Portfolio Analysis Write-Up

The decisions on whether a portfolio was successful or not were made according to these criteria:

-Colourscheme
-Layout
-Navigation
-Signposting
-Description
-Detail level

The successful portfolios were designed in a way that reflected their content, and had a clean layout that was well signposted and easy to navigate. There were different levels of detail, but they were successful where all required information was easy to access and it was easy to access more information i.e. zoom into a photo or see a description if desired.

The layout would have been well balanced and even, and there wouldn't be any unnecessary 'clutter'

Corporate Portfolio: Bad

http://www.ripe.co.uk/

On opening the homepage, a video loaded and music started playing which was distracting. It would have been much less intrusive if the video was set to 'pause' with the option to play it if desired.

To get to the portfolio, there is a small 'our work' icon at the top left of the page. Once the page opens, there is a 3X2 grid which is slightly misaligned. The the top left spacing is a short description with the strapline 'Our ultimate goal is to produce work that works'.

The work is divided up into five headings: Branding&Print, Web Design, Exhibition&InStore, New Media&TV, Property. Next to each heading is a logo which seem pointless as they add nothing to the design, and de-balance the layout. Some of the category descriptions seem to be written by someone that is trying to sound impressive i.e. 'More and more, people are moved by moving image. That's why we've become specialists at...' but the grammar doesn't seem quite right and they seem to be more interested in creating some sort of pun by using the same word twice. The site uses the word 'move' quite a lot probably to suggest being progressive and influential.

The main problem with the layout is the lack of signposting: to navigate through each category, there is a number to click but there is no way to find out what each number represents until it has been clicked. If a potential client wants to find a specific piece of work they would have to hunt for it. The designer could have gotten around this by creating a rollover on the numbers i.e. where you hover over the number and it changes to a heading. This would keep the layout neat, and make it easy enough to access places quickly.

With most of the pages, a video and music track greets the viewer without prompting. The video isnt a problem, but the music is distracing. It just seems unnecessary as it is essentially a slideshow of words surrounded by vector animations and clips of helicopter shots of big cities and people. It is meant to look impressive with lines like 'life enriched' and 'a kaleidescope of firsts for a city aiming to be number one', but they don't really mean anything and don't make much sense.

In the 'client list' tab, there is a grid of company icons, but a potential viewer can't click through to view the work by clicking on an icon of a brand that they are interested in. There are far too many icons for one page so it fades through to different sets every 10 seconds. There is no way to get back to the previous list; you just have to wait until it cycles round.

Corporate Portfolio: Great

http://www.jkr.co.uk/

I chose this porfolio as i did some work experience there and i remember spending ages on the site looking at the work despite not having that much interest in packaging design. It has since been updated, but i still think it's fantastic. It seems to be effective in interesting all possible audiences

It shows how dark colours can be implemented well, and i love the off-centre navigation. The navigation headings are also fantastic. The juxtaposition of the peacock with the b&w pidgeons works very well. Something also crossed my mind: the tone of the black is probably about 90% and i remember a graphic design tutor telling me that you should never use 100% black in graphic design as it looks too stark and i'd agree.

The jkr logo has vivid colours running behind it which creates a nice effect, and the transitions between the different pages of navigation is smooths and animated. The list of works is animated and the rollover is a different colour. When you move your mouse off the navigation, it gradually blanks out.

When you click through to a project, the navigation bar moved, and it takes you to an animated backround with the product in the foreground.It just looks clean and professional. It isn't overly complicated and the flash work doesn't take long to load.

Alternate Portfolio: Raimo. Great

http://picasaweb.google.com/RaimoLK

This porfolio is well organised with standard picasa thumbnails. They are titled up, and clickable, arranged by recency (which you can change in the options).

What i found fascinating is how the images in this album http://picasaweb.google.com/RaimoLK/PhotoDiary2010OnePhotoEveryDayProject2010# are tagged by temperature AND date. I have never seen that information before on a portfolio, and it made me think that there is non-standard information that you can put in a portfolio to make it different. Not only the design of it, but the content.

Alternate Portfolio: Melvin. Bad

http://picasaweb.google.com/melrichardsonmbe/BridePhoto/#

I got to this porfolio via http://www.cicibridal.com/bridal-dresses.html

They do not host any of their images themselves, instead when you click the gallery link, it takes you to picasa. Then you select the dress you like and email the reference number. There is no information about the dress, and the filenames themselves are simple i.e. 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b... etc.

I can see how flickr would be useful for small portfolios, but there are 328 images not arranged into albums or organised in any way, and after 2 seconds of scrolling everything looks the same. This wedding portfolio is much better http://www.foxglovegowns.com/portfolio/portfolio.htm although there are uneven spaces and image sizes.

I decided to look for good examples of portfolios on picasa and i will blog my findings soon...

Alternate Portfolio: Aris Roskam. Bad

http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/a/arisroskam/

This independent Artist Website is a sales platform, but the users can create porfolios which you can then buy via paypal. It's called a 'porfolio' but it looks like a standard shopping site layout but when you click through to the item description you get more information than you would get on a regular painting e-shop i.e. http://www.numasters.com/artists/view_artwork.asp?item_id=1076. The artist bio is on the left and you can get exhibition, member details and contact info.

I dislike this portfolio mainly because it looks like a shop. However, it is easy to navigate and images load up quickly. The site itself looks unprofessional with an outdated design, simplicity and colouscheme. This to me is counterproductive as i'sd never buy anything from there as i wouldn't want to put my card details into it. It just looks outdated.

Further personal portfolio links

http://marykuper.com/portfolio/

I like this because it has a thumbnail browser to the left and the full sized images are on the right (no popup portfolio links)

http://siobhanmcguire.com/index.html

I didn't mind the dark colourscheme as it seemed to go pretty well with the quirky animation on her site. However, if i created a portfolio for one piece of work, i'd title it with the name of the piece of work rather than calling it 'my porfolio' as it makes you look slightly limited. i'd say it was 'by me', and then create contact and about me links.

http://www.ndesign-studio.com/portfolio

I love this porfolio although the wordpress publishing tool has been it somewhat into a blog in certain places. The design of the site means that you'd guess it is for an illustrator even if the work itsef was blanked out and i like this. Since my work is interactive and in flash, i'd like to have the design of it reflect this. However, i am aware of it affecting page loading times and flash animations can be a bit laggy. See the image viewer on ASOS here: http://www.asos.com/Asos/Asos-Floral-Culottes/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=917199&cid=10256&sh=0&pge=0&pgesize=20&sort=-1&clr=Print I'd love to use a flash based image viewer with smooth navigation, but it is laggy on my netbook (it is better on my desktop but it shudders a little and the transition isn't always smooth when i have other programs running!).

The designers work is tiled, with a description below the titles, but once you click through to the full size page, the work is allowed to speak for itself.