About to launch my new website... take a look

Load time for me is still 15 secs, and for me that's 10 secs too much.

I really don't understand why you have to have all that information on one page. You have six sections on that page, why not make a Home page and five extra pages and provide links to each from your navigation panel? You can expand from that as time goes on without affecting the site performance. If you expand using that scrolling format you have now, you'll eventually get back to your several minutes loading time.

You have to take all your potential customers into account. Check the site on all browsers, (desktop and mobile versions), check it in all resolutions, and never assume that everyone you want to reach is on a fast system or fast connection. Cater for the worst case scenario and everyone will fall into your net.

As to the "btw - I don't do commercial aerial photography... I just charge for production/editing, the raw video/photos are free," I don't know how gullible the US authorities are but that will never work in the UK or France. If you were a photo/video production business that (a) didn't own quadcopters and aerial photography gear and (b) provided services to one or more completely unconnected aerial photo businesses, then OK. But as you have it set up on that site, never in a month of Sundays. Just read your 'About Us' section and then look at the mention of Quadcopters littered about the rest of it.

You mention insurance in your post. As you're planning to operate in the most litigious country in the world, I take it that you have actually run this by your insurers and that you are going to be fully insured for commercial use?

Understand that I'm not trying to rain on your parade, I'm just giving you a professional opinion based on many years of experience in photography, web site development and business in general.

I admire your enthusiasm and, in fact, I plan on doing here exactly what you're planning to do there. However, I will do it strictly within my country's regulations, when I've obtained all the necessary qualifications, and when I'm properly insured.
 
the webpage loaded up almost instantly now.

As for "all the information on the front page" comments.

right now, it's the trendiest thing. I think its HTML5. I dont know. And the sections are just a shortcut to other parts of the page.
I think all the site needed was image optimization. Whatever change occurred, seemed to work.

As for design - I feel the text should have at least a 1pt black (or light gray) outline as a lot of the white text disappears into the brighter backgrounds, making it difficult to read.
 
dragonash said:
As for "all the information on the front page" comments right now, it's the trendiest thing.

It may be the trendiest thing but, for the business under discussion here, potential clients are going to cut across all age groups, and looking at a 'trendy' website isn't high on most people's priority list. Practicality is more important and ease of use is paramount. A soon as you click on those navigation links, the page scrolls and the links disappear and get replaced with unnamed dots. Trendy, but not user-friendly. And what happens when the OP gets lots of photos and videos to show as examples? Where are they going to go?

Once upon a time it was trendy to have music playing when you visited a site but it pissed off more people than it attracted so no-one does it anymore. Same applied to the landing page which said "Click here to Enter" - like putting a crash barrier across your shop doorway with a sign on it saying, "Climb over this if you want to spend money in here" :roll:

I suggest the OP takes a look at some of the top corporate sites; he'll see that multi-page sites are used because they work, even when using HTML5.
 
Peter Evans said:
dragonash said:
As for "all the information on the front page" comments right now, it's the trendiest thing.

It may be the trendiest thing but, for the business under discussion here, potential clients are going to cut across all age groups, and looking at a 'trendy' website isn't high on most people's priority list. Practicality is more important and ease of use is paramount. A soon as you click on those navigation links, the page scrolls and the links disappear and get replaced with unnamed dots. Trendy, but not user-friendly. And what happens when the OP gets lots of photos and videos to show as examples? Where are they going to go?

Once upon a time it was trendy to have music playing when you visited a site but it pissed off more people than it attracted so no-one does it anymore. Same applied to the landing page which said "Click here to Enter" - like putting a crash barrier across your shop doorway with a sign on it saying, "Climb over this if you want to spend money in here" :roll:

I suggest the OP takes a look at some of the top corporate sites; he'll see that multi-page sites are used because they work, even when using HTML5.

I see what you are saying, but I think the design for what he currently offers (since he is not a huge corporation) is fine the way it is. When he gets more clients and photos, he can always add a lightbox gallery or even redesign the site at that point in time. For now, with no clients and just being a startup, I like the "sell" of those big pictures showing shots you can only get using a quad.

And as for practicality, what is so complicated about this? It has a menu bar up on top like any other site, no long, mundane paragraphs of text, nothing that would make me want to leave the site. Ok, the menu bar turn into little dots. I agree, that should be changed. Why? People people are stupid. It's harsh, but its completely true. I don't think the entire site fails in practicality though.

So lets say I'm looking for aerial photography, ok..lets see the projects. Click on the link, the page scrolls down automatically and you are presented with his projects. Projects you can then click on and see the embedded video or pictures.

I dont see the difference in clicking a link, having a new page load and then going for another link.
For what he is doing (less words, more pictures), this layout makes perfect sense for the size of his new company for now.

I will say that the mobile portion of the site needs work. I cant scroll from the beginning and can only scroll after I select a menu option from the right side. That part fails for being user friendly.

But thats just me and my degree in digital design and interactive media talking ;p After all, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
 
Hasn't anyone seen this? The courts have ruled that the FAA can't declare commercial use of drones illegal. This was a pretty huge story on about March 7th this year stemming from the FAA fining someone for flying a drone over a campus full of students (pretty dumb) while on a hired shoot. The case was dismissed and he doesn't have to pay the fine.

http://www.dailytech.com/Court+Rule...es+10000+Fine+for+Drone+User/article34468.htm
 

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