Group items tagged

+ Beginning animation is unique and grabs viewers interest and loads quickly + Photo collage provides visual information about the projects and creates a unique aesthetic + Loosely organized navigation makes exploring the site more exciting and allows for opportunities for discovery + Artist's eclectic and creative personality comes across with the website design - Sometimes difficult to find and somewhat unintuitive links can be confusing - Abstract project categories can make navigating to a particular page or interest difficult - Lack of color at main project navigation creates a somewhat bland aesthetic

+ Interactive animation are fun and create immediate interest + Bright colors against grey background create visual interest + Logo and name as part of the title create an impression of professionalism - First page is simple and intuitive, however, after this it become cluttered and complicated to navigate - Images are too small due to the confined area - Loading time, although short, is unwelcome - Music playing is low quality and repetitive and can be an annoyance, especially if the person is listening to music on their computer at the moment.

In this article, I'll be analyzing the navigation elements of a particular category of websites, i.e. portfolios. Why portfolios, you ask? Because they represent an interesting blend of creativity and development techniques. As they offer an intriguing user interface and interaction, this often borderlines with what is ultimately defined as an enjoyable user experience. Should aesthetics, originality and creativity come at the expense of usability? Can they reside on the same website in harmony?

I selected this portfolio more for the content than the creative design. Visually, the site lacks innovation in the layout, however, it allows the creativity is expressed through the work. I don't know if it was just my computer, the it seems like the site was designed to fit on screen so there would only be lateral scrolling (a change up from the typical vertical scrolling). Not having it universally formatted makes it a little tricky to have the same affect on every viewing platform. What I thought made this page really interesting, was incorporating a blog to her online portfolio. Her main portfolio is really clean & professional. Her blog adds another element to where it allows "fans" to follow her and really feel like they can get to know her. I stumbled upon her page through a friend who goes to her site to look through her blog more so than her work which I found interesting. It just made me really wonder what possibilities online portfolios have, because to some extent, I feel as though she will be getting opportunities because of her blogs & personality.

After entry the Home Page is very simple to control with text only for 2nd level titles The T-shirts page has a link to her online store, opening in another tab; good marketing. The Squid Chair page has a small amount of text, interesting process diagrams and photos of the finished product, and a .pdf of her class presentation board. The pdf lets you have a simple website page that doesn't have too much information for viewers but can provide a lot of information for someone who is interested in more. This is something I may try to do. Once you enlarge a thumbnail in a second level of 2D category you need to restart from 2nd level to get back to 3rd level.

What I like... - Use of two different colors (simple but clear) - Showing thumbnail images that interest me - A simple composition of overall web design What need to be improved... - It is confusing to figure out the relationship between thumbnail pictures and contents - It is hard to see the hierarchy of contents (it makes me to keep forgeting where I am and how I get into the page...) - A weak first page with little information

Pros: -Very interesting work - Can get to any piece at all times - Simple Cons: - Not a very interesting layout -small title and info links contrast poorly with huge image thumbnails - Looks quickly done

pros: well made, good use of flash(?), background element adds interest Cons: animation too fast, featured work seems too focused on one type,

Pros: visually interesting, lots of info at a glance Cons: too busy, web layout is not intuitive (not sure what will take you where).

Good: 1. The buttons and navigation style is cartoony and interesting, which gives a feel for this guy's personal aesthetic in his work. 2. After clicking a tab (for medium of work), there's a visible list of the content on that page that is shown on the left. 3. There's buttons on left content bar to navigate through pages, but also at the top to navigate through sub-sections of the content (e.g. multiple ads for a single ad campaign). Bad: 1. The content info at the top of his page uses a font that I don't think matches his illustrated/stylized font. It only sticks out because it's the only area of the page that uses different font. 2. After clicking on a link from his home page, you can't get back onto the intro page unless you shorten/modify the URL. 3. When the content list on the left side of the page contains many things, it's annoying to have to scroll to find the last page you viewed after clicking on a single piece.

User-controlled site that showcases interesting digital portfolios. Like this diigo group, but on a larger scale. Worth checking out.

DISLIKES... - Quick Icons; The icons used to navigate through his work, move really quickly & pop up really fast. - Small font: in combination with some of the light colors & mix with white, the titles were hard to read cause the fonts were so small - Hidden Categories: each time i refreshed the page, the menu icons were just randomly "dropped" onto the page to where sometimes some menu icons were hidden. - Small Viewbox: It is nice to have a formatted size to view his work, however, for some I felt it was too small. There were so much content for some of his work, that shrinking it down to that formatted size didn't do justice to what his work look liked LIKES... - Simplicity: his home page looks clean to where the main focus is the menu icons that really encourages you to interact with his website - Menu Icons: they are really unique & interactive - No Need Back: through the integration of his menu icons, there is never really a need to press the back button. - Interaction: At the very least, every person that comes to his portfolio page would be interested because of the interaction that is required to navigate through his page. It is very playful yet simple

DISLIKES... - The Autoplay Music: with other running media, it became really distracting & i became more focused on looking for a way to turn it off. Could potentially make a person exit the website - More Descriptive Home: unlike other online portfolios, they usually state "portfolio" or "photography" or something, just to give an indicator as to what the website is. For his portfolio, there is no such description which would be nice to see - Details?: navigating through his site, his work is categorized, however there are not descriptions as to what the "advertising" was for. Even something as simple as "Canadian Hockey Nike Campaign" would have been nice. - About Him: It would have been nice to know a little bit about him (hometown or even the type of work he does) - No Back: Once you click somewhere, there's no real going back. LIKES... - Black & White: gave a sophistication to where I could see some sort of aesthetic in Chris' work. - The Rollover Effect: navigating through the work, there are thumbnails that you rollover and change opacity & starts to zoom out. I thought that was a really interesting effect that made me want to see more of the photo - Simplicity: his portfolio is really simple, which I find pleasing because it's easy to navigate & doesn't have clutter to distract from his photos - Music Choice: although I found the music distracting, his selection created a nice ambiance to his portfolio & created a "personality" to where I could start to get a feel as to who he was. - Use of Nav Buttons: I like how you can instantly flip through photos

Likes: -the strongest contrast: black and white background -nice fonts that is easy to catch those words up on the website -he puts pages, archives, categories, and meta, other than menu -the idea of putting a search engine in order to enable viewers to search their interesting thing. Dislikes: -the layout is little bit too simple, could be more dynamic. -it seems that he can use empty space more efficiently.

likes: -simple navigation -not to much to click at -organized - very interesting buttons -personalized art everywhere dislikes: -no animation -very unattractive -good layout but lacks the panaz - more color - splash page may help

Likes: 1. Because the site takes a while to load, the "Loading..." image you see is an illustrated heart beating, and it's really interesting to look at while you wait. 2. Content is all listed on left--easy navigation 3. Color scheme is very attractive, and still works well with content. Dislikes: 1. Can't scroll using trackpad--you have to use the side bar 2. Content still takes a long time to load, even after waiting for the initial homepage to load as well. 3. It's hard to distinguish between the heads and subheads on the left--maybe bolding the heads would make them pop a little better?

Likes- I like the icons at the side of each page, and the menu bar is a great if you want to return to a project. Dislikes- It looks like she designed this portfolio on a 27 inch Imac. When loading pages I had to scroll side to side to see all the information, and that is clearly a waste of my time. Next please. Her projects look very interesting and compelling, but not enough information is provided in the graphics, or titles. I am assuming she likes to be a bit mysterious. One major problem with her page is her image location. Its locked, and she has at least 10 menu icons per page. That means I have to scroll down to see all her icons and then scroll back up to see the image. Another fantastic waste of my time. I think if she solved just a few issues she would have an amazing portfolio, but due to the lack of thought put into the website design I wonder about her other design abilities. Sorry Kristin. C- on this one.

Like:-Overall Layout is clear and concise/simple-Navigation bar remains constant at all levels-Contact information is very clear-Load Sequence of projects is very interesting, and looks great when done-Large thumbnail images -Simple project description on each page; not too distracting and a good balance of images and text Don't Like/Needs Improvement-Page is too simple when you first open it; looks like there is information missing-Projects load too slowly-When you first load a project, it defaults to a blank box, rather than automatically loading the first image -Could be helpful to have a thumbnail image associated with each project to give a quick glimpse/overview -Overall, the site could be a little larger; only fills a small portion of my screen.

What I like... - Branches that come out from bigger titles - Easy to jump into the other work images and to come back - Clear organization of works with proper details What need to be improved... - PDF file rinks on the left and top make me confused and give less impact on the main manu on the bottom - Taking a little time to show related images - Since worked by Flash, web address doesn't change when I move around on the web site

Likes: - I like how the landing page is uniform in the colors and link pictures. It was also nice and simple. - I like how she organizes her galleries by color. I think it's an interesting way to do it and sets her apart from other websites I've seen. - I love how she uses very basic colors and fonts, because her work has such vibrant colors that it allows them to really pop and stand out. Dislikes: - It took FOREVER to load. Even though it had a progress bar, I was getting impatient. - I don't like how the photographs that represent the sections of the gallery cut up into the navigation links. I think its distracting and looks messy. - On her contact page, her contact form cuts off on the very bottom. I think maybe the whole site was having an issue with sizing.

Likes - I love the colors and look and feel of the home page. Its different and feels very cohesive and interesting. - I like the way she incorporates images and words into her links, as opposed to just have a boring font link. - I like how she gives information on the right hand side about each of her designs. I think it gives a good look into all the work she puts into her designs. Dislikes - I think she could simplify her "about promise" section. I feel like condensing this section would make more people inclined to read it, because right now its a bit long. - I don't like how she has a seperate section for "other work". I think all her work should all be in the same section, because its hard to distinguish the two when you click on each one. They look the same. - I don't like how her contact and blog section are way on the right side of the page, because I think that these are one of the first things a person visiting the site looks for.