Portfolio Featured on "CSS Based"

My online portfolio is featured on CSS Based. I am very excited to have been selected to be in their gallery. I had to laugh when I first saw my site up there, because they chose the "Artsy" style of the site for the screen shot, which is my favorite too!

It's a good feeling to get positive feedback, after putting so much work into the structuring, designing and coding of the site. All the more motivation to get started on a new style to design for the portfolio... I am thinking maybe a winter theme, since it's getting colder; we'll see.

Painting: "Coit Tower"

This is an acrylic painting I just finished. It depicts the view from Lombard Street down toward Coit Tower in San Francisco. A recent trip to the beautiful city inspired this painting. It was done on a 16"x20" stretched canvas and is a gift to my future parents-in-law.

Tracking Site Visitor Traffic

Now that the portfolio is up and running, I've started thinking about implementing a tracking system to see how site visitors interact with my portfolio. I was very much focused on trying to create a user-friendly experience, and as if it was meant to be, I came across a great post today about different ways to track traffic.

I knew about Google Analytics of course, but I didn't realize you could map where on the page people click or how long they look at a particular section. After checking out a few of the suggested tools, it seems that Google will still be the best option for me.

There were a few tracking tools that I would not consider for most of my projects (but for some, very few, it might be a good option). I am not a big fan of intrusive traffic analysis, such as pop-up surveys. Also, while I can see how recording every move the user makes on flash video will tell you a lot about how one interacts with your page, but it just seems like that should only be utilized if the user agrees to it.

I'll have to read up a little more on the topic, but I hope to add the tracking system very soon.

Single Page Portfolio Sites

There is a great post on single portfolio pages at Web Designer Wall and it got me thinking about my own portfolio organization. When I decided to redesign my portfolio, I was considering doing a single page, but I decided that a more complex site would be more beneficial in displaying my skills as a designer and a developer.

I think the skill gap between design and development may be a big factor when designers decide to create an online presence in one or multiple pages. A single page allows you to show that you are web savvy, at least to an extent, and know the importance of digital media, without having to do much linking and coding. A multiple page portfolio, on the other hand, lets you draw in the user through more than just graphics. I try to make most of my pieces interactive, print or digital, so a single page wouldn't really be "me." I want the user to "hang out" on my page in a way and see that there is more to it than just the plain information it presents. The experience of impacting where the portfolio takes you and the option to go in many directions from any place in the site is what makes a web site successful.

A single page portfolio, though, has the advantage of presenting everything in one place. This makes it easy for the user to see all the information he could want without much effort, such as trying to figure out where the navigation links are and how the page is organized. However, if there is a lot of work and other information to be presented in a portfolio, a single page will not do. Logical organization is the only thing that can make a vast amount of visuals and information accessible to visitors of the site. This presents a challenge - usability. The designer needs to see the site from a user's standpoint and make it equally effortless for the user to find his way around the site.

There is also something to be said about expectations. A multipage website is the norm, and thus most users intuitively look for navigation and organization because it is what they are used to. A single page site then may require an extra effort on the user side to realize that "this is it."

The details of the client, which in most online portfolio cases is likely the designer himself, should determine which way of organization is best. Such details may be the skill level of the designer, budget if the design is outsourced, amount of creative pieces and personality and style of the designer. Just like with any other job, a custom solution will satisfy the specific need of each portfolio project the best.

In the specific case of my online portfolio, I wanted to use it as a showcase of different design styles, so a single page would not work as well for that reason alone. However, a single page portfolio, when it is done nicely, can be very powerful, if the visitor never feels like the page is lacking interactivity or complexity.

Updated Online Portfolio

The portfolio now has photos in the "Sundry" section, most of them are from my San Francisco series. I also added more print and digital pieces. The next thing on my list is the "Featured Work" section - stay tuned!

New Online Portfolio Live

What a great feeling to have the new online portfolio up. After months of concepts, sketching, designing, coding and troubleshooting, the fruits of my labor are finally live and I am very happy with how it turned out.

The site explores different design styles and the viewer can decide which style he or she likes best and would like to view the site in. The user can switch the style of the site at any time. It took me a little bit to figure out how I would do this, but eventually I decided to use templates and CSS instead of a Javascript approach (in case someone does not have Javascript enabled).
Even though I am glad the site is finished, I wouldn't be a Graphic Designer if it really ever were "finished." I am excited to be adding more style options to the site (I am finishing up an Elegant theme right now) over the next few months. There is also a "Featured Work" section on the bottom of the page that will be updated frequently as I complete new projects. Instead of a static site, my portfolio is active and current, which was really important to me with this project.

I will put up the new style this weekend and also add some tidbits and more work samples to the site. If you want to check it out for yourself, go to www.stefaniedesigns.com.