Online Portfolio Critique

[design-is]

Hi all!

Could I have some comments on my new portfolio site. Its been due an update and I finally have motivation for doing it... Still need to add work to it and update the copy, but not got that far yet.

Positive and negative comments all welcome!

But please, keep criticism constructive.

Thanks in advance

www.design-is.co.uk

 

[shecky]

took me 2 minutes to find the navigation.

no larger images makes all your work look like multicolor blobs.

 

[Jeremy1026]

Hi all!

Could I have some comments on my new portfolio site. Its been due an update and I finally have motivation for doing it... Still need to add work to it and update the copy, but not got that far yet.

Positive and negative comments all welcome!

But please, keep criticism constructive.

Thanks in advance

www.design-is.co.uk

It's very artsy. I haven't seen a site that uses side-scrolling as the only scrolling method. I liked that, separates your site from the rest. The content it read-able. The only things I don't like is that the images are kind of small to see in their current resolution, possible link/pop-up to show a higher res of your work? And the navigation, a bit hidden, took a few dead clicks to find it.

 

[design-is]

Thanks for feedback

I need to work on the images, they are currently grabbed from a previous version of my site and need playing with a bit - so point well made.

Kinda hoping to keep them quite small though, so if an agency likes it, they will get me in for a closer look & to discuss... Bad idea?

Is navigation really hard to find? Would lighter text help, or should I simply introduce a secondary navigation feature? I was originally going to include visual links going up the black bar on the left.

Thanks & more comments very welcome from everyone!

 

[Jeremy1026]

Thanks for feedback

I need to work on the images, they are currently grabbed from a previous version of my site and need playing with a bit - so point well made.

Kinda hoping to keep them quite small though, so if an agency likes it, they will get me in for a closer look & to discuss... Bad idea?

Is navigation really hard to find? Would lighter text help, or should I simply introduce a secondary navigation feature? I was originally going to include visual links going up the black bar on the left.

Thanks & more comments very welcome from everyone!

As for the navigation, maybe center it, and drop it a line or two off the top of the page, it blended into my tab bar too easily.

 

[Hankster]

When I began designing and developing sites in 1999 I saw a prototype site with the horizontal scrolling. The design never took off, but these days I wouldn't be surprise if this type of navigational scheme may hit the web again.

Your site is clean, easy to read, and has a straight forward navigation scheme. One comment I have is on the format of the content, there doesn't seem to have organization. Even a thin gray line separating your content would help break each content type out.

 

[angelwatt]

• Navigation could use a larger font size and more contrast. Also the hover color makes it even harder to read.
• Content text is very small to me.
• Seems to be an excessive amount of white space. It feels like a lot of stuff didn't load.
• Links are very hard to distinguish in the content. You should use an underline or provide a different color. The slight contrast you're currently using isn't enough.
• There are a number of validation errors, but I realize you're still putting things together so just remember to check that as you get closer to completion.
• I'm not a fan of the horizontal scrolling since the mouse wheel doesn't work that direction. People are lazy, a number of them won't take the effort to scroll horizontally.
• Remember to provide the alt attribute to images. Such information is picked up by search engines, and makes the site more accessible.

 

[ezekielrage_99]

Ummmm it's just one page....

I would call it a portfolio just a simple page with welcome, news and some hyperlinks to web sites you haven't created.... There was one link to 2 poster, that was it

As portfolios go I would AT LEAST add a CV page, links to stuff you've created, a contact page and about....

One home page is does not make a web site portfolio.....

 

[angelwatt]

Ummmm it's just one page....

I would call it a portfolio just a simple page with welcome, news and some hyperlinks to web sites you haven't created.... There was one link to 2 poster, that was it

As portfolios go I would AT LEAST add a CV page, links to stuff you've created, a contact page and about....

One home page is does not make a web site portfolio.....

Navigation is at top left. Kind if hard to see as others have stated.

 

[ezekielrage_99]

Navigation is at top left. Kind if hard to see as others have stated.

Ummm ok, but if the navigation is that hard to find it isn't navigation it's "Where's Waldo"....

 

[Mr. Anderson]

I agree with the nav issue - its tough to find. One thing you have to remember is why are people going to your site and what are they looking for. You have to make it easy for first time visitors to find things.

If you like having the menu bar up top, put an image in with it so it doesn't blend in with the page - making it taller and showing it off.

This might be personal preference, but when I go looking at portfolios, I don't like to have to do a lot of scrolling. I prefer having it all on one window, not off the side where you have to go find things. Again, its back to making it obvious. Even if it means having a bunch of thumbs and then clicking on them to show a larger image. Think of it also in terms of expandability - what happens when you have 20 or more images to scroll through.

Other than that, I like the look.

D

 

[ChicoWeb]

I like the horizontal thing, it's getting trendy or whatever. BUT there is a ton of whitespace on my 30 inch display. Yah, nav is micro like other suggested and so forth. How are you going to do the blog? Keep going down? Might be outta place with the rest of your horizontal stuff, and to see a blog go left to right, might just be weird.

 

[design-is]

Thank you all so much for your advice/input!

It is very much appreciated I keep being pleasantly surprised how many people on this forum are willing to be genuinely helpful.

I'll work on suggestions/improvements and post again with an updated version in the future for updated comments.

Thanks again!

 

[pinktank]

the large type on the bottom is not working with me I'd try another font and play with letter spacing to abstact it a little