Personal portfolio website

[Tim Zhang]

Hi yall, I’m in progress of making my own portfolio website, anyone here made their own without using template? any tip?

[Frank Varro]

I have two, a non-flash and a flash- both can be found at http://www.fvarro.com

The first thing is to set a way to organize the site that will make it easy to navigate both for you and your users. Along with this step comes creating a basic view of the site- where are the menu buttons, where do images go, text, ect… These will influence each other pretty heavily. the Next thing to do is figure out a design that you not only like, but that you know how to code. do you know/have flash? Do you know how to create drop-down menus? Do some basic research and make a test site to figure out both how doable it is on the front end, and how update-able it is. I didn’t figure that out, and now I have my old site that is early impossible to update- thus my new, and very basic for now, flash site.

You really want to story board the whole site out- show it to people- mock stuff up either in html or even just in photoshop so you and others can really see what it will look like. ask what you should change, add,how readable it is, how easy it is to navigate. Once you do all that, then its off to building.

Lastly, don’t get discouraged, and don’t overly rush stuff. make sure things are done right, then post it and get it listed. The last thing you want is to have a site that hurts your chances of getting a job more than if you didn’t have a site at all.

[Tim Zhang]

your website looks really nice. I never done a website before so I am still experimenting, for flash all I can do is a slideshow. Took me an entire night the other day to just center some objects haha

[Lori Molitor]

Mine is rather simple and presents only a sampling of my portfolio. My hope is that this gets me through the door where I would present a more complete picture of my work, customized toward the culture and values of the particular firm I am interviewing with. I’m not actively seeking a new position at this time, so this is mostly a toy. I agree that the navigation should be easy for your user.

http://www.lorimolitor.com

[Lori Molitor]

Let me clarify, while I’m not actively on the job hunt, I’m always interested in professional growth and open to discussing employment with Seattle area firms that may run across my site. =)

[Jennifer de Graaf]

have you checked the portfolio design group?

[nca]

Yes.

Use a template. Learn CSS and edit. We’re not graphic designers. Learning how to use CSS and make a page that displays pertinent information appropriately is hard enough and really all you need to do in my opinion.

I edited a CSS template to the point that I could have just started from scratch, but it was part of a learning process-taking apart and putting back together. I wouldnt go flash crazy, but that just my opinion.

http://www.nickaceto.com

Pretty simple as well. I wouldnt have speant the time building it (whether the countless hours are evident or not) had I not been jobless and bored for a few months.

[Sousuke]

Bluehost!

Sorry, I’ve used them in the past so I recognize their favicon.

[nca]

NR-

These comments are directed at Frank I presume?

[Lori Molitor]

Yes, they are rather inexpensive and don’t bother me with spam. I used InDesign and Image Ready, along with a little HTML to build my site.

[Sousuke]

I like the initial animation. You might speed it up slightly and actually (assuming you haven’t done this already) use it as a part of your preload. IE. If your site takes about 5 seconds to load on an average connection and your initial animation takes 1 second you can adjust your preloader so that the site begins on the 4th second knowing that your early animation will keep people busy for that last second.

I can send you the actionscript if you like, but basically you change the total data loaded to 80%…ie if the file is 1MB you allow the site to start when 0.8MB is loaded.

I mention this because your preload is a bit long, not bad by any means but its worth doing everything you can to reduce it.

[Sousuke]

I liked them too. In fact they were easier to work with then my current host. That being said, when there is a server problem the host I have now is really really good.

[Frank Varro]

Wow guys, awesome feedback!

Sousuke, I hadn’t thought about doing that, but that is a damn smart idea.

NR, nice to hear from you again! A lot of this type of thing is… shall we say… “Pending”. The flash site, as of now, is really just a stand-in site. Used it to learn flash, and hide my old site which, while it is ok, it is poorly constructed on the back end, making updates nearly impossible. A whole site reworking on both fronts willbe underway just as soon as the new aprtment gets some paint up, and my portfolio gets updated…

…so around 3 years from now?

[Sousuke]

This might sound counter intuitive but, I learned Flash before I learned much regarding html and CSS. I started with a Flash how to book in 2007 which I read on the train between Cardiff and Bristol every evening (I tended to sleep in the mornings because I had a cushy Virgin Train on my way to Bristol). Then I story boarded my first site and created it entirely in flash. From there I centered it using the minimal html I understood at the time. I made a few mistakes doing it that way which is why I did a full redesign in 2009 but I learned a lot in the process.

You’ll probably find you like your first site as your working on it but then by the end you’ll have learned enough that you’ll want to start over to create something better.

[Tim Zhang]

http://www.landcraftstudio.com/

this is what i have so far, new to website making… does it bug for anyone? when you hover ur mouse over the grassy part toward the bottom?

[Author]

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