On developing the first version of liveBooks, we took the time to speak not only with photographers, but with people who hire photographers, to establish the primary objectives when creating a website intended to get photographers more work. Overwhelmingly, we heard that people hiring photographers want to see large, high-quality images that are easy to navigate; and the website design itself should serve the images and not distract from them. To make navigating images as intuitive as possible, we make every site with three portfolio navigation options: the thumbnail bar, the slideshow function, and the next/back arrows.

Over time we have also seen a trend toward implementing character and personality in subtle ways that help our clients communicate more about who they are to their market. We have many ways to accomplish this, from creative use of information pages to imbedded video highlighting the photographer as a person, and not a commodity. Please let your sales executive or designer know if this is a direction you would like to explore.