Hiya,

I've set up a portfolio site. It's more along the lines of distributed systems, as that's the direction I seem to be moving in - but it has some game-related information.

Just looking for opinions on content, layout and design - any or all.

Be as harsh as you like - I can take it

http://www.jamesbb.co.uk

Any comments are much appreciated!

Cheers.

Well it comes down to what you absolutely want to accomplish in terms of designing your layout the way you did.

What program/s did you use to create it?

In terms of "Content" you bring it across in a basic but easy to get to fashion. Just like a word document but on the internet with links.

I have moreso always been about design and looks when i go and create websites and so forth - its always first impressions when people come visit a site, this relates to anything.

Your portfolio is a basic, generic and boring for first impressions - to spice it up abit more but possibly keep the same layout would design a border or "template" such as a more colourful background for the title and content below. A good idea might be having a border around the content and outside the border have the background, so in the border leave it white whilst outside have it maybe a gradient colouring, or a different shade of colour all together. So the overall structure of the website will be the same, but some things to make it more appealing.

But as i said, the overall portfolio gets the job done by bringing the content across to the user.

Hope it helped abit!

Thanks - useful comments

I've taken your advice and put more colour/visual appeal into it, based on a great portfolio I remember seeing a while back - I think vhabion?

No problem!

I had a look at http://vhabion.net (assume thats the one your referring to) and its basically the idea i was coming across with the border and change of background and content box etc. It looks more appearling to the eye overall. Ill be more than happy to help if you need any help with the design or anything .

I noticed that shrinking my broswer's width would force the nav menu to dissapear off the left side. I would just make the nav menu fixed.
Firefox, Windows 7

Good spot!

Thank you.

Home page--- why? It just says "About Me". Are you looking for work? Are you posting a portfolio? The web site should have a SINGLE focus. If you need to have a second focus, make it an area within the site or a subdomain at the site.

CV has the bulk Skills section. This is virtually useless to employers. Your self-rated "Excellent knowledge of C/C++" immediately screams of ignorance of the so-called "C/C++"; there is no such language and anyone with excellent knowledge of either would know this. There are similar small issues throughout.

You say "SIMD programming". Does that mean you have written a few SIMD loops, or do you have extensive experience writing thousands of lines of inline assembly. Or do you use intrinsics, and if so, for which compiler?

Similarly, you say "parallel programming". With what? With OpenMP? MPI? TPL? Something else? What exactly did you do it with parallel programming? Parallel on a quad-core CPU is different from parallel on a 188-node low-latency cluster.

Instead of a bulk Skills section, include the details of specifically what you have done with each.

Have you done no other projects? No personal projects? No actual interest in games? No other work experience? If so, include it!

Next is the projects page. Why is the game second? If you are selling yourself as making games, the game you made should be first, front and center on your site, not buried on the bottom half of page three.


Visually everything looks good. Restructure your content, focus on what is important. If the site is about getting a job make sure EVERYTHING about the site is aimed at getting a job, with job-related videos and CV right up front. If the site is a portfolio to show off to friends, family, and strangers, make sure the flashiest stuff is right up front with more visual content.

I had another look at the new design of the portfolio and it is mighty improved since the original! Looks nice and professional, nothing fancy what dosnt mean its a bad thing but clean and easy to navigate and easy on the eyes with nice contrast in colours.

Good work!

This is valuable advice.

Home page--- why? It just says "About Me". Are you looking for work? Are you posting a portfolio? The web site should have a SINGLE focus. If you need to have a second focus, make it an area within the site or a subdomain at the site.

The site is aimed at admissions staff for MSc courses, although I intend to use it solely for games industry employers after the next few months. At that point it should probably go straight to the projects, or at least have an obvious 'goal' statement on the landing page with screencaps.

CV has the bulk Skills section. This is virtually useless to employers. Your self-rated "Excellent knowledge of C/C++" immediately screams of ignorance of the so-called "C/C++"; there is no such language and anyone with excellent knowledge of either would know this. There are similar small issues throughout.

You say "SIMD programming". Does that mean you have written a few SIMD loops, or do you have extensive experience writing thousands of lines of inline assembly. Or do you use intrinsics, and if so, for which compiler?

Similarly, you say "parallel programming". With what? With OpenMP? MPI? TPL? Something else? What exactly did you do it with parallel programming? Parallel on a quad-core CPU is different from parallel on a 188-node low-latency cluster.

I see exactly what you mean. I know what I think when people just wave their arm at a large subject and say 'Yeah I can do that.' It seems this is actually what I've done. I'll do what you suggest and be explicit.

Have you done no other projects? No personal projects? No actual interest in games? No other work experience? If so, include it!

This is a tricky one. I have other projects unrelated to games, but wasn't sure whether to include them. I have other previous non-IT jobs, and I was also unsure of whether to include them on what is intended to be a technical portfolio... I was also running out of space on my two-page CV. Any advice here appreciated.

Next is the projects page. Why is the game second? If you are selling yourself as making games, the game you made should be first, front and center on your site, not buried on the bottom half of page three.

I'm currently using the site for academic applications, and it's difficult to know how to structure the content. I definitely take your point about a general lack of focus and make some changes.

Thank you for taking the time, it's appreciated!

Cheers,
James