Final screen designs

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Portfolio screen designs

Below there are three screen designs for my portfolio.

Design 1



Design 2

Design 3

Any feedback would be great, thanks.

Competitive analysis

http://www.gemma-harris.co.uk/

This student portfolio is Gemma Harris’s. The navigation of the website is annoying; it is only a one page site which, when you click a link , just takes you down the page and to get back to the top you have a scroll; after having to do it a couple of times it can get on your nerves.

The layout of the website is good, apart from having it all on one page. When you first get on to the website you straight away see her work, which is good because that is the main purpose of going to the website. Even though it is basic that is kind of a good thing as it does attract you more to looking at her work rather than the website itself, but it could be made a bit more fancy to show off her web design skills. Also Gemma has done more than just web design, so she could have used her website to show off some of her other skills such as photography and film. People are more employable with more skills so that could advantage her and help her get more projects.

The bit about her could maybe be cut down as there looks a lot to read and on the first look it can put you off reading it. She doesn’t really need go into detail about what she did on her courses or how she learnt web design, a brief summative couple of paragraphs would be fine.

Overall I think the website is good but could be made a lot better by having a number of pages instead of just one.

http://www.strawberrysoup.co.uk/portfolio/index.php

This is the professional portfolio. To get this website I searched on Google for web design portfolios then clicked the seventh page just so I didn’t choose from the normal first two pages. This one stuck out to me because of the strange name; I think the company can carry the name off as there is no stupid remark linked to the name.

The look of the portfolio is simple, I like how they have used an image that looks like a cork board with well known companies who they have worked with pinned on it. It gives the idea that if they have worked with well known companies they must be quite good. The colour scheme is linked in with the name of the company, strawberries are red so the colour scheme is mainly red, for the background they have used light red stripes which gives you that bit of colour but not too much, a block of red for the background would have been too strong.

Navigation though the portfolio is easy, the gallery layout allows you to see the range of websites they have created and they are labelled as to which project they were. When you click on the images of the websites you get a good description about each project and it also mentions which skills they have used for that certain project. You can view larger images of the websites and also go on the live website.

Overall I think the website looks good, is very easy to navigate round and gives you a good amount of detailed information about the projects they have done.

Delivery Requirements

To make my portfolio website I will be using a range of programs and technologies to make the site. I will be using the basics like a computer and an internet connection to create the website and make it live. The other important things I will need to create the site are the technologies and programs. I will be using programs from the Adobe Creative suit, such as Dreamweaver to build the site and Photoshop and maybe Flash to create elements for the site.

The technologies I will be using is XHTML (version 1.0) this will be the code that is been used to arrange the content of the portfolio before sorting out the presentation. I will be using CSS (version 2.1) to do the presentation of the website. It makes it easier to keep the web pages looking more consistent thought out the website and easier to make any changes. CMS (content management system) will be used within the website, with it been a portfolio it will be updated regularly therefore it would be easier to have a CMS. IMAP will be used as I would like some way that people could contact me via e-mail.

Also I have my webhosting already set up which means I can upload my site as soon as it is completed and I have my e-mail address sent up so e-mails can be sent to viki@victorialouisefisher.co.uk and my URL is www.victorialouisefisher.co.uk.

Target audience

Primary audience

Educator and potential employer/client

The main purpose of the portfolio now is to pass my assignment and to do this I must meet the targets my tutor has set for that assignment. Also the point of the course is to get us ready for employment so you could say that the other type of person it is aimed at is potential employers/clients.

Example-John-Paul is a 29 year old senior designer and is looking for a new junior designer. He works for a small design company in Huddersfield; they have been advertising and have recieved quite a lot of CV's and John-Paul has the job of going though the CVs and online portfolios to choose people to interview.

Age: 30+
Gender: Male
Occupation: Teacher
Online Experience: Very experienced with the internet
Online Frequency and activities: 8+ hours a day, websites for work for research, informational websites and design websites
Online Location: Work and home
Connectivity: High speed broadband connection

Age: 26+
Gender: Mainly male but female as well
Occupation: Senior Designer / Manager
Online Experience: Very experienced with the internet
Online Frequency and activities: 8+ hours a day, websites for work for research, informational websites, design websites and portfolios
Online Location: Work and home
Connectivity: High speed broadband connection at work and broadband at home

Secondary audience

Students

Other students will be looking at my portfolio to get an idea of my ways of working and what I am like. Also to get inspiration and to look at the kind of thing they could do.

Example- Edward is a 20 year old student who is studying web design, he regularly looks at students and professional portfolios to get ideas on how to make his portfolio look. He also wants an idea of what kind of work he might be doing.

Age: 18+
Gender: Mainly male but female as well
Occupation: Student
Online Experience and activities: Very experienced with the internet
Online Frequency: 8+ hours a day, informational websites for research for assignment work and design websites
Online Location: Work and home
Connectivity: High speed broadband connection at work and broadband at home

Portfolio goals

1. Validate to XHTML 1.0 strict and CSS 2.1 standards
Validating to W3 standards will make the website work well in different browsers and different browser versions, also to improve search engine visibility and gives a sense of professionalism.

To measure this goal I will validate the web site using w3c XHTML and CSS valuators.

2. Validate to WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) Guidelines 1.0
Making the website more accessible will allow the web site to be viewed by a larger audience.

To measure this goal I will use the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines).

3. Easily updatable
With the website been a portfolio it needs to be easy to update so new work can be added regularly. Also my portfolio might need to be edited for job interview to suit the job I am going for.

To measure this goal I will set task to complete that will involve edit parts of the portfolio to test how easy it is.

4. A high search engine rank
The most viewed websites on a search engine is the first three pages, so I want to aim to get my portfolio on one of though pages. The lower the pages number the better.

To measure this goal I will search for my web site in search engines to see were my web site comes up and using Search Engine Results Pages to measure the position.

Flash and Final semester

For my self managed learning plan (SMLP) assignment I have chosen to study Flash and ActionScript. When I came to choosing the subject I wanted to study I didn’t find it hard to choose as the job adverts I preferred were more creative based. I am glad I picked Flash but it would have been good to know about PHP as well. I also chose Flash because I am not that interested in coding so I went for an option that could involve a bit of creativity.

Flash does include coding and I am not looking forward to learning that because it is like learning a new language to me and even though I want to learn it, it gets really frustrating. To learn Flash and ActionScript I have bought some books, usually I mainly use the internet for resources but this time I decided to choose a different approach to learning a new subject. The only thing with books is you can’t highlight them and scribble notes all over but I am sure I can find a way around that.

Employers looking for new web designers usually look for people who are familiar with HTML and CSS for a start, then Java script, PHP SQL and ActionScript3 as extras. So you should at least know HTML and CSS then know at least one of the other technologies but the more knowledge you have of different technologies the better. I think it would be better knowing a bit of all technologies rather than know a lot about just one.

At interview you would look better saying that you knew about a range of technologies rather than just a few. Web design is about learning new things all the time, so even though I am learning Flash for this new assignment it will change, as new versions of Flash will come and ActionScript will get updates, and therefore the new changes need to be learnt.

This college year has gone really fast, I am nervous about how soon it is that I will finish the course but I am also in a way looking forward to it. The first year was a bit different to the second, it seems to be more self-study based now. I have enjoyed doing this course but at some points I have felt really stressed, so will be glad to have a rest for a bit. I am looking forward to being able to design my own portfolio, the previous students have done some really good websites for theirs.

The final presentation isn’t too far off now but I am not that nervous about doing it. The presentation is on my work and my thoughts and feelings about my work, therefore I will find it easier to do the presentation about something I know and it won’t be the same as anyone else's because my thoughts and feelings are mine and no else could explain my work as well as me.

Word Count: 499 words