Indexhibit Support

Hi, I've build up the style and structure of the new version of my website.
I tested it with many browsers and screens, but I'd like to hear thoughts from indexhibitors before filling the whole content in.
Thankyou in advance for any advice ;-)

Quick glance...

I don't like how things expand on the menu on hover - should be a click in my opinion.

My own taste would want a little bit of padding between the parts/links in the Index - let things breathe a little bit.

On the studio photo page it seems a bit odd that the gray title space is longer than your thumbs below. I'm guessing that you could control the width of that.

I'd be curious to hear an explanation why that page is how it is...black background...darkish grey title space...thumbs wrapped with a border...and titles that need a little bit of space (as well).

Ok, now I eat some dinner. ;)

funny :-/, the server is down!
I have some other domain on dreamhost and I've never had to complain ('till now!) and now I can reach no one...

@Vaska - as a user usually I don't like effects out of my control as well, but the menu onhover is handy because it spares a click to the user.
black background has always been my favourite for photo display, I find it perfect for that purpose most of the times, don't you think so?
about other styling... well, that's why I've posted here, to see what others think! ;-)

obviously now the server is back alive...
and, thanks for viewing it! :-)

IMHO,

Black is not necessarily for photos. It depends on the color scheme or type of work. Black would be good only for darker pictures, where else white is generally suitable for most colors scheme: B/W, colorful shot, etc.

The boxed up thumbnail is odd, within the boxes there are boxes (thumbnail) already. It can be simpler.

Between 'photo' & 'webdesign' for example, the background color jumps from black to grey, vice versa. It's a bit challenging for your overall layout and color scheme (grey, black, white, yellow, orange) since you've too much elements to consider; and no single template that can cater through. It might work, but need alot of effort in getting the design right.

Your links have too many layers (though it's not wrong) but once I go into the deeper layers, it's too difficult for me to get back to the previous sub-layers. In another words, the Navigation system isn't there, rendering my visit rather tiring.

Any clue what's the meaning of the main image 'magnifying glass & the egg'? I'm lost.

Sorry for having so many critiques, but you get what you've asked. ;)

Regards,
Mike

Mike - thanks a lot for your precious hints, it's right: it's what I've asked for... ;-)
actually I find more useful to get criticized than complimented, specially when I'm going out of the common path as in this case.
I knew from the beginning that what I'm attempting to do with this website is somehow risky, 'cause we all are getting already accustomed with a standard user experience, so it's easier to follow the mainstream than attempting anything else.
I might even withdraw from some of my choices but at least I've tried another way.

Any clue what's the meaning of the main image 'magnifying glass & the egg'? I'm lost.

oh, yeah! I thought that it was something internationally recognized, but this is the explanation: we have a common saying in italy: cercare il pelo nell'uovo wich is literally translated: looking for the hair on the egg. it means something like "attempting to find whatever could be wrong even on a perfect shape".
got the picture? ;-)

Personally, I am torn over black backgrounds for display of images. I think it works best in the physical world (like in a real lightroom) but on the net it magnifies things almost too much. And if there is any text to be read it burns the eyes...

At least for me.

I agree with most of the points above, especially:
the borders on thumbnails(which makes things a bit claustraphobic)
grey on grey text (hard to read)
and The dissapearing Navigation (hard to navigate)

As Vaska mentioned I also think that Menu items could have more spacing between them and be slightly larger.
The same goes for the thumbnail titles.

Also personally I would go with either orange or yellow but not both.

However good work! and keep it up!

@Vaska - yes, maybe I've been physical/analogical for too many years... ;-)
and I also agree about the reading problem of white text/black background. btw that's why I've used the grey background for the text part for the photo/black pages
in the other hand, where I display photos I'm not supposed to have so much text, so I've changed the previous style and went back to the common white text on black background.
I'm not sure it's really better, but the layout is definitely simpler

@blameme - thankyou as well for your time! and for compliments, well, i'm glad you like it at this stage, there is much more to come...
;-)

meanwhile I've done a few style changes, according to some of the suggestions above, details are in the news page.
I understand that the styling layout is/was a bit of a surprise, but imho the interesting part is the information structure. Maybe it needs some more content to be noticed...

Overall, I find it a bit too busy and complicated.

The menu, for example: it has 2 yellows, 2 oranges, 2 greys, 3 background colors, 3 hover effects, 2 languages, 2 different dropdown menus, 2 links to validators (I guess they're just temporary?). The text flies left-to-right across a span that seems unnecessarily wide, and the section titles don't really make much sense to me (I've read the explanation on the 'about' page).

Couldn't it all be simplified?

I've realized that I didn't post in the right category, sorry for that...

Richard, thanks for taking your time to count my colours ;-) and to highlight those points.
While I recognize that everything can be simplified (probably I'll end up with "only" one style), still I don't see as a complication (except for who writes) the use of 2 languages! as I'm not english mother tongue should I drop it?
Also it would be easier for me to build a "photographer website" but like many other indexhibit users I do -and I'm interested in- several fields. btw that's one of the reasons I like this cms and community.
Being simple while dealing with complexity is not so easy to do as to say it. I'm looking for a third way between chronological and sectional organization.
Is there a readymade recipe for it?

Hi Ricky, sorry if my criticisms sounded harsh or petty. I'm still working on my site, and my comments reflect the feedback I've got from friends. For a while I was using 'horizontal' for some galleries, and 'slideshow' for others - I like both formats - but all the feedback was telling me to use one or other format, not both. Structure is difficult, even for a straight photography site, as there are so many potential categories, and often work floats between them. I'm still testing various options. At the moment I'm populating my site with content (hidden pages, at the moment), as I feel I need content to judge whether the structure works. I think your site will become clearer when you've filled it up.

Hey Richard, it's allright ;-)
some time ago I've seen and appreciated so much some of your horizontal gallery. I also like and want to use that format (btw that's why I've made the menu to disappear). I'm also thinking to further customizing it, adding a clickable list of titles in the text area, I guess it doesn't make the whole thing so much heavier and could be useful to go directly to a specific image.
On the other hand I have some gallery that could count over 100 pics: in this case -whatever others can say- it's obvious that it isn't possible to use the same format, so I've worked also on the slidethumbcombo. Well, anyway that's my opinion so far...

done a few (minor) style changes and added some content and all the main pages sre validated.
I also managed to further customize the horizontal plugin, adding a clickable list of titles. It's the first step but I'm quite happy about it as I'm not a php coder.
Next step is to refine the scrolling behaviour and to add a "left" link beside every image.
At the end of the process I plan to share it, now it's still far from being decent.
if anyone is interested > horizontal listed
ah, it's validated too :-)

Rickyappa,

check out my posting here. Hope that helps. I, soon...intend to modify my site to have some horizontal scroll as well. I just need to master it.

C,
Mike

@puppiepoppy - thanks for your hint. Actually I'm in contact with the author and I'm using the scroll from thehorizontalway, which I've found already long time ago. Imho it works well on my pages - tested so far with firefox, ie, safari and opera - and I'm going to further work on it.

Can;t wait to try it out myself.

hi all,
I'm bumping this old thread up because the (slow) process to build up and refine the website structure is now nearly finished (maybe ;-)

I've experimented most of the plugins and exhibit formats and used customized especially the visual index(es), slidethumbcombo, horizontal and simple news, which I've already shared and/or plan to further share if anybody is interested.

it's all here, I look forward for more hints and critiques,
ciao ;-)

oh yes, forgot to say something important: it's all validated xhtml & css (that's why there is a link in the menu) and I've build it up thinking that should work and be enjoyed by people starting from the poor netbook users up to those geeks with huge mac monitors ;-)

Hey Ricky, awesome work, I really dig what you've done with the homepage, and I can see that you've cleaned up the styling a whole lot so it's looking way more cohesive now. The only thing i might suggest right now is putting the 1px border on the bottom of the news items instead of between the title and the news, to give a cleaner seperation.

Big ups on the valid xhtml and css, that's one of those things I would love to do but never get even remotley close. Also, slightly off topic but I'd be interested to know a little more about the Kolam photos..

hola @blameme - thanks a lot for taking time to browse my site and thanks for your suggestion.
yes, validating can be a mess, but imho it's a good way to attempt making a cross-browser website.

about kolam... well, I'm glad you ask 'cause is a project I really care from a very long time and soon much more material will go in that exhibit, so no need to have an off topic chat here (you can contact me directly instead!)
;-)

Sorry, no spam...

Edited by Vaska