Posted by Jim Erhardt on November 25, 2010 at 12:09 PM
Update 12/4
The new Front Page design is now online! Read the discussion leading up to it below (some of the links are now outdated). A link to the Front Page can be found in the navigation bar above. JE
As you've been hearing, a major NPN initiative is to better cater to the 100,000 monthly unique visitors, many of whom are non-photographers who visit us to view our collection of extraordinary nature photos.
The first step was the introduction of our new Nature Prints Gallery where our members can offer prints of their photos to our visitors.
An ongoing project is to better gear the home page to these visitors. Our current Front Page is rather wordy with perhaps an overload of information for those surfing in for the first time. So my goal is to simplify the Front Page by shifting some of the info to the About NPN and Articles and Reviews pages, and at the same time, make the front page a bit more intuitive for those who want to skip all the verbiage and get to the good stuff - the photos!
With this in mind I have mocked-up a new Front Page concept. I think I'm on the right track but would welcome your comments and suggestions. Be sure to hit the refresh button a few times too!
I hit the refresh botton very often, but none of my images popped up - so I don't like the new front page at all....
I think it serves the intended purpose very well. When I first found naturephotographers.net some years ago I ended up in one of the article pages via google. I bookmarked the homepage, but I think it took me quite a while to realize that there are interactive galleries for posting and critique. Now, with the new face, it is much more obvious that this site is about the photography of its participants! However, you might want to add a thumbnail that leads to the "instruction" articles, so people know right away that there is something to read as well...
Just my thoughts..
Good work Jim, and thanks for this amazing place!
Posted by Tom Nevesely on November 25, 2010 at 1:15 PM
Looks good Jim, I like it! I'm much simpler.
Dietrich has a good point about adding a link to the articles. Like him, I also "discovered" NPN after I read a NPN article I found through Google.
Posted by Mia McPherson on November 25, 2010 at 1:23 PM
I like it JIm and love the fact that refreshing changes the images. It is clean & simple and because of that it feels elegant.
Posted by Wayne Rhodus on November 25, 2010 at 1:44 PM
Looks very good to me Jim. Clean, concise and inviting. I think this would be another good step toward enhancing the casual viewer's experience. Nice work.
Posted by Buck Ward on November 25, 2010 at 1:50 PM
It looks good to me, Jim. I think maybe a prominent link to the forums, All Topics or NP Discussion, in addition to the links to image galleries ,might be good.
Posted by Jim Erhardt on November 25, 2010 at 2:05 PM
Thanks to all who have so far offered some comments!
I will create some icons for articles page, the forums, etc. The challenge is to pick a few of the most important sections on the site as there are so many and I don't want to end up with another over-loaded page! I think the key is to direct visitors to the main navigation drop-down menus.
The mock-up looks very nice. I like it's simplicity, and I especially like the thumbnails, because they show what the site is about.
I think the text that asks viewers to use the nav menu at the top of the page is sufficient. One small thing; change the text 'navigation header' to 'navigation bar.
Nice work, Jim!
--P
Posted by Glenn Starr on November 25, 2010 at 6:18 PM
I'm with Buck. Folks surfing the Web don't always take the time to read the fine print...Even if I do I don't read the fine print!
Excellent idea Jim. The visitor has an immediate vision of the high level of the photos in NPN.
Photos is what he want to see.
One thing: the nav bar in the top of the page is difficult to see. The eyes are attracted by the photos.Changing the place or color or dimention, the bar could become more visible.
Or my eyes are too bad?!
Posted by Craig Myers on November 26, 2010 at 2:03 AM
Very nice look. Great work.
Posted by Greg Lessard on November 26, 2010 at 8:00 AM
It looks good Jim! I also like the idea of having a button for photographers to click on for the articles etc. Having one more image button that links to all of the articles etc wouldn't be too much. It could be called aomething intrigiung like "For Photographers Only..."
It could be placed alogside the other 6 image buttons on the front page.
On another note, I have recently posted two images from Maine in the NENP gallery. At the time I was concentrating on posting images that represented New England. What I didn't realize, even though it was clearly stated, was that they would also be posted in the Nature Gallery. My images, one of a lighthouse and the other of lobster gear, very clearly depict New England, but they don't depict nature quite as well. They have the obvious "Hand of Man" involved in them. Is this a conflict with the nature gallery? Or are the rules a little more open and relaxed the "Earth, Sea and Sky" and "Man and Nature" galleries?
Thanks again for all of your efforts to make NPN even better!
Sincerely,
Greg
Posted by Nancy de Flon on November 26, 2010 at 8:21 AM
Hi Jim, I like the new page a lot. Whether a book cover or a website home page, it has only a few seconds to grab a viewer's attention. I'm a book editor by profession and part of that involves writing jacket copy. With that in mind, I'd like to suggest the following change to one paragraph. It's just a small matter of punctuation, but I think the shorter sentences may make quite a difference.
We welcome our guests to peruse our nature photo galleries, nature photography discussion forums, and instructional photography articles. They are all open for your viewing. No registration is required.
Posted by Dan Baumbach on November 26, 2010 at 10:13 AM
Nice work, Jim. It looks great.
- Dan
Posted by Jim Erhardt on November 26, 2010 at 10:25 AM
Thanks to all for your input!
I just did an update integrating many of your suggestions. I think it's real close now - take another look!
BTW, we need to tweak the thumbnail script - it's selecting the oldest thumbnails instead of the newest - will get that fixed by early next week.
Jim,
I love the new format. It is cleaner. I would like to see a button that would send you to the first unread message of a topic. That would be great.
John
Jim, great job. It looks wonderful. I am so proud to be a part of the NPN family.
Posted by Bill Fach on November 27, 2010 at 5:05 PM
Jim: Superior work. I like how you also managed to cycle different images in the thumbs. Really nicely done. >=))>
Posted by Eva McDermott on November 27, 2010 at 6:04 PM
Front page looks great Jim! I echo what Bill said too about cycling different images. Very well done!
Posted by Jim Erhardt on November 27, 2010 at 10:04 PM
Thanks to all for your input - I too am pleased!
Posted by Mia McPherson on December 1, 2010 at 7:22 AM
Jim,
One thing I am missing seeing on the new index page is the monthly "Cover Shot". Since it is a cover shot it might be a nice idea to post it above the rest of the linked thumbnails?
Posted by Jim Erhardt on December 4, 2010 at 7:36 AM
Mia, the link to the cover shot info is now on the NPN Cover as the Photo of the Month link. There is also a link on the Articles & Reviews page.
Discussion
23 repliesThe new Front Page design is now online! Read the discussion leading up to it below (some of the links are now outdated). A link to the Front Page can be found in the navigation bar above. JE
As you've been hearing, a major NPN initiative is to better cater to the 100,000 monthly unique visitors, many of whom are non-photographers who visit us to view our collection of extraordinary nature photos.
The first step was the introduction of our new Nature Prints Gallery where our members can offer prints of their photos to our visitors.
An ongoing project is to better gear the home page to these visitors. Our current Front Page is rather wordy with perhaps an overload of information for those surfing in for the first time. So my goal is to simplify the Front Page by shifting some of the info to the About NPN and Articles and Reviews pages, and at the same time, make the front page a bit more intuitive for those who want to skip all the verbiage and get to the good stuff - the photos!
With this in mind I have mocked-up a new Front Page concept. I think I'm on the right track but would welcome your comments and suggestions. Be sure to hit the refresh button a few times too!
Thanks for taking a look!
I think it serves the intended purpose very well. When I first found naturephotographers.net some years ago I ended up in one of the article pages via google. I bookmarked the homepage, but I think it took me quite a while to realize that there are interactive galleries for posting and critique. Now, with the new face, it is much more obvious that this site is about the photography of its participants! However, you might want to add a thumbnail that leads to the "instruction" articles, so people know right away that there is something to read as well...
Just my thoughts..
Good work Jim, and thanks for this amazing place!
Dietrich has a good point about adding a link to the articles. Like him, I also "discovered" NPN after I read a NPN article I found through Google.
I will create some icons for articles page, the forums, etc. The challenge is to pick a few of the most important sections on the site as there are so many and I don't want to end up with another over-loaded page! I think the key is to direct visitors to the main navigation drop-down menus.
The mock-up looks very nice. I like it's simplicity, and I especially like the thumbnails, because they show what the site is about.
I think the text that asks viewers to use the nav menu at the top of the page is sufficient. One small thing; change the text 'navigation header' to 'navigation bar.
Nice work, Jim!
--P
Photos is what he want to see.
One thing: the nav bar in the top of the page is difficult to see. The eyes are attracted by the photos.Changing the place or color or dimention, the bar could become more visible.
Or my eyes are too bad?!
It could be placed alogside the other 6 image buttons on the front page.
On another note, I have recently posted two images from Maine in the NENP gallery. At the time I was concentrating on posting images that represented New England. What I didn't realize, even though it was clearly stated, was that they would also be posted in the Nature Gallery. My images, one of a lighthouse and the other of lobster gear, very clearly depict New England, but they don't depict nature quite as well. They have the obvious "Hand of Man" involved in them. Is this a conflict with the nature gallery? Or are the rules a little more open and relaxed the "Earth, Sea and Sky" and "Man and Nature" galleries?
Thanks again for all of your efforts to make NPN even better!
Sincerely,
Greg
We welcome our guests to peruse our nature photo galleries, nature photography discussion forums, and instructional photography articles. They are all open for your viewing. No registration is required.
- Dan
I just did an update integrating many of your suggestions. I think it's real close now - take another look!
BTW, we need to tweak the thumbnail script - it's selecting the oldest thumbnails instead of the newest - will get that fixed by early next week.
I love the new format. It is cleaner. I would like to see a button that would send you to the first unread message of a topic. That would be great.
John
It's getting better, and better! No nits from me.
--P
One thing I am missing seeing on the new index page is the monthly "Cover Shot". Since it is a cover shot it might be a nice idea to post it above the rest of the linked thumbnails?