So I just finished compiling an online portfolio of my student work (M.Arch - Montana State University) and am about ready to start sending it out to potential employers. Only my parents and a couple friends have seen it, so any feedback or suggestions from all you Archinecters would be very much appreciated. So far, it includes my resume, studio work, photography, and other built projects.
I've been told it can take more than a few seconds to load, which has me fearful that potential employers might become impatient. I'm also concerned that the navigation may be a little confusing, especially for those who are less computer-literate. Anyway, please let me know what you think!
I dont know if this is what you want to hear, but that lagged my browser so much that I couldnt even look through the site. Never had that happen before
I just checked out your website, and there is some seriously awesome work on there! I'm sure you'll get picked up by a company fairly quickly :)
In saying this, there were a few things I think that could be improved upon in regards to your website. Most importantly, I would say that a potential employer would like to cycle through your works as they please, and move back and forth easily. This isn't currently possible with the scrolling system (as far as I can tell?), and I think it would provide a much better 'feel' to the website.
Another point might be to show a couple of examples of full projects that you're really pleased with. This would show your initial thoughts, your concepts, your calculations and workings, and then some renders, which would ultimately communicate your design process and how you work around problems encountered during the design process. If I were looking to employ somebody, I would want to ascertain their working and thinking style from the portfolio they sent me. Have you visited www.behance.net? There are some great examples of project development on there! You should definitely check out this project, even though it isn't an architecture based project. This portfolio, in my opinion, shows a clear design process, a clear workaround of a problem, and clear communication of the designers role in the team process. Yet again, if I were an employer, I would have an in depth understanding of the possible employee and would be much more inclined to hire him.
Also, you have a lot of free space around the edge of the webpage, which to me, personally, feels wasted! You could always make it bigger? :)
But, I stress this, you have some great works in here, and you show a talent and aptitude across a broad range of mediums! I'm sure someone will be overjoyed to employ you!
Oh, in reference to the lagging and loading times, I think it may be due to the fact that you have so many high resolution images attempting to enter the screen/travelling in different directions, and therefore it makes it extremely CPU intensive.
Maybe just make them small thumbnails which expand to the high res renders?
@ BenC - Definitely not what i wanted to hear. According to the statistics of the site, about 25% of the visitors get bounced and I think you were one of them. I have no idea how to fix this since I think it is a server or host problem. There is a lot of data and high quality images which could also be the problem. Can you try one more time and let me know if it happens again? I appreciate you checking it out.
@Jack - The good news is you can actually browse my work by project at your own discretion, the bad news is my navigation system didn't make that clear enough-- so I will definitely have to improve that. If you click the 'DESIGN' tab, you can see seven of my studio projects and clicking the 'GRAPHIC' tab will allow you to view my photography and illustrations. Either way, thanks a ton for the compliments, I really hope you are right!
i know you were asking for tips about your website, but i couldn't help taking a peek at your resume (I review a lot of them). Some may disagree, but for a website, i think you could do without an objective, it would give you more room for content elsewhere. Also, you may not want your references listed on your website, that is your coveted information. If an employer asks for it, then give them the info, but I don't know how those individuals would feel about having all their information publicly displayed.
Thanks for pointers Dani, those things had never crossed my mind. You're probably right about my references. In fact, I know one of them in particular would have a fit if they knew I put their information out there like that, so thank you for the heads up!
Love it! The only thing that bugged me are your sketches. You traced photographs. I'll rather see a sketch as more expressive. Again love it. Update us when you get a job!
And arri, I can assure you I did not trace any photographs. I have been doing field drawing for quite some time now. I guess I can chalk it up to having a very good graphics professor. Thank you for checking it out.
I would consider loosing the flash intro page. Its really a jolt to the system. Its going to give someone a seizure.
Once I made it past that I liked what I saw.
I don't think displaying any of your work in motion, unless it is a POV or something that actually moves is a very good thing. It prevents some one from fully seeing it because they have to compensate for the motion.
So many people use mobile browsers, I pads and the like that its a problem and becoming more of a problem. I assume you would like to keep your site around for a while and keep updating it. Think about just using good old HTML. Your a good designer I'm sure you can make something nice in that format too.
Thanks for the feedback Jonathan. I was a little concerned that the images sliding past each other might annoy some people and I think the animation may also be what is causing the site to run a bit slow. A former employer actually said the same thing.
As for the flash format, I'm definitely kicking myself for using it. When I started putting it together (over a year ago), it was the simplest and quickest method. On top of it, I'm paying to host it for a full year. In hindsight, HTML is definitely the way to go. Unfortunately I have no idea how to write script or anything like that. Do you happen to know of any HTML site developing software or platforms? Thanks again for looking!
For me it took over a minute to load even the first image on your website. Then they started coming through, blurry at first and finally (after some spinning circles) they cleared up. I think you have a nice body of work, but I have to agree that the navigation is not the best. I could imagine that your website might get forgotten about while people wait for it to load.
I've been using squarespace for about 2 years now, for customization it is super easy, and once you start feeling comfortable you can start injecting code to change certain things. It is very easy to make a really good looking website from the start, so maybe it's something to consider? http://www.squarespace.com/
I would search the net for some tutorials on using dreamweaver. I found some good stuff on Youtube and the Adobe website. That's how I learned. I think the easiest way to go about it is to simply slice apart a Photoshop layout into a grid and then re assemble it, so you can build the functionality, in dreamweaver.
If you really want to create a good searchable site thats easy to update your going to want to use a CSS with the html. Having any of your text in the website as images, which flash is means its harder for search engines to hit.
While I appreciate the desire to create an original website for yourself, It is not an easy thing to do well. Consider what your priorities are. Is web design a skill that you will be selling potential employers? If not your top priority is the display of your work. Something minimalistic, prefab and generic might do that just as well and save you some time. something like squarespace mentioned above could do everything you want.
@Stephanie - Thank you for the suggestion! Squarespace might be exactly what I am looking for. I decided to use wix.com-- a platform like squarespace, but flash based. Very easy to make a high-quality site, but their customer service was pretty horrible and now I'm stuck with a site that is painfully slow.
@Jonathan - I originally started out by trying to learn Dreamweaver CS5, but I was just too impatient. It would take me hours to produce something that, frankly, looked like dog sh*t. I only had a few weeks to create the site, so I imagined it would be just about impossible to produce what I was striving for using Dreamweaver.
I've also taken some of the advice I received and simplified my home page in order for the site to load a little more quickly. Hopefully it doesn't cause any more seizures Take a look at the updated version please!
Your site looks quite professional and is a job well done.
If there was one thing that I could comment on, it would be if you could increase the font size of the project description.I found myself having to lean forward to properly read it.
Also, you could play around with the navigation bar on the left. Have you tried having it maybe running horizontally on the top, or have it run vertically down just like how you have in the design portion e.g studio,fabricate,models.
@Jonathan - Thanks again for your feedback, I think it looks much better also. Less is more, right?
@Rasa - I have thought about moving the navigation bar to make it stand out a little more, but I would have to adjust the layout of every singe page. Are you suggesting I move it for compositional purposes, or to improve functionality? Thanks for taking a look!
Dec 9, 11 2:58 pm ·
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Student portfolio website - feedback please!
So I just finished compiling an online portfolio of my student work (M.Arch - Montana State University) and am about ready to start sending it out to potential employers. Only my parents and a couple friends have seen it, so any feedback or suggestions from all you Archinecters would be very much appreciated. So far, it includes my resume, studio work, photography, and other built projects.
I've been told it can take more than a few seconds to load, which has me fearful that potential employers might become impatient. I'm also concerned that the navigation may be a little confusing, especially for those who are less computer-literate. Anyway, please let me know what you think!
www.gregoryzamell.com
(it is a flash based site, so don't bother if you're using a mobile apple device)
I dont know if this is what you want to hear, but that lagged my browser so much that I couldnt even look through the site. Never had that happen before
Hey Gregory,
I just checked out your website, and there is some seriously awesome work on there! I'm sure you'll get picked up by a company fairly quickly :)
In saying this, there were a few things I think that could be improved upon in regards to your website. Most importantly, I would say that a potential employer would like to cycle through your works as they please, and move back and forth easily. This isn't currently possible with the scrolling system (as far as I can tell?), and I think it would provide a much better 'feel' to the website.
Another point might be to show a couple of examples of full projects that you're really pleased with. This would show your initial thoughts, your concepts, your calculations and workings, and then some renders, which would ultimately communicate your design process and how you work around problems encountered during the design process. If I were looking to employ somebody, I would want to ascertain their working and thinking style from the portfolio they sent me. Have you visited www.behance.net? There are some great examples of project development on there! You should definitely check out this project, even though it isn't an architecture based project. This portfolio, in my opinion, shows a clear design process, a clear workaround of a problem, and clear communication of the designers role in the team process. Yet again, if I were an employer, I would have an in depth understanding of the possible employee and would be much more inclined to hire him.
Also, you have a lot of free space around the edge of the webpage, which to me, personally, feels wasted! You could always make it bigger? :)
But, I stress this, you have some great works in here, and you show a talent and aptitude across a broad range of mediums! I'm sure someone will be overjoyed to employ you!
Hope this helps! :)
-Jack O'Neill
Oh, in reference to the lagging and loading times, I think it may be due to the fact that you have so many high resolution images attempting to enter the screen/travelling in different directions, and therefore it makes it extremely CPU intensive.
Maybe just make them small thumbnails which expand to the high res renders?
-Jack O'Neill
@ BenC - Definitely not what i wanted to hear. According to the statistics of the site, about 25% of the visitors get bounced and I think you were one of them. I have no idea how to fix this since I think it is a server or host problem. There is a lot of data and high quality images which could also be the problem. Can you try one more time and let me know if it happens again? I appreciate you checking it out.
@Jack - The good news is you can actually browse my work by project at your own discretion, the bad news is my navigation system didn't make that clear enough-- so I will definitely have to improve that. If you click the 'DESIGN' tab, you can see seven of my studio projects and clicking the 'GRAPHIC' tab will allow you to view my photography and illustrations. Either way, thanks a ton for the compliments, I really hope you are right!
i know you were asking for tips about your website, but i couldn't help taking a peek at your resume (I review a lot of them). Some may disagree, but for a website, i think you could do without an objective, it would give you more room for content elsewhere. Also, you may not want your references listed on your website, that is your coveted information. If an employer asks for it, then give them the info, but I don't know how those individuals would feel about having all their information publicly displayed.
Best of luck!
Thanks for pointers Dani, those things had never crossed my mind. You're probably right about my references. In fact, I know one of them in particular would have a fit if they knew I put their information out there like that, so thank you for the heads up!
I like your work. The project that's half underwater, super cool. Overall the site looks good.
Love it! The only thing that bugged me are your sketches. You traced photographs. I'll rather see a sketch as more expressive. Again love it. Update us when you get a job!
Thank you Quentin.
And arri, I can assure you I did not trace any photographs. I have been doing field drawing for quite some time now. I guess I can chalk it up to having a very good graphics professor. Thank you for checking it out.
I would consider loosing the flash intro page. Its really a jolt to the system. Its going to give someone a seizure.
Once I made it past that I liked what I saw.
I don't think displaying any of your work in motion, unless it is a POV or something that actually moves is a very good thing. It prevents some one from fully seeing it because they have to compensate for the motion.
Also I would consider rethinking the flash format all together. Flash is dead . http://www.zdnet.com/blog/networking/flash-is-dead-long-live-html5/1633
So many people use mobile browsers, I pads and the like that its a problem and becoming more of a problem. I assume you would like to keep your site around for a while and keep updating it. Think about just using good old HTML. Your a good designer I'm sure you can make something nice in that format too.
Thanks for the feedback Jonathan. I was a little concerned that the images sliding past each other might annoy some people and I think the animation may also be what is causing the site to run a bit slow. A former employer actually said the same thing.
As for the flash format, I'm definitely kicking myself for using it. When I started putting it together (over a year ago), it was the simplest and quickest method. On top of it, I'm paying to host it for a full year. In hindsight, HTML is definitely the way to go. Unfortunately I have no idea how to write script or anything like that. Do you happen to know of any HTML site developing software or platforms? Thanks again for looking!
Hello Gregory,
For me it took over a minute to load even the first image on your website. Then they started coming through, blurry at first and finally (after some spinning circles) they cleared up. I think you have a nice body of work, but I have to agree that the navigation is not the best. I could imagine that your website might get forgotten about while people wait for it to load.
I've been using squarespace for about 2 years now, for customization it is super easy, and once you start feeling comfortable you can start injecting code to change certain things. It is very easy to make a really good looking website from the start, so maybe it's something to consider? http://www.squarespace.com/
Best wishes :)
I would search the net for some tutorials on using dreamweaver. I found some good stuff on Youtube and the Adobe website. That's how I learned. I think the easiest way to go about it is to simply slice apart a Photoshop layout into a grid and then re assemble it, so you can build the functionality, in dreamweaver.
If you really want to create a good searchable site thats easy to update your going to want to use a CSS with the html. Having any of your text in the website as images, which flash is means its harder for search engines to hit.
While I appreciate the desire to create an original website for yourself, It is not an easy thing to do well. Consider what your priorities are. Is web design a skill that you will be selling potential employers? If not your top priority is the display of your work. Something minimalistic, prefab and generic might do that just as well and save you some time. something like squarespace mentioned above could do everything you want.
ugh, flash.
@Stephanie - Thank you for the suggestion! Squarespace might be exactly what I am looking for. I decided to use wix.com-- a platform like squarespace, but flash based. Very easy to make a high-quality site, but their customer service was pretty horrible and now I'm stuck with a site that is painfully slow.
@Jonathan - I originally started out by trying to learn Dreamweaver CS5, but I was just too impatient. It would take me hours to produce something that, frankly, looked like dog sh*t. I only had a few weeks to create the site, so I imagined it would be just about impossible to produce what I was striving for using Dreamweaver.
Thank you both for looking!
I've also taken some of the advice I received and simplified my home page in order for the site to load a little more quickly. Hopefully it doesn't cause any more seizures Take a look at the updated version please!
http://www.gregoryzamell.com
I like that SO much better! Great Improvement.
Your site looks quite professional and is a job well done.
If there was one thing that I could comment on, it would be if you could increase the font size of the project description.I found myself having to lean forward to properly read it.
Also, you could play around with the navigation bar on the left. Have you tried having it maybe running horizontally on the top, or have it run vertically down just like how you have in the design portion e.g studio,fabricate,models.
Otherwise, love your site.Keep up the good work.
@Jonathan - Thanks again for your feedback, I think it looks much better also. Less is more, right?
@Rasa - I have thought about moving the navigation bar to make it stand out a little more, but I would have to adjust the layout of every singe page. Are you suggesting I move it for compositional purposes, or to improve functionality? Thanks for taking a look!
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