images keep appearing and disappearing and moving position dependent on the size of the image. I understand why, but again this is difficult for the user and it would be easier if they were in the same position for every image, independent of image size. Why not have them centered and above the image so that they are always present and need not shift around when each image loads. I did work out that actually you can click anywhere on the image and the label that appears is really just saying what will happen when you click, but it was still unintuitive. A way to make images play one after the other might be nice too.

The only other thought was there are no price guidelines and no testimonials. With commissions, one of the concerns is that the work will not be what the client had in mind, and if they gave the artist a fairly free reign, that they simply won't like it. Comments and perhaps a photo of satisfied customers with the work in situ might add credibility.

But even with those niggles it's a usable and informative site.

I really like the look of the site, but one thing that strikes me when reading through the content is that it's very obvious that you have tried to fill it with keywords to the point that some sentences just don't read right (to me at least, unless I'm misreading them). Of course I do understand the purpose of using keywords in the content, but it should sound natural and not forced, for example:

I would have thought that people would express their exact PORTRAIT requirements rather than their exact PORTRAIT ARTIST requirements.

And similarly:

I would expect to be able to choose any background for my painting rather than for my portrait artist painting.

Just my opinion of course!