Hello everyone, this is my first post on this forum (except in the introductions forum)

I would like to see if any of you can give me any advice on my portfolio.. I am about to complete a 6 month full time course studying web design here in England and as part of the school we needed to create our portfolio, as I do 3D animation as well I put the two together into one site.. it is nathanfelix.com (sorry cant post links until i get 25 posts.. lol)

 

Any advice is very welcome

I like it. I only viewed it on an iPhone so dunno about the layout on computer but it only filled half my screen. Wasn't really a problem though when I blew it up. I really like the template you did for your campus thats very nice. The only critism I could give it is the colours of the homepage didn't scream out web design. For me they look a little dull but just my opinion.

Thanks jheg, it should look the same on an Iphone..

 

ye colour is really my area of weakness.. lol it can be so hard to get a good looking colour scheme and then put it in the right places in a design..

Edited February 28, 201115 yr by natholas

Hiya!

 

I like the structure and design! Good work!

 

I use this site for colour scheme ideas!

 

Hope that helps!

 

Matt

Hey, nice simple clean site. It's very nice.

 

On your "3D-Animations > Other" page you have some spelling and grammer errors. Here are the main ones:

 

Water

Iv'e been wanting to do this for a while, simple fluid simulation of water flowing into a cup.

 

M416

A pretty high detail M416 that I modelled just because I wanted to.

This model is abaliable on turbosquid

 

My only tip for you (and it's a tip not a dis) would be to use a word processor to spell/grammer check before putting text into your live site.

 

A good, free, online spell check is (http://www.spellchec...ll_checker.html)

 

Good luck with it all pal

Edited March 3, 201115 yr by AlecIsh

@matt thanks dude. I have never used that site before.. ill give it a try, thanks.

@Aleclsh hehe thanks.. ye spelling has never been my strong point.. I will fix those errors and be more careful in the future..

Hi,

 

I agree with the other guys, the structure is good and clean but the colours let it down a little. The other sites in your portfolio seem a bit more exciting.

 

I can't offer any good advice on colours as I also have a post here asking for some advice on my colour choices!

 

It might also be useful to have a css change highlighting which tab you're currently on.

cool.. i really wish i could just get an injection or something to make me good at picking colours.. lol

 

@mike good idea.. i will do what you suggested (highlight which page you are on)

ok I have changed some css to so that the active page manu item looks the same as the hover state

(im using a sprite image for the menu)

I agree with most of the comments made so far, but I think a couple of really important things have been left out. First and most obviously - typography. That typeface in the header and nav isn't doing you any favours at all - it looks a little amateurish and out of keeping with the feel of the rest of the site. I also think your about me text needs to be toned down a little (choose a dark grey rather than black) and needs more padding and line-height. Similarly, your recent news area needs something to indicate that each of those lines is a link to a blog entry. At a glance it looks like a green list with no real visual cue as to what's going on.

 

Your content gallery has some confusing moments too. The first slide is for professional 3D models and effects and shows a dandelion photograph...

 

Your web design page is thoroughly broken with js deactivated. Your bottom-level animation portfolio pages could do with a secondary nav or breadcrumb so that users who are looking at logos for example, can easily navigate to characters without having to use the back button or click on animation again.

 

And why is the news page grey when the other pages are white?

 

I think your layout has potential with a tweak to the colours and typography, and a little look at js graceful degradation.

 

Thank you for your in depth critique notbanksy, there is allot of great ideas there. I am working right now to fix some of the things you have said. mainly: some of the slides on the home page, everything you have said about the boxes on the home page, the breadcrumbs and the news page background colour.

 

The first slide is for professional 3D models and effects and shows a dandelion photograph...

I will take that as a complement as it is not a photograph but a 3D model that I made. But now that you got me thinking about it I think that I could choose some better images for most of these slides.

 

I have also been thinking of a better way to show the websites that I have designed.. that plugin that I am using now is a bit of a mess.. not just the js but I am just leaving it there until I find a better way of showing off my web work.

 

Let me know if you have any other ideas im loving all this critique I have been getting and it is really helping me to make my site better.

I will take that as a complement as it is not a photograph but a 3D model that I made. But now that you got me thinking about it I think that I could choose some better images for most of these slides.

Wow - that's a realistic model! Very impressed!

 

You're welcome, glad you found my comments useful

what do you think of this redesign?

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-2rRkFZdnFP8/TXALY7CKs5I/AAAAAAAAAb8/gWhw05DdyG0/s1600/recolour1.jpg

Edited March 3, 201115 yr by natholas

what do you think of this redesign?

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-2rRkFZdnFP8/TXALY7CKs5I/AAAAAAAAAb8/gWhw05DdyG0/s1600/recolour1.jpg

 

With the number of colours in the site, plus the focus is drawn to the centre image, I would drop the heavy textured background and go for something very plain and close to white. It's a bit distracting. But as I said, I'm no expert on colour schemes.

thanks for the post mike. I will try making the background more subtle. Any input on the colours in general? I am hoping to do this "recolouring" or whatever the right term is this weekend.. and i would hate to do it and then see people posting good critique on monday

no more comments?

Your website (main page) looks simple but having 413.4K size really effecting the loading time.

You should look into image compression.

Thanks ye i really should

Got to say, I like the 3D models, some great talent there mate! Structurally, the website is good and there's a good basis to work on. I see that you're currently learning about web design, and that's always good to see. I think you should look at typography, maybe use a different font for your header image as it doesn't stand out (Google dafont)

 

The colour scheme needs work, and your redesign is slowly getting there. Not a huge fan of the stripe background pattern, but that could just be a bug-bear of mine? Add more content, sub-headers and just generally something for me to read.

 

Have a look at webcreme (dot) com, there is some excellent websites on there that showcase great use of fonts, colours and images. Keep it up mate, you've got a real talent with the 3D models. (They impressed me, anyway)

 

Edit: I realise now, the importance of actually reading a thread. My points have already been made, so I do apologize!

Edited March 7, 201115 yr by Jason Dexter

Ok I have been working on the redesign a little bit.. let me know what you think

 

@Jsson Dexter thanks ye I have been doing 3D for about two years now.. as u can tell I didnt start web design until much later

 

I will think some more about the typography.. (i have dafonts bookmarked)

Edited March 7, 201115 yr by natholas

Ok I have been working on the redesign a little bit.. let me know what you think

 

 

Definitely a lot more interesting mate, I like the header and the N F logo bit. I think maybe round the corners on the footer and had a small stroke to the border to help differentiate between the content and background

Taken your advice

Hi Nathan,

 

The 3D tank looks hectic! A couple of quick observations I think would improve the whole design:

 

1. Bring the navigation tabs and the 2 (currently empty) boxes at the bottom in tighter so the edges line up with the edges of the central banner. Do this with the logo as well. Place a couple of vertical guides on your PSD (assuming you're using Photoshop) to get the alignment perfect.

 

2. Drop the font size down on the navigation. Looks a little clunky at the minute. Squeeze them up a bit and reduce the size of the tabs too.

 

3. Lose the lines on the background. I reckon the lighter gray will look a lot cleaner and improve focus on the main content area.

 

Hope this helps.

It might be quite cool to produce some of your 3d animations as videos and embed them in your website, just to show your animation skills.

@jay all makes good sense thanks.

 

@epicwebs ye I have done a few animations but they are not very good thats the problem I defiantly will as soon as I get better at animations though..

Ok another small update.. got rid of those lines in the background, lined up the boxes at the bottom with the nav and lowered the pt on the menu items to 15

 

 

I have an idea.. might just be pointless bandwidth wasted but what do you think of having a shadow looking thing in the background to make it look like its standing up? Here is a link to what I mean.

Let me know what you think

It's definitely an improvement. Something about the type still bothers me... Have you thought about using an ampersand (&) instead of the word 'and' in the header? Also, the shadow in the nav could be nice, but it doesn't agree with the cloudy background where the light is coming from the top right.

 

I don't think the stand up shadow adds anything, but it doesn't really make it any worse either. Also, attention to the grid in the header would make a big difference to the balance of your page. I think it would look better if the edge on the N in the logo lines up with the edge of the first nav item box.

Edited March 9, 201115 yr by notbanksy

@notbanksy I want to find a better typeface to use in the header/menu but honestly that one of those things that I suck at ill have another look around (and I will fix the things you said about the header)

 

What about Century Gothic? I've always kinda liked that typeface..

Edited March 9, 201115 yr by natholas

@notbanksy I want to find a better typeface to use in the header/menu but honestly that one of those things that I suck at ill have another look around (and I will fix the things you said about the header)

 

What about Century Gothic? I've always kinda liked that typeface..

I have to confess to being a bit of a fundamentalist when it comes to type... I don't actually think it matters what font you use beyond the consideration of serif, sans or cursive. It's how you use it that matters. Century Gothic is a nice face. But so is Baskerville, and so is futura, and so it Gill Sans... So many typefaces, so few websites

 

I'd be interested to see how Gill Sans looks, but it's your site!

I think im done with changing things around. I am probably going to start re slicing and exporting the images and recreating the sprite image for the menu whenever I can find some time (probably on the weekend)

Thank you everyone that commented and gave me great feedback! Ill be back here when the changes are applied.

Peace out.

Looks like a great site and your projects are good. As others had stated, the color scheme is a bit bland, but just work more on mixing high and low contrasting colors and it should really make a difference. All of the disclaimers you have should be a bit smaller in font in my opinion, or in a more creative look. Other than that, great functioning site!

@Harrison Have you checked out the redesign that I did? I am working on changing the colours so please specify if you are commenting on the current website or the redesign. Thank you

Ok I have implemented the changes on my website. only took an hour or so.

Everytrhing looking good? any changes i should think about? http://nathanfelix.com

Thanks guys

Yup, much better now!

Now it is time for the COMPRESSION and CACHE part.

I would rate it as follows

 

Design = 6 out of 10

Coding = 8 out of 10

 

The design is fairly clean and tidy but I would do something about your menu buttons, i would make your header 100% width and use that cloud image as the full width rather than cased inside a fixed width div. I'd also reduce your font size to 12px. If you made the header 100% width I would change your background from grey to a colour gradient which blends into the cloud image.

 

Your contact page needs a bit of padding I think, I tested in firefox and the form elements are stacked right next to the scrolling div

 

As for your code, fairly clean and valid nice job.

Thanks guys, I am going to call the design finished. I am going to try to redesign the web design page, I am really not happy with how it looks now. Ill be back with an update later today.

Ok have a look at this page nathanfelix.com/web-design

I am calling it done Feel free to comment still but I wont change anything anymore (unless you have a very good point)

is there any reason the middle images of the six are about 8px higher? (latest stable firefox, win vista)