I did a terrible thing. I spent over a month solidly working hard on the redesign of this website, comparing different things, and looking at things I can add in. I consulted and worked closley with Andrew Kennett and Sean Nicholls, the two consultants I had with me when redesigning the site structure. Even now, I have made little tweaks here and there to the sites backgrounds and images, partly for updating the system to make it faster for those that visit, and partly because certain elements didnt quite look right.
As you’ve seen from my previous news postings, I’m not fantastically happy with the overall site design & as I have said before, Pixeled did a wonderfull job of designing this template. Yet it still doesen’t ‘do it’ for me.
The terrible thing of course, was that I let users know that the website was changing, I even ran a survey, but I didn’t give anyone the opportunity to look at the prospective plans for the sites overall design.

Of course I took on board a great many comments, and indeed many of them have been acted upon. Yet everytime I look at this website, I feel slightly, underwhelmed. Photography content just isn’t there,
considering this website started as a ‘Photography’ site, and the overall layout, simply looks too much like a personal site.

I know that a great many people do like it, and find it has a good impact, yet even now I can see that the novelty of having a ‘Black on black’ template has worn off. I’m even tweeting this right now, to get a “Live” feedback of users impressions as they click and visit.
As a result, I have made a decision. One that I should have made before implementing this website. I’ve also come to a realisation. The website didn’t need a redesign as much as it needed a restructure.

The galleries are poor in comparison to other personal art sites, and I now have to wrestle with a decision to either simply ditch the blog or move it away, and keep the main site as a pure art gallery, something I
don’t want to do. Or restructure the focus of this site. It IS a personal site. Let me make that clear. True I offer services, but it is still my personal site. Yet there are things that have changed in my life.

Photography, although I still love it, and do it whenever I can, is not something I get to do often. As a result the site has been let down, and infrequently updated. Admittedly part of that is due to my poor choice of software for the old site. But even though the new site is 100% better and easier to update with new pictures. It just doesent sit at the forefront of my life. I work full time in IT. Not as a photographer
(although I would like to, despite having much to learn). Because of that I don’t get much time other than weekends to go and do some photography. Even on the weekends, I find I have a whole lot more to do than I normally plan. So I don’t get much time.
Blogging however, has become a new favorite of mine. I’ve tried it before with limited success, but as I’ve grown over the years and gotten older and wiser, I feel that I’ve matured a lot in what I have to say.
I’m enjoying writing a long blog, and sitting on the stats page watching the people flood in and read it. It’s nice to know that even though people do not comment as much as I would like them to (to quote one
example, 47 people were on a post for 35 mins before leaving, and not one commented) I get enormous satisfaction from knowing that someone is actually reading it, and maybe talking about it.

My focuses are changing a little, and right now I push the site as a photography art site. Which it hardly is. So I have made two decisions.

1: The site needs a better design. It’s black, yes, it’s smart in a sense yes. But it isn’t what I want. It looks ‘too’ personal, and not professional and clean enough. Or certainly not as I would have liked it. Yes, it is a personal site. But I don’t want something THAT personal, that looks like I threw it together. Especially when I start competing for jobs and people go and look at it.

2: A Restructure and cut down. The gallery is nice, but certain pictures have got to go. I’ve grown, and my photography has gotten better. I don’t feel the need to display poor pictures, and I feel that quality over quantity is what really counts. If I want to market my abilities, to work as a prospective designer or photographer, I need to show the good pictures, and focus mainly on those. But I also need to refocus this site as my personal world rather than just a photography site.
So this time, I really do need your comments more than ever. Ideas, structures, plans, suggestions. You name it. It’s going to help.
This post is being tweeted out automatically. So I ask if anyone did look at this from twitter. Please comment, or tweet back. A few words will help make those decisions. And It’s going to make this site better, rather than make me look foolish.

I apologise for the long post, but this time, I need you. I am sticking with wordpress, as it’s serving me very well. But This time. I want your input. Link me to things, comment on ideas, make ideas suggestions,
even bad points. It’s all going to help.
Remember if you don’t like using your email address in comments, just put admin@thelongmile.net instead.

Thanks

Thanks