I have not posted on here in a very long time. I used to quite a bit but now not anymore. I used to have a portfolio site and took it down last year as it was well outdated. Because of this i need a new one so very quickly in the last couple of days i have put something new together. Its small and different and for these reasons i hope it will be liked but thought i would see what this wonderful forum made of it.
I'll start - not a full critique but unfortunately this stood out to me immediately, probably because it's the first thing one sees and it's in huge bold print.
"Hi I'm Matt, a 22 year old, Web developer and my purpose is to create awesome Websites."
You're capitalizing things that shouldn't be capitalized and you probably don't need a comma after "old". It reads awkwardly and normally I don't think anyone would care, except that it's the first thing you see.
I'd just leave out your age entirely. The reader will either (1)not care about your age, or (2)care, and not hire you because you're "too young."
The menu buttons at the top of your page overlap the content when you scroll.
Listing your skills is fine, but don't "grade" them. Either say you can do a fabulous job, or just leave it off the list. I'd also simplify the categories a bit - your target audience is clients, right? Not other webdevs? Industry terminology is a turn-off when you're trying to find a developer. If a client can understand everything you wrote on your site, they're going to have the impression that you can handle all this "web stuff" really well.
Afterthought - I'm viewing you or site on an android tablet right now. Seeing a big warning that "this site is awesome, but it doesn't work on your browser" is discouraging. I'd rather just see a "nice site that works just fine" and, when I get back to my desktop, realize the awesome things it can do.
First, I don't like the color, it's too bright for my taste. Second, I'd change the repeating background. Third, I'd style the buttons a little more visually pleasing.
I'd have to agree the color is kind of burning my retinas out. If you left it that way, I think you need to create some contrasting colors as well as add some text shadows to the fonts so it isn't straining just to read.
I don't quite understand from a desktop users perspective why the website is asking me to navigate using arrow keys and the spacebar. It's kinda cool, but it's more difficult than it's worth was my first impression (it took a few tries to figure out how the spacebar and arrow keys actually let me move between the content the way I wanted).
Definitely some neat affects here so it's a good start.
Firstly, hats off for trying something different. Here's a few observations...
- I know you're using impress.js but it looks a bit too much like a slideshow presentation. My personal opinion is that it would look sweeter if each page wasn't in a horizontal line, but was in random positions, so it moved like when you go from the intro screen to the about slide.
- Maybe darken up the background a little or use a subtle text shadow on the white as white on bright yellow is a bit strenuous on the eyes as others have mentioned.
- Personally I find those kind of skill graphs to be pretty pointless and sometimes a little misleading as they are very subjective. The bars are maxed out for HTML5, CSS3 and WordPress - does that mean that you know everything you could possibly know about those 3 areas? I'd dare to say that you probably don't. The danger with those things is that you rate yourself based on your own perspective. I think it'd be more useful to mention the depth of experience you have with each area, and maybe even link to and example for each. Or perhaps there isn't a need to list the various areas at all, and talk about what different things you can create rather than what you use to create them. But this depends on your target audience. Is this for a job applications or aimed at freelance clients?
- Break the 'about' page up a bit. No one's going to read a large chunk of paragraph like that.
- Add some validation feedback to your contact form.
- Open your portfolio link in a new tab. I opened one and then closed it and inadvertently closed the site. If a user does this they may not bother to open it up again.
Also, regarding "graceful degradation" -- when this breaks, it breaks really badly. Your site doesn't work (but thinks that it does) on older versions of Chrome (tested on v.15), and is completely unusable.
First off congrats on trying something different, and - if I'm understanding correctly, in a bit of a rush.
I agree with most of the comments above:
The yellow is pretty glaring. Then again, it's memorable and helps your site stand out. Tone it down a little? Try some of the suggestions already given to make text more readable? Your choice. Personally, I think the yellow is different enough to be memorable, so if it were my site I'd lean towards keeping it strong.
The skills graph is, as others have said, probably not the best idea. Why not something as simple as:
experienced with: - html5 [no need for the capitalized H] - css3 - JavaScript etc...
I agree that the directive to navigate using spacebar and arrow keys has gotta go.
I think the color of the entry fields on the contact page could be improved. Somehow it just doesn't go well with the vivid yellow.
No link back to your home page? Even if there's no real need for people to return there, isn't this so much of a standard that it's expected?
With only two examples in your portfolio you're telling folks that you're just starting out. Do you have others - even if they're just mockups you've done or only in the form of screen shots - that you can add?
Validation shows a number of html errors. Most may be they're inconsequential, but some might be contributing to the site breaking on older browsers. You should also look at the CSS validation errors. Again, many are probably bogus, but some look like problems that must be addressed.
I have not posted on here in a very long time. I used to quite a bit but now not anymore. I used to have a portfolio site and took it down last year as it was well outdated. Because of this i need a new one so very quickly in the last couple of days i have put something new together. Its small and different and for these reasons i hope it will be liked but thought i would see what this wonderful forum made of it.
Check it out http://matthewfowles.net
Many thanks for all the constructive criticism
Matt
"Hi I'm Matt, a 22 year old, Web developer and my purpose is to create awesome Websites."
You're capitalizing things that shouldn't be capitalized and you probably don't need a comma after "old". It reads awkwardly and normally I don't think anyone would care, except that it's the first thing you see.
The menu buttons at the top of your page overlap the content when you scroll.
Listing your skills is fine, but don't "grade" them. Either say you can do a fabulous job, or just leave it off the list. I'd also simplify the categories a bit - your target audience is clients, right? Not other webdevs? Industry terminology is a turn-off when you're trying to find a developer. If a client can understand everything you wrote on your site, they're going to have the impression that you can handle all this "web stuff" really well.
Afterthought - I'm viewing you or site on an android tablet right now. Seeing a big warning that "this site is awesome, but it doesn't work on your browser" is discouraging. I'd rather just see a "nice site that works just fine" and, when I get back to my desktop, realize the awesome things it can do.
There probably isn't a need to double up like that.
Nice work on the interactivity, it reminds me of BeerCamp (which was an awesome site). Does it degrade gracefully?
I like the navigation
I don't quite understand from a desktop users perspective why the website is asking me to navigate using arrow keys and the spacebar. It's kinda cool, but it's more difficult than it's worth was my first impression (it took a few tries to figure out how the spacebar and arrow keys actually let me move between the content the way I wanted).
Definitely some neat affects here so it's a good start.
Firstly, hats off for trying something different. Here's a few observations...
- I know you're using impress.js but it looks a bit too much like a slideshow presentation. My personal opinion is that it would look sweeter if each page wasn't in a horizontal line, but was in random positions, so it moved like when you go from the intro screen to the about slide.
- Maybe darken up the background a little or use a subtle text shadow on the white as white on bright yellow is a bit strenuous on the eyes as others have mentioned.
- Personally I find those kind of skill graphs to be pretty pointless and sometimes a little misleading as they are very subjective. The bars are maxed out for HTML5, CSS3 and WordPress - does that mean that you know everything you could possibly know about those 3 areas? I'd dare to say that you probably don't. The danger with those things is that you rate yourself based on your own perspective. I think it'd be more useful to mention the depth of experience you have with each area, and maybe even link to and example for each. Or perhaps there isn't a need to list the various areas at all, and talk about what different things you can create rather than what you use to create them. But this depends on your target audience. Is this for a job applications or aimed at freelance clients?
- Break the 'about' page up a bit. No one's going to read a large chunk of paragraph like that.
- Add some validation feedback to your contact form.
- Open your portfolio link in a new tab. I opened one and then closed it and inadvertently closed the site. If a user does this they may not bother to open it up again.
Hope these help!
John
'I am a lover all ALL things techy'
Other than that I like it! Nice work.
(maybe change the bg image slightly? the repeat stands out quite a lot)
I agree with most of the comments above:
The yellow is pretty glaring. Then again, it's memorable and helps your site stand out. Tone it down a little? Try some of the suggestions already given to make text more readable? Your choice. Personally, I think the yellow is different enough to be memorable, so if it were my site I'd lean towards keeping it strong.
The skills graph is, as others have said, probably not the best idea. Why not something as simple as:
experienced with:
- html5 [no need for the capitalized H]
- css3
- JavaScript
etc...
I agree that the directive to navigate using spacebar and arrow keys has gotta go.
I think the color of the entry fields on the contact page could be improved. Somehow it just doesn't go well with the vivid yellow.
No link back to your home page? Even if there's no real need for people to return there, isn't this so much of a standard that it's expected?
With only two examples in your portfolio you're telling folks that you're just starting out. Do you have others - even if they're just mockups you've done or only in the form of screen shots - that you can add?
Validation shows a number of html errors. Most may be they're inconsequential, but some might be contributing to the site breaking on older browsers. You should also look at the CSS validation errors. Again, many are probably bogus, but some look like problems that must be addressed.