Photographer Portfolio Critique
Opening page, JohnIsaac.com
I chose to look at John Isaac’s webpage. The photo above shows the opening page, which contains a small sample of his work. The opening page also shows his name and title. I felt the content was fine, clearly showing ownership, but had trouble with the navigation. Rolling over the center image brightens it and reveals the word “enter.” The first time I visited the site, I instinctively rolled over the more solid version of his name looking for a way to enter the site. The current method doesn’t feel intuitive to me. I figured that to enter a person’s site, I should click on his name. I did not assume the center image was the entrance link. Perhaps the site could show the word “enter” without requiring a rollover.
Introduction & Galleries
Clicking through the opening leads to a site with a short biographical introduction and links to his galleries. I feel the text on the page could be darker, since it looks washed out. Overall, the colors on the page feel washed out. While consistent, I don’t feel it helps readability. The links to the galleries are on the left hand column. I feel they are easy to overlook, since they don’t look like clickable areas. It also creates a usability expectation that doesn’t carry throughout the site. Under the links to the galleries, there is a link called “home,” which leads you to the opening page. I wouldn’t consider this a home page, and there is some variation as to where “home” links take you on other sites. On the right side, there’s a link called “continue.” It takes you to a longer biography of the photographer. At the bottom of the text, there are links to his two photo galleries as well as his equipment suppliers and sponsors.
The first gallery is called “People of the World.” It’s a different take on gallery layouts. It took me a moment to get used to it. I originally thought the thumbnails led to sub-galleries but they actually go to a larger version of the photo with its name. On the page with the larger photo, there is a back button in the upper left corner. Clicking the “main page” link at the bottom take you back to the galleries description page. This seems strange since the “home” link on that site takes you to the opening page.
The second gallery is called “Exotic Lands.” Again, the thumbnails take you to a larger version of the photo and its name. I felt the navigation in the gallery was more confusing. On the left hand side, there is a list of countries. I thought they were links, since the text in the left hand columns is clickable on other pages. Only the word at the bottom, “mosaics,” is a link.
I felt that it is a nice site with a few navigation and usability issues. I also feel it shows a very small sample of his work. Perhaps he felt those were his best images, but it felt spartan. The trip left me wanting more photos. While this might seem good, encouraging me to seek out more of his work, I felt a little disappointed after leaving. I would have liked the thumbnails to lead to sub-galleries. I think this would have been a way of showing more images, as well as providing the photos with themes and categorization.
