Need feedback on new site: Pixel Patron

pixelpatron

You know the drill, anything I should add/omit? Spelling/grammar errors, suggestions, criticisms?

Prop/assets/texture/breakdowns coming soon, but I need something for the time being.

Thanks in advance.

www.pixelpatron.com

Nosslak

I think it looks pretty good, but there are some things that really should be improved upon:
1. Tabs. When I browse I tend to use tabs a lot, but your navigation prevents it. Please don't use flash for navigation.
2. Clickable images with bigger resolution. You said you were going to add breakdown and stuff already so this might already be in the tubes, but I think it's pretty important. Don't use lightbox for the images especially if the version you're using doesn't support saving the images.
3. Save Image As. AFAIK this is very important as recruiters presumably tend to save down images of possible recruits for later use. Also be sure to add your name and e-mail to these.
4. Faster transitions between sections. I think the transitions between the different sections could be a bit faster. This is just my opinion so feel free to disagree.
5. Skip right to the portfolio. Just skip right to the portfolio as that is whet we're there to see. Presumably you're going to use home for news/blog posts or some such, but that is not what a recruiter is there to read about.
6. The text on the images are hard to read. Make the background more contrasted against the text.

The portfolio pieces themselves look great. Good job on those.

TLDR: Trim down on the flashy crap (flash navigation, lightbox images, transitions) and make the website as easy and fast as possible to use for a recruiter.

vincentvangeel

Just to let you know, with Chrome I don't get any images, just the white tabs on top and a black screen.
With firefox it seems to work for me.

Nosslak

I can see the images fine in Chrome. The first page is empty but otherwise it works for me.

pixelpatron

More breakdowns on the way.....



Added my work from MAG

DWalker

I'd strongly recommend getting rid of flash entirely; it just distracts from your work. Let your art speak for itself. Darkening the image and placing text upon it further distracts from the picture; I'd move the text onto the page itself. Flash also prevents people from saving your images (in a convenient manner, anyway) and sharing them around the office.

I'd probably break the artwork into more manageable chunks, with links from large thumbnails on the portfolio page leading to individual pages for each project. This is admittedly a matter of taste - some people prefer the way you have it in one giant page, but I prefer being able to pick and choose which projects to view. It also lets you have more images for each without over-crowding, and gives you a convenient way to add text about each project.

Remember to put your contact information on the images; there's no guarantee they'll remember which site the pictures are from when they decide to hire you.

I'm not certain the video helps. It does demonstrate that it is an actual level in a real-time engine, but it doesn't show much more than still images would. Also, it let's the watcher see some less-than-ideal things (the bushes, for example, are clearly just a few billboards arranged in a star pattern). And please don't have it play on a continual loop - it should play once and stop, with an option to re-play.

TheMeekon

Lovely work but would have to agree on the flash. It's just really fiddly and frustrating. I don't understand why people use flash for portfolios, it's more effort and just distracts from your very nice artwork.

Memory

I must reiterate what others are saying. Your images get darker when a person mouses-over, and a person can't save any of your images. To me, these are pretty big things you'd want to adjust. Starting immediately on your portfolio page would also be better.

It might be a pain to get rid of flash, or these things on your site, but to make a straight up basic portfolio web page, it would take less than 5 minutes.

alkiloyd

Got some corrections for ya-

Under "ABOUT" tab, about midway through the paragraph you have misspelled UNDERSTAND as UNDERTAND.

Second paragraph, same tab- I think you meant to say "I've met..." not "I've meet..."

Hope that was helpful!