Seeking open honest review of an emerging website

guido72 · #1 (**permalink**) 03-22-2007, 12:25 AM

Looking for any feedback to help guide the future direction & development of this site:
http://www.natemcclain.com

BRIEF HISTORY
Nathan McClain was a contemporary US artist who died at the age of 24. The www.natemcclain.com website was started 3 years ago as a showcase for Nathan's artwork and an online memorial. Initial visitors were mostly folks who knew Nathan.

QUICK GROWTH
The site has quickly gained a wider and even international audience which has shifted the focus to being an online virtual gallery and museum for Nathan McClain's artwork & life.

FEEDBACK
2007 is the 10th anniversary of Nathan's passing and looking to perform a major overhaul to the web site. Seeking any feedback related to making the site more engaging for people who never personally knew Nathan.

Please be as brutally honest towards the site as possible and all feedback will be considered.

linkstraffic · #2 (**permalink**) 03-22-2007, 06:52 AM

Hi, good to hear about your growth.

About your site, I would give it a more modern touch, the design is a bit old according to my eyes and I would add few icons or/and different styles inside the menu.

I ain't a designer; just my personal quick review :)
cheers.

Keimos · #3 (**permalink**) 03-22-2007, 08:30 AM

Hi guido72,

Nice clean looking site.

Had a look at your code and you could do some behind the scenes work to clean up the code, especially to get rid of all the ()you use for spacing.

1. Link your style sheet
2. Create styles for your links and link headers and apply padding attributes to them for position.

Other than that keep up the good work

Keimos

nseidm1 · #4 (**permalink**) 03-22-2007, 10:45 PM

Well done as the other comments say. Center the website!!! I loathe left aligned sites, but thats just my opinion. Keep up the good work.

topboy · #5 (**permalink**) 03-24-2007, 06:50 PM

the design is a bit on the old side, i have always liked beveled edges though, i suggest to make the the artist's work stand out more, strike the visitor's of the site

guido72 · #6 (**permalink**) 03-29-2007, 10:08 PM

Excellent suggestions and all are 100% right on.

When the site was being designed, there were only 6 pieces of art that were available so a simple design was chosen. Over the past 3 years, the artwork has expaned to over 100 pieces without any site design changes. It's definitely time for the whole site to get a 21st century facelift with a focus on the art.

Targeting a September re-launch of the site so please keep the comments coming.