Portfolio

[andrecb]

Hi, I've Just uploaded (still testing version) my online portfolio.

tell me what you think

Portfolio


P.S. It has sound

[BabetteKD]

Pretty good. It loads fast for a flash gallery. The music choice is very good, not distracting but rather encouraging while you browse. The only thing I would change is a contact page or make the e-mail address clickable.

[Indigo November]

I like it. I agree with BabetteKD, the email address should be clickable.
Otherwise it's pretty good, it is a bit annoying that on the gallery page the pictures at the top will move when you move your cursor even if your cursor is at the bottom of the page.
I would like it better if the pics only moved when the cursor was directly above them.

[LeeR]

I am a big believer that you are better off showing just ten stunning shots then 100 so-so shots with 10 stunners mixed in. You appear to have whittled your selection down pretty well with only one or two I think I would drop. (I wouldn't post two of any scene unless they were BOTH eye-popping.We don't need the distant shot of the church, which is a great shot, and the steeple, which is not so great. And we only need one of the musicians.) Aside from that, I think your portfolio does a good job of showing us what you skill level is, and what we should expect if we were to hire you.

[sybren]

You don't have ********** detection, so when I visit your portfolio site it's broken. I have to allow ********** (I use the NoScript extension of Firefox so that JS is blocked by default) before I get a working website.

I would definitely remove the sound. Some photos look a little over-sharpened. Also I think it's a shame that your website doesn't scale along with the browser window. This should be trivial to do with Flash. Maybe you should think about removing the "home" page, and put that photo as the first photo of the gallery. That'll be one less step for people to take to start browsing your gallery, so more people will do it.

Aside from that, I agree with what's been said already.

[sybren]

Oh, the forum thinks "Java Script" without a space between the words is a swearword or something, and blocks it with *******.

[andrecb]

thank you all for your comments, much apreciated

I'll take them in consideration.

the photos are updateble, so whenever a better photo comes it will be there replacing the less grate one

I will not remove the music, in my opinion I think it fits with the site and the photos. maybe after a few views of the portfolio I get tired and take it out

[sybren]

It's your website, but I would really reconsider your opinion on the music. You don't create the portfolio for yourself, you create it for your visitors. Most people I know will instantly close a website that starts playing music. From New Top-10 Web Design Mistakes: Reader Comments (Alertbox Sidebar)

Audio is Intrusive
Alistair Nicholson, Principal Consultant with e-strategists, writes:

Those designers that play a sound file without choice immediately a page is displayed lose traffic from every worker in an office situation with an advanced workstation with speakers. If my computer starts playing music, those around me are likely to assume that I am just playing games. At the very least, it lowers the credibility of the information, and in the increasingly common cubicle "farms" is disruptive to those around me. I immediately back out of such a site, and then consider if it seemed so valuable that I should adjust my sound level and re-enter, or just go somewhere else. The situation is quite different when a click is required to fire a sound file off, and I can make a choice.

Jakob's reply (Sybren: this is Jacob Nielsen, website usability pro): Auditory interfaces differ from visual ones in many ways, including the fact that the ears are "always on," whereas the eyes may be directed elsewhere (not at the screen). This property makes sounds good for alarms and for subtly communicating progress on background tasks. Sound waves also have much further reach than screen images which can be used to interface with users who are in a different part of the room than the computer. All good things that should be employed more in user interfaces.

But these same fundamentals of sound also make it highly annoying and intrusive when played in a multi-person environment. The current use of sound files attached to Web pages typically has very little communicative value and I advise designers to take Alistair Nicholson's comments to heart and think of the poor cubicle-dwellers.

As I said, it's your website, but if you're looking for ways to improve, this is certainly an important one.

[andrecb]

... If my computer starts playing music, those around me are likely to assume that I am just playing games....

If you have nothing to hide and you are not lazy at work, do not "pretend" you are working instead of really working, you have nothing to worry when a soft music starts playing, you can work at the sound of music, at least I can.
they are talking here of the menu sound those "bleep bleep" and "poing poing" when you pass the mouse over a menu, that seems like playing sound, a soft guitar playing does not seems like playing .

its My opinion. I

[theArchitect]

I agree with sybren's comments - you shouldn't rely on a user having java-script turned on - unless I'm particularly interested in your website I'll just close it and you will have lost a potential client. Especially as your non-********** page contains essentially nothing, there's nothing to encourage me to enable java-script.

The Flash on that page also doesn't seem to auto-play - (I had to click play in the context menu).

Auto-playing sound is a bad idea. If a web site auto-plays sound, 95% of the time I will close it - meaning you lose a potential client. It's not because I'm pretending to do work, but if I have my speakers turned on it's usually because I'm using them for something - music, DVDs, games etc. I don't want to be disturbed by something I didn't choose to listen to.

If you want to provide sound, it has to be the user's decision to turn it on.

Hope this helps.