Portfolio Review

[crisbeto]

I decided to give it a try at making a portfolio.I wanted to make something clean, stylish and simple.Let me know what you guys think, all kinds of advice is welcome

Here's the link, for now I'm "hosting" it at dropbox:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/65424541/Portfolio/index.html

 

[Phreaddee]

I like the concept, but the execution needs work.

 

[crisbeto]

In your opinion what exactly needs to be worked on?

 

[annemarie]

Something's going wrong... I don't see much on the screen, just a little black box somewhere in the middle on the left

 

[crisbeto]

You have to click the black box

 

[crisbeto]

I was thinking after 5-10 seconds to put a sign like "click me" or something similar.

I didn't have many ideas about the background tho, and also what do you guys think about the menu itself(scrolling, size, quality etc.)?
Does it react slow for you guys, because for me it's like 1 second late when opening/closing but it may have to do with my sucky pc.

 

[Phreaddee]

A lot needs to be worked on to be honest.
first of all, I am inquisitive so I got that the black box opened the portal, but this isnt obvious. something as simple as an arrow would help.
secondly once the site is opened, the grid needs a lot of work to look correct.
nothing lines up and looks well, messy.
like I said the concept is interesting and i like what you are aiming to achieve, but it falls well short of expectation. you need to tidy it up, and whilst "mysterious" can be good, you need some sort of visual cue, otherwise, like others have said, most will think it is broken.

 

[crisbeto]

Hmm ok I got that about the box, what do you mean by "the grid needs a lot of work to look correct" ? The html code itself, or the flash file layout?

 

[Phreaddee]

the grid.
not html
not flash

the grid.

oh and this doesnt need to be in flash. jquery can do all of that no dramas.

start here and expand
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_(page_layout)

 

[crisbeto]

To be honest there's no grid only one div tag with the size of the menu and 150 or so padding from the top.
As for the jquery I have no experience with it.

 

[Phreaddee]

jquery is very easy. much easier and better than flash

make a grid.it will make it look better, and easier to read.

 

[crisbeto]

Excuse me if i sound too noobie, or I'm being annoying but what do you exactly by making a grid? A grid inside the menu itself or the site ?

 

[Phreaddee]

it doesnt line up, there is no correlation between the sizing of the sections the spacing, none of it. there is no consistency between the height of the sections and the width of the sections.

golden section, fibonacci sequence, 960gs, whatever, google it man.

grids have been keeping the print industry going since the 1400s.
look at a newspaper, its the grid that makes it readable.

define a width, define a ratio, keep all components relative to that.

 

[crisbeto]

Oh now i get it, thanks!

 

[d a v e]

stupid idea. after the black box is ok but all that ooh-isn't exciting hidden navigation was done (and failed) already on the 90s

 

[crisbeto]

well i wanted to go away from the generic website design

 

[d a v e]

well it didn't work at least not yet it's not

test it out on some people you know and watch them or ask them how it works. half them won tknow to click the black box, or they will think it's stupid. it's the same reason we don't have splash pages anymore.

 

[crisbeto]

Thanks for the feedback, I'm always open for criticism and in the process of learning. I'll try some different layouts and see what i can come up with

 

[d a v e]

it's not so much the layout. more the steps you have to take before you get to any content

 

[crisbeto]

I don't see much difference as in the # of steps you have to take, related to other sites(maybe 1 more for the black box):

1.click the box
2.for example click portfolio
3.on the overview see what you are interested in
4.mouse over it