Preserved Topic: My first portfolio site (Page 1 of 1)

Take a look at my first portfolio site at www.haughtbk.com. I am seeking opinions about the color scheme and as to whether the site looks fine on everyone's machines ... and whatever all else you want to pick apart, of course.

I am job hunting right now and am referencing this site in my resumes. Honest opinions here (as if I would get any other kind), is the site adequate as a portfolio site? I wanted to get a bit fancier, but resorted to sticking with a general site design I was more familiar with because I am kinda tight on time; can't waste time goofing around with new things while my future is at stake here.

Thanks for you time ...

BeeKay
Murphy's 50 Laws of Combat Operations
14. Never share a foxhole with someone braver than you.
31. If it's stupid and it works, it ain't stupid.

Hey, I'm in RTP. Well I live in Mebane, but I work in the Park. Anyway, I just wanna say that if you're using this to graphically promote yourself for a graphic job...it lacks passion. I'm not gonna critique your site. I don't even have my own. Plenty of people will give you feedback here.

jeni, just because you dont have a website for the world to see, doesnt mean you cant know anything about design or what looks good and what doesnt.

on your splash page (blah, no one likes splash pages except for the people designing them), your links go "journalist, web design, desktop publishing", but on all your content pages, they go "web design, journalist, desktop publishing". shouldnt journalist be "journalism"? it just doesnt fit the other words, as they are job names, not job titles (bob is a web designer, he does web design).

the most important thing about making a portfolio type site is that it needs to be a reflection on your own style of doing things. you say in your design philosophy that you dont do "cookie cutter" webpages, but your example sites *do* look almost exactly the same. everything is white with "fall" shades of colors as accents (for the most part) that fit 640x480 and look microscopic in higher resolutions.

if youre going to just do the front/index page on your server, you should switch your links to href="#" so that people dont get a 404. i also recommend making the image showing what the site looks like into a link.

why the indents? web is not typesetting. it is widely accepted that there is *not* an indent at the beginning of a paragraph.

overall, the content is good, but the appearance is rather dull.

yum yum, powdered eggs...

------
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned

[This message has been edited by la'dsasha (edited 04-27-2001).]

Jeni: you visit sites, right? Well, then you have enough background to do a simple critique of a site regardless if you have your own site or not. What works or doesn't work for you as a visitor is valuable feedback. No passion? Yeah I guess I see what you mean.

la'dsasha: I got what I asked for eh? Using 'Journalism' and switching the links around to match are points well taken; I'll change those when I get the chance. My site is dull? Well, er, um, I guess so (do you feel the air rushing by as my ego deflates?). My main purpose right now was to get a site operational ASAP. I'll see if I can break my self-imposed design mold sometime in the near future. I am aware that my chances of obtaining a job could be hurt by my portfolio site being dull, but it is a risk I will have to take for the time being.

When I spoke of 'cookie-cutter' sites, I we referring to those sites designed by someone with Frontpage using the templates in the program to make money off of other poor saps. I at least do all the HTML and design myself and vary the navigation, graphics, etc. Maybe I'll just strike that particular paragraph since it didn't come across quite the way I had intended.

My definition of a splash page is those damn pages that have a worthless picture and say something about clicking on a link to enter the site ... I personally don't think my home page fits into that category. Am I totally off base with my thinking here ... any other opinions?

All your other points are well taken and appreciated. Thanks for the crit!


BeeKay
Murphy's 50 Laws of Combat Operations
14. Never share a foxhole with someone braver than you.
31. If it's stupid and it works, it ain't stupid.

hey bk.
pretty nice work there!
the first thing that bugged me was the whole "journalism" type thing... didnt gel. i think it would be a good idea to fix that - i dont see it as a problem, just an inconsistency that would distract the user from what is important. oh, and you could make it: "web designer, journalist, desktop publisher" as well. that would work fine, just gimme consistency!
another thing - i would look at setting out that online resume a little nicer.
if you claim to be a web designer, journalist, and destop publisher (and i dont doubt your claims), then back it up, buddy!
all that centred text, boring text, bulleted text, underlined-yet-not-hyperlinking text just aint screaming professionalism to me.
other than that - i really like the top menu stuff, the corresponding color schemes are really neat and attractive too.
again, its the body that is lacking - the text and picture layout is fairly ordinary. i really think you did get off to a great start with the colored titles being the color of the sections, but that's about where my love of this site ends.
as far as those preceding comments of your site lacking passion, of being dull in appearance, well - they do have a point. (heh, just saying this cause your deflating ego is the source of quite a pleasant breeze in the adjoining cell! )
BUT, i reckon that this is not one of those totally screwed sites, so dont be discouraged.
the navigation works, the writing seems good too, the way you have organised your information is really good for someone who is after your services, but the text layout is where the site fails.
i dunno what you can do here, sorry, i dont have the time to analyse it that closely, but maybe, for instance, you can layout those articles better - give us smaller bites, that entice us, instead of these large chunks that dissuade us form getting involved.
- and that award title just looks like an article subtitle - sell yourself baby! put it at the top, left, right or bottom of the article, dont cram it in the middle!
another quick thing - for a start, maybe try verdana text - at least its a neat sans-serif that aint arial!
oh, another consistency issue - there's horizontal lines between your desktop publishing items, why arent there any between the web design and journalism ones?
finally, a link to your resume could be a neat idea from the homepage, maybe just in that black bar. but again, make it a snazzy homepage worth linking to!
make sure you post up your next phase of development, if there are any makor changes - i would love to see them!


<edit> PS: text-based braphics *generally* look better as a GIF instead of a JPEG. </edit>

[This message has been edited by bunchapixels (edited 04-30-2001).]

Next phase of the site is up.
-- widened the site to 600px. probably still too small on some of your higher res screens, but better than the 525 I had it before.
-- Changed Journalist to Journalism.
-- Moved Journalism link on the top menu bar to the left to match the layout of the home page.
-- Totally changed the Journalism main page layout so as not to be so dull. I will slowly make the rest of the site fall into this design style also as I get the time.

Comments? Any better? On the right track?


BeeKay
Murphy's 50 Laws of Combat Operations
14. Never share a foxhole with someone braver than you.
31. If it's stupid and it works, it ain't stupid.

Hey beekay, nice job.

I personally like your site because of it's simplicity. Whiz-bang design is great and everything but sometimes it gets a bit overdone. As far as your main site, I can definitely see the journalistic influence.

The only suggestion for changes is to change some of the images (such as in the web design section) into links. It's just small bit of nitpicking to ease navigation.

Other than that, nice work.

I maintain my previous opinion, but want to add that you need to kern "don" in your name on the home page and on the other pages kern between the u and g. The spacing is making me miserable

It also bothers me that i can't click on the words at the top of the home page "journalism", etc. because I want to for some reason. Laziness I suppose.

[This message has been edited by Jeni (edited 05-03-2001).]

Given what's been said already, I'm in agreement with the idea that the links need to be clarified. I also want to punch the text at tthe top. Maybe using a different color for the text links in the red, blue, and green cells would help. NOt a bad effort for your first but it still needs some tweaking.

my humble opinion is 'sloppy'.. as in it does look like it was slapped together.. not a good thing as a portfolio/resume piece...

I like the layout , but my first impression was of emptyness... it looks empty.. not sure if that makes sense.. lot of white space imho...

all in all.. as a portfolio website I would seriously consider redoing it... you mention that time is tight.. but this piece is supposed to represent 'you' and your 'design abilities'.. I presume?.. so if you maybe add the statement on your website to prospective employers that you would lilke to be excused from your portfolio site cos time was tight?.. see where I am going?...

anyhoo.. like the layout.. find it empty, and think its sloppy... ~Vp~

i like the design and the first view.
but if you look closer to the images, they seem a bit unsharp.
as buncha said, maybe you should try to save them as gifs not as jpgs.

Thanks to all for the feedback, both negative and positive! All of it is incentive to me to continue to improve. Fortunately, I didn't come here for an ego-stroking ...

Only question I have is if what I had recently done to the journalism main page is an improvement? Is it heading in the right direction? I'm fixing to do the same type of design to the other main section pages, but before I do, I would like your thumbs up or down on it.

Kerning the text was a good catch. Making the graphics link on the homepage is also a good suggestion. I appreciate the positive feeback on the overall design. Sloppy, empty, slapped together ... ya I see your point, vp. Is my journalism page an improvement to you, or am I actually missing your point? Were you referring more to the home page or the site as a whole?

Good news is that I have a job interview on Monday!! So, someone at least sees some potential in what I am doing! Wish me luck, and thanks again for your time in reviewing the site.
BeeKay

I was referring to the graphics mainly.. like I siad the layout is good imho, but I think the graphics are a bit shoddy is all... like on the main page where you have the 'thick' black lines pointing down to the links and descriptions.. I justdont like the way they look... personal thing I guess.. I like the way the text is coloured but dont like the way the black lines wrap... your journalism page looks good...

I guess I am just being picky about the graphics. ~Vp~

ps: Good luck for the job interview! fingers crossed and all that jazz

[This message has been edited by vogonpoet (edited 05-06-2001).]