Development Blog

First impressions of my portfolio? The portfolio has a welcoming and professional feel. The colours used help catch the users eye and images are placed well around the page. Interactive links are a useful tool especially when it came to navigating around the site as I felt that more information could be obtained in a quick and easy way. Who do you think the intended audience is?

First impressions of my portfolio? Well layed out with a very bright colour scheme. Who do you think the intended audience is?

Anyone who could be a potential employer. Does the website appear easy to navigate?  Yes. How visually appealing is my website?  Because of the bright colour scheme it appears to very effective, however the layout and positioning of the navigation bar could be moved to a more central location for better user interface.

First impressions of my portfolio?

It is great to see you’ve done a portfolio and you should be proud of this. However it is only the first step. You must ensure there are no grammar or spelling errors in the text. People will judge you quickly and harshly if there are any errors.

Who do you think the intended audience is?

Potential clients

Could you find what you are looking for?

Yes

Does the website appear easy to navigate?

Yes

How visually appealing is my website?

 Limited. You need to get more control over the layout of the page and think about using a grid based design to give stability and authority to the layout.

For example your logo is nearly the same depth as the boxes used in your main navigation. The logo and these boxes are nearlyaligned vertically:

Is the portfolio structure and layout set out good?

Yes

Does the colour scheme used throughout work?

Yes but it is very limited and needs more attention to detail – fonts, layout, white space etc

Is the branding consistent throughout?

 Yes

Can you read all the text throughout the portfolio? (Colour & Font)

Yes

What parts of the website do you like/dislike, please specify? 

Yes

If you could change one thing on the site, whether it is major or minor, what would be?

Add more content

First impressions of my portfolio?

Very professionally put together the colours and font work really well .

  Who do you think the intended audience is?

Employers as it has a different variety of types of work.

  Could you find what you are looking for?

Yes it was very easy to follow. Very self explanatory which I think is a must as it having easy access reflects on the work.

  Does the website appear easy to navigate?

Yes very easy to navigate very simple understandable with the navigation bar being at the top but also on a mobile/tablet device the navigation becomes a drop down being easy to use.

  How visually appealing is my website?

The website is very well illustrated which makes it very appealing

  Is the portfolio structure and layout set out well?

Yes the ways in which the content of text and images are displayed are easy to read but also being columns allows the work to be set out also for the mobile/tablet browsers.

  Does the colour scheme used throughout work?

The colour scheme works throughout due to the light colour and dark font colour working with each other. But also, with the blue standing out but also being a branding aspect this being from the logo to throughout the site.

Does logo represent my brand?

Yes the logo represents his brand with, it saying what the different types of media and also the name of the person who owns and creates the content.

  Is the branding consistent throughout?

Yes I feel so and done very well, from the logo to the colour scheme to the development blog.

  Can you read all the text throughout the portfolio? (Colour & Font)

Yes very clearly presented with the colours working together.

  What parts of the website do you like/dislike, please specify? 

The whole website looks very professional and well laid out threes not really anything I don't like about it. However with the contact page, when submitting a message and testing the contact form the message appears twice for a successful sent message.

  If you could change one thing on the site, whether it is major or minor, what would be?

Upon receiving a email from Lucy telling me she would gladly like to help me and give me some feedback I then sent her the questions which I drafted up which I believe cover aspects of the portfolio on the design and usability being the visual and functional elements. Here are the questions that I asked Lucy and her exact responses.

First impressions of my portfolio?

Clean layout, and impressed that the site is responsive ( I haven’t had the time to re-do my website with a responsive layout yet!) , which caters for the fastest growing audience of web viewers using mobile devices.

Who do you think the intended audience is?

Potential clients and employers. 

Could you find what you are looking for?

Yes, it is good that your portfolio is the first link in the navigation after ‘Home’. 

Does the website appear easy to navigate?

Yes there is clear navigation on both desktop and mobile views. 

How visually appealing is my website? 

On a design / developer’s  portfolio the main focus of the site should be the work examples, so it is great there are examples ready to see on the home page.

Is the portfolio structure and layout set out well?

Yes it is clear. and easy to find what you are looking for. 

Does the colour scheme used throughout work?

Like the blue, maybe could add another colour to the palette, and I think your logo would maybe work better on a white background, with the white text in blue instead….

Does logo represent my brand? 

See above comments on the logo 

Is the branding consistent throughout?

Yes, there is a nice use of fonts and colours throughout

Can you read all the text throughout the portfolio? (Colour & Font)

Yes, I would just say the welcome text on the home page could be a bolder font, or darker colour to be more legible 

What parts of the website do you like/dislike, please specify? 

Like the way the portfolio section is laid out, do not dislike anything 

If you could change one thing on the site, whether it is major or minor, what would be?

Once my digital portfolio was uploaded online, I contacted Lucy Ryder, an expert web designer within the multimedia industry. Throughout the developmental stages of creating my portfolio, Lucy had been my first port of call when it came to gaining user feedback. She best informed me as to what she thought I could do to improve my webpage. Lucy Ryder is a web designer/developer, illustrator and also produces different types of print.

I contacted Lucy via university email asking her if she would give me some tips as to how I could best improve me portfolio. Her expertise were valuable to me when it came to making changes from the point of view of a skilled multimedia professional. I knew Lucy may well be busy so I found email the best form of communication as she could reply within her own time. 

With then have explaining what I needed, I made up questions which I thought where eligible to be asked to cover all aspects of user feedback. With Lucy being a web designer and developer herself, I thought she was a great person to ask for feedback and here are screenshots of our conversation and also her reply to the questions in which I submitted to her.

As part of my research when developing a logo and colour scheme for my website, I took into consideration my target audience. I chose to use the colours black, blue and white as they stood out to me as complimentary of one another. Black and white give a professional feel whereas blue gives a sense of identity, and represents my brand. When reflecting on my final design template I felt that further research would benefit in ensuring that my website was accessible to all audiences. I decided the best way to do this was to find out more about visual impairment including colour blindness. My research lead me to realise that the colours I have chosen are in fact ideally accessible for most people who suffer from colour blindness. People suffering from Protanopia and Deuteranopia find blues and yellows to particularly stand out to them as strong colours. Most colour blind sufferers can also distinguish very pale colours such as white from darker shades and black. I would however have to reconsider my colours to benefit those suffering from Tritanopia as  they do find it more difficult than others to separate different shades . 

The reason in which I chose Tumblr to use for my online development blog was because the following:

Simplicity - With it being so simple from the design of website, but to the way in which I am able to blog different types of things this being from text to a video or even quote. 

Easy access - The access is very easy with a simple logging system on the desktop, but I also am able to download the iOS application for my iPhone to change/edit/update content from my mobile device and not from my desktop.

My porfolio is now up and running online, with the GoDaddy hosting package which I have taken out for a year this also being with the free domain name which I got with the deal. With a being a first time buyer a 50% discount which was applied. 

With setting up my first website online and also being new to web hosting I did need help and adivce of how to go about transferring my files and also what files where needed to be uploaded online.

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