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i am working on husband's site http://interiorillusionsfx.com and wonder if some could give me feedback particularly where the home page and galleries are concerned. i'm considering leaving off the header for the child pages in the galleries( i only have one gallery done so far probably 5 or so more to go but i would basically set them up the same) just to download faster and wondering about the set up of the galleries, do the pages  need more descriptions or something since how could i put in keywords..unless i just do that on the parent gallery page?...I am also considering putting a different sample on the parent gallery page  header that is a sample of each type of finish( ie I have a marble for marble,would add a  distressed for distressed and aged , texture for textures etc.) but wondering if that might ruin the continuity of the site.... is the setup interesting or busy with the different sized and placement of the sample images?.... cons about doing any of the above? i'd leave the naviagation and maybe the footer since the contact info is there...also not sure if the home page is to wordy...any other glaring errors you notice i'd appreciate you telling me as well( just when you thought i would be almost done with the questions from my own site...round 2 begins;):))

Thanks as always

Wow, I never realized there were so many intriguing finishes. You’ve got a lot of great information on your site.

I did have a couple of suggestions from a content standpoint. You wondered if there’s too much copy on your home page, and I think there probably is. I think it would be easy to reduce/simplify what you’ve got though. For instance, you don’t need to tell people that they’re looking at your online Web site – they know that. I’d seriously think about moving up the sentence at the bottom that reads “At Interior Illusions we take pride…” It pretty succinctly says what you’re about.

I’d also limit the amount of text you do in that big heavy italicized font at the top –it’s pretty overwhelming, especially with that scrolling piece below it (which I personally think is sort of annoying).  You probably need one sentence at the top of the page, plus a line about the area you serve, but not much more than that.

The other point I’d make is that it would be great if you could show some of these finishes in actual home and business settings, particularly the latter. I think that would really help sell your services if people could visualize what some of these options would look like in their living room or place of business.

Good luck with this. It looks like a big job, but you're off to a great start.

Liz

I would like to add a few suggestions that will help improve your site.

1. Test your site in various resolutions. When I opened your site on my PC everything was flushed to the right. {My display settings is 1600 x 1200 but it looked OK in 800x600).
   
2. Be more descriptive in your page titles. For example, instead of Marble and Stone I, include Interior Illusions FX Marble and Stone Finishes
   
   
3. I was looking for the Home button and realized that Interior Ilusions was the home button. Don't make users think. Users shouldn't have to think or figure out where things are. The home button is standard and almost intuitive to many users.
   

Overall, great design. The most important issue is your page(s) being flushed to the right when viewed in larger display settings.

Hope this helps!

Norris

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sorry forgot to hit the quote but this is in ref . to Liz

I do have photos of the actual finishes in rooms in the galleries now ( had to try to fix them up so they looked decent since i took them pre dslr,some  with a little point and shoot 4 mp) and am thinking of including  them on the sideshow as well...( only one more gallery to go then that part will be done with)

the reason i said that about the name is the actual name of our company is "interior illusions", evidently our domain must have run out or something cause it's someone else's domain name now(???) so i didn't know how confusing it would be to add the "fx" when any  present cusomers know us as just as "interior illusions"...anyone with a better solution to this i'd love to hear it...we've been in business 10+yrs as interior illusions ( for finishing, hub's other straight  paint bus. was under forsythe painting..nothing like making it hard for anyone to find us) so i don't really know how good of an idea it would be to do a name change this late in the game to add the fx to the actual company name. or maybe i think the fx addtition is more confusing than it really is? or maybe it wasn't confusing till i started explaining it!:)

Thanks for the help

Advisor-Norris:

I would like to add a few suggestions that will help improve your site.

1. Test your site in various resolutions. When I opened your site on my PC everything was flushed to the right. {My display settings is 1600 x 1200 but it looked OK in 800x600).
   
2. Be more descriptive in your page titles. For example, instead of Marble and Stone I, include Interior Illusions FX Marble and Stone Finishes
   
   
3. I was looking for the Home button and realized that Interior Ilusions was the home button. Don't make users think. Users shouldn't have to think or figure out where things are. The home button is standard and almost intuitive to many users.
   

Overall, great design. The most important issue is your page(s) being flushed to the right when viewed in larger display settings.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Norris

Thanks for the suggestions but more questions....i can't figure out why it is moving to the right like that...i finally made the zone bigger than normal but it still isn't centered...didn't have this problem with the other site so this is new to me..originally the nav. was on the left side and not sure if that made something out of wack when i changed it but that was only the first page. not sure what is up with that

also i made the button titles shorter since i am running out of room on the navigation bar...is there a way to make it double rows or something? i still have two more galleries to add and it's already almost to long. i have a number of child buttons so not sure how that would work and took the contact, about etc all down to the footer...i was going to go back to the left side but then it cuts down on the body room ...again any solutions would be great!

Thanks

Advisor-Norris:

I would like to add a few suggestions that will help improve your site.

1. Test your site in various resolutions. When I opened your site on my PC everything was flushed to the right. {My display settings is 1600 x 1200 but it looked OK in 800x600).
   
2. Be more descriptive in your page titles. For example, instead of Marble and Stone I, include Interior Illusions FX Marble and Stone Finishes
   
   
3. I was looking for the Home button and realized that Interior Ilusions was the home button. Don't make users think. Users shouldn't have to think or figure out where things are. The home button is standard and almost intuitive to many users.
   

Overall, great design. The most important issue is your page(s) being flushed to the right when viewed in larger display settings.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Norris

Thanks for the suggestions but more questions....i can't figure out why it is moving to the right like that...i finally made the zone bigger than normal but it still isn't centered...didn't have this problem with the other site so this is new to me..originally the nav. was on the left side and not sure if that made something out of wack when i changed it but that was only the first page. not sure what is up with that

also i made the button titles shorter since i am running out of room on the navigation bar...is there a way to make it double rows or something? i still have two more galleries to add and it's already almost to long. i have a number of child buttons so not sure how that would work and took the contact, about etc all down to the footer...i was going to go back to the left side but then it cuts down on the body room ...again any solutions would be great!

Thanks

Hello,  You have made a beautiful site.  On my computer also the page was all the way to the right.  And, because of the way some of the photos are taken, with the sample entering the photo from the right, it appears that I'm missing something off screen.

Also, at the lower left corner of the slide show on the home page, there appear the letters "We ta"  Perhaps this is something you were trying to delete.  Best wishes.

A two things that I personally wasn't fond of was to much italic writing and the black background. I like to see some white or white with some colors for a background.

i think i got the problem with the to the right  slipping fixed...my header was a little to large and on the first page it wasn't set up to center some odd reason..i also made the pages smaller but for some reason i couldn't do it by deleting spaces on a few so i had to change things around...if anyone would have time to see if the page is not shifting to the right now i would appreciate it so i am sure i worked for sure.

thanks

Hello again.  The page itself it centered much better.  But the navigation is sticking out to the right.  I'm going to suggest that you not use the standard navigation and set up something more creative.  What if your home page had small/medium (not exactly thumbnails) photo examples, one for each catagory, with captions, and each linked to the page with that style of work on it?  Personally, I prefer more symetrical alignment and right now your photos are all over the place.  Some are so far below the others that most people won't scroll down to look. 

Take a look at Sue Rivers' new site http://oldesigntips.com/default.aspx for tremendous ideas about arranging the layout of photos and text, as well as navigation alternatives.  My site uses unconventional navigation as well.  And, I believe this would work for you nicely.  Best wishes.

Sister Irene:

Hello again.  The page itself it centered much better.  But the navigation is sticking out to the right.  I'm going to suggest that you not use the standard navigation and set up something more creative.  What if your home page had small/medium (not exactly thumbnails) photo examples, one for each catagory, with captions, and each linked to the page with that style of work on it?  Personally, I prefer more symetrical alignment and right now your photos are all over the place.  Some are so far below the others that most people won't scroll down to look. 

 

Take a look at Sue Rivers' new site http://oldesigntips.com/default.aspx for tremendous ideas about arranging the layout of photos and text, as well as navigation alternatives.  My site uses unconventional navigation as well.  And, I believe this would work for you nicely.  Best wishes.

I love the thumbnail-ish , idea, noticed it on your site before...guessing i just make the titles a hyerlink??? if not how do i get them to link to the pages? didn't seem to see that on the new site, which i like a lot as well. . i'll have to check the photos again...i had them in 2 columns but maybe they are moving around again. i tried to keep 5 to a page but i may have to shrink some of them. thanks for your help...at least i get a new camera out of this deal from hub for doing his site( and ripping out my hair:):):))

The site is going to look great.  The black background and the amazing photos are the right elements.  It's just a matter of getting them arranged for your customers to find what they want easily.

Columns?  I would suggest using tables within table cells to line up the photos.  Then they will not be moving at all.  RxDave's tips page has a lot about this as well.

Yes, the array of sample photos on the home page would be set up with tables in table cells and each photo would be a hyperlink to the page with that style of product.  You could hyperlink the captions as well, but definitely the photos.  The home page photos would be perhaps half the size you have now.  But on the product pages keep them as close to the current size as you can.  This will elimate the need to hyperlink every photo on the site to an enlarged photo page. Have fun!  I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with next!