Hi Guys,

 

Firstly, I am relatively new to this forum so hi to all. I have been involved with web for almost 10 years but to the detriment of my web skills I have worked for a radio network as a web designer and so have been isolated really from the mainstream web world and things seem to be moving really fast. I was made redundant a few months ago due to my job being moved to another location and I am finding it really hard to get a new job so I have made a start on a portfolio type site and when I say start I really mean start. I would love to hear what all your thoughts are on whether I am going in the right direction with it or not as there are some really talented people on here. My main strengths are flash, fireworks, illustrator and photoshop although I also use Dreamweaver etc too (but I have been working with a content management system for years). I have had a couple of interviews and seem to be falling short on the technical side of things which I am hoping to address soon. Really desperate to get back into work and I suppose getting my portfolio site right is the best start. Any feedback negative or positive is really appreciated!

 

start of my site...

http://www.barrygemmell.com/

 

and going to add this content in somehow soon too...

http://www.barrygemmell.com/cv/work_examples.pdf

 

ps I am going to do a bit more with the keyboard and mouse if I continue with this style of site but only after I get an idea of people's thoughts and sorry for almost writing a book in this post!

Your skills in flash seem really good but I'd recommend not making a full site with it as search engines just wont find it and accessibility isn't so great.

 

I'd go html/css and use something like the magazine as a feature just to show off your flash skills

Make a simple, no frills xhtml version of the site and hide it/put it in the NOSCRIPT section. That way you're able to keep the snazzy flash site without any of the drawbacks.

 

Note: Google can index flash.

 

http://www.flashnseo.com/

 

and

 

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&q=site%3Aflashnseo.com+%E2%80%9Ctext+1+in+static+field%E2%80%9D&btnG=Search

It might be a personal thing but I hate flash sites for this kind of purpose, providing informative. An artsy site can afford to be a little quirky (like this incredibly weird jim carrey site), but you want to inform people and convince them of you skills. Your portfolio is supposed to do that, not necessarily the flashiness of the site.

 

The navigating in this form is a pain, not fast, intuitive or ergonomic enough. The motion within the site is clunky, if I view the site full screen on 22" I get to see the background image 4 times... and the design needs a lot of refinement.

Hi,

 

I love the Flash, I think this design has a potential, but it needs some overpatching.

 

I would add something like a page navigation interface that could give a possibility for quick jump to a needed page by page number or to table of contents (BTW, where is it?).

Hyperlinks should be more obvious (color, underline) and react to onmouseover event. You could also add a preview pictures for the projects you have made.

When I click on the magazine, it turns a bit, moves to right and... lays down on the mug with coffee! Definitely it is not the best move.

Opened magazine covers all visible desk surface width from the left edge to the right one. I woudl leave a small gap there and add shadow under the magazine.

 

By the way, you could make all the objects on the stage (mouse, keyboard, mug) draggable and animate the scene with some moving objects (cockroaches maybe. La cucaracha, ya no puede caminar... Joke.) What about a cactus?

 

Hope this helps.

Thanks guys I appreciate your advice on this. Any advice whether critical or non-critical is still good in my eyes.