I am working on a website for my photos, and was wondering what the consensus is for the best way to present them online. In other words, what form of navigation do you find the most helpful/easy to use? Please feel free to post URL's to show what you like the best.
I think I was a little unclear as to what I am asking. I am starting a new site from scratch, only for my photos. I will not be uploading them to a site that hosts hundreds of other photographers. I wanted to know what people thought was the best nagivational design was. I'll post a couple URL's of what I consider good design:
I think the Ryan Robinson one is the best, cleanest nav. I'm not a big fan of thumbnail navs(like most photo sites), unless they're just a preview to the gallery or done extraordinarily well, like this site:
I think the Ryan Robinson one is the best, cleanest nav. I'm not a big fan of thumbnail navs(like most photo sites), unless they're just a preview to the gallery or done extraordinarily well, like this site:
I asked a few people about my website, and they liked the javascript slideshow format. I myself try to stay away from anything where people have to load another program or plugin, like Flash. It may look cool, but quite often people won't go through all the trouble, and just go somewhere else. I would keep it as simple, but easy to navigate, as possible. And, be cautious about load times, especially when it comes to dial-up users, no one likes to wait while online! Here's what I've got up...
Old Photo Gallery, it seems to work pretty well, and it doesn't take long to load for dial-up users, and I did it with MS Frontpage 2002. Simple!
I also strongly detest sites that are nothing but Flash presentations. I want to look at pictures, not whizzy animated graphics with sound effects... in most cases, I don't even bother once I see a site is "all Flash", especially since every one is different and you have to "learn" how to navigate, etc.
I also strongly detest sites that are nothing but Flash presentations. I want to look at pictures, not whizzy animated graphics with sound effects... in most cases, I don't even bother once I see a site is "all Flash", especially since every one is different and you have to "learn" how to navigate, etc.
Amen.
Flash sites are generally BAD for the internet. They're hard to index, hard to search, hard to use text features like find, proprietory, larger to download, more processor intensive, unviewable for handhelds.
I agree, there are a lot of negatives to Flash only sites. I think I would like to have one with both options (Flash and HTML), because I really love the designs of Flash sites, but I understand the need for slower connections to have HTML only. I tend to think that presentation of your photography is fairly important online. It's the equivalent of the frames you use for your prints. If you use a really great frame and present your prints really beautifully, it can take a mediocre image and make it much better.
Only one thing winds me up more than a flash intro site, and thats a flash intro site without a 'quit show' button. I have probably missed many a great site due to flash.
This (very very simple) is probably the fastest loading page I have seen in a long time album (coding/pics by Bubba, a work colleague)
If you are not into hand coding, why not try Gallery? Best bit about it is its free. Great for pictures or vids (most vids edited by yours truly).
I think that this site is great for what it is, that is a multi-faceted site for a community of amature/semi-pro/pro photographers to share their works and interact with each other. It's beautifully designed and very very fast.
I'm only going to be showcasing a few photos, my best ones, and I tend to think the mid 1990's way of doing this, that is, thumbnails linked to bigger photo, is kind of outdated. On the other hand, as has been addressed, many people don't have broadband, and dislike the load times. This is a valid argument against a flash site. Like I said, I think its best to give the choice on the splash page: flash/html. That way everybody is happy.
I've been working on a gallery in perl recently, and I'm in the process of adding online order processing. I think it hangs together reasonably well, although it does use evil popups to show the larger shots.
