Question: What was your main inspiration
behind completely redesigning your wedding photography website?
David Hill: Above all, I wanted to make my site unique, appealing, well coded, and easy to update. I had to avoid the pool of cookie-cutter, flash-plus-music websites plaguing the photo industry right now. If you think many photographer websites look the same, it's because they are: a small group of designers are reselling the same templates over and over again. The website had to have a journalistic feel, since my wedding style is photojournalistic. Finally, I wanted the design to push different types of information to the front, such as news blurbs and rave comments. So the new site has columns and elements that feel similar to a newspaper. My logo uses a courier font, and was purposely designed to invoke a journalistic tradition.
Question: What were the dissatisfactions your had with your old wedding photography website? What motivated the need for
change?
David Hill: I hand coded the old website entirely by myself, so it was unique and fun already, but it was not flexible or well coded. It was mostly black (artistic, right?) and relied on busted old coding tricks, like tons of nested tables, with just a little CSS magic to make me feel better about it. It was easy to break during updates, and the design was not versatile enough to feature information the way I wanted. I knew the type of web design I wanted, but not enough to do it, so I hired a designer.
Question: Could you elaborate on your design and branding study?
David Hill: Any commercial website's goal is not only to present great content, but to capture and hold the attention of potential clients so they actually care about it! Once that's done, you better convey what the brand is all about. The design branding study was the foundation for this initiative. My designer and I started with a discussion of my personal vision for the site. Then we evaluated many different potential logos, initially in black and white. After making that decision, we did a full color study with the final choices. During both phases, we tested concepts and colors against various individuals via standard marketing audience research. I had a strong bias towards green. We finally chose a color that I really liked without straying too far from my original preference.
Question: Any specific technical and design issues you plan to address with your new website?
David Hill: I needed the website to look good and consistent on a wide range of browsers and platforms. I wanted cleaner code for better content management, and search engine indexing. Most of all, I wanted to concentrate a wide range of information on my homepage. Many photographers test site visitors' patience by running a flash intro animation, but I'd rather cut to the chase. In today's fast-paced world of web surfing, you need to present rich content at the users' finger tips: fast, accurate, and upfront.
Question: What new techniques and compatibility standards did you have in mind for your new website?
David Hill: I wanted to incorporate JavaScript, CSS, and minimize the use of Flash. I wanted to have rotating photographs on my homepage done thorough pure JavaScript. I decided to use Flash for my photo galleries only: it protects your content to a degree. I didnt want the site to be heavily biased towards Internet Explorer. It had to be designed from a good web standards perspective. My target browser was Firefox. I also planned to develop a powerful and intuitive gallery management system.
Question: What's your take on the over popularity of artists creating purely Flash based websites?
David Hill: I see very few Flash sites that are original. I dont like the loading times. I am also not a fan of how Flash dominates the user experience with a non-standard interface. Flash designers often tend to satisfy their own needs for creativity, and leave the average users' needs behind. In addition, it's more difficult to design a Flash site that will be properly indexed by search engines.
Question: What website design limitations did you impose?
David Hill: My photography website is barely viewable at a resolution of 1024x768, which is still the common screen resolution. Its still viewable, but the viewing experience may be hindered depending on the users' toolbar setups. My goal for the photo gallery page was to completely fit within the 1024x768 screen resolution. In other words, I want the site to be as big as possible within a limit, like a suitcase on an airplane. I think too many people are designing very small sites to accommodate obsolete hardware, and it makes the pictures way too small on today's gigantic displays – have you seen the latest iMac? However, there are still some people using a lower screen resolution, and I may end up creating a smaller version of the website which only they would see.
Question: Do you see yourself incorporating Blogging, or other web technologies and trends?
David Hill: I'm working on a Blog concept now, but I dont think I want to Blog much about work, which is a popular practice. I already put plenty of content on my official site. Instead, I'm going to have a little fun with travel photos, daily life, and what I like to call "David Hill Classic" – things I shot on film in the pre-digital era, which I'm now running through my Nikon CoolScan. Look for Paris in 1995, New York in 2002, and some ridiculous snapshots I took in high school. I expect that I'll resist the urge for the Blog to take over my life, because I'd rather be working! I expect to have a Blog up sometime before Christmas, 2006.
Question: What advice can you offer other photographers preparing to redesign their websites?
David Hill: Try to learn as much as you can about web development. If someone tries to sell you something, you will have some perspective. You need to know what youre looking at, so youre not sold on something youll end up regretting. If you have to develop your site yourself, try to use the better development tools. If you have a budget, hire a professional web designer.
About David Hill
Based in Austin, Texas, David travels worldwide for photography assignments, including destinations such as Shanghai and Prague. David specializes in digital capture and has been shooting weddings digitally since 2003. In addition to weddings, David excels at all types of events, editorial, and various generalist assignments. David's corporate clients include Mazda, KCI, Ingram Micro, and the Sundance Channel. When he's not working, David enjoys bicycles, Ms Pac-Man, and the local film society.
You may directly access David's online Photography Bio, Wedding Photographer Portfolio, and Texas, TX Wedding Photojournalist Index. David's official photojournalist website featured in this interview is: AustinWeddingPhotographer.com
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