I recently visited some websites of various amazing photographers I am interested in following. Unfortunately, it inspired me to write the following blog post.
Let's say you're a photographer who wants to create a website showcasing your work. Or maybe you want to re-do your current website. Great! Fantastic! I'm really happy for you!
Moving on, whatever you do, DON'T DO THE FOLLOWING THINGS:
1. Give your website a splash screen. This really grinds my gears because I think splash screens are only appropriate as a sort of gate for sites with NSFW content. Otherwise they are pretentious and unfriendly. I mean, you want me to click my mouse one more time than I would have otherwise? Really? You're that special??!
Now the case may be that, yes, in fact, you are that special. There are tons of really super amazing photographers that have splash screens on their sites. And the extra click is worth it. That still doesn't make it right.
2. Make your navigation all awesomely artsy and forget that your users aren't going to automatically know where to click in order to get to certain pages. Sounds like a no-brainer, right? Unfortunately this is the BIGGEST problem I come across in photographer websites, and other websites in general. Head over to websitesthatsuck.com for examples of mystery navigation, where instead of a nice nav bar with text links, sometimes there is no text (can you even imagine?? why would anyone think that is a good idea?!), or there is only text on hover (ugh), or, in some of my favorite scenarios, the links are animated to move around on hover or just randomly. Yes, people have actually designed websites with navigation this way. Crazy, right?
If you find yourself making a choice where you're saying, 'Gosh this would be so cool and artistic and really express my inner chi which is so important as a photographer and artist, but on the other hand it may give my visitors a tiny bit of a hard time,' then don't do it. If the visitors to your website find themselves lost and confused, they're not going to think too kindly on you anyway.
3. Automatically play music OR VIDEO on your website. If you want any music or video/animation to happen, you have to give your users the choice whether to play it- do not have it play by default. I can't even tell you with words how aggravating I find this.
4. Not consider contrast. I use this tool to determine my contrast for everything I design, ever. To be fair, until I'd started really dabbling in professional website building, this is not something I knew was a thing. But it is.
Look, I know yellow is a really trendy color right now. It's bright, colorful, sunny, and just screams 'I am fun and different!!' But when you have yellow text on a white background it's really freaking difficult to read, especially for people with vision problems like colorblindness.
Example- I first visited this one photographer's site a few years ago, and I noticed at the bottom of their blog that the link for older entries actually read "older entires." I debated with myself: should I send in one of those pedantic emails (they always seem pedantic, don't they, no matter how self-effacing and humble you try to come off as) saying "I found a typo on your website"? I decided not to, assuming that someone had to notice it. I mean, I thought it was pretty obvious, but then, I'm conditioned for testing and proofreading websites and technical documents.
It still says "older entires." And you know what? It's probably because the text is so hard to read at #F2C902 on a white background. Maybe it's time to send that email.
Now the case may be that, yes, in fact, you are that special. There are tons of really super amazing photographers that have splash screens on their sites. And the extra click is worth it. That still doesn't make it right.
2. Make your navigation all awesomely artsy and forget that your users aren't going to automatically know where to click in order to get to certain pages. Sounds like a no-brainer, right? Unfortunately this is the BIGGEST problem I come across in photographer websites, and other websites in general. Head over to websitesthatsuck.com for examples of mystery navigation, where instead of a nice nav bar with text links, sometimes there is no text (can you even imagine?? why would anyone think that is a good idea?!), or there is only text on hover (ugh), or, in some of my favorite scenarios, the links are animated to move around on hover or just randomly. Yes, people have actually designed websites with navigation this way. Crazy, right?
If you find yourself making a choice where you're saying, 'Gosh this would be so cool and artistic and really express my inner chi which is so important as a photographer and artist, but on the other hand it may give my visitors a tiny bit of a hard time,' then don't do it. If the visitors to your website find themselves lost and confused, they're not going to think too kindly on you anyway.
3. Automatically play music OR VIDEO on your website. If you want any music or video/animation to happen, you have to give your users the choice whether to play it- do not have it play by default. I can't even tell you with words how aggravating I find this.
4. Not consider contrast. I use this tool to determine my contrast for everything I design, ever. To be fair, until I'd started really dabbling in professional website building, this is not something I knew was a thing. But it is.
Look, I know yellow is a really trendy color right now. It's bright, colorful, sunny, and just screams 'I am fun and different!!' But when you have yellow text on a white background it's really freaking difficult to read, especially for people with vision problems like colorblindness.
Example- I first visited this one photographer's site a few years ago, and I noticed at the bottom of their blog that the link for older entries actually read "older entires." I debated with myself: should I send in one of those pedantic emails (they always seem pedantic, don't they, no matter how self-effacing and humble you try to come off as) saying "I found a typo on your website"? I decided not to, assuming that someone had to notice it. I mean, I thought it was pretty obvious, but then, I'm conditioned for testing and proofreading websites and technical documents.
It still says "older entires." And you know what? It's probably because the text is so hard to read at #F2C902 on a white background. Maybe it's time to send that email.
As photographers and artists, we seem to feel it is our job to create a unique and beautiful experience for people visiting our website. That's great, but this should never happen at the expense of accessibility or usability. Ever. There is no excuse.
There are some amazing, talented photographers out there that I absolutely revere. I watch the images appear on their blogs and cry myself to sleep at night because they're so beautiful (disclaimer: this may be a slight dramatization). If I were put in the same room as any of these people I would listen with the raptest attention you can imagine to anything they said on the matter of photography. I may even be too nervous to speak words in front of some of them and have to go throw up in a corner instead.
However, if any of those awesome photographers ever said anything along the lines of 'splash screens are okay,' or 'playing music automatically on your website is great,' etc, we would have to fight.
I mean, I like to think that while my website is not perfect (oh the things I want to change if only the CMS would let me), I have managed to create a simple, user-friendly site that showcases my work and a bit of my personality without a ton of bells and whistles. So success!
If there's anything about other people's websites that grinds your gears, please post it in the comments!
TL;DR: take note, anyone designing a website: usability first, artsy experience second.
Side note: feel free to email me if you ever see a typo on my site. I may or may not think you're pedantic, but I'll still appreciate it. :)
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