navbgfx ;]

[navb01]

I decided to make a digital portfolio not alot of work on it yet just figured out some of the coding after I made the design

what do you all think?

www.navbgfx.com

[Chris]

I'll give you a good critique in a bit. Getting ready to eat. I'll be back.

[Bob_magic]

i had a look at your site. it's a work in progress but it looks really good!

[bluesgurl]

Great Site. Hoping to see what it'll look like when its finished
Haha I wouldn't be allowed to share so much information about myself.

[Chris]

My thoughts:

Color Palette
A little scattered in some places. For the most part you stayed consistent (although to get a good overall feel, you should use at least 3 different colors). There was one color (for the "updated ##/##/##") that was only used once, and it looked like it was totally opposite the cyan. So that part threw me off bit. Like I said before, you should choose 3 rounded and nice colors (or 4 for comfort) and distribute them evenly. All the relative elements should use the same color. If h1 is red, then h2 and h3 should also be red. You will say that there are 3 colors (and even 4) in this design, but I'm talking about distinct. Just for kicks, go to a site, say microsoft.com, and see how the colors they use are distributed, and are often vibrant. This isn't by any means a good example, but you can see just how important it is to manage your color palette.


Graphics
You could play the minimalistic card and get away with it, but the header really detracts from the design. Honestly though, with a slightly different site layout, the header might work. But the "graphics by" section really needs some love. It's the only element that is starkly contrasted from the background, yet its just a subtitle! And your logo / name / title is nowhere near it! Generally, if you're going for a supplementary subtext or addition, they need to be semiclose together, so that the user doesn't have to waste time wondering what it says or what it means. I myself had to look at the titlebar before I realized why there wasn't any text next to "Graphics by". You want to leave a certain dignity to the viewers, because they expect a similarity in everything when it comes to design. More work for them means less interest in the things that matter, like content.


Layout
Here's where I think you need the most improvement. For starters, I dislike the fact that you have a full nav at the top, but there's only one link that is hooked to a page; index. The rest either don't work, link elsewhere, or link right to your email. I would definitely suggest building up your site a little bit, so that you have a need for a navigation. Because right now, you could do the same thing Jeff did (jsoosiah) and work with a one page layout that doesn't need a navigation bar). Otherwise, get that worked on!

The next thing I saw in the layout aspect was the header titles. All of your content uses correct capitalization, yet the headers are the only things that are not. They are also HUGE, and take up alot of uneccessary room. You really don't need to make those headers images because it looks like a web-safe font. You could save time and space (and load time) by killing the images, and making those styled text headers. I also wouldn't center them (for continuity reasons).

There is alot of awkward spacing in the layout. I guess this is just because of generous margins / padding, or lack thereof. It's always a good idea to work with 0 margins and padding and then once all the elements are on the table, then go back and adjust everything so they fit just right. In this instance, the leftcol and the rightcol elements are really spaced out from the container, but inside them, the content is really close to the edge. You want to be even with padding and try to space things out proportionally. If you are going to use 4px spacing from container to leftcol, it wouldn't hurt to use 4px spacing from leftcol to content. All this does is improve the flow of your site. A cramped feeling emits a sort of messy aura. I feel this more than others because of a military background, but imagine walking into a disaster of a home, and you're used to a nice and tidy one. You cringe, wink one eye, etc etc. That's sort of what I get with this. There's just alot you can do to clean things up and give them that professional 'gloss'.

The next thing I wanted to hit on was the thumbnails section. Why is it so far down?! Kill the space between the 2 divs and apply the above to the heading. I was telling someone once before, it's a good idea to give someone a well-rounded access to your portfolio, but once you do, you need to ensure that the viewer has a good knowledge of the work being shown. In your site, I don't really know what you did for each, or even what they were for. What I mean to say is, you should give definitive information about the pieces, so the user can leave your site informed about the work you do, as well as how much you were involved. A client or employer will see these things as vital information.

The last bit of advice I would give is to knock out the image for the copyright, and make that text too. When you're going for readability in images, you need to ensure that small text is set to no antialias (aliasing is the effect of smoothing edges to take away the pixelly appearance of fonts) so they don't blend together or blur, sort of what they are doing in your copyright text.


Overall, you did a nice job, and I can see you have the potential for improvement. The obvious thing is that you will always improve with time, and there are some things you can only learn through experience. So hopefully you take in some of this advice and incorporate into your future designs. I like where this is going, I just hope you have the motivation to improve.

Gj nav

[navb01]

hah why thanks guys and solaris... wow your awesome bud

that was a lot of very very helpful information and i think your my new best friend on this site ;P

I really appreciate all the feedback and help you provided me!

this is the first attempt i have ever made at a website so I had to learn some html over a weeks period that was the only html i had ever tried to do.

[Chris]

No problem dude, this is just what I do. If you need any more help, feel free to post here. And post your future work! I'd like to see where this particular project goes.

[navb01]

i think i tried to do a design that was too out of my league im thinking of remaking something and giving it a more simple feel..

plus I need to learn how to code better and how the placement of images works!

[navb01]

solaris what could you recommend i do to learn coding of how to place items on a webpage, i think I did it wrong on mine ;[

[Dr D-Mento]

Lightbox is becoming very popular... I used to use that back in like 04 / 05... good stuff though. I can comment more when I leave work...