Website Critique - Photography website

It doesn't matter if you do all the error checking in the world, or if you have the most beautiful graphics, if your site or application design isn't usable, it's not going to do well. Get input and advice on usability and user interface issues here.

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koskilla
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Website Critique - Photography website

Post by koskilla »

Does anyone care to critique my website for looks and usability? I dont know if anyone has any experience with carts, but I feel like that area could use some improvements. I have some changes I could make, but maybe you guys could provide some advice?

Thanks!
The link is - http://www.apuphoto.com
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califdon
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Post by califdon »

I'm not an expert, but the site appears attractive to me. I did notice that the Continue Shopping button on the shopping cart page isn't working. I didn't take time to go any further in the ordering process. Some of the page loads seemed rather slow. I wonder if you might consider using some Ajax to make smoother data updates and avoid page loads for some items.
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Josh1billion
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Post by Josh1billion »

Looks pretty good to me. What I would do to make the site look more appealing is to add some flavor to the links (About, Pricing, Special, etc. and also the Categories links). Perhaps a button-looking image, like the middle ones shown here: http://robcubbon.com/images/shiny-round-buttons.gif
koskilla
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Post by koskilla »

How do I use AJAX to not load certain things on the page? I don't know anything about it. Can you point me in the right direction?
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califdon
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Post by califdon »

koskilla wrote:How do I use AJAX to not load certain things on the page? I don't know anything about it. Can you point me in the right direction?
What Ajax does is request data from the server and use it on the web page without reloading the whole page. For example, if you ask a user to register and they enter a username that's already in the database, wouldn't it be nice to have it immediately pop up the error message as soon as the cursor leaves the input box, without waiting until he submits the form? Ajax does that! And if you already know some Javascript and any server side script language (PHP, ASP, Perl), you have nothing new to learn except a little different way of thinking about how web pages are displayed. Check out these tutorials:

http://www.mousewhisperer.co.uk/ajax_page.html
http://www.bestajaxscripts.com/
http://www.w3schools.com/ajax/default.asp

Whenever you'd like to display something else in response to user input, but not reload the whole page, that's where Ajax makes a smooth way to do it.
unibul
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Re: Website Critique - Photography website

Post by unibul »

The template looks out of date to me.
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onion2k
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Re: Website Critique - Photography website

Post by onion2k »

The site is ok, but the disabled right click really annoys me. I use right click and then click back in the context menu all the time. It doesn't make the images any more secure either, but disabling Javascript takes 5 seconds and kills your 'security' feature.
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