Hi fellow lovers.

I am nearing completion of my first personal portfolio site and after working on it for a while it has become a little hard to see it how others are going to see it. So do you guys have any suggestions/remarks about it? I am using the Mixx palette located here.

My site is located @ jamielottering.com

All criticism is welcome

Clean, simple, and the color goes well. Really love the tiny icons beside each post. Nice, really. Good job :D

Your site looks nice, but here are two suggestions:

* The font is way too small for older viewers. If you're just making it for your friends, that's fine, but if you want to attract businesses, make the font size larger, perhaps 12 point.

* Again, if you want to attract serious customers, the column of friends and photographs isn't appropriate. Perhaps you really need two websites instead of one.

Thanks for your comments,

@GreenMyEyes:

This is a good point, although the goal wasn't entirely to attract customers, it was more of a personal portfolio/blog site that I can use to show potential clients. But perhaps you are right, I'll see what I can add to the sidebar in substitution

Ok... some of my thoughts or suggestions:

-glad you have your own domain. it's surprising how many people don't.

-not sure if you fixed the font size already or not, but i don't think it's an issue as i'm looking at it right now.

-i definately agree you don't need the friends/flicker links (not on a portfolio site). if you really want them to stay, add them to another section (much deeper into your site or a secret link could work nice for this). if you want some of your skilled photography shots up, make a section for it in your portfolio, don't use flicker. you can provide a link to flicker, but I'd only show your "best" on your site.

-before i even look at the actual portfolio section, let me say this... i believe you should spend a lot more time on your home/landing page. this is the 1st thing people will see. very clean, but it's not very eye-catching. suggestions: maybe work on your logo a bit, put some of your own art/design on your first page, or thumbnails some how to make it work & not just like you threw in just b/c you could.

-also, i would definately align your navigation differently... it's fine on the top-right, but w/a smaller browser window or low-resolution, you could easily miss it since it's so far to the right. i'd let it float right, use percent for width or just narrow the overall page width to (750) less than (950 is what you have it set at). they say you can design for larger than 800x600 now, but i still think it's rather tricky to do... since many people w/higher resolutions are multitasking w/multiple windows open (not at full width).

-nice job on footer navigation!

-about me section: like all your little icons, dividers & nice skills list organization

-portfolio & contact: nicely done, no complaints, dont change it a bit! =) (except the friends list already mentioned)

Thanks for the tips Kaleidoscope, I just have no idea what to put on the right side other than what I have now. I guess I'll spend some time looking at some other portfolios to see what they are doing

Sabazou wrote:

Thanks for the tips Kaleidoscope, I just have no idea what to put on the right side other than what I have now. I guess I'll spend some time looking at some other portfolios to see what they are doing

you're welcome =)

yes, do that... i do it almost every day... to keep up w/trends & new ideas... also, someone might start something that i have an even better idea for...

they say, artists are the best thieves... but is it really stolen if you truly make it your own?
everyone gets their ideas from somewhere... imitation is the highest form of flattery, right?

i've had my ideas stolen before a few times. it was obviously my work w/no work of their own put into it, & that sucks... but this is different... you're just out for ideas.... you're suppose to do that... check out your competition.... note their weakness & strengths.... turn their strengths into yours.

when i check out other sites that i really like, i also usually send a nice little note/e-mail to the creator also. this is for 2 reasons. 1.) to acknowledge their success/skills - who doesn't like to hear they did a good job & you're a fan? & 2.) to start networking in the field. always good, right? =)

:P
I was enjoying the suttle blues.
I like them.

Maybee the red is a little bit to shazamm, but I love it.

For increasing the font... I also like small font sizes (my own site font is pretty tiny), but they do say if you want older people to be able to read your text you should make it larger (I write as I notice that this site's text for comments are also very tiny).

As a suggestion on what to put on the right side of your page, in stead of the flickr images and friends list, you could replace the Friends list with your most recent blog entry titles, and the flickr area with a "most recent work" section.

I agree with KaleidoscopeStudios that you should have an example of your work on the front page, and I think a "most recent work" or "currently working on" section is a good way to incorporate your work on to your home page without it seeming out of place.

Great palette selection, but I agree with the font comments, a bit small. Also, I think the combination of the script and sans serif font in the masthead is not quite holding together.

Something about the design makes it feel a little MSN, slightly intimidating - like I've stumbled on to a site that might sell me something or ask me to fill out a form.

The portfolio of work is nice though, very clean, simple to navigate.

I love it!