PhotoLinkage – Upload. Share. Link.

13 thoughts on “PhotoLinkage – Upload. Share. Link.”

1. 1. what do you think of the design of the homepage?
   I went to the website like the question asked. while looking at it I found that it was extremely organized. I liked how all the things that the people who sign up for this site are right there in rows and collumns for you to simply click on. This makes using this website very easy and simple that anybody should have no problem making their way around and figuring out how to use this photo site. some changed i would consider making are rearranging the boxes for people to click on. i think they are kind of random and it would make more sense if the things that go together were closer like the upload photos box should come first and rearrange photos second. I also think a bit more splash of color would do the trick to capture people eyes…maybe even a photograpg people will love as a faded background.
   2. click catagories. what do you think of our catagories? not enough catagories? what should be added?
   I went to click on the catagories box and it took a few seconds to realize it was not a botton at all. in fact the actual catagories button is at the top so my suggestion is to make the activities you can do on this site not look so much like boxes that you could click on it will frustrate people who do not notice the button in the upper right hand corner. after reaching my destination of catagories i looked through the variety of catagories to choose and I think it is the perfect amount it is definitely not too short and if there are too many catagories most of them wont be seen by people.
   3. what do you think of our register page? too much/too long?
   the register page is perfect their is not too much information for people to have to fill out. it is the bare minimum. websites with super long registrations are often boring and nobody would want to sign up for them after seeing what all you really have to do in order to be apart of that site.
   4. From what you have seen so far, would you sign up and upload and share photos? if not why?
   I actually would dign up for this site. its a cool spot to upload pictures and then you can share them with people all over the country Not only can you share with those people but you can also share with the popular sites like facebook and twitter. by being able to share with these sites will also make more people sign up for the site and upload there photos. I like finding pretty pictures and getting new ideas for photos to take of my own and places that would make beautiful pictures so i would sign up for this site.
   5. additional comments.
   Like i mentioned before i like that you can share these with other sites like facebook and twitter. I also like the idea of having a photo of the day and real people can vote for that photo it isnt just randomly selected like some websites do.

2. Visit https://www.PhotoLinkage.com. What do you think about the design of the homepage?
   I like that you have great picture designs but I wish there was were some “instruction” or some words to explain what  you site does and or how the process works. I like that you have a tag line but I don’t understand it, link me into one. What does the one mean? Even though I said I would like some words at the top of the page I must say that I like the simplicity of the layout of the page and the bright colors that it features. The categories are nice and neat and I like short homepages. I wonder what it different about the categories section being that feature it at the top of the page, as a tab, and with the rest of the items on the homepage. It would be nice to be to click on the items on the homepage to see how each function ties into photo linking. I tried to click on one of them and I was disappointed.
   Click Categories. What do you think of our category area? Not enough categories? What other categories should be added?
   I think that you have enough categories but you need to make sure all the pictures fit the category. I clicked on animals and found pics of people. I can only assume that people who signed up for your site uploaded these photos for people to see. I  must say that I am totally confused with you site with how it works. It seems that I will only understand fully when I sign up and I will be able to see the features on the homepage in action.
   What do you think of out register page? Too much/too long?
   The register page was quick and easy and I like that you had a box that stated that my account successfully activated. I see that you have a tab for a birth date so does your site have an age requirement?
   From the looks of what you have seen so far, would you sign up and upload and share photos? If no, why?
   I must say the I would be on the fence about signing up. The whole sight is a little vague. I feel like I have to do all the work to figure out how you site works.
   Any additional comments?
   I see that when you sign up there is a business and personal account but there is no mention as to what makes each one different. I think that you do yourself an injustice by not stating that you have more than one option. I clicked on the two the members on the site and there pages didn’t not look the same. Meaning, one person had a nice profile box and the other person just had pictures only. Is that something that is optional per account? Can a persona have a business and personal account? Can they be linked to the same email address? When I got ready to login I didn’t quit understand the text boxes to right on the box, “upload, share and get linked.” Is there anyway to leave a person’s profile information private? What does the PM stand for? If I deactivate my account will I be able to active it again or will I shut out of your site for good? Again I think that you site has great features but you really fail to describe how each works and thats where I get turned off. I would assume that people just understand how to work a social networking site because there are so many of them. I looked at the privacy tab and see why there was a difference in the profiles I mentioned before. I like that I could pick a design but it would nice to possibly have colors and pictures. That is an area where people can get very creative. I don’t understand why the color change to blue when you scroll over each tab. the color only seems to be used at the top of the page. It would be nice to see a more jazzed layout once a person logs in.

3. What do you think about the design of the homepage?
   I have to admit I’m not crazy about the design of the homepage. All these icons are kind of overwhelming and confusing. I tried clicking on them to see if any of them would have a pop-up window or link to a page with information, but none of them did. I’m left feeling that I have no way to learn about this site before I sign up. And why would I sign up if I know nothing about it?
    
   I see you have an FAQ link at the bottom. Why are you hiding this down here instead of displaying it more prominently in the navbar? This is the kind of page that would be useful to visitors who want to get a preview of your site…Ok, after reading this page, I can figure out that this is a site similar to Photobucket, Snapfish, and the like, where you can create albums and a profile and share photos with others. But while the FAQ looks useful for those who have decided to sign up, I think you really need another page that will sell your site, a page that will present what you have to offer and why visitors should join. You might call it “About,” “How It Works,” or “What Is PhotoLinkage?”
    
   Click Categories. What do you think of our category area? Not enough categories? What other categories should be added?
   I think you have a very nice selection of categories. Obviously, there aren’t that many photos in some of them yet, but of course your site is new. Can’t think of many additional categories. I think you covered everything most people take pictures of. “Architecture” maybe for people who like taking pictures of buildings and cities? “Business” or “Office” maybe for people who want to take pictures in the workplace?
    
   What do you think of out register page? Too much/too long?
   I don’t think it’s too long. The only thing that bothers me is that I’m being asked for my whole name and date of birth. I guess you’re modeling the site after Facebook in hopes that it will be some kind of social networking site for photography hobbyists and professionals? In any case, I don’t like giving out my full name online, which is one reason why I don’t use Facebook. And I would never give any site my real date of birth.
    
   From the looks of what you have seen so far, would you sign up and upload and share photos? If no, why?
   Just from what I’ve seen so far? No, because I don’t understand how your site is going to be more useful to me than any of the other more established image hosting and sharing sites. From reading your description here on StartUpLift, it looks to me like your unique selling point is your directory of professional photographers and possibly the ability to rearrange image order regardless of upload order. However, none of this would be clear to the first-time visitor at your site.
    
   Any additional comments?
   I decided to sign up anyway just to have a look around. The sign-up process was easy, although I didn’t love that after I joined, I had to sign in again anyway. I would’ve preferred the site to automatically sign me in upon joining.
    
   The dashboard looks simple enough to use. Not sure if I’m that fond of the purple and red color combo, but ok. The first thing I tried to do was upload a photo. This process was smooth all the way until I was about to click “Create” to save the photo to my first album. At that point, I got an error message: “Sorry for the inconvenience. We are experiencing some technical problem…” The message continued on from there. (By the way, it should be “technical problems,” plural.) I decided to try it one more time with a different picture. Nope, no cigar. Same thing happened. However, then I checked my profile page, and weirdly enough, there were the photos I uploaded! Strange. Speaking of the profile page, I was somewhat disappointed in this. I would’ve thought it would allow for much more detailed information about myself, my camera, my photography experience, and so on. I played around with the settings, and I liked that you offered a fair range of privacy controls, but one thing that was a bit annoying was that every time I saved a setting, I was taken back to my dashboard instead of back to the Settings page.
    
   Next, I checked out the Extras tab–more specifically, your directory and blog listing. Your directory is still very small, which is to be expected for a start-up, but what I didn’t understand was why the photographers listed didn’t seem to have PhotoLinkage accounts where I could view their work. Under the heading “PhotoLinkage Page” were the words “No Access” in both cases. Then, when I looked at your blog listings, I was surprised to find that these linked out of your site. I thought these were going to be blogs on your site’s platform.
    
   My overall feeling is that you might have a good concept here, but you’re not selling it to me. You need to redesign the homepage to reflect what your site is about and sell it to your target market. At this point, I’m not really sure who that is. Are you mostly aiming for professional photographers because you’re eventually going to charge them for a business account, or are all accounts free, in which case you want to target both pros and amateurs about equally? The answer to that question should determine how you design your homepage. At the very least, you should get rid of all the icons and use just a few simple images–maybe some photos scattered across a photo album page or a smiling person holding up a camera. Then you need to hire a copywriter who can come up with a nice tagline and write some simple selling points for your homepage. For instance, your selling points might read:
    
   –Create a profile and make friends with other photography enthusiasts
   –Upload your photos and rearrange them any time, any way you want
   –Get listed in our photographer directory or find the right photographer for you
   –Share your photo blog
   Etc.
    
   You might also consider creating a video or slide show for the homepage to introduce new users to the main features of your site.
    
   As I said before, you also need a more extensive navbar with an about page, a help page, and other informational pages. These informational pages should explain more fully what your site is and what it does. A copywriter could easily put that together for you, and you might use screenshots to assist. The idea is to give people a preview of what the site is like and convince them that it will be useful to them, even more useful than your competitors’ sites. Finally, if you’re planning on charging something for use, then you need to have a pricing page that will explain that and show users what they get at each level of service. On the other hand, if everything is free, then you need to emphasize that on the homepage because that’s a big draw.
    
   One more thing: Obviously, the site needs to be functioning correctly. Right now, it appears that you still have some glitches to work out with things like photo uploads and the photographer directory. You should make sure all that is ready to go before you launch.
    

4. What do you think about the design of the homepage?
   
   In my opinion, the homepage graphics are a little too basic for the year 2011.  I also feel that the size of the images when browsing on my internet explorer are a little large. I actually have to scroll down to view the last 3 images that you intend to display.  On the positive side, I do think that if you fix the size of the icons to allow all of them to be on one page, the website has something going for it.  I feel that if you wanted to use a photo storage website as a beginner, this would be a great layout.   I feel that the simple descriptions you have for each item will help the user navigatge the website without confusion.

   click catagories. what do you think of our catagories? not enough catagories? what should be added?
   
   I think the categories encompass all of the needs i would have if I was using the website to store/share/display photos online.  I would suggest adding a SLIDE SHOW icon which would display the photes in a presentation format. This would be useful for family/friends, etc.  I really like the fact that you have a THEME category, it is very nice for the uploader to be able to provide a grouping mechanism for different types of pics.

   What do you think of out register page? Too much/too long?

   I think the registration page is at par with other registration pages. You ask for just enough information for me to feel comfortable.

   From the looks of what you have seen so far, would you sign up and upload and share photos? If no, why?

   From what I have seen I would definately sign up to try the website as I am open to finding convenient ways to share images with loved ones and friends.  I feel that there is not enough information regarding picture privacy and ownership of pictures uploaded to the site. In this day and age, that is an important factor. I realize it is shown in the user agreement after signing up but I would prefer to be aware of this before registering.

   additional comments.

   Upon logging into the site, I found the graphics to be fairly basic and very elementary for a website that would be trying to retain users. I realize that it is not a graphic art website, but simple grahics lead me to believe the website is created/owned by young people or amatuers that don’t spend the time on making the website look professional.

5. Visit https://www.PhotoLinkage.com. What do you think about the design of the homepage?
   The homepage seems to be quite poor in information, design and impact. It is very simple, I will give you credit for that, but it’s not astouning, or even average in standard. You obviously used tables and added some pictures in it.
   You must have thought that you might make it seem organised, and as such put it into order to show the users that you can organise their photos. Afterall, photos are arranged in grids are they not? But what you did just does not seem to be very efficient in attracting interest. It is below average.
   You obviously gave a list of features that you offer, but you are not saying WHY I should use them? And HOW they are better than other website offering the same services. More details on how to improve it is given below, under “additional comments”.
    
   Click Categories. What do you think of our category area? Not enough categories? What other categories should be added?
   When you said “click on categories” I tried to click on the actual image under categories… I expected it to be a link to more details about your categories… Maybe change it so that it does?
   Why in the world is “Personal” under categories? The different members on your website should not have their name and display pictures under the category page. Categories should be only for categories… Unless if you consider “Personal” to be part of your photo database, I don’t think it is a wise idea though.
   I think that your categories should be in alphabetical order, to facilitate browsing. you got “Home” before “Family”.
   An expansion would be to add a search engine to browse the categories, as well as a separator in your category column. The top bit would be for most common used categories and the bottom bit would be for the rest, it would much better.
   I don’t know if you can do this, but it would be awesome if you can tag your photos into two categories. For example, I have a photo of my dog in my house and I want to tag it into “animal + home”.
    
   What do you think of out register page? Too much/too long?
   What is the difference between “personal” and “business” account? You should provide a link explaning the difference.
   Other than that, your registration page is standard, which is good. You are asking for basic information and do not go into more privacy details. Keep it like this, it is good as is.
   You should add another button – “Cancel”, if I decide to change my mind, a cancel button is always nice to see.
    
   From the looks of what you have seen so far, would you sign up and upload and share photos? If no, why?
   No I wouldn’t if I wanted to share my photos, I would prefer to upload them onto facebook. Only my friends can see it if I so do wish, and I already got all my contacts there. In your “privacy policy”, you state that my photos are public property… I don’t find this very attractive.
   And as I said, you did not provide me with any unique features that your website provides, you did not explicitely say so anyway.
    
   Any additional comments?
    
   Back to your home page:
   From the features that you offer, I find a lot of useless ones. For example: categories (pretty obvious), rearrange photos (obvious), uploading (very obvious). It seems as though you struggled to get 9 features and just put those as “fillers”.
   They are so obvious that they make your website look stupid for stating it. Remove them.
    
   For the format, You should say WHY those features are important, and WHY I would need them. If you just state them like this, I don’t find any interest in them. It’s like I’m telling you ” If you join my accounting website, you get a free calculator”, yeah and so? I should be saying “Join my accounting website and earn a free calculator for easier management of your money”, now that’s better. I told you the freebie, and its purpose. You are missing this bit. The WHY.
    
   Also, it is not very interactive… Add something to make it more “active”. Maybe a section for latest photos? Or photos with best votes. Maybe the newest member? Or total amount of registered members? Just something to make the user feel that the website is working. You could add an image to show the user interface of your website after sign up as well.
    
   I also reckon that you can change that table into thumbnails, Making them smaller and providin more space to add other interesting elements.
    
   I would say though that I really like your logo and its colour!
    
   And with that, I hope that those feedback will be of good use to you. Good luck!

6.  

   Visit https://www.PhotoLinkage.com. What do you think about the design of the homepage?

   The homepage look simple and comfort. But when i first visit, i dont really get what this site is about. To make the site look more attractive and professional, I suggest that you can create a picture with a short description about your site above the boxes. All the boxes did show that what your site is about, but i think with a short description that state about what is your site purpose at the beginning will make it more complete as a professional site. All the icon in the boxes can’t be clicked, at first i thought i can click it and will link to other page about the categories in the boxes that i chosen. I suggest that you hyperlink every categories in your boxes into a page which explain what each of the icon is about instead of it can’t be clicked. This will bring more information to the visitor. 

   Click Categories. What do you think of our category area? Not enough categories? What other categories should be added?

   Your category area is good, which it include many aspects. The categories is enough. i suggest that you can add a sub category on each of the category so people can search it more specific. For example, Under the sports category, i can search for more specific which is football, basketball or any other sports. This will be more specific which people will feel more comfort instead of mix them all in one category. I like that when i click on a photo and i can view it in a bigger size and also i have the option to pick any other photo at the left hand side which it just load the image out within second. i suggest that you can add a search engine in the category field and also homepage so people can directly search for what they looking for. 
   

   What do you think of out register page? Too much/too long?

   Your registeration page is good enough which i think does not require any changes. It is easy, simple and also fast. 
   

   From the looks of what you have seen so far, would you sign up and upload and share photos? If no, why?

   For me no, because i dont really share any photo on the internet. But for people who like to share their photos, i think they would. As this site connect with various source of social network. This can be one of their useful site. In order to attract more members, i suggest you can state the purpose of your site, the benefits of your site, why people should sign for your site in the home page. So that it will caught some visitor mind. They will agree with you and sign it up. 
   

   Any additional comments?

   Your site layout is simple which i think is not attracting enough. I suggest that you can change your background color but keep the white color for the boxes part. And if you want to add description, add it above the boxes on a picture. Make your site have 2-3 different color in a page so that people will not feel empty about the page. Also, i did register for your site, and i think that the purple and red color line does not look nice. i suggest that you put the red line which contain the username and search engine at the top above menu bar which contain home, upload, etc. the process of uploading new photos was easy. Which i does not need to take many steps to upload a photo. The page look simple which is good because i dont feel it is hard to figure out how to use it. Overall, from 1-10mark, i would rate your site as 7, it is simple to use and the feature is great. just some minor problems and the design have to change a little in order to attract visitors to sign up. You can state something like sign up for free instead of only sign up. People will try it when they see free thing.
    

7. What do you think about the design of the homepage?

   To be honest your description at Start Up Lift was much better then the description given to me about your service on the homepage. Wait was there a description about what the website was about on the homepage, because if there was I missed it.  What I did see was what appeared to be  all these categories and didn’t know what this was all about.  Also these categories or boxes didn’t do anything, my first reaction was to think that I could click on one that will take me to that designated page which wasn’t the case at all.

   Click Categories. What do you think of our category area? Not enough categories? What other categories should be added?

   I guess it would depend on the categories you are referring to.  If you are referring to the ones under the top corner labeled categories I would say that these look nice, and are a way to separate the contents of the photos.  But what about the stuff that is listed on the home page such as Daily Photo, Blog connect, Sharing and Uploading.  When I go to the homepage it looks like you can just click on one of these and be brought to another page pertaining to these, yes you may need to be a member to access them.  As for the categories that are listed I think that you have covered most bases of what people would be looking for in the way of photo images.

   What do you think of out register page? Too much/too long?

   For the service you are offering I think your registration page is just about right and pretty simple to understand.  I have been on other websites where the registration process seems so long and sometimes confusing.  I think yours was well done and easy to understand..

   From the looks of what you have seen so far, would you sign up and upload and share photos? If no, why?

   To be honest if I came across this website while surfing the Internet, I would have to say no I wouldn’t sign up.  Why, because I wouldn’t know what it was about, as I said before your summary of Start Up Lift, told me more then your home page did.  You need to give more description about this website and your service, to entice individuals.  You have a great website, but your homepage doesn’t  represent this too well.

   Any additional comments?

   Work on your homepage, I think this website could be a great service, but in order to get their you have to get people to sign up.  Looking at the homepage, I don’t know what this is for, if its another social network, a blog or what.  As I said before you have a good product, it just needs to be represented better.  The homepage of any website can make or break that website, so its always key to make sure you grab people in with a great homepage.  Also, either get rid of the misleading boxes on the homepage, that look as if their links to a category or make them links, this is something else that would be appreciated by potential customers.

8. Visit https://www.PhotoLinkage.com. What do you think about the design of the homepage? I think it’s very creative.  It’s very appealing, easy on the eyes.  It’s colorful and it seems to have everything I may need within easy reach.
    
   Click Categories. What do you think of our category area? Not enough categories? What other categories should be added? It’s looking really good.  I am thinking that a category for Work/Money would be a great category to be added.  I would also suggest a Shopping category, as well as a Current Events/Weather category.
    
   What do you think of out register page? Too much/too long? The registration page looks to be short and to the point.  Very clear and concise.  I think it looks perfect.
    
   From the looks of what you have seen so far, would you sign up and upload and share photos? If no, why? I really think that I might.  I think it looks easy, fun and definitely inviting.  The process looks to be relatively painless.
    
   Any additional comments? When you put together a site like this, you are definitely going to need some moderating and even re-categorizing of the pictures.   I like the way it is looking right now, but I am thinking that your categories could be arranged in a little better format with categories and sub-categories.  I am going to recommend checking out Cafemom and looking at the way they set up their Answers categories.  I think that would be a great layout for your site.
    
   I also reviewed all your tabs.  The only thing I might recommend is a phone number in the Contact section as well as maybe a Help tab.

9. Visit https://www.PhotoLinkage.com. What do you think about the design of the homepage?

   The homepage is very clean, simple and uncluttered but maybe a little too simple. The small illustrations are great but I thought they were buttons, so I was a little disappointed when they weren’t. I think you need a small introduction on the home page or short video because I don’t fully understand what the site is about just by looking at the home page. Can I upload pictures of my own? Is it free? Is there an upload limit?. Even just this in nice bold writing across the top of the page would be better than nothing “PhotoLinkage is a photo sharing site that allows you to express yourself with your photos and connect with friends, family, and others. Free to join with unlimited uploads and unlimited albums.”  Also your logo didn’t stand out and I didn’t really understand your moto “link me into one”.  I think your navigation bar could be more of a feature also and more fancy as it is too simple at the moment.
    

   Click Categories. What do you think of our category area? Not enough categories? What other categories should be added?

   Again the navigation bar needs to be more of a feature or make the little illustrations in the boxes actual buttons. As my first initial reaction was to click on the categories box with the illustration but of course this isn’t a button. I think there are enough categories at the moment. But some of the pictures don’t match the categories, for example I clicked food and there was a picture of two people and no food in sight.
    

   What do you think of out register page? Too much/too long?

   No I think it’s fine, it’s nice, short and simple. It doesn’t require personal information that is not necessary so that is great.
    

   From the looks of what you have seen so far, would you sign up and upload and share photos? If no, why?

   No I wouldn’t right at the moment.  The site doesn’t look professional enough at present for me to trust it. Also your not selling me this site, why should I sign up to this site over other photo sharing sites already available?
    

   Any additional comments?

   I think you really need to improve the home page in order to sell this site and the idea.  Look through other photo sharing sites to gain ideas and see what level you need to attain, then try raise the bar. A think a short introduction video would be great.

10. · What do you think about the design of the homepage?
    · The homepage design is very simple easy to read. It is a very plain homepage.
    · Click Categories. What do you think of our category area? The category is very simple just like the site. Not enough categories? There are a lot of categories to choose from. What other categories should be added? I really don’t think there are anymore categories to add.
    · What do you think of out register page? Too much/too long? I think the register page is fine it typical register page not either too long or too much.
    · From the looks of what you have seen so far, would you sign up and upload and share photos? If no, why? I would like to sign up for it. It is a very simple site to navigate through.
    Any additional comments? I like the site. It is very simple not too hard to navigate through. I like that I like things simple. I am interested in your site.

11. $5 awarded to kybocskay.

12. $5 awarded to greatfeedback4u.

13. $5 awarded to H_game.

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