Re: Portfolio Site Feedback Required

[maximus1979]

I’ll just give you my opinion in pros and cons, although at this point I’m probably repeating the obvious.

Pros:

–Creative design, unorthodox, unique if nothing else

–Good loading times despite being image-heavy

–Creative ‘follow me’ links (misplaced and oversized but creative none the less)

Cons:

–Colors are clashing
(you have 2 sticky notes using different shades of yellow basically side by side, and another shade of yellow/orange in your name on the top left… match the colors up it’ll help a lot)

–Main content is smaller than your contact form and ‘about me’.
(if you are promoting your work and hoping to get more, you should definitely make the focus of your site your portfolio, not your contact form / about me)

–Repetition
(I’m not sure if this was part of your SEO strategy, but you basically said a lot of the exact same things in several different sections, even using the same words, which is a BIG no-no if you want to come across as a professional. Basically never use the same words twice if possible.)

EXAMPLE: I’m available for freelance work. I am currently available for freelance work. I am a UK based freelance web designer. I have been building websites since 2005 and freelancing for the last 3 years.

–Spelling / Grammar
(on your contact form it reads, “…either fill out the on the left or via my contact details below.”)

At this point I feel like I’m kicking you while you’re down which is definitely NOT my intention. I hope that you take our opinions in a positive tone, because there is a great deal of potential in your ideas.

What I would do is similar to what brianallan said, resize your portfolio so it takes up about twice the size, downsize your contact form, ‘stalk me’ and about me (all 3 of those items could fit comfortably along the right side or even at the bottom of your page), use proper padding on your headers, streamline the colors, remove your weakest link ie: ‘Politics Event Poster’…

You’re very creative and not afraid to try something different, so I’m sure that as you continue to mature as a designer, you will eventually find your niche and leave the critics speechless!

Good luck!