Sunday, November 25, 2012

Your feedback is welcome!

When I first built annestahl.com to showcase my artwork online in 1998 it was a boxy, table based layout with no use of CSS or Javascript - just plain old HTML. Little did I know in 1998 that this simple attempt to show my work to a broader audience, would provide me with a side career that would enable me to work independently as an artist, because I could always find well paid part time work.
However, years have passed, and I have built or assisted in the build of hundreds of websites, many of which were very high profile (e.g. apple.com), but the most I did to my own website was to remove the table basis and add a lightbox script - which I integrated bit by bit or painting by painting. The design has not really changed since 1998 - and it's not much of a design to begin with. Now, towards the end of 2012, with HTML5 and CSS3 in full sail, with more and more users on mobile devices, and mobile no longer meaning 'cell phone', it's just hard to look at my own website - which is not responsive, and which really doesn't show my artwork off as well as it could.
Screenshot of current homepage
I've resisted the temptation to renew my website frequently, because I know only too well, how time consuming a good redesign will be, because my users have always given me good feedback for even the current layout and design, and - perhaps most importantly - because I simply do not have the spare time to do it. Having built several art and photography portfolio websites, I've become painfully aware of the overwhelming variety of website available for artists that are 'ready to use' or somehow template based, like WordPress themes or Portfolio builders (like Squarespaces.com). But being a front-end developer I want to find the balance between building something from scratch while not reinventing the wheel.
For all my artists friends out there, I will post what I find here.
In the meantime, I would really appreciate everyone who reads this blog or visits my website, to share their feedback about the site. What do you like about the site? What features should absolutely stay? What could be improved? How do you currently view the site? Are you finding what you're looking for easily? Any suggestions, comments, ideas, etc...?

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