For my first blog, I have decided to critique art & design websites. What better way to learn good design than to spend hours roaming through portfolios and constructing my own opinions on designs. I will add that I noticed the bubblegum pink colour is rather popular among designer/illustrators? Not a personal favorite, but it is a nice contrast to the cool turquoise colors of my blog background.
adhemas.com
Aesthetics: 4/5
Usability: 3/5
Content: 5/5
Creativity: 4/5
Overall Impression: 4/5
Total: 20/25
At first, I wasn’t exactly sure what Adhema’s was about. He sells colours, yes, but what does that mean? The direction my eye took did not lead me towards “Art Direction, Design…” and so fourth, and I found myself frantically searching for a lead to somewhere informational. The creativity of shapes and graphics is appealing, but with navigation in two different places, I found myself wavering between where to click next. It took me a white to get used to the semi-transparent scrolly-bar and exit squares along the right side and bottom left of the page. It was because these elements were difficult to see and understand the Usability score is low. Also, it is possible to scroll really, really, really far down, almost as if the page never ended. However, the reason for this black hole of information is because there is a lot of content that is rather interesting. A profile about the artist takes up several boxes along with lists of awards and portfolio pieces that would take more than one sitting to view. There are also items one can buy made by the designer.I battled with marking this site because of the high creativity and aesthetic levels and difficult usability. I’m not sure if I would visit this website again because I felt it was very crowded. Overall though, the creativity and design won, giving the site a final mark of 80 percent.
harrybissett.com
Aesthetics 5/5
Usability: 5/5
Content: 5/5
Creativity : 3/5
Overall Impression: 5 /5
Total: 23/25
harrybissett.com is a clean cut website featuring the said designer and his portfolio. The links are easy to see (right in the “F” zone) and the basic information one would need at first glance at this site is not hard to find. The simplicity of the site suites the designers style makes it extremely easy for even my Granny to navigate. The only down side to the website is because it is so stylistically simple, there is not much creativity in the graphics or design. The one thing I do find creative though, is the close ups of the designs featured in the portfolio. It gives the site just enough abstractness (ok, so I know that is not a word) to make it intriguing enough to give it some creative points. Overall, this site gets done what it needs to get done in a visually appealing way, thus the high score.
odopod.com
Aesthetics 4/5
Usability: 4/5
Content: 5/5
Creativity : 3/5
Overall Impression: 4 /5
Total: 20/25
Ok, so this isn’t exactly a designers portfolio, but the company deals with designers and they have a portfolio of clients that would be similar to a designer… and they work with designers, so hey, it works, right? With a variety of pictures and information, this site has content that would keep a viewer coming back. The type is easy to read and there is a clear grid for information. Links to key topics such as “Our Work” or “What’s Fresh” are in 2 places each, a quick navigation bar at the top left of along side a more detailed snippet or what’s inside lover on the page. There are plenty of things to explore and the placement of links and topics are easy to locate.
ndesign-studio.com
Aesthetics 5/5
Usability: 4/5
Content: 5/5
Creativity : 5/5
Overall Impression: 4 /5
Total: 23/25
The intricacies of this sites background illustrations in combination with typeface choices make for a well-put-together design. The placement of blog post topics and links make them easy to locate and provide a wide variety of information and content. There is a lot of information on the main page making the user have to scroll down to get to 3 columns of additional links at the very bottom, but at least there are further picture links along the right side to keep more interest. One of my favorite things is that by every main link, a little icon shows up beside the text that is individual to the category.
douglasmenezes.com
Aesthetics 5/5
Usability: 5/5
Content: 5/5
Creativity : 5/5
Overall Impression: 5 /5
Total: 25/25
Who says I can’t give full marks? I thoroughly enjoyed browsing through this website. The graphics were interesting and not overwhelming at all. I also liked how there were pop-up speech boxes depending on where I clicked or scrolled my mouse. The blog content was interesting, especially for a designer like myself, and other information about the designer was easy to get to. The information hierarchy was well done aided by good typography and visual cues. I enjoyed reading the One Man Band blog which I suggest you read–the analogy of a designer and one man band is clever. I will leave you with a quote from the blog in hopes you will check out the site yourself to see why I gave it my highest rating. “Seriously, what’s the point of playing ten instruments at the same time?” Sounds kinda’ like a designer juggling their work, no?