My re-designed website is now live...

Just a quick note to say my website has been given a MAJOR re-design and is now live. As ever I wanted a site thats about the pictures more than anything, so have kept it as simple and clutter free as I can. I designed it all in photoshop and then a friend of mine kindly put it all together and made it work nicely.
Its been bug tested to death so should work %100!

Before its commented on, yep there are square thumbs. I wasn't keen at first but after trying several ays it became clear everything looks way better this way. You get more detail in them anyway so its clearer what the image contains. Still, it wont be to everyones cup of tea but I've accpeted that...

Anyway, go have a look and see what you think. Same address as ever, www.richardpeters.co.uk

Hi Richard,

A nice website which I enjoyed browsing.

A nice selection of fine image and a good layout too.

The square thumbnails looked fine,IMHO.

Richard,

I like square thumbnails- as you say, it is the neatest way.

I like the random background to the home page, and the menus are easy to use, and look good too.

If I were to make one criticism, it would be to add more detailed descriptions of some of the species- e.g. not just calling it 'seagull' or 'duck'; also, I think the 'yellow wagtail' is in fact a grey wagtail.

Overall, a great site, good work!

Hi Richard

Well presented site I also enjoyed my short browse!

David

Looks good Richard. A fine collection of images - some wonderful BIG skies in the landscapes.

As I mentioned on another thread recently, I'm not a fan of 'partial' thumbnails, but I appreciate why you've done it.

Good work.

Michael S

Hi Richard,
No constructive comments from me I'm afraid - simply a very stylish, professional website!

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Ben, I'll be honest the captions were just added quickly at the start as I was putting all my concentration in to building the site itself. You are right though they do need a bit more detail so I shall go back to them over the next few days

i just get a big black box . This is probably because i don't have setup on my computer here at work or something along those lines as noone else seems to be having this problem. If this is the reason then i woud suggest putting in some code to at least show somehting for people who don't have flash so that you arn't limitling your audience. I'll have another look when i get home as ther should be no compatability issues then.

Graham

Yes I am going to set up a little thing that gives a link to where to download flash from if the machine doesn't have it already. In this day and age I imagine its only people on work computers or very very old machines that will have this problem so I'm not too worried about it.

Interestingly, my biggest ever website print order came from some nurses who wanted prints to decorate their ward. Totalled quite a bit, and over the phone I asked if they had Flash on their PC in their office - they said "no!". Obviously my website isn't flash based!

Also good to know why the NHS is cash-strapped - they spend all their funding on photo prints!!!

Hi Richard
It is a fine and easy website to browse which I like and you have some fine images. I have left a comment in your Guest Book.
John
Aberdeen

It's no good can't see it at all, no flash here either..now if I was a potential client I wouldn't be impressed...

Unfortunately I knew there would be the odd person here and there that may not have flash but decided these days with constantly updating web browsers, operating system updates and ever increasing high speed broadband the chances are unless someone chooses to not have flash active on their pc there is no reason to not have it as it comes as standard on browsers anyway these days..

I am going to be putting a flash detection thing on so that it will come up with an info bar and link for those that do not have flash but wish to install it. There are plenty of software and browser plugins such as Quicktime, Real Player, Flash, WMP etc that eventually need you to update them to view newer web content - as is the same with most computer software these days, eventually you need to upgrade to continue using something. Chances are, if my site won't work others wont for them either so they will eaither have to limit their web experience or get the latest plugins which there really is no reason to not do.

As you can see its something I gave a lot of thought too, and as I firmly beleive, you can't please everyone all of teh time!!

Have you thought about offering a simplified version of the website to non-Flash users? Many flash-based sites have a 'click here for non-Flash version' link on the homepage.

Might be an idea.

I might add a link to the purchase section as thats all html and a pre-built model hosted with photobox. That will still offer viewers the chance to see the images and more importantly..buy them!

works fine on my computer at home so was just the flash issue at work. I' have to admit i'm not generally a fan of flash bassed sites but you have done a very good job here - easy to navigate and profesionally designed. I still think alienating people who can't / don't want to install flash is a bad idea though - its probably more people than you would think as a lot of people browse the internet at work where they may well not be able to install anything on their computer.

Thanks Graham, glad you like it.

Its a tough call really and I can see the merits of not alienating anyone but without building two sites there isn't much of a way round it. Of course those that are restricted by work will know this limitation already and may do what I do and just go back to the site once home. I'm quite happy to accept its virtually impossible to have a %100 every computer/every browser/every work server proof website. One of my friends can barely even check webmail his work security is so tight - so I know someone somewhere will suffer but thats the way of the web unfortunately, I really wish it wasn't but I accept it. As a great example actually, Tim Munsey's site won't load up all the images when I view at work because we have some strange filter that blocks images sometimes on some sites - no order to it, just some sites it doesn't like for no reason at all (flickr.com is unusable %90 of the time at work because of this, as are some forums - this one however is perfect). Thats over 3000 people that can't view the site as intended so I can see how number can easily add up!

Some people may not be happy with that which is fine, after all you want the max number of viewers as possible and I fully understand that.

Still, its an interesting debate and makes a change from the usual discussions! I'm more than happy with what I have though, of course if in the future I get a mass of feedback saying its not working I'll have to get my brain working again. But for now, thanks to a mass email and several web postings I've had almost 400 hits today and a lot of very positive feedback so whilst I have a site thats good for the majority I'm happy with it

Thanks again for all the comments etc

Guys just an update. I have had some code put in place that now detects of a visitor has flash or not. if they do not have it or have an old version they will get two links, one will be to download the latest version of flash and the second will be to my photobox gallery so that they can still view and purchase my images in a standard html format.

Hopefully thats just secured the majority of the audience that would have been otherwise unable to view my work.

I do not have access to a flash restricted machine so I have emailed both Graham and Larry to ask them if they could kindly view the site again to see how it works. Fingers crossed

Good work Richard - I think that's a sensible option.

Can't check it for you tho, cos I've got Flash!

Michael S