Entries from February 2009 ↓
View original post found on Smashing Magazine Feed authored by Lee Munroe
February 26th, 2009 — consulting
by Lee Munroe
You may have a personal portfolio website for a number of reasons. If you’re a freelancer, then you’d need one to showcase your work and allow people to contact you. If you’re a student (or unemployed), then you’d need one to show prospective employers how good you are and what you can do, so that they might hire you. If you’re part of a studio, then you might use one to blog about your design life, show people what you’re doing and build your online presence.
A personal portfolio website is all about promoting you. You are a brand, and your name is a brand name. No one is going to know about your brand unless you get it out there; and if you’re a Web designer, developer, writer, gamer or any other type of creative, then it’s essential that you have a good portfolio website.
You may want to take a look at the following related articles:
What makes for a good personal portfolio website?
1. Logo
Your logo is usually the first thing a user sees. In the Western world, we read from left to right, top to bottom, so it makes sense to put your logo in the top left of your website so that users can immediately identify who owns the website.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be your name, but if you’re trying to promote yourself online, then it’s a good idea to go by your name. And always link your logo to your home page. It’s a common convention that users expect online.
Mohit goes by the alias of CSS Jockey.
Jason Reed uses a signature-style logo of his name.
2. Tagline
Once the user sees who owns the website, they’ll want to know what it is you do. This is where you explain what you do with a tagline. Your tagline should be short and snappy, summarizing what you do.
Things to ask yourself when writing your tagline:
- What are you? A designer? A writer? A developer?
- What do you do? Design websites? Develop games?
- Where are you from? Country? City?
- Are you a freelancer or do you work for a studio? Are you looking for work?
Sarah Longnecker makes it clear that she puts together videos and is good at it.
3. Portfolio
This is a personal portfolio website after all, so your portfolio will determine whether the website is interesting or not. People will want to see your previous work to decide whether you’re good or not and for general interest, to see what you’ve been up to in the past.
Depending on what you do, your portfolio should contain big high-quality images, clearly accessible to the user. Always include a link to the live version of the website you worked on, and link your screenshot to the live version (another common convention that people expect). Include a short description for each project, including the different skills that you needed to complete the project.
It’s never a bad idea to get a testimonial from a client. Your visitors might also be interested in the stages of development for your projects and how you arrived at the final outcome.
Leigh Taylor displays nice clear screenshots of previous work and indicates what software was used during development.
4. Services
Your tagline summed up what you do, but you’ll want to go into a bit more detail here about each service that you offer. You can’t expect potential clients to guess what you do based on your portfolio, and you don’t want to leave them wondering whether you offer a particular service or not.
Make it clear, and break it down: Web design, development, video, copywriting, branding, etc. You may want to be even more specific: corporate branding, church website design, Flash banner ads and so on.
Chris Spooner clearly indicates the services he offers for both print and Web.
5. About me
It’s all about you. Let people see the man or woman behind the mask (i.e. website). Share your background, where you came from, how many years you’ve been in the business, etc. The more details you give, the better your users can form a bond and build trust with you.
If you’re not camera-shy, show a picture of yourself. This will give potential clients peace of mind by allowing them to see who they’re dealing with, and it adds an element of trust.
Don’t be afraid to show off your awards and recognition here. You want people to know you’re good at what you do.
Chikezie Ejiasi shows us a photo of himself and even lets us know how to pronounce his name.
6. Contact
This is one of the most important elements of a portfolio website but is often hidden or even neglected. A potential client has browsed your website, is impressed with your portfolio and can see who you are. Now they want to hire you.
Your contact information should be obvious and easy to access; don’t hide it in the footer. Let people know they can contact you for a quote or a chat. Use a form to make it easier for users to contact you (so that they don’t have to take down your email address and then open up their email manager). A form also allows you to ask for specific information, such as name, email address, website URL, details of inquiry.
Stuart Johnston offers clear contact details throughout his website but also provides an easy-to-use contact form.
7. Blog
A blog is always a good idea. Blog about your area of expertise; show you know what you’re talking about. It will help promote you and prevent your website from lying static.
Let people follow you by subscribing to an RSS feed, and show off your most popular blog posts to new readers.
Be sure to enable comments for feedback. Don’t make users register to add a comment to your blog, and don’t use anti-spam Captcha software, which only turns people off from commenting. There are plenty of anti-spam plug-ins available that don’t require users to do extra work.
Chris Wallace uses his blog about Web design-related topics to help out other people in the industry and to engage in discussion.
8. Call to action
Ask yourself what you want to get out of your personal portfolio website. Do you want to be hired? Attract more blog readers? Maybe you just want people to know who you are.
Each page should have a call to action, a “Next step.” The best way to accomplish this is with a “call to action” button that is clear and stands out from the rest of the page. Link it to your blog, portfolio or contact page, and use appropriate language (e.g. “Hire me,” “Request a quote,” “View my portfolio”).
Matthew Brown’s call to action is a contrasting button that stands out from the rest of the website.
9. Use social networking websites
Now that people have an interest in you and your work, encourage them to follow you on other websites. Make it clear that they can follow you on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, etc. Make the most of social networks and have a group of friends to call on if needed.
Sam Brown offers clear links to other websites he uses, allowing us to stalk him.
10. Language and communication
How you conduct yourself is important. Remember, it’s a personal portfolio website, so be personal. You don’t need to sound like a corporate brand with no emotion. Be friendly and personal, but also clear and precise; don’t ramble. Once you write all the text for your website, read it again and see if you can cut it in half.
Marius Roosendaal uses a relaxed and friendly tone on his website.
Other tips:
- Let people know where you’re from. This is always interesting to know, and some clients prefer to work with people nearby or in the same time zone.
- Validation is important, especially for Web designers. If you’re going to be building professional websites for clients, then your own website’s code should at least be valid.
- Link images, not just text. Most people will click on images, expecting them to point somewhere.
- If you don’t have any previous clients for your portfolio, create a WordPress theme, design an icon set, develop a Twitter mashup, etc. You have a lot of possibilities, and there’s a big difference between having one project to show in your portfolio and having none.
40+ beautiful personal portfolio websites
Robbie Manson
F. Claire Scroggins
Timothy van Sas
Ole Martin Kristiansen
Maru Velázquez
Chikezie Ejiasi
Miki Mottes (Flash)
Jakub Krcmar
Mopa
Chris J. Lee
Pedro Lamin
Cartonblanc (Flash)
Leigh Taylor
Alex Coleman
Sarah Longnecker
Toby Powell
Jay Hafling
Elliot Jay Stocks
Tony Geer
Marius Roosendaal
Ryan O’Rourke
<img /> is everything (Phil Thompson)
Leigh Taylor
Design Me (Marek Levak)
Matt Dempsey
Brad Candullo
Andre Augusto
Rob Hawkes
Magnus Jepson
Corking Design (Daniel Cork)
Evan Eckard
Alexandru Cohaniuc
Miles Dowsett
Andrew Bradshaw
Shannon Moeller
Vitor Louranco
Mark Dearman
Wong Yeng Kit
Chris Wallace
Spoon Graphics (Chris Spooner)
Fabiano Meneghetti
Mark Wallis
Chris Morris
Paiko (Heiko Brömmelstrote)
Conan Robbins
Henry Jones
Winnie Lim
Greg One (Gregoire Hoin)
Mark Hadley
David Appleyard
Design Moves Me (Roy Vergara)
Brian Murchison
Mike Precious
Digital Deceptions (Duncan)
Chirag Solanki
Jason Reed
Johnston North (Stuart Johnston)
Penflare Designs (Sean Farrell)
Nine Lion (Chikezie Ejiasi)
Brian Wilkins
Jason Santa Maria
David Hellmann
Guillaume Pacheco
Dave Lam
Luke Stevens
James Lai
Alessandro Cavallo
CSS Jockey (Mohit)
Kerry Nehil
Darren Hoyt
Matthew Brown
Digital Mash (Rob Morris)
The Things We Make (Mike Kus)
Ed Merritt
What do you expect to see on a good personal portfolio website?
Anything important we’ve missed? What would make the difference between your deciding to hire someone and deciding against it?
Further reading:
About the author
Lee Munroe is a freelance web designer from Belfast. You can see his other writings on web design on his blog, or follow him on Twitter.
(al)
© Lee Munroe for Smashing Magazine, 2009. |
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Post tags: design, Design Showcase, portfolios
View original post found on Boing Boing authored by Cory Doctorow
February 26th, 2009 — cool
Artists Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz cast life-sized candles of themselves in beeswax, then watched their waxy doppelgangers melt.
Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz
(via Street Anatomy)
View original post found on The Next Web authored by Zee
February 25th, 2009 — consulting
Today we’d like to introduce to an interesting new CRM web application called Dashboard.
Dashboard joins an increasingly populated market of small business CRM apps including our favorites Tactile CRM, Highrise, Batchbook and PipelineDeals.
The reason why I thought this was a worthwhile mention? Primarily because I’m a sucker for a clean UI, but more importantly because it’s seems to focus on the absolute basics: converting leads to deals.
With just four main sections (dashboard, to-do’s, leads, deals) to the application, Dashboard appears to take the 37signals mentality one step further by making things ultra-clear and ultra-simple. To make the most of the tool, add your various leads, assign the todo’s required to each of them to convert them to ‘make things happen’ and once you’ve sealed the deal – convert them into “deals”.
As you would expect, each lead or deal can have notes attached to them, to-do’s and documents. There is a decent search facility which organises your searches by to-do’s, leads and deals.
There are other limitations, the most obvious being you can currently only add leads into the app manually or via CSV file, undoubtedly, other methods (email!) should be added shortly. There are minor bugs and the app cannot currently compete with the features other established players bring, however the app is free and looks to be so for the foreseeable future whilst new features and functionality are added. If you love your apps clean and simple, this is a must try.
via Carlos Granier-Phelps in The Apps Room on Friendfeed.
View original post found on 123Macmini.com authored by (author unknown)
February 22nd, 2009 — mac
The best media center software for the Mac just got a little better. The Plex team has announced the release of Plex 0.7.8.
View original post found on Immigration Equality Blog authored by Julie Kruse
February 20th, 2009 — immigrationequality
Senator Leahy blogged on his support for binational lesbian and gay couples last Friday after he introduced the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) of 2009:
On February 12, I was proud to reintroduce the Uniting American Families Act, which would allow U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents to petition for their foreign same-sex partners to come to the United States under our family immigration system.
Click here for the remainder of the blog.
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Today, Change.org featured Immigration Equality and our work on the HIV travel ban, LGBT asylum, and our new transgender immigration law manual on their home page.
View original post found on TheAppleBlog authored by David Appleyard
February 20th, 2009 — consulting
There’s no shortage of invoicing applications for OS X, with a notable few including Billable, iBiz, Billings, and On The Job. They all offer different functionality, and may fit your requirements perfectly. However, another contender has recently emerged on the scene in the form of Involer.
Rather than attempting to be a complete solution for project management, tracking time, and storing client details, it sticks to the basics — sending and managing invoices. Involer aims to keep this process as simple as possible with an intuitive user interface and basic invoice designs.
This review will take a look at the main features of Involer, explaining what the app does well and where the areas for improvement lie.
The Interface
The Involer interface takes one of the most simplistic approaches I’ve ever seen. Consisting of four areas: Company, Client, Invoices, and Invoice Preview. While dauntingly sparse at first, you do come to realize that it covers most of the basic functionality you need.
One gripe I had immediately was the lack of any visual hints on how to get started after opening the application. It isn’t possible to actually add an invoice until you’ve entered a company and a client — something which would be easy to explain in any of the empty space when opening the app.
The preferences pane is equally sparse, with only a few options to handle updates and excluding certain items from an invoice.
Adding Information and Creating Invoices
Adding a client and company is as simple as hitting the + icon in the left hand sidebar. This creates a new blank record, which then needs to be double clicked to edit the name. If you don’t add a name straight away, there’s no way of knowing that an empty client actually exists — some form of dialog box to request a client’s name when being added would be beneficial. However, it is possible to import client data from Address Book (limited to their name and email address).
Creating an invoice occurs in an attractive interface, with a simple two column layout for item and amount. You can edit the title and thank you note, and optionally add a tax value. Tax rates are specified for every company on an individual basis and calculated automatically for each invoice sent to them.
Previewing an invoice looks good, and the layout and style retains the simplicity inherent within the app itself.
Sending and Exporting
There are two ways to distribute an invoice — via PDF or Print. Both generate a decent looking simplistic invoice, but I’d appreciate a way to have greater control over customizing the font and appearance to match my branding. In addition, it would be great to generate an email with the PDF attached, automatically addressed to the invoice recipient.
Searching and Organizing
Two of the main aims of Involer are to have “all of your invoices stored in the application, allowing you to refer back to them at any point” along with the ability to “find a specific invoice with just a few keystrokes.” This is achieved through both a timeline-style browser and a search function.
The timeline browser is a great addition, especially if you send out a large quantity of invoices. Unfortunately, the search feature didn’t work at all for me, likely a glitch with the latest release and something which will be high on their list of priorities to fix.
Simplicity Gone Too Far?
Generally, I’m a huge fan of applications which cut back on unnecessary features and execute the bare minimum excellently (WriteRoom for instance). However, I feel that Involer may have taken this concept a little too far in cutting back on features that people do actually need.
One major oversight would seem to be the lack of any Invoice ID. This is almost always a requirement, and while it could be added manually to the title, it makes sense for a piece of software to automatically generate this for you. Design wise, I generally find that companies often use invoices and receipts as a good way to project the professionalism and style of their brand. Stripping all this away may not suit everyone’s taste.
Conclusion
Ironically, many applications which are perfectly production ready are labeled as a beta. Involer is one advertised as a full release, when I think actually it could have done with a few months of limited beta testing. There were a number of issues which made the app feel slightly difficult to use, not least of which was the search function not working correctly.
If you’re searching for an app to create and manage invoices in a basic way, Involer could well be for you. I’m confident that updates and enhancements are being made to fix problems with the early release of the app. An updated version (1.1) was released this past weekend with a whole host of fixes and updates from the original release, with more coming soon.
The concept of the app is great, but the execution needs a little more polish before I’ll be considering using it for myself. Involer is priced at $19.99 and a fully functioning 10 day trial available to download. It requires Mac OS X 10.5 and higher (Mac OS X 10.5.2 or higher recommended). Involer runs natively on bother PowerPC and Intel-based Macintosh computers.
Green your IT. Save Money. Save the Planet » Register at $295 / $495 regular »
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
View original post found on information aesthetics authored by (author unknown)
February 18th, 2009 — amazing
Highly recommended: “The Credit of Crisis – Visualized” [crisisofcredit.com] by Jonathan Jarvis does exactly what it says. It might well be the most educational ten minutes you have experienced in days.
The goal of giving form to a complex situation like the subprime mortgage crisis is to quickly supply the essence of the situation to those unfamiliar and uninitiated.
Watch it below.
Thnkx Julien!
View original post found on KillerStartups.com - all authored by (author unknown)
February 17th, 2009 — consulting
In their own words
“Easy accounting for start-ups, small businesses and contractors.”
Why it might be a killer
Launching a startup and keeping it afloat is not necessarily an easy task. This site provides anybody with a very well-focused service.
What it does
Someone once said that the right structure does not necessarily mean that a project will succeed, but the wrong structure spells failure. In capital letters. The same applies when it comes to startups, and I can tell you that the launch of any new site is so hectic that every resource and building block you can get counts.
When it comes to accounting software for your startup, Bionic Books puts up a very competent service. While it is not a substitute for a real accountant doing the job, this solution will provide you with a clear profit and loss statement and a very comprehensive date balance sheet. Tax considerations are likewise dealt with.
The software has been written specifically for small business and young enterprises, and the emphasis is on providing a solution that is easy to understand, and which can be really used by laymen and those who wish to avoid getting mired in technicalities.
This software has the advantage of being browser-based, too, so that it is accessible from any location where an Internet connection is available, and the data is constantly backed up.
If you want to see if this solution is your potential key to success or at the very least a tool that will give you some breathing space, you can follow the link provided below, sign up for a free account and draw your own conclusions.
Some questions
Are there different plans available?
Link: https://www.bionicbooks.com
Our Review: http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/bionicbooks-com-easy-accounting-for-startups
View original post found on Boing Boing authored by Xeni Jardin
February 17th, 2009 — fun
Amid at Cartoon Brew says: “London-based animator Michael Schlingmann (previously on Cartoon Brew) created this funny 20-second animated pun. The animation is perfect.” (Thanks, Brandon!)
View original post found on KillerStartups.com - all authored by (author unknown)
February 17th, 2009 — consulting
What it does
TinyChat is a new free service that will enable anybody to create a chat room in an immediate manner, and to invite others to it equally effortlessly. That is, this new solution entails absolutely no sign up process or registration of any kind, and once the chat room itself is vacated all the data is erased.
The advantages of such an approach are evident, as users don’t have to worry about who has what messenger installed, or who is who within the chat room. And as it is rightly pointed out online, a service like this one is very suitable for talking with people who are not necessarily the most versed individuals on computers and technology around. They don’t have to install or setup anything, and all they have to do is follow a link and start chatting away.
On the other hand, you can (if you so wish) furnish your Twitter credentials when you create the chat room, and upon doing so a direct message will be sent to all your followers letting them know of the room’s location should they want to drop by and say “Hi”.
In their own words
“TinyChat is a free service that allows you to create a free chat room that is accessible by anyone with a browser. Simply create a chatroom from the homepage then send the link it gives to you to anyone you want to chat with. After you leave the chat room, all the chat data is gone, so its perfect for secure chats.”
Why it might be a killer
It is the perfect tool for those who are not really computer literate and need a quick solution for chatting online.
Some questions
Which advanced features could be added without making the service lose its simplicity?
Link: http://www.tinychat.com
Our Review: http://www.killerstartups.com/Comm/tinychat-com-create-a-free-chatroom
