Simitry

Overview

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I have found that most of these websites are either dripping with style or are completely lacking in it. It depends on what kind of work the photographer produces. Typically the more artistic types have very minimal pages exclusively on white backgrounds. It becomes boring going from site to site because they all just blend. The photos are meant to be the focus, but when everything is so bland and uninspiring, you forget what you’ve seen. There is no stick factor. The photographers who do photo shoots have consistent styles across their sites. Unfortunately, these websites also come with a lot of information right from the start so it can feel a little overwhelming. 

 

Strengths

The strongest websites had a strong sense of hierarchy that allowed a user to seamlessly and efficiently scroll through the websites. These websites utilized typography and color to do so.

 

Frustrations

The most frustrating thing I found was too much text. Understandably, a website that is advertising its services needs to say what it does, but too much text becomes tedious and attention spans are short. 

Additionally, it was frustrating how little thought went into the overall design of a lot of the websites. Many, particularly the artist photographers, are simply posting their photos. They don’t take into account margins, spacing, or hierarchy. 

 

Thoughts

A good way to avoid having too much or too little is to effectively utilize the header. A landing page needs to give a good and succinct overview of what the artist is about and what they do. The client wants a very minimal header so I need to be able to make as much use of it as possible. I don’t want a user to land on this website and be immediately overwhelmed with how much information there is. Everything needs to be well organized and the user needs to be able to glide effortlessly throughout the website. The website needs to show exactly what the client wants.