Todd Sackmann’s New Website

June 24, 2008 – 1:10 pm

This last weekend (June, 22, 2008) I finally redesigned my photography website. Before then it was just a one page site that linked to my photos on flickr. Now it is a very simple site that serves as my photographic portfolio.

At this point it really is about the simplest site one could make. Later on I plan to add more functionality to the site but for now it serves it’s purpose.

I’ve purused many photographic portfolio websites and definately have a list of what I like and don’t like.

Here are some of the ideas I had for my site:

• No homepage, go straight to the photos
  Right from the start I went against my own rules. The page shows one photo and introduces you to the navigation.
• If I get confused, I’m looking for a ‘best of’ section
  This one I followed through on. My first choice in my navigation is the “My Favorites” section.
• I want to just keep looking at more photos without having to figure out the menus
  Personally I haven’t seen a site that did this better than jeremycowart.com. (Whoa!! Update 7/30/08!! Jeremy just recently reworked his site. I guess he didn’t see the genius in his original design) Open his site, scroll down and you are overwhelmed by his talent. No splash page, no click here to enter, no instructions… Flash :P
• I don’t like waiting for photos to load — stack them so the bottom ones load while you’re looking at the ones above.
  Again, learned from Cowart’s site. Load a few photos and the scrolling becomes the easiest browsing tool around. No instructions needed.
• Make photos big!!
  I think you’re better off to show your photos in all their glory rather than shrinking them. My photos could still be bigger.
• Too many sections and subsections don’t help.
  If your photos rock, they rock, if they don’t, adding 30 more won’t help. I have 7 sections which is enough to give someone an idea of my quality level. I might add more photos later but I will not make a more confusing navigation when I do.

Other considerations:

• No small buttons. They’re hard to click.
• No thumbnails, they waste time.
• Clicking becomes a pain when you have to click to view each photo
• Update 7/30/08 – I can’t believe I forgot this one. I hate Flash. Most people don’t use it correctly and it just creates a mess.