Finishing Touches

August 22nd, 2007

Still plugging away on the new site and processing all the feedback I have gotten. For an update on the latest improvements, and for the reason behind the portfolio section, read on!

The latest changes to the site are
1. Added a favicon to the site (make sure to download the free open-source exporter for Photoshop to get them to work on the PC).
2. Added a slick ‘to the top’ floating link to the portfolio pages
3. Went in and figured out permalinks so the URL looks nice now, instead of .com/P=3223?
4. Added some new work.
5. Added new flash buttons to the home page with fancy rollovers
6. Registered and figured out how to use feedburner for the blog’s rss

Design Considerations of the Portfolio Section
I mentioned before that I had one reason for doing the new site in such a big format, but I actually have three.

1. I never updated my old one. With the new CMS/Blog engine running the back-end, all I have to do is prep the image and upload it. I also decided not to do any descriptions with the projects, as that would have just allowed me to procrastinate. Upload an image, its title and category, and new work is live!

2. Keep it simple: Instead of having an individual page for every project, I show one long webpage that can be quickly scrolled through. This has its downsides because the portfolio section does have lots of large images. I think this is outweighed by ease of use by my primary audience, creative directors, who on fast connections can get a good grasp of my work quickly.

3. Full-size (or close to it) presentation of my work. The web and digital media is about the pixel, and many times I spend hours getting a sight looking just right in 5 browsers. I want to show the hard work off at full size!

More soon I hope. I am looking to put a Flash section up and add some more work. I am also going to take some time to look at how I can control the order of the portfolio more.