# website critique



## DougGrigg (Dec 3, 2013)

please critique my website as there is a fresh new design! Ignore the services page but please let me know what you think as I've spent a few hours re-doing it today! 

Doug Grigg, Photographer 

cheers! x


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## limr (Dec 3, 2013)

I can't help but notice some punctuation problems in the About page (sorry, I'm an English professor - this is what I notice whether I look for it or not!) Even though this isn't about the layout or the pictures, it's still really important. Other people will notice too. Some might not care, but a surprising number of people WILL care. We may tolerate errors in more informal contexts (forums, for example!) but we expect professional websites to be error-free.

Full stop after "South West. He..."
No semi-colon after "including"
Capitalize "Photo Journalism" (either that, or take the caps away from the other genres you mentioned. Capitalize all or none.)
Change the next sentence to: "Starting his education in London, he swiftly came to..."
Full stop at the end of "University of Plymouth."

Otherwise, I like the clean look of it and it's easy to navigate. I like the slideshow as part of the home page - are you planning to put more pictures in rotation there? I'm not sure you want people coming to your site and only seeing two frowning men


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## DougGrigg (Dec 3, 2013)

Thanks a lot for your criticism! my punctuation is appalling, especially living in England, you would of thought it'd be amazing, obviously not the case haha! 

I'll definitely be adding more images into rotation, the majority of the images are on the gallery page, press the # in the bottom right corner to see all the images differently

As for the front slideshow I'll be adding more of the work of the latest projects I do, currently I'm doing expressions and human behavioral psychology. 

Thanks again for your critique I'll change all the punctuation asap!


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## Braineack (Dec 3, 2013)

> the majority of the images are on the gallery page



You have like 6 images in total.  What am I missing?  And all 3 of the B&W portraits are very underexposed.


The contact page input form is so large, scale it down.  and offer a place (email, phone) where someone could contact you outside a web form.


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## DougGrigg (Dec 3, 2013)

Braineack said:


> all 3 of the B&W portraits are very underexposed.




In person the prints look almost perfect in terms of exposure, it may just be the images being on the web who knows? After all I'm an exhibition artist not nessisarily a web artist  

theres only a small amount of images at the moment to show the dynamic of the web page, obviously the further along the webpage goes the more images I'll add, there's no point loading the site up with images if it doesn't flow well enough to display ehm y'no? 

 thanks for the crits


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## DougGrigg (Dec 3, 2013)

Edit: Punctuation & Grammar Changed, More Images added. is there a better flow to the website? 

( In the gallery, for those unfamiliar with this type of website press the 'i' in the top right corner to see the image re-scaled and with information regarding the work. )

I know I shouldn't have to explain the functionality of my website but I'm learning how to change it gradually! I'll get there!


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## Derrel (Dec 3, 2013)

It is getting better since just this morning! You have a few really fine shots in the street/news genre, like the Sony fire for example, and the London riots shots. I would like to see more portraiture, and less of the micro-expressions stuff. The micro-expressions segment seems, well, weird. If each image had a title, it would help lessen the oddity, the lack of context.


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## DougGrigg (Dec 3, 2013)

derrel m'man, I'm pretty sure I put a subtitle on each of the micro expressions work, unfortunately its what I Decided to do my third year university project on so I have all of my artist theory behind it opposed to just regular generic imagery haha, the London photographer galleries curator is pretty interested in my work so it cant be a bad thing  

my next project will be street fashion portraiture so there's a lot more to look forward to than what is currently there  i understand my current work is pretty wierd but I'm an arty farty type like the artist Bettina Von Zwehl or Thomas ruff haha ! 

I'm glad you think it's progressing since this morn! every little bit of time spent helps eh?


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## The_Traveler (Dec 3, 2013)

"Starting his education in London he swiftly came to a high grade of graphic design and art before progressing into college to study Graphic design and photography. Soon after, he journeyed onto University studying Photography BA(Hons) at the University of Plymouth."

_sounds too much like a kid starting out_

*Douglas Grigg has studied graphic design and art since early schooling in London culminating in a BA(Hons) at the University of Plymouth. He has exhibited widely .........blah blah
*


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## DougGrigg (Dec 3, 2013)

Thanks for your reply Lew, your comments are definitely respected, I'll absolutely make some alterations to the about me!  thank you!

Edit: altered the about me as Lew recommended


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## The_Traveler (Dec 4, 2013)

from the University of Hertfordshire Stretching all the way to the South West in the University of Plymouth 


*S*tretching-> *s*tretching


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## Braineack (Dec 4, 2013)

The gallery layout is much better now.

One thing, well make it two...

It wasn't clear to me after clicking an image to view it full-sized, how to "close" it and go back without having to click gallery again.  I see now that it's the four square icon that appears in the lower right, but it was not an intuitive button. Anyway you could just add an x in the top right next to the "i" that appears in full screen?  That would work better for me.

When viewed full size, you're filling the screen by width and cropping the images significantly and reducing the image qulaity of the ones that aren't wide enough.



You still need more than 2 images on the front rotation.


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## DougGrigg (Dec 4, 2013)

Braineack said:


> You still need more than 2 images on the front rotation.



I'll gradually get there once I take more images of similar aesthetic, at the moment I'm trying to stay close to the intensity of two eyes staring at you at soon as you open the website, It'll get there, the images are the least of my worries atm, building a website is so strenuous as I'm sure you know! I'll see what I can do about changing the icon in the top right to something more fitting, a red X perhaps, it'll get there! Thanks again lew for looking it over again I'll change it! D:


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## SnappingShark (Dec 4, 2013)

Just an idea - but I would maybe go closer in on the eyes, and have the exact same image but in full vivid color - only keeping 2 images in the rotation.

Then allow for a manual rotation rather than automatic, allowing the user to find the vivid colored image.


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## DougGrigg (Dec 4, 2013)

BrightByNature said:


> Just an idea - but I would maybe go closer in on the eyes, and have the exact same image but in full vivid color - only keeping 2 images in the rotation.
> 
> Then allow for a manual rotation rather than automatic, allowing the user to find the vivid colored image.



I like it, Or the same image with selected colour or the iris' ? I'll have a look at it! 

edit: Changed the homepage, 1 Image in rotation, coloured & black and white


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## slackercruster (Dec 4, 2013)

Looks like it 'could be' OK, but don't show it until it is 90% ready. People will drop you fast if you send it around as a pro.


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