For anyone interested in my redesign process.
Now to explain more about my process for redesigning this site, because prospective employers (Hi!) like to see this sort of thing, I’ve been told. So, my obvious objective was to create a site that really makes my portfolio shine, with a look that matches my personality and artistic sense.
Color
Color is something I always keep in mind and love to play with, so I decided to show that with something unique. I wanted to use a real bright palette, but at the same time to not overwhelm the viewer, keeping it on a leash. So the stripes are there, but kept at the edge of your vision. I really like how it worked out, because even at the edge of vision they seem to brighten the whole page.
Layout
As for the navigation and layout I wanted something that was slightly unique to show my creativity, but to still be very intuitive to the user. I feel navigation is hugely important, so I fittingly gave it a huge amount of space, and directly tied whichever page is in view with the content area to show exactly where the user is at all times. What I ended up with has a similar feel to the excellent Meta Design site, which was an inspiration, but that probably isn’t noticeable until after pointed out.
Typography
The font choice is Trebuchet MS, because it’s a very nice font that everyone has, and because I am absolutely sick of every page out there using Arial, Verdana, or Georgia. Aren’t you? Even this stupid Blogger template is using Georgia right now! And also a personal favorite, Myriad Pro for the headers, courtesy of sIFR.
Internet Explorer users get a hidden bonus!
Here’s a screen of what the index page looks like using IE:
It’s pretty self-explanatory, which I would hope so considering how much time I spent trying to not make the warning obnoxious, or anti-IE (even though I do hate IE). Standards-compliant design with XHTML/CSS was something I wanted to do from the beginning because it is way easier than a tables layout, requires less code, loads faster, and is much, much more flexible. I realize that something like 90% of people out there still use IE so obviously for a client’s site I would be much more concerned with fixing these nagging little errors, but according to my server stats 80% of my site’s visitors use Firefox anyway (good for you!) so most people won’t even see it.
What’s next?
The one thing that probably needs to be improved the most is the focus of the index page. Through the process I figured that anybody visiting my site will have heard about it from me on my AIM profile or job application or whatever, and will already know that this is my portfolio site. However, even for those people I figure the index page is pretty ambiguous as to where to go, and the “recent updates” section puts way too much emphasis on the blog, which should be secondary to my portfolio. So that will probably be the next thing to change. But overall this is the best project I’ve ever done and I’ve learned a whole lot these past few months.