I thought we'd hear shrieking!
We didn’t say too much about our new home page with all the, erem, loud colors — but we were sure we’d hear about the hot pink, the green that clashes, the button that’s lighter pink than the rest…
But all we’ve heard is good so far… If you hate it tell us why!
The main thing we’re concerned with is does it work, as measured by the conversion % of people who click through from Google ads and then sign up. If the only real problem is to be ignored, doesn’t seem like we’ll have that problem.
Why are we the only photo sharing site with black pages?
Categories: Chris MacAskill, Site design
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Alright…I’ll be the one….I think it sucks. The hot colors remind of the 80′s, the layout is still awkward and not user-friendly, and the logo….well, no comment on the logo.
I still love you guys, but I gotta say: the look of the homepage would NOT entice me if I didn’t already think you were great. In fact, I would probably be quite turned off. Look at Flickr! Their homepage rocks compared to smugmug. They’re your competition right? I mean, I know they are a bit of a different animal, but even the others that you are competing with have nicer looking homepages.
And why are you the only ones with black background??? Maybe because it’s intimidating and sometimes scary-looking and everyone else has figured that out already??? it doesn’t feel open and light and fun. It feels serious and, well, dark!
I’m not just trying to be a jerk. But you did ask for feedback. : ) And I, like many of your users, DO care about design. It changes everything. Smugmug, with a kick-ass design, would be unstoppable!!
oops. sorry about the broken link thing above. (wipes egg from face….)
I second Ben’s comment. The black is all that.
I know it creates a unique identity in an ever becoming crowded field, but it doesn’t mean you’d need to shoot yourself in the foot.
I also agree with the flicker point. Their home page is better than smumug, in that they have a clear user path to their most significant button. I think there are better sites out there, but for now, if you copy some of their logic behind their design you’ll leapfrog the cyberspace Christmas tree
Sorry, Chris. Just being honest.
Salim
Yikes, there is way too much color your new home page. But that doesn’t mean flickr’s pages are better. Either way, it doesn’t matter since I am a die hard fan of smugmug but as Ben says, one would pause a bit before enrolling.
LIKES! What happened guys! I am a dyed in the wool Smug Mugger, but those colour clash me out. From an vision point of view, never mix green with red (or pink). They are at two different frequencies and the eye has to constantly refocus (you can actually feel this when you shift from the pink to the green). They look awful together, partly for this reason. The new colour lacks the sophistication fo the old scheme, and is not up to the image it is aiming for with the black background (which I like BTW). My advice, stick with a simple colour scheme, with variants of two complementary primary colours only…and not pink (or red!) and green! Maybe pay a colour psychologist a day’s consultancy?!
Whoa!!! …and OH NO!!!
I am going with what Steve said, it lacks sophistication. I like that you are experimenting with color .. but keep trying…please!
As far as the black background, when I first joined, I was taken aback but I have gotten used to it and now I like it. Just my 2 cents
I think you guys would be wise to take Steve’s suggestion and HIRE SOMEBODY. You have a great service, features galore, great printing, and lots in works (obviously)…But seriously, and I say this without even a hint of mean-spiritedness, you’ve GOT to get a better design.
People today are conditioned to appreciate good design. Why do you think Target has spent millions updating their entire look by hiring good designers and emphasizing design as a MAJOR selling point. People are attracted to good design. Period.
And like Steve said, some of it is purely scientific. Certain color schemes do not work. It’s color theory 101.
I too, am a dyed-in-the-wool smugmugger. To date, I’ve enlisted numerous friends. So don’t mistake me for a flamer here. I won’t belabour the point. You asked, we are responding. : )
• Get a new logo.
• Get a good design.
• Rule the online photo service world.
Great feedback so far. Thanks for being bold and keep it up! We’re listening.
A little more feedback for the curious: the design was done by a prominent San Francisco agency with a lot of blue chip accounts (that doesn’t make them right or mean the design necessarily works). The designer in charge has a Masters in graphic design from London’s Royal College of Art, served for years as Virgin’s brand manager blah blah.
Since we can’t decorate our page with a brand like Kodak or Sony, we have to take on the mantra of “be different or be damned” like Harley, Virgin, Apple, etc. (We were afraid of standing accused of using iPod’s colors that they use in their TV ads and posters.)
To be successful, we knew and the agency said it had to be controversial and avoid getting lost in a sea of sameness.
We know from the numbers that Shutterfly and Kodak’s pages are working to attract the demographic they seek (soccer moms). Flickr wasn’t able to attract paying customers enough to avoid running out of money and selling cheap to Yahoo, our worst nightmare.
The intent of this isn’t to defend because we don’t know yet how successful/unsuccessful it is. We want to thoroughly understand why those who hate it do, whether they’re part of a demographic we seek, and give you the most info about our objectives as we can.
Thanks,
Chris
smugmug
(By the way, the agency didn’t design the logo and they think it’s limiting.)
To let you know where I come from:
I use blogger and flickr quite a bit. And come from a marketing background. End 20s.
Here is my feedback:
1. I love the black. Its hip. Its cool.
2. Colors on website: Pink and green would actually be diff and fun (I can see though how ppl dont like it). Yet 3 colors is too much: Blue, pink AND GREEN. PLUS its cluttered. Its totally overwhelming. Dont know where to look. I think the middle part is all the information ppl need on the first glimpse. If they are intersted they will be willing to enter the site.
3. Logo: Doesnt seem too professional, but its likeable/congenial/friendly (sorry, not a Native speaker, but I hope you know what I mean) & seems fun. It all depends on your target group.
Question: Did you just change the website or also the marketing activities? Did the number of members increase since you changed it? (hmm, probably thats confidential, was just curious
Not sure if this helped, but had the feeling to let you know that its not really THAT bad. And I still like the black
I really do love that we have a more up to date style on the main page, but I have to agree with the majority, specifically that the three colors is two much. I think two would be much better. Personally I would stick with the blue and green and ditch the pink. I also have to agree that it is a bit confusing when you first load that page in not knowing exactly where smugmug wants your eyes to be drawn to. And yeah, I also agree with Jen’s cluttered point. Not overly cluttered, but it is a bit cluttered.
I love the black, ignore everyone else, that’s a good unique point.
I do though also agree that the smugmug logo is a bit limiting. I really enjoy and it makes me smile when I load a page on firefox and that smily shows up next to the page title when I have tabs up… but as for the main page, there isn’t a whole lot one can do with it. I think you should poll Dgrin about the logo personally.
Idea– if you ever want a new logo- perhaps you could have some of the more artistic photographers do a shoot off contest?
I love the new header though
The black makes the pictures stand out. I noticed this first on my black refrigerator. We were pretty much forced into black in our kitchen by the previous owners. They had an old and busted almond refrig (eew) and so we replaced it with a new hotness black refrigerator. When we put up our (tons of) magnets and pictures, they really stood out more, the colors were much better. Now, I think black is actually more harsh than what I’m going for which is why my site is grey. It’s kind of an all attention goes to the photos thing for me. Anyhoo… Black is good for most people I think and besides the web needs another white website like a fish needs a basketball.
The design is loud. If that was the goal, then first rate job mates! Anyhow, how can I possibly be mad since I’ve seen a crapload of hits from my free advertisement on there.:D I don’t really get it when people are so put off by loud designs.
The SM logo is another thing entirely. I don’t like it, I never did. It seems like something that would be on some person’s blog. It’s not particularly attractive or memorable. The cutesy comic-sans-ish font is way overused and frankly looks unprofessional. Now, I’m not marketeer, but that’s generally not the reaction one is looking for from the one visual element most people will ever see. Let’s see here, I need to host my pictures so everyone can see them. Hmmm, this flicker thing looks interesting and professional. Huh, this pBase thing seems pretty cool. What’s this little happy face thing? They must not take themselves seriously. Just providing feedback.
Interesting note: The only reason I know about smugmug is because of the story of the pictures of the Navy SEALs who were abusing detainees that were posted by a SM member. What ever came of that? Did you guys see an increase in traffic after that? It was kind of a big deal at the time I remember.
You know the more I think about it, I have to agree with Mike Lane above. I can live with the loud homepage. If loud is your thing, then great, be loud. I concur with Mike–It’s really more about the logo than anything. Even the look of these blog pages is great. The two-toned black, the simple grey header. It works. I think it’s really that logo that I just can’t get over.
Here’s my disclaimer: I am a graphic designer too–albeit NOoowhere near as credentialed as your London-schooled Virgin brand guy/gal. I have deep respect for people who operate at that level, so I did not intend to demean their work or come off as pretentious. I guess I’m like most designer/creative types–if you ask for my opinion, you’ll get an ear-full! : )
What about a dGrin contest? I know it may make you look a little less “put-together” and may piss off your design firm, but why not give all the creative people over there a crack at the logo–with no guarantees of course, you can take them or leave them. Just a thought. Or better yet, just turn your London person loose on it–I’m sure it would be awesome!
Again, let me state my deep appreciation for smugmug and the AMAZINGLY WONDERFULLY great people who work there. You guys rock.
Ben
Yet another opinion from a dedicated smugger:
I saw the new homepage ans thought “WTF!! This is awfull and looks unprofessional”. Sorry… get rid of that agency. Black was simple sofisticated, and yet it felt cosy due to the nice logo (yes , I like it!). I had no doubt in enrolling with Smugmug because I felt, these are professional , independent yet reliable guys. The new page looks like it was designed by my someone who is 60 and is trying frontpage for the first time. The same happens with the login page… what happened to that? It looks like you lost your code and are using an emergency solution!!!
I don’t get it. But I still love you
(probably an inheritage of when you were simple, black, beautifull, self confidente and weren’t hearing crap from agencies 
It seems to me the decisions around format and design depend on the target audience. What is smugmug trying to be? From Chris’ comments above, I assume the target audience is not soccer moms.
White to me says amateur photographer – light, fun, airy. Black to me says professional/serious photographer. Black makes the photos really stand out. There are plenty of photo sharing sites out there for the amateur crowd – and that’s what makes smugmug different, right? I used to associate black with porn websites, but now I would be very upset if smugmug’s black format went away.
So if smugmug is trying to appeal to the more professional/less amateur audience, then you have to ask yourself if the logo and homepage format align with that goal.
The very name smugmug is not a serious/professional moniker. However, it is catchy. In the world of website names, the last thing you want is a boring, forgettable name. And smugmug satisfies the goal of sticking in your head. The logo, while not terribly professional, seems to be well paired with the name of smugmug. For better or worse, the name and logo both have a cutesy flair to them. For me, the best thing about the logo is that it is small and relatively unobtrusive (even better before without the green).
And now for the new home page … hmmm. First impression is that there are too many colors being used (the pink especially). The new homepage seems to complement the logo – but again, doesn’t seem to align very well with the goal of reaching a more professional/serious target audience.
If my original assumption about smugmug’s target audience is all wrong, then you can disregard all my comments and go ask a soccer mom what she prefers.
… and one more small point about color. The old smugmug format used red for some of the hypertext highlights. The new format uses a combination of white, gray, cyan, and blue for various hypertext. While I haven’t figured out your rationale for when you use different hypertext colors and underlining, it seems to work well. It is generally much nicer – the red hypertext was pretty garish – kudos.
These are really great comments and they mean a lot to us, especially coming from names like Blotto, who is user #207 at Smugmug (the first 100 were free beta accounts), Salim, who has given us invaluable advice over the past year, etc.
To answer a few questions, yes, sales did rise after the home page change was made by about 6%. But who knows, that could be the summer rush, or because our previous home page wasn’t the best it could be, or even statistical fluctuation. The real number we’re watching like a hawk is the conversion rate when someone who hasn’t heard of Smugmug clicks on a Google ad.
Referrals from customers seem to convert no matter what the home page is because they heard about us from a friend.
75% of our customers are standard users and they fall into three main categories: families, travelers, and hobbyist photographers. The common theme is they really care about their photos and want them to look better online than they do at Kodak or Flickr.
Kodak gets people who just want no-frills, easy as can be get me my Kodak prints. Flickr gets people who are into social networks.
The hot pink seems to be the hot button… Here’s feedback from an older woman fyi:
I’m at the library. Most of the sites a person would look at here are rather bland. The library catalog with its gray-blues and its whites. Yahoo! Comcast.net’s mail page.
But when a person gets to smugmug, it’s cheery. It seems to pop up on the page more quickly that those other bureaucratic-feeling sites.
Smugmug, though, sits right in the middle of the page and smiles at one. By that I mean that the picture on the upper left for the basic accounts causes me to smile back at it.The notation Kick-Ass also makes me smile.
I’m under fluorescent lights, though. The pink looks too bright – the pink in the boxes. Free trial. Learn more. Rather a knock-my-eyeballs-out pink is how it feels. Of course… it could just be me, but it feels out-of-sync with the rest of the page as I see it here.
So… if a girl wants to smile, she can always go to smugmug’s page, but she had better watch out for those pinks!
“The main thing we are concerned with is does it work, as measured by the conversion % of people who click through from Google ads and then sign up”.
Keep changing it!
Only the prospective customer has the answer to the conversion rate question. The only mechanism for drawing that answer out is to continually test. The more you test and measure the quicker the answer will appear.
Keep changing it and good luck!
I hate the color as well. Black is the way to go. Stay true to your design. It’s clean, classic and brought a lot of users here.
I’m a programmer with an appreciation for functionality over prettiness (I like unix shells) but I’m not a fanatic: I like the black, it’s simple; the black also does go well with the photos and seems to give smugmug a community feeling rather than a heartless-corporation feeling because it’s different than most corporate pages. The way I see it, *really* professional web sites with crisp, institutional designs seem to come off as just plain marketting whereas smugmug with the loud colours, black background and carefree logo seem *real*; as if real people made them. I don’t get the feeling that some high level executive signed a deal with a large marketing company to make a hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars website; I feel like someone with better things to do (i.e. build a great photo-sharing site) put up a decent web site to enhance, but not overshadow a great service.
As for the home page, I don’t have much [good] experience with web design (applications yes, content no) but I think it manages to break things up, keep the eye wandering and highlight the free trial button. Is it risky? Yes. Am I scared away? No. Personally, if I’m looking for a photo sharing service I’m looking for features and cost, not how expensive the homepage looks.
Also, I enjoy seeing things change on Smugmug: keep changing! (for the better!)
About the logo: it’s been the same logo for as long as I can remember smugmug, it *is* smugmug as far as I can tell, it’s on every page, it’s in the url bar in any modern browser viewing the site, it’s next to every bookmark in my “cool photographers” folder. That simple little logo *is* the brand identy, not the home page, not the style of the albums. I get the feeling that this outside agency quite likely put some pressure on you to ditch it and go with something new… more power to y’all for saying “no.” as often as it took to get the point across to them.
I rarely ever see the home page, so I can’t say that my opinion counts for much. However, I just took a look and I think it looks fine.
My friends/family rarely ever see it as well, they usually start from a gallery URL that I send them.
So, what does our opinion matter? You really want to ask those new members who signed up after it changed.
But, I just take pictures and know little about marketing and graphics design.
I was a bit surprised by the loud home page also. Personally, I don’t like it, but as others have said I almost never navigate through it.
I originally found smugmug after reading articles about the various services, so I was attracted by the reputation, the services offered, and the FANTASTIC email support (that has only continued to impress me as I continue with the service).
I am the type to research the details rather than decide based on the ‘front page design’, so I don’t think that I would have stopped there, but if I simply stumbled across it… yes.. the pink is a bit loud.
Regarding ‘black’… this was one of the selling points for me. No cluttered mess to distract from the photos. Gives a very professional look. The main sales point for me was that I would pay a subscription rate and then have full control of my pictures.. no gimmicks. Smugmug met this exactly.
I am a bit concerned about the current direction of splashes of bright color in the standard galleries though. The green text, etc. I understand that this can be modified with a Power or Pro account, but it is not simple. The more that I use the system, I do see where it would be nice to assign different color schemes to different galleries though. In other words, something in between ‘default’ and ‘infinite customization if you understand stylesheets and defining colors with the appropriate hex value. Some people like ‘boring’, some like ‘loud’. Some want different choices for each gallery (selected with ease).
Bottomline:
I believe that Smugmug is still, by far, the ultimate photo site. The improvements continue to be excellent, and thanks for continuing to truly listen to the user’s input.
I am impartial to the new homepage. Not having seen the old, I can’t compare, but I think this new one is acceptable. It sure stands out, the more so with a black background (But, they say, white backgrounds are soo trendy! I reply that this is not a book.) I would subdue one of the colors, though, or get rid of one column (probably the third), to make the page less chaotic. The loud colors are good, but then you should reduce complexity in other parts, like layout.
And about the logo – it annoyed me at first, seeing that it’s Comic Sans or so, and it doesn’t really look too professional, but then I saw that as a plus – it’s a touch of personality in a bland dot-com world.
The white text on black background makes it much harder for many people to read. If you’d like to compare this with black text on a white background, you can use the “Zap Colors” bookmarklet that’s found here: http://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/zap.html
I’m color blind, and thought the new homepage looked ok. Not a strong endorsement, but there are probably 5-10% of your customers who are like me. Just curious — what’s your click-through data telling you about the change?
In general, I like the black-backgrounds and agree that they make the site look more professional and help the photos “pop” off the page.
The logo and name aren’t perfect, but you’ve got some brand equity and name recognition with your customers already, so switching them both probably wouldn’t make sense. Evolving the logo is the easier of the two, and should probably happen with continued evolution of the look of the site.
Keep up the good work — it’s a fantastic service!
Just my $0.02.
Chris P
And the conversion rate is… (drum roll… I knew I’d be able to announce good news, that it was better than before…)
Unchanged.
It seems to have gone from a, “Eh. A home page.” experience to a love-it hate-it experience with no net gain or loss.
Another interpretation could be that the home page isn’t the key to conversions, the pages with more info are.
Re-test.
Reading the opinions in the other posts I wonder what some open sourced designs would like…?
BTW the tag line is very sensationally transferrable!
Good for smugmug!
I think the black background is beautiful, and makes photos shine individually. Plus, it makes you guys unique from the rest, I say keep it for sure.
Anonymous Says:
November 27th, 2005 at 4:56 pm
I think the black background is beautiful, and makes photos shine individually. Plus, it makes you guys unique from the rest, I say keep it for sure. —->
Very Pragmatic! completely her(its) support
> …. The white text on black background makes it much harder for many people to read.
I Agree … =(((
B&W design …. Its Coooool! =) Speshial for Monochrome Monitors =)))
Sorry to weigh in on this so late. I just subscribed to SmugMug last month, NOT because of the look of the site (It just might have scared me away!), but because I was disappointed in Flickr and did more research that I should have done in the first place.
Colors don’t bother me much, but I really have mixed feelings on the black page background. Makes reading text more difficult – no doubt about that. But black does show the photos much better. There is probably a way to have just the photos on a black background and have most of the text on a lighter background, though I’m not certain how to accomplish that.
Either way, it didn’t draw me to look harder and subscribe, but then again it also didn’t stop me from subscribing. As long as your “word of mouth” reputation is pristine – as it is – your colors won’t hurt you much. Though a nicer looking home page and general site theme and logo might draw a little more traffic.
Thanks for asking!
J-Mac
The homepage has changed by now, so nothing to discuss there…
On black backgrounds, I’ve typically hated them on websites, … BUT… I’ve found that I really like them for photos. They help frame photos and make the colors stand out, drawing attention to the photo more than white seem to (IMO).
So, I know I can change to other themes, but so far my 2 SM sites both stick with the black.