Need *LOTS* of Feedback on an Author Website
Added 2021-04-25 06:23:10 +0000 UTCHey all,
I need your help.
Recently, I put together an author website for Saint Limey and I'm in dire need of a TON of feedback on how easy it is to use, what links work, expectations that are not met/met well/exceeded, etc. As you all know, I have a bunch of stories that I (or a trusted friend who is yet to be decided) need to have uploaded, and a lot more refining as far as design. I basically had to make all the elements myself because, well, ain't nobody got money to pay a graphic designer OR a website making person :D
But the goal is function: getting people to the stories, to my socials, and to the support page. I do, eventually, want to migrate away from Deviant Art as my main place of posting as their policies make it harder and harder to be a story creator on their page. . .
Gripes with Deviant Art aside, please have a look at the website.
Comment below if there are issues you can think of that would need fixing before a wider audience gets a hold of the site. If you'd rather DM me your questions or concerns, that's fine too.
Thank you guys :)
Comments
My only goal for the gallery right now was getting the story and navigation on the site, so this is good advice to work on, thank you. The point about navigating through several hundred posts being difficult is something I hadn't thought enough about. And the side navigation was supposed to be retractable, but if I can't sort it out, I may go with top navigation? Who knows. I'll make notes of these suggestions and slowly begin to roll out changes. Do you mind if I message you about progress based on your feedback?
Saint Limey
2021-04-26 11:22:05 +0000 UTCThe gallery section seems like a mess right now with pics and text splattered in random locations. The patterns'll probably come out once more content is entered, but it looks bad right now. If each row is a style you're trying, I'm not sure I like any of them; they all seem inefficient with their space to the point it might be annoying to scroll past a lot of art when the gallery gets fuller. When reading a story, there's the site navigation tab on the left, then some dead space under the picture and local navigation buttons. It makes for a lot of dead space that pushes the text almost halfway across my browser. Can the pic and local navigation be moved above the story text, or can the site navigation tab be retractable? The width of the story text is fine (a too wide view is also bad), I just want it more centered in my screen. Also, previous/next chapter buttons at the top of chapters are useful. Navigating the site is easy and straight forward, but can you fit social links on the site navigation tab on the left? Seems like there's a lot of real estate over there. I viewed the site with Firefox on a laptop.
21515219
2021-04-26 08:11:09 +0000 UTC(( This has turned into a text wall that I wrote at 6:00 in the morning without coffee. Sorry if some of it doesn't make sense )) The main two issues I have with DA have to do with how my audience reaches my content. I greatly dislike how many hoops a person on the mobile app has to jump through to view a PDF file, especially when DA requires stories of a certain length to be PDFs WITH preview images that the writer has to find. 50% of my audience are mobile users, and I would like to be able to show them PDFs, gifs, mp4s, and other content without the need to follow a tutorial on where to find the pdf file and without needing to make my own thumbnails for each story. (I also dislike how typical text stories do not have the option of having their own thumbnail image, especially as deviantART increasingly favors visual creativity. Their site is more than capable of generating previews for text and images but not for files which adds an extra step in my creative process while not adding additional value for the consumer). Next are people outside of DA. Currently, a person has to confirm their age before they read a story of mine, which necessitates that they make a DA account. I don't want new readers to be punished for their curiosity by having to sign up for an account on a website they might not want anything to do with. There are enough accounts and passwords to remember. It's not worth having an extra barrier for people who are well-aware of the content they want to consume just because they are not yet inside the deviantART ecosystem. There's other stuff, too, like DA's copyright terms concerning art uploaded to their site (which are a little "art steal-y" if you read them), how they can remove content or deplatform a user (and have done so) if they deem the content as inapropriate, and their site's general unwillingness to play nice with other social media. I won't say that everything about deviantART is bad, but there is plenty wrong with it for me as a creator who cares how people consume my content to consider relocating. There is more to mention. But suffice it to say that having my own platform would eliminate many of my concerns, especially moving forward as my little community continues to grow.
Saint Limey
2021-04-25 11:40:01 +0000 UTCThe website seems simple and functional. As someone who doesn't follow DeviantArt's policy or it's changes I'm not aware of it's problems. What are your gripes with it?
Foundrycove
2021-04-25 09:36:09 +0000 UTC
