-
Posts
-
@marthamarks wrote:
Okay. I think the slider is back to normal again. Sure do hope so!
Please give me feedback on the loading speed on your browsers and any other issues you see.
Thanks, Shelma, for the info on that menu bar. Glad that’s better now.
Beautiful. Love the beach shot. Wish I was there!
@shelma1 wrote:
Beautiful. Love the beach shot. Wish I was there!
Actually, that’s White Sands National Monument near Alamogordo, New Mexico. I caught a spectacular sunset there. The blue in the background that looks like water is actually a distant mountain range. 🙂
I wish I was there right now too!
I like having a big image slider up top – I think it’s something to draw buyers in.
I also like your change to dark blue for the site title.
I would suggest that you simplify the number of typefaces and number of transitions you use though. You have a different one for the text over the slider from the one you use for the headings, for example. Given that you’re already changing colors, I think you don’t want so many different colors, shapes and sizes.
On the transitions, I really think simpler is better as you want people to focus on your images, not the flying squares or rippling lines. But if you love one of the more complex transitions, perhaps stick with that and use it throughout the slideshow – right now every one is different.
The only other suggestion is to see if your slider will let you make a link from one of the slides. Mine (Soliloquy) does and I linked each slide to the image page where you can buy it. I think if a buyer likes one of your slider images, making it easy for them to purchase it is a good idea (and ignore how awful my site looks in general right now as I’m still struggling with the 2.8.x upgrade from 2.6.5, but the slider part is fine if you want to see how it functions)
I think it’s a great idea to post our “finished” sites here for feedback…
@jsnover wrote:
I would suggest that you simplify the number of typefaces and number of transitions you use though. You have a different one for the text over the slider from the one you use for the headings, for example. Given that you’re already changing colors, I think you don’t want so many different colors, shapes and sizes.
On the transitions, I really think simpler is better as you want people to focus on your images, not the flying squares or rippling lines. But if you love one of the more complex transitions, perhaps stick with that and use it throughout the slideshow – right now every one is different.
The only other suggestion is to see if your slider will let you make a link from one of the slides.
Thanks so much, jsnover, for your good suggestions.
I’ve been looking at the fonts and you’re right. The header and slider fonts are different. Problem for me is that the names are close (“Arial Rounded” for header, “Ariel” for slider) so I thought I was in the same family. But the slider doesn’t seem to give me an option. “Ariel” is all I can find. (I think that’s a typo. The font should be spelled “Arial.”) Maybe there’s a back-room way to change the default font. I’m going to check. There’s no matching font in my collection to use in the header.
I kind like the variety of transitions, but I do understand where you’re coming from. Maybe I’ll pick 2 or 3 to alternate, rather than having the whole range of them.
And I hadn’t thought about a link, but that may be possible too. I saw something asking for a link, so maybe that’s what it is. Will check.
This is very helpful! And yes, I think we should all post notes about major site changes if we want feedback. It helps to have fresh eyes on our stuff, especially when we’re spending sooooo much time creating these sites.
As we say here in New Mexico: ¡Muchas gracias!
I brought your site up on my samsung pad and it looks great.
@shotupdave wrote:
I brought your site up on my samsung pad and it looks great.
Wow, Dave, I really am glad to hear it looks good on your tablet. Thanks so much for the upbeat feedback!
Followup on my LayerSlider WP home-page endeavors…
I took jsnover’s advice on three things:
Now, the slides all have the same transition pattern. They “slice into segments and tumble forward in sequence”. I discovered how to pick one as opposed to the whole range of 100 patterns, and it is nicer looking. Plus, it’s easy to change to a different pattern from time to time if I want to do that. Like everything else, this plugin has a learning curve. It takes a while to figure out how to control the many bells and whistles.
There’s now a link from each of the 7 slides to its image page, so those are easy to find if somebody wishes to.
The font used on the slide better matches my header now. It’s not perfect (still 2 different kinds of g) but otherwise it’s closer.
Overall, I think it does look better. Less frenetic (for lack of a better word). I did keep the variety of text movements, because their comings and goings seem to add interest. 🙂
Thank you, jsnover, for the great suggestions. And if you want to check it out again and give me another round of feedback, please know that I welcome that!
And further feedback from others is welcome too.
Martha,
I have to agree with Joann’s take that your slide show was too busy when I first looked at it, and she beat me to the critique.
I just went in and looked at the new version and I still think there’s too much going on.
I’m not a fan of using transitions. It’s about the images not the slideshow.
(I just use a fade-in on my site).
With the type coming and going in all directions yours is still very busy with the transition you’ve chosen.It takes about 45 seconds to cycle through your whole whole Slideshow. Much too long.
Mine comes in at about 12 seconds for 4 slides.
Virtually nobody is going to sit there to watch that if they are there to buy images.
You should try to condense it some.
You need to get the message across faster.Also you still have too many type styles between the header, logo, slideshow and body copy.
Feel free to take a crack at my site as well.
(it’s not looking good on mobile devices – hope Leo addresses that soon).
And I need to get the Recently Added widget and the 3 images below centered.Steve
Steve
http://www.softlightstock.comThanks, Steve! I sincerely appreciate the critique and suggestions and will keep plugging away on this.
Just too many candies in that “LayerSlides” jar, methinks. 🙂
Further update 🙂
So, now…
The image transitions are simply fades. No slice-and-dice tumbling photo sections anywhere.
The text slides in and out the same way, right to left. Without exception.
The timing is speeded up. Both image and text move faster than before.
Only issue not yet tackled is the variety of fonts. Mañana. Maybe.
I like the improvements to this point. Much cleaner.
Steve, jsnover, and all, thanks again for your helpful suggestions. I welcome further input if you’d like to give it.
Looks much better – good job.
Steve
Steve
http://www.softlightstock.comThanks, Steve.
And I continue to tweak. The font size is smaller now and the text is simpler.
It looks really good Martha
Latest update:
I’ve grown to like the simpler slide show that I finally ended up with so much that I’ve created two more. Now there are three that can rotate on my home page.
It’s easy to switch from one to another in edit mode, so if I want a different slide show every day, I can make that happen in a flash.
I’d love to have input on whether alternating slide shows on a daily basis is good to avoid boring repeat visitors, or if there’s some downside I’m not seeing.
SS #2 is currently running on my site, if anybody wants to check it out. 🙂
The forum ‘Archives’ is closed to new topics and replies.