This project really has been a labour of love, after months spent in the design stage and another month or so in development. I always find designing for myself is the ultimate challenge and would really appreciate some (honest) thoughts in terms of the UX. Your time is appreciated!
I’m still working on the projects and content, but there’s enough in there now to get a good feel for it. There’s also a “secret” page if anyone finds it.
Few rough edges: Favicon needs updating, the VH section sizing is posing an issue on iOS, the mobile menu seems slightly buggy, but can’t put my finger on why. Still need to do some more testing / smoothing out rough edges.
Joe
Thanks to @Blaise_Posmyouck whom I learned the fading background interactions from (through looking at his work). Just what I was looking for to give it out some depth. You can find his work here:
Hey there Joe, website’s looking freshhhh, great job!
Really like the gradient background on top, feels very vibrant and fit well with the rest.
Not a lot of feedback, but just a couple of things I quickly noticed:
On of the first pages in the scroll view is an image of you. You repeat the same image somewhere on the bottom which almost feels like an error (or laziness ). I would change one of the backgrounds OR get rid of the ‘Boo, it’s me’ section: it doesn’t really add a lot, since you also have the explanatory text right after.
It took me a couple of minutes before I noticed that there was another WORK page, the one you get to from the navigation. Maybe I just overlooked it, but I wonder if you actually need this, since you already have your features work on the home page. But that might be personal preference, just think about it for a couple of seconds.
I was hoping the image of me might give people something to connect with. A face, rather than just graphics and text. More like real life, eh? I’ll see if I’ve got any other photos to replace it with, but I remember being fairly limited with good quality ones.
I was considering adding a “see all work” button, below the feature works. So that answers that question… I certainly need a “work” page. I’ve still got more projects to add.
That’s a good point actually, changing the “boo” to my title, or something more relevant.
I really wanted to have a picture of myself up there at the front, something for people to connect with rather than just graphics / imagery. They might not scroll to the bottom in every case, do you know what I mean? That was the thinking behind it anyway.
I’ve picked out another image, but I’ve only got a limited selection of those that are suitable…
I just have 2 comments. Now that IX2 is on, I would try to use the page scroll interaction for the background changes to be more smooth, in my opinion are a little rough now. And in the mobile version I would take out the word “menu”, I think that everybody understands what the hamb menu is about. Oh and in mobile, when I get out of the menu, the button stays in black, I think it is because the hover state or something.
Well done! There’s some great ideas here and very well executed. You definitely put a lot of work into the site and it shows. I especially appreciate how succinct the personal info is. I’m so tired of those portfolio sites where people ramble about how they drink single origin espresso and are “creative problem solvers”.
The portfolio is in great shape as it is, I think the rest is just polishing to make it friggin amazing.
Transitions between sections on the homepage could be more cohesive. I expected the section below the gradient background to fade, or have some of the gradient colors in it, etc.
Would be nice to add navigation dots like tumblr.com to the homepage to help orient users.
No “you are here” indicator in your main navigation…don’t be that guy!
I missed the navigation entirely on the first pass…but I also think it’s ok to do something a little different and anchor it to the bottom.
Not sure what “Boo” means…thought it was your name lol, but it made me laugh.
Thank you Darius, your thoughts are appreciated! Especially the feedback on the content itself.
It was a bit of a bugger, I’d done most of the site when IX2 was launched. I spent considerable time working on the transitions but couldn’t seem to get them exactly as I wanted them.
The navigation dots are a good idea.
The active link in the navigation does turn black – but you’re right, it doesn’t stand out quite enough. As for missing the navigation, it may sound a little dumb, but I’m not too concerned… I was considering trying it in black, which would give it more presence / visibility…
“boo” was really intended to be more of a friendly greeting. It’s something I do actually say. Glad you found it amusing
I kept noticing that (the menu button staying black) – whilst it didn’t appear for others that I asked. Thank you for pointing this out.
As for “menu”, I decided to put that in there for those who might be less familiar with that kind of navigation. More for ease of use, rather than aesthetics.
Short, cool (the simple bg swap on scroll just works, well calibrated), fun, 3 selected works of quality, easter egg… everything checks out I like how it’s effective and fast to browse entirely. Kudos for the dead simple 4 pages structure, each work page is also the “projects” menu as soon as you’ve pressed the “view more projects”.
I like it!
). I would change one of the backgrounds OR get rid of the ‘Boo, it’s me’ section: it doesn’t really add a lot, since you also have the explanatory text right after.
