Graphic Design portfolio site - Second round

[UnatcoAgent]

Update - Feb 14th

Updated Web Portfolio

Essentially what the site looked like before < Courtesy of PlasmaBomb

A big thanks to the members who submitted their reviews earlier in the post, I've made a number of major changes to the site, fixed many of the bugs, and updated new content.
If you see anything you dislike / hate / like / whatever please, let me know in the post. Any feedback is appreciated!

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Old Post
I've managed to actually get around to building myself a new portfolio site, something clean and easy to update. I'm still working on the writing, and there is a bug with the image loader (flashes all the images on loading) which is a jquery thing I need to work out. Also the padding gets a bit screwed up in IE6.

Let me know what you think ATOT, if you see any problems, what you like / dislike.

Any feedback is appreciated, even if you flat out hate the site!

 

[911paramedic]

Atrial Fibrilation

Your A-fib graphic is showing normal sinus rhythm...

(Site isn't bad though, well rounded.)

 

[UnatcoAgent]

Originally posted by: 911paramedic
Atrial Fibrilation

Your A-fib graphic is showing normal sinus rhythm...

(Site isn't bad though, well rounded.)

Thanks, I'll have to talk to my writer

I was fortunate enough to have a friend's girlfriend help out with some of the content, she's an eco-cardiologist here in Toronto, but she wasn't able to get to everything.

 

[Quasmo]

The bars on the left need some work, try to make the far left bar a little thinner.

 

[UnatcoAgent]

Originally posted by: Quasmo
The bars on the left need some work, try to make the far left bar a little thinner.

OK, and the other two bars?

I can see what you're saying for sure, the site is built using a google CSS source sheet and textpattern, so it can be difficult to align things properly. I am going to spend some more time on this, though.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

AF

All be it nicked from the net.

The site looks good, I think I would prefer seeing all the pics at once (but that's just me) as you do get to see them all for a brief second before they become tiny.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Really, really does not like IE6.

?

 

[UnatcoAgent]

Originally posted by: PlasmaBomb

Really, really does not like IE6.

?

Hah, that's a twitter feed and sometimes the context doesn't come across correctly. Gotta fix that, thanks

 

[UnatcoAgent]

Originally posted by: PlasmaBomb
AF

All be it nicked from the net.

The site looks good, I think I would prefer seeing all the pics at once (but that's just me) as you do get to see them all for a brief second before they become tiny.

I'm looking at potentially getting rid of the fading image loader and just sticking all the picks up at once with some scrolling if I can't get that bug fixed.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Hi, I?m Rob, a
Toronto-based Graphic
Designer specializing in
interactivity and
information design.

Possible formatting changes?

Hi, I?m Rob, a Toronto-based
Graphic Designer specializing
in interactivity and information
design.


Hi, I?m Rob,
a Toronto-based
Graphic Designer,
specializing in
interactivity and
information design.

Do you want bullet points?

What I'm up to:

x
y
z

The bullet points indent the text and stop the hard left edge that is easy for the eye to follow (in my opinion of course )

 

[Mrvile]

The bar on the far left is pretty distracting and largely unnecessary to include something like that in such a dominant location. If you want to include your info and a feed of your blog, try somewhere more secondary. You'll want your name/title and menu to be the most prominent.

Otherwise the site is fine. Very simple.

 

[UnatcoAgent]

Originally posted by: PlasmaBomb

Hi, I?m Rob, a
Toronto-based Graphic
Designer specializing in
interactivity and
information design.

Possible formatting changes?

Hi, I?m Rob, a Toronto-based
Graphic Designer specializing
in interactivity and information
design.


Hi, I?m Rob,
a Toronto-based
Graphic Designer,
specializing in
interactivity and
information design.

Do you want bullet points?

What I'm up to:

x
y
z

The bullet points indent the text and stop the hard left edge that is easy for the eye to follow (in my opinion of course )

Thanks PlasmaBomb,

Quasmo also pointed this out, all of the content on that page is updated dynamically so the formatting becomes challenging. I'm going to have to play with the text sizes, but you're very right, this was an over site of mine.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Originally posted by: Sabot

Originally posted by: PlasmaBomb

Really, really does not like IE6.

?

Hah, that's a twitter feed and sometimes the context doesn't come across correctly. Gotta fix that, thanks

It's fine for your blog, but not brilliant for your professional portfolio (ah twitter is a blog )

 

[MrDudeMan]

I don't like how the thumbnails start out gray and then fade into view. It takes too long. I just want to see them when I click on the links.

 

[UnatcoAgent]

Originally posted by: Mrvile
The bar on the far left is pretty distracting and largely unnecessary to include something like that in such a dominant location. If you want to include your info and a feed of your blog, try somewhere more secondary. You'll want your name/title and menu to be the most prominent.

Otherwise the site is fine. Very simple.

Good point, I'm thinking it may work better if I shift the nav under the main intro in the black bar, and either get rid of the twitter feed or move it elsewhere.

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

The site link bar and the about me bar need to be switched around IMO.

Or have the link bar horizontal and the about me bar under it on the left.

 

[Mrvile]

Hey decent illustrations, btw. I really like this one. This one is pretty interesting too.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Yeah Mrvile has a point - the feed is bigger than the headings in blue, while they are more important.

 

[UnatcoAgent]

Originally posted by: PlasmaBomb
Yeah Mrvile has a point - the feed is bigger than the headings in blue, while they are more important.

On my list of things to change, it's amazing what kind of things you overlook when you stare at the same project for a week straight

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Sorry couldn't resist fiddling...

1
2
3

Changes:
1 - Removed blog feed, moved bar and main up vertically
2 - Removed blog and kept the bar and main inline with the vertical plane (give or take a smidge)
3 - Remembered the comment about the bar and shrank it, changed the text, and left the bar and main as per 2.

I just used Tahoma for the font in the last one, as I wasn't sure what you had used...

edit: I think it took longer to type this and remember what the pics were than to chop them, so be gentle

 

[UnatcoAgent]

Originally posted by: PlasmaBomb
Sorry couldn't resist fiddling...

1
2
3

Changes:
1 - Removed blog feed, moved bar and main up vertically
2 - Removed blog and kept the bar and main inline with the vertical plane (give or take a smidge)
3 - Remembered the comment about the bar and shrank it, changed the text, and left the bar and main as per 2.

I just used Tahoma for the font in the last one, as I wasn't sure what you had used...

:Q Now this is quality feedback right here

I'm going to have to mull through these and rejig the layout with them in mind, thanks PlasmaBomb!

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Originally posted by: Sabot

:Q Now this is quality feedback right here

I'm going to have to mull through these and rejig the layout with them in mind, thanks PlasmaBomb!

It was only a minute or two to play around with things and mock them up... something to see

 

[Mr Pickles]

Its not bad dude. Its nice to see that you took a web2.0 approach. There are a few things that you need to touch on in order to make it more cross-browser friendly but besides that its solid. So far the feedback is focusing on what people do and don't like about the design. Here are a few things relating to usability:

1. Images Disabled. Hey, it happens, some people disable images. I saw that your whole sidebar is an image which is fine, but you need to give each portion of the nav on the left a background color other than white since your text is currently white. If I had images disabled on my mobile device but wanted the styling to be the same I wouldnt be able to see the text.

2. CSS Disabled: not bad at all, good work. There are a few things that I would change with the semantics of the layout such as the way you ordered your divs. The information is all there but the flow from top to bottom just doesn't seem normal with the nav where it is, etc. Speaking of the semantics behind the layout, its a good idea to avoid labeling divs and whatnot as "center" or "left". Its just good practice since, who knows, you might restyle your entire design and want your nav up on top.

3. Scripts: I'm guessing this is no big deal, but your javascript and css at the top of the page should be outside of your index page and on their own pages. You might still consider yourself in development though and plan on doing this later.

4. Something quirky with the galleries: If I head to 9-5 and 5-9 pages the images first load in full size and for a split second my scroll bar on the right and the page itself is huge. This is probably because you are using the original images in your thumbnail gallery and just resizing them there. That's not a bad approach, cuts down on having to deal with a thumbnail for every image you have there, but when it flips out the page waiting for the whole thing to load and then re-sizing the image it just look a little crazy (using ff3 for browser btw). You might want to look into the image gallery itself and see if you might be able to make some changes there such as loading the images earlier in the script or you might just want to break down and make some thumbers for the images.

I didn't get a chance to see the page using anything other than ff but for the most part it looks good. Nice and solid. If you have more time later on you might want to get into playing with more graphics to brighten it up and gain a little more appeal. You are a graphic designer and all

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Originally posted by: Mr Pickles
Its not bad dude. Its nice to see that you took a web2.0 approach. There are a few things that you need to touch on in order to make it more cross-browser friendly but besides that its solid. So far the feedback is focusing on what people do and don't like about the design. Here are a few things relating to usability:

1. Images Disabled. Hey, it happens, some people disable images. I saw that your whole sidebar is an image which is fine, but you need to give each portion of the nav on the left a background color other than white since your text is currently white. If I had images disabled on my mobile device but wanted the styling to be the same I wouldnt be able to see the text.

Sorry, I can't really help with webpage design, but that sounds sensible.

4. Something quirky with the galleries: If I head to 9-5 and 5-9 pages the images first load in full size and for a split second my scroll bar on the right and the page itself is huge.

Yeah I got that too (FF3)

Like this.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Win!

IE 7

IE 7 Doesn't like your stars