On web design portfolios
This entry was posted on November 18, 2007
This site is so simple, yet so effective. The background has a subtle yet striking dark grey gradient, and the soft rounded corners of the div containers make me go weak at the knees. I love it.
This site sounds quite strange when I say that it has a deep blue background with a rainbow and a street light, but when you actually see it, it’s so beautifully laid out, and it works on all (well, all the ones I’ve tried) screen resolutions.
Normally I hate websites that use flash, because of all the bad experiences I’ve had with them. However, this site doesn’t annoy me in any way at all! It’s a rather inverse design, in that the background is the foreground and the foreground is the background. Visit the site to see what I mean. To me it kind of looks like a cushion that has been ripped over to reveal the insides.
Clean, simple designs are always my favourite, and this is no exception. This site also uses green, which is my favourite colour. It’s a one page portfolio and I really like the way in which the separate sections are held together with paperclips.
Valinentina is one very talented Italian! Her site is so cute and colourful, without being over the top. It’s one of the few websites that I would hug if I could. It has stripes, and flowers, and rainbows… It’s so huggable!
I’m currently trying to design my own portfolio and these sites I’ve listed above are just making me depressed and self-doubting. My strengths really do lie with HTML / CSS, and I’ve never been amazing at graphics. Equally, though, I don’t suck, so maybe I’ll go for something really clean and simple. But then, what if it turns out too simple and becomes dull? Aargh, I’m so confused!
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A rant about bloggers who make their own layouts
This entry was posted on November 12, 2007
These days anyone can start their own blog. Some of them choose a dedicated bloghost such as livejournal or blogger, whereas others opt for their own webspace where they can use their choice of blogging engine and have complete control over their layout. Sometimes this can be a good thing as it allows budding web designers (like me) to try their hand at creating their own sites, thus improving their skills and learning along the way.
Sometimes, however, it can be very dangerous. Blog owners in general have an interest in only one part of web design : the aesthetics. Of course, I don’t deny that this is a very sweeping generalisation, because there are thousands of bloggers who take their web designing seriously (and I like to count myself in that group), but, I’m not talking about those people.
I’m talking about the people who come up with layouts using bastardised HTML and consider themselves to be “proper designers”. Customising wordpress / making your own website layout does not make you a web designer. But, I’m not talking about what makes some a web designer either.
What I’m really talking about is whether blog owners are dangerous or not. As mentioned above, most blog owners (the ones on their own webspace) who decide to make their own layouts can often be dangerous. Mention usability and they’ll start talking about how cool their navigation is because it’s made from coloured blobs. Mention accessibility and they’ll tell you how cool their site looks in Internet Explorer (or Firefox, depending on their browser of choice).
A lot of blog owners make very personal choices when it comes to their designs (on everything from tiny fonts, narrow columns, large images, and anything else they like), but where does that leave the visitor? A blogger / webmaster’s personal preferences don’t always match the preferences of their visitors, and this is where the danger starts.
What’s more important - the blogger’s tastes of the visitor’s tastes? To me, it’s the want / need of every blogger to get their writing to as many people as possible. This involves having at least a basic understanding of usability and accessibility and what they mean for you and your visitors.
Unfortunately when it comes to visitors’ needs, our personal preferences have to be put aside. If we could all indulge our personal preferences, my site would have giant green Georgia for the body text, with justified text and a header containing a picture of Zac Efron. Sometimes it’s good when we put our visitors’ needs and wants before our own!
I think the key to understanding your visitors’ needs is to accept that each of your visitors’ is unique, and that none of them are the same as you. I visit my site using Firefox on Windows Vista, but barely any of my visitors view my site the same way. Out of those who do, they probably don’t all like giant green Georgia and Zac Efron, and though I think that’s a shame, I can accept that it’s not what they want.
So there we have it: my rant for the day. Blog owners need to be more aware about the implications that creating their own layouts has for their visitors, and accept that not all their visitors have the same tastes / technology / browsing habits that they do.
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