This started as a reply to a question on Club Showit, but we figured the information was viable enough to be shared with others.

If your in a business where you are selling YOU, such as photography, then your website has to reflect YOU.  What this is going to do is bring YOU the type of clients that YOU are looking for, and that you resonate the best with. What works for some, will not work for others. For example if another photographer doesn’t like your site, that’s good.  The site is not tailored to fit their needs and personalty.

With that being said, there are two different direction you can go in with a build.  The first direction is super unique and creative.  This could be something like a realistic site with 3D elements.  On the other hand, you could go into a more clean and simplistic direction to where the images do all of the talking.  You have to figure out what works best for you, and what you like.  Build your site tailored to fit your personality, and you’ll attract the kind of clients that you are hoping for.

Fluidness -  Keep things fluid.  There’s nothing worse than the navigation disappearing when going to another page.

Main Nav -  Make sure that the navigation is easy to access, and that the information is displayed in a way that it’s not competing with the design of the site.

Sub Nav-  Keep sub navigation fluid.   For example say you have a page with 2 photos on it; wedding photo and engagement photo.  These photos enter their respective galleries.  So, you click on the weddings and you go to the weddings gallery.  BUT, what if you want to view the engagements gallery?  Well, you have to take a step back just to get a step forward.  This mere act of backtracking causes your visitor to sub-consciously loose focus on what they we’re after, and breaks up the fluidity of the site.  You can remedy this by always including in some way shape or form, easy access to other parts of your site.  In summary…back-tracking is evil. :)

Fonts -  Keep your fonts sizes down, and make sure your fonts match.  I could give a whole lesson on typography, but just know that NOT all fonts go together.  There are two basic types of fonts.  Serif fonts have that thing on the end of the letters, non serif fonts do not.  Serifed fonts should be used for things like nav and sub navigation.  Non-serifed fonts are to be used for paragraph text.  With sizes….keep your navigation to between 19-24 pt.  This depends largely on your chosen font.  Paragraph text should be kept between 14-19 point, again dependent on the font.  It get’s tougher with large screens.  We run 23″ monitors so 16 point to us looks insanely large, but in reality it’s the perfect size.  The average screen resolution used to view sites right now is 1280 – 1440, which breaks down to 15″ – 19″ monitors. In summary…your navigation shouldn’t be the first thing you notice when someone visits your site.

Music – This is more a personal opinion than anything else, but we think music on a site is a no-no.   However if you insist on having music on your site, at least have it start at a volume of 10-20. This way your visitor isn’t rocked out of their seats because their volume was turned to max from watching the movie the night before and forgot to tun it back down.

Transitions - Please keep the transition out values to half the value of your transition in value or your content WILL overlap when transitioning between pages.  Example: Transition In – Fade 0.6 – Transition Out – Fade 0.3

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Tidbits:

  • We are currently working on 10 custom builds which are slated for launch between now and the end of this year.
  • Our rates increased just a tad; custom builds now begin at $2000 US.
  • We are still looking for someone who has skills with AS and Flash. Please contact us if you are interested in being part of the team here at SMD.
  • SMD launches Dare Dreamer Media. Follow @rondawson on Twitter.
  • SMD will be in Austin at the end of this month on the 27th and 28th. We’ll be kicking it with Dane Sanders at the Fast Track Roadshow Workshop, and will talk about how to use Showit to build a website that reflects YOU.
  • SMD es aprender a hablar español para que podamos ayudar a la gente de habla hispana que utilizan Showit.