Portfolio: Competitive analysis

Design studio - Frontmedia

The homepage of the Frontmedia website looks very simple and clean on from an initial impression. The logo is small and is placed in the top left of the screen. This links back to the home page, and is the only piece of the navigation which does so. Below this, a javascript based nested list navigation is used, which expands and contracts depending which category is clicked on.

After clicking on web, a large list of websites appears. I think that this list is too long, as the rest of the navigation moves a substantial amount down the page. Also, as several topics can be extended at once, the navigation can run off the bottom of the viewable page at some resolutions. I would have wanted the amount of content reduced, and only the best pieces of work shown if I was a prospective client visiting this portfolio.

At the top of the main body of the page is a Flash based banner which displays various statistics. This uses typography and colour to display various pieces of statistical information, the colour being used to highlight the key point. I liked the use of the dark red, as it provided enough contrast to the light gray, without being too intense for the design of the website.

Below the banner on the main section of the page, the primary information appears. Currently on this page are two pictures, followed by a block of text. I think this text was a little too small, and may be difficult to read. However, the generous leading makes this easier, and has just enough contrast to stop it slipping into the white background. A ‘read more’ tab also appears, and uses the red accent colour used in the Flash banner. I like the way this one simple colour was used throughout the website, as it provides a feeling of consistency.

At the bottom of the page a footer appears under a dotted grey border line, which contains a secondary navigation and the copyright information. A button for increasing and decreasing the font size are included, but only makes a marginal increase in each direction. A dark grey rollover is also used on these buttons, which complements the rest of the website. Again, I like the simple and consistent look, which creates an efficient and clear presence on the page.

This page does validate, but only in XHTML 1.0 Transitional, with 1 warning error. I believe that I will still aim for a strict validation when I make my website.

Overall I think that this website uses a simple and clean layout, which allows the work on the site to be looked at without being tainted by the portfolio design. Even though there are a few small usability problems with the navigation, the site uses features familiar to most web users, such as the nested list. I think that some of the Flash parts of the site are a little unnecessary, and could have been simplified by using images and a random image loader.

Student Portfolio - Harry Roberts

The first thing I notice about this site is how dark the page looks. The background patters is almost indistinguishable from the main body of the page. The part which says “Web : Print : identity” looked to me as though it was a piece of navigation, and not just an image. I do like the strong lime green colour which the site uses as its accent, but I think this may have usability problems. Also, the top of the site is quite a distance from the edge of the page, which leaves an awkward amount of space. If this moved up slightly, I think the whole page would have a more cohesive look, and would show a greater amount of content to entice the user to read the page.

The large navigation buttons look bold and are easy to find, and are well spaced for the size of web page. The green and white colours are used in the article titles, and also in the Javascript buttons which show and hide the article content.

I found that these buttons could make the browser slow and unresponsive. Although I realise the importance of showing technical skill on a portfolio such as this, I question weather that is worth sacrificing usability for in an ever more usability conscious world. Simply organising the file structure better would have allowed for links to other articles, and would have limited the amount of scrolling needed on this page.

In the bottom right of the screen there is a return to top button which slowly scrolls the page upwards. Again, although this is an impressive features, a simple link to the top of the page would have been a simpler and more elegant idea.

When the cursor is placed over the top of an image on the website, a small description of the project appears. This is one part of the site really liked, as it looked very clean and functioned well. It was quick enough to load and allowed me to find out about projects without having to ‘open’ the article to see the content which was hidden away.

The information given about the project is also succinctly shown. The ‘breif’ part simply states what the website or piece of print work was for, and allows the work to speak for itself. I however believe that on my portfolio that I will want a small piece of prose which will sum up the project, but I will consider using this format myself.

In conclusion I think that this website provides a strong corporate identity with its use of colours, shapes and interesting fonts. I do think however that it is slightly too reliant on technologies such as Javascript which I think could have been left out of the design. The site provides a reasonable insight to the work done by the student, and a good representation of the skills which they have.