The scrolling format is always working, and if you reach the bottom , you either have seen enough or you can click on the thumbs and check out more which I think is a good concept. You get an impression what its all about,
you get an impression of your skill level and what you do, and if more information is wanted, the user can simply progress.
The logo is fine, a little strange that the text is not centered but somehow reasonable however, the triangle is like 1px further on bottom than the text which I would change.
What I dislike is the small text on top. Its just not fun and I have no motivation clicking on them, it looks very dry and like it is work browsing them.
Edit: Browser display bug
Make the text a bit bigger, and that of your logo aswell so that its not as aliased.
If you use a text this size, either retrace it so its pixel perfect or make it
slightly larger, it just dosnt look clean right now
Don't hate me for saying this, but I'm not a fan of the current setup.
The reason is that, I don't like scrolling around endlessly without knowing what I will get to see. Top menu is good, but text isn't as powerful as images (or small thumbnails). So, unless I click on it, or scroll-down, I will not know what is We-Are-Chicago.(male,female,art-style,etc.etc.etc.) The thumbnails you have on your homepage would serve better were they at the top, instead of at the bottom. If they are at the top, I will know what I will see, or if I want to jump to some certain pieces I'm interested in. Each of the project has no thumbnails. CGHub Gallery has thumbnail of each album at the top. For each album, there's 1 cover image at the top, then thumbnails of each images of the album, then those images at the bottom.
Your Home link is half-broken. I suspect you forgot the http:// part in the URL or something of the sort. For the external links to your Facebook, LinkedIn and MailTo, I recommend you set it to open in new tab, instead of taking viewer away from your site. (not everyone always middle-mouse-clicking a link)
I dont hate you, I really appreciate your willingness to chime in.
I get what you are saying. I made this choice this time to make a compromise on structure.
To summarize the three (four?) options I have used and tried now to structure, here we go:
1 - Thumbnails on the front page.
I get why people do this, and this is what I had done till I tried redoing my site. I have big problems with this for my site though. Mainly its that I have basically two types of projects, very small personal projects, and bigger freelance projects. Take We Are Chicago for instance.
WAChicago has right now (will add more images later) 4 characters, male and female adults, male and female children. It also has modular characters, which have something like 15K combinations.
I can throw all of this into a single thumbnail, but it much increases the chances that it will be missed.
The second type of project is my smaller personal projects, which are just single still shots. What is the purpose of making people click once to get through to see a single image that could otherwise be on the front page? I mean, other than organization, which I agree is important, but maybe not as important as getting my work up front.
___________________________________
2 - All images on front, no thumbnails, no project links.
The problem with this is that it can be taxing (like you said pyrzern) to be caught in 'endless scrolling'. Since there are no project links, it means dumping massive projects like WAChicago into the mix, showcasing many characters and outfits, interspersed with single images like my renders.
Not really ideal for me.
____________________________________
3 - Mixture of scrolling and project links.
Tried this one too. People complained that it was confusing having completed artworks intersperced with thumbnails or headers taking you off to the larger projects, and I totally agree. It was my attempt at a compromise of the above two tries, and it clearly didn't work better than either.
_____________________________________
4 - Current. Culling projects for my favorite images, keeping the links, and adding thumbnails to the bottom.
I totally admit stealing this structure from PIOR, who I admire a ridiculous amount, and whose portfolio I love.
The idea being very clearly that you put your best work up front, keeping the total number of images down, and then place thumbnails at the bottom for those who wish to continue clicking.
This one could be said to have the same confusing nature as 3, but it does feel more organized to me, and more deliberate.
I like this ^ setup at most, ur current setup looks like 1998 website of semi famous IT company mixed with modern coffee shop website ^^ it all looks quite messy and busy
I don't mean to be ungrateful to those who redesign it for me, but my questions are mostly about structure and pieces, not actual design elements (unless you want to say things like 'header is too tall' etc.)
Look I don't mind my site being ugly as long as its easy to use, but I'd rather it be my own personal ugly than someone elses.
I'm starting to understand though why design by committee is not a good idea. Everyone has a different opinion of the way things should be, and have valid reasons, which fly in the face of other peoples valid opinions.
My opinion:
- I'm not really feeling the yellow. Maybe move it closer to a brown? Almost like "paper bag" or "light coffee".
- Your banner area is too tall. Move your social buttons under the "About" link.
- The sub-navigation doesn't read as links. I'd make it the same color as the main navigation and use a san-serif font. Size and font-weight are good though.
- Your phone number is in a weird spot and the arrow to the right of it looks like it should do something.
- List your email address somewhere. Maybe under the About button along with your phone number?
- Every image on the home page that's part of a larger project should link to that project. E.g. the large image of the black woman should link to the "We Are Chicago" page. Likewise with the smaller thumbnails at the bottom.
- The page is off center.
It's definitely a good foundation. Nearly all of my crits can be addressed with some CSS tweaks. You've almost got sort of a rustic country shoppe thing going which is why I suggest changing the background to a muted earth tone and I like the shade of red you chose.
If you want some code snippets for things like centering the page, regardless of window size, let me know.
Okay I made yet another design. I tried to keep what I liked about the last design, but streamline it a bit, make it more compact.
I reduced the header, simplified the structure so that all large thumbnails go to projects, small thumbnails just load as an overlay. Removed unnecessary design elements and hopefully made it all easier to understand.
Really appreciate all of the feedback thus far. This has been a pain in the ass project, but each iteration has been better, so oh well.
Ah, maybe i need to produce more work worth uploading, I'll get on it, try to fill them in. I would love some feedback on the work as well, which stay which go etc.
I really like this iteration. Don't worry about the gap at the end, eventually you'll fill it up with more work and you can cycle pieces out. That's exactly what I meant when I said design will drive you insane if you let it.
Things I would add/change:
- The smaller thumbnails load into an embedded image gallery which is kind of jarring. I'd just load them onto full pages like the normal pieces. You can display larger resolutions there anyway. Maybe you could bunch some of them up and title them "Studies" or "Works In Progress".
- Change the color of the navigation buttons to white when you roll over them to make them pop.
- Frame the thumbnail of the girl on the stool around her face, hands, and hair. I love that piece btw.
You might consider adding one color to smaller elements, like links or important text, and leaving the rest monochrome as they are. That's just an idea though. Everything looks really good in greyscale too.
Again, I really like this version so I definitely wouldn't suggest another redesign.
Hey, I love the new design ! If you want, you probably can increase the width of your website. Right now it only takes up like half my screen.
I'm not a fan of lightbox you're using though. (it's kind of blindless next/previous clicking). And lightbox is slow to load. I could load up the whole site with bunch of images in like 1sec. Lightbox takes longer to load just 1 image.
Might want to subdiv her hair a bit just so it appears smooth O o' It's driving me nuts. Same with the thumbnail link from homepage.
Replies
The scrolling format is always working, and if you reach the bottom , you either have seen enough or you can click on the thumbs and check out more which I think is a good concept. You get an impression what its all about,
you get an impression of your skill level and what you do, and if more information is wanted, the user can simply progress.
The logo is fine, a little strange that the text is not centered but somehow reasonable however, the triangle is like 1px further on bottom than the text which I would change.
What I dislike is the small text on top. Its just not fun and I have no motivation clicking on them, it looks very dry and like it is work browsing them.
Edit: Browser display bug
Make the text a bit bigger, and that of your logo aswell so that its not as aliased.
If you use a text this size, either retrace it so its pixel perfect or make it
slightly larger, it just dosnt look clean right now
Yet another design -
http://www.yurialexander.com/
I'd also still love some input into which pieces to keep, which become thumbnails, and which to drop.
Still would love opinions on everything.
The reason is that, I don't like scrolling around endlessly without knowing what I will get to see. Top menu is good, but text isn't as powerful as images (or small thumbnails). So, unless I click on it, or scroll-down, I will not know what is We-Are-Chicago.(male,female,art-style,etc.etc.etc.) The thumbnails you have on your homepage would serve better were they at the top, instead of at the bottom. If they are at the top, I will know what I will see, or if I want to jump to some certain pieces I'm interested in. Each of the project has no thumbnails. CGHub Gallery has thumbnail of each album at the top. For each album, there's 1 cover image at the top, then thumbnails of each images of the album, then those images at the bottom.
Your Home link is half-broken. I suspect you forgot the http:// part in the URL or something of the sort. For the external links to your Facebook, LinkedIn and MailTo, I recommend you set it to open in new tab, instead of taking viewer away from your site. (not everyone always middle-mouse-clicking a link)
I get what you are saying. I made this choice this time to make a compromise on structure.
To summarize the three (four?) options I have used and tried now to structure, here we go:
1 - Thumbnails on the front page.
I get why people do this, and this is what I had done till I tried redoing my site. I have big problems with this for my site though. Mainly its that I have basically two types of projects, very small personal projects, and bigger freelance projects. Take We Are Chicago for instance.
WAChicago has right now (will add more images later) 4 characters, male and female adults, male and female children. It also has modular characters, which have something like 15K combinations.
I can throw all of this into a single thumbnail, but it much increases the chances that it will be missed.
The second type of project is my smaller personal projects, which are just single still shots. What is the purpose of making people click once to get through to see a single image that could otherwise be on the front page? I mean, other than organization, which I agree is important, but maybe not as important as getting my work up front.
___________________________________
2 - All images on front, no thumbnails, no project links.
The problem with this is that it can be taxing (like you said pyrzern) to be caught in 'endless scrolling'. Since there are no project links, it means dumping massive projects like WAChicago into the mix, showcasing many characters and outfits, interspersed with single images like my renders.
Not really ideal for me.
____________________________________
3 - Mixture of scrolling and project links.
Tried this one too. People complained that it was confusing having completed artworks intersperced with thumbnails or headers taking you off to the larger projects, and I totally agree. It was my attempt at a compromise of the above two tries, and it clearly didn't work better than either.
_____________________________________
4 - Current. Culling projects for my favorite images, keeping the links, and adding thumbnails to the bottom.
I totally admit stealing this structure from PIOR, who I admire a ridiculous amount, and whose portfolio I love.
The idea being very clearly that you put your best work up front, keeping the total number of images down, and then place thumbnails at the bottom for those who wish to continue clicking.
This one could be said to have the same confusing nature as 3, but it does feel more organized to me, and more deliberate.
Look I don't mind my site being ugly as long as its easy to use, but I'd rather it be my own personal ugly than someone elses.
I'm starting to understand though why design by committee is not a good idea. Everyone has a different opinion of the way things should be, and have valid reasons, which fly in the face of other peoples valid opinions.
My opinion:
- I'm not really feeling the yellow. Maybe move it closer to a brown? Almost like "paper bag" or "light coffee".
- Your banner area is too tall. Move your social buttons under the "About" link.
- The sub-navigation doesn't read as links. I'd make it the same color as the main navigation and use a san-serif font. Size and font-weight are good though.
- Your phone number is in a weird spot and the arrow to the right of it looks like it should do something.
- List your email address somewhere. Maybe under the About button along with your phone number?
- Every image on the home page that's part of a larger project should link to that project. E.g. the large image of the black woman should link to the "We Are Chicago" page. Likewise with the smaller thumbnails at the bottom.
- The page is off center.
It's definitely a good foundation. Nearly all of my crits can be addressed with some CSS tweaks. You've almost got sort of a rustic country shoppe thing going which is why I suggest changing the background to a muted earth tone and I like the shade of red you chose.
If you want some code snippets for things like centering the page, regardless of window size, let me know.
I reduced the header, simplified the structure so that all large thumbnails go to projects, small thumbnails just load as an overlay. Removed unnecessary design elements and hopefully made it all easier to understand.
Really appreciate all of the feedback thus far. This has been a pain in the ass project, but each iteration has been better, so oh well.
www.yurialexander.com
Things I would add/change:
- The smaller thumbnails load into an embedded image gallery which is kind of jarring. I'd just load them onto full pages like the normal pieces. You can display larger resolutions there anyway. Maybe you could bunch some of them up and title them "Studies" or "Works In Progress".
- Change the color of the navigation buttons to white when you roll over them to make them pop.
- Frame the thumbnail of the girl on the stool around her face, hands, and hair. I love that piece btw.
You might consider adding one color to smaller elements, like links or important text, and leaving the rest monochrome as they are. That's just an idea though. Everything looks really good in greyscale too.
Again, I really like this version so I definitely wouldn't suggest another redesign.
I'm not a fan of lightbox you're using though. (it's kind of blindless next/previous clicking). And lightbox is slow to load. I could load up the whole site with bunch of images in like 1sec. Lightbox takes longer to load just 1 image.
Might want to subdiv her hair a bit just so it appears smooth O o' It's driving me nuts. Same with the thumbnail link from homepage.