Personal Portfolio Site

too much flat yellow- this is striking.. getting attention still not appealing.. !! do a milder yellow and/or add some texture to give the yellow a character- kill the flatness.. it is not bold- it is screaming.

your name on top.. why that has to be THAT big- the font u have (over)used is also not that readable.. i don't think everything on this page should use the same font.

about and contact links- they i assume are two different links- but they look together- like one big link.

make navigation more prominent- you have everything else screaming on the screen except the most important stuff- the navigation buttons- see how tiny the next and previous icons are.. they can go bigger.

if this is your portfolio- we would like to know who you are.. add some introductory text about urself here.

You said you wanted to "keep it simple and jump in their face."

This site definitely jumps in your face, but I'm not sure that's such a good thing. As others have commented, the yellow is way too hot. I want to dial it back or flee from it.

In terms of keep it simple, well, maybe not so much. There's a limited amount of information, but the font is difficult to read, it's way WAY too large (like a TEXT MESSAGE IN ALL CAPS!!!). So I would suggest toning not only the color but the font down as well.

I like bold. I like jump in your face. But not so much that it makes the receiver jump away. Your job is still to be engaging somehow, not offputting.

The elements of this site are just all over the place. I'm kinda interested in seeing your work, but I don't think I'd stick around long enough to do so. After all, this is a portfolio site and I care more about your examples than I do your philosophy. I find this self-indulgent ("my writing" - ios this a blog?) and a little immature. It's like you invited me over to your place but you've got your music on too loud and we can't have a decent conversation.

I may be lame, but I have no idea what the bottom two links are (forrst? arthrow?) so I must be way out of it or really missing something. But are these part of the main message you want to convey or are they really secondary? Shouldn't "contact" and "about" be more important? As it is, they seem like afterthoughts.

So at the end of the day, I still don't know what you want - are you looking for folks to get excited about working with you? Are you wanting to make it easy for them to do so?

I don't mean to be harsh, but what's cool about this site is getting good feedback and there's no use in softpeddling my opinions. Good luck.

Hi Benjamin,

I like your design from the layout perspective but I have these for you:

Firstly it is not clear what you are into on the landing page of your site. Are you a designer or a coder or both? (your works and writings are not enough to winning a first time visitor)?

At least there should be blurb about you on the home page without the user visiting the 'ABOUT' page.

Secondly, the colors (black and yellow) seem not working could another pallette work?

With respective to current site online, it has some good IA and it would be nice you stick to that or improve upon.

Thanks and hope this helps

I'm sorry but I REALLY don't like this site.

It is VERY hard to look at with those colors and the font is unreadable. The whole site makes me want to click away from it as soon as possible.

I love the idea of having the thumbnails of your work.

I would also want to see what differentiates you from other providers on the front page. Grab me with your "why you" message.

Good luck with your business.

Renaye

Hello Benjamin,

I agree with the first comment. There doesn't seem to be any hierarchy of the elements. It looks like everything is screaming "I am most important".

Part of that may be what your going for with the black and yellow color scheme, however, your 'my work', 'my writing', and the right col headers are all the same size, basically making everything of equal importance. Your work, and writing are significantly more important than your twitter feed (I would suspect), so they shouldn't be given the same weight on your home/splash page.

With all of that, the 'About/Contact' tab is almost lost.

I am one for simplicity, and we all supposedly know what to do with a twitter link, but the right rail, IMO needs some sort of 'context'. "Connect with me on these Social Networks" or, "Other places I can be found", just to clarify what you are asking your users to do.

On the portfolio window, I would enlarge the opening window, or shrink the piece being displayed (not the best option) so that you are not covering, or even remotely interrupting the portfolio piece you are showing. i.e. your back/ forward yellow boxes actually cover a part of your displayed piece. In this instance, not a huge deal, but, your work should be shown as clearly and unobstructed as possible.

In all, I think a good start, and only some tweaks to get it where you are wanting to go.

I agree : be simple and straightforward.

But : use readable fonts.

Like the colors, the simplicity but again...use standard widths and heights for the thumbnails (the golden ratio)