Site Critique Please

I just finished updating my site to make it responsive and would love some feedback. I am using the Rustic Theme from Elixir Graphics.

I am very grateful to the many users who have answered my questions along the way. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and helping me learn.

http://www.shutterbugstories.com/

I was interested in looking as I use the same theme on my site here. I made a couple of minor CSS tweaks on this but it is a fairly simple site without blocks or stacks.

If I was being critical I would say I don’t like the menu colours on hover, but I am quite badly colour blind so what do I know? It would also be nice to listen to some of the tunes you are showing on the Slide Show Music page rather than having to go to iTunes. Just a personal thing.

I agree with you @jbyfield about the music previews. Did you view on a device or desktop? When loaded on a desktop (PC or Mac), the music plays in the playlist, but when viewed on a device, it leaves the web page and opens iTunes. I used an Amazon mp3 widget maker on my previous site, but it was flash based and when Apple stopped supporting flash, I had to find another solution. It is highly annoying, but I don’t have any other answers.

I did pose the question on the forum, but the suggestions did not suit my needs. I’m open to suggestions.

Your site (both online and the grounds) looks lovely. Im sure you host many happy events. Thank you for sharing.

Viewing on my iMac. I click on the View button for one of the albums you are showing and another tab opens (using Chrome) showing an iTunes Preview. From that it appears as if I have to open iTunes to preview the music.

Let me start be saying I like the design of this site a lot. This is a great use of the iTunes store embed.

I actually recently started a project for someone who provides similar services. Essential Memories by Ski

There are a few things I would review, such as;

  • Header image on mobile
  • Extra copy of about page
  • Pricing tables have some opportunity for growth. Something like @joeworkman’s Power Grid stack may be a simple solution
  • This text are would be easier to read if you by doing one or more of the following; add a transparent overlay to the image background using Jack or Glass, Change the font color, and/or ass css to the font that slightly blurs the font or adds another effect to make it easier to read. You can use Letterpress for that.
  • Contact page could use an image that connects a visitor to who they will be contacting. Adding a face will make contact more likely.
  • Blog post could have a better visual definition so they don’t seem like a wall of text. also, green font is a little hard to read
  • Use cruftless links
  • Footer is a bit hard to make out. I would add a semi transparent background to the footer area. Likely would stretch across the bottom of the screen. You may also add shadow to the font for the footer. This will define it a bit better.

Some of these things are just personal preference for design.

All in all great work! I look forward to seeing the final product.

Cheers,

Brandon

Thank you so much for the comments Brandon. How funny that we are working on site for the same services! You were very detailed in your feedback, and I really appreciate it.

I know the header is a problem when viewed on mobile in portrait mode. I created the type that surrounds the film strip logo fading in in Photoshop, playing with the distance between the logo and the type until I got a layout I was happy with. Moving the type closer to the logo so it fits on a mobile platform messed up the layout for every other view, so I just left it. It’s not ideal, but what I settled on.

I did lighten up the background on my photo album page and change the green type on the blog. you were not the only one to comment on that!

I am using the blog page that comes with Rapidweaver, so I am not sure I have any way to change the layout of the blog, but am open to suggestions. The Rustic theme does come with a blog topper feature that I have used on the first few blogs. Not sure that I have any other options.

I had not paid any attention to the Footer colors and links, thanks for pointing out the difficulty. I made the fonts darker.

I read all about cruftless links, and it certainly sounds like a good idea. I then read the follow up blog post about how to redirect and honestly, it scared me a little. I know very little about coding (that’s why I use Rapidweaver) and it was a lot to digest. I have a small site, so in time I could do it, but want to read up on it more to make sure I don’t mess anything up.

Thanks you for all your comments!
Michele

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Hmm…I’m using and iMac as well. I wish I knew what causes some machines preview on the page (both my iMac and PC) and others to leave the site and open iTunes. Thanks for the feedback, I wish I had a different solution.

@BrandonCorlett, It took me a few days, but I read up on cruftless links and made the switch. The .htaccess file was not nearly as scary as I originally thought. Thank you for the advice

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