This afternoon, I was officially in the last stage of putting my interview portfolio together. I had all the prints I need, and I just need to crop them and mount them. There are gonna be a couple other things to take care of, as always, but I was pretty much ready for the next stage.
What that next stage is is not that defined, really. I could continue with creating a simple, or elaborate, leave-behind for my interviewers, but I felt that I wasn’t ready yet. I was ready to, however, build my web site. It’s taken me a long time to get to this stage, and I’m excited. After weeks of working with a print-oriented goal, I was ready to get digital (“Let’s get digital, digital.” Sorry.)
Even though real construction began today, I had spent the same print-oriented weeks to think about the website (I was that excited). What it must have, what it could have, what the concept should be, how it would look like, etc. I actually started sketching layouts during an off-print day to get that crap out of my head (the fine spirit of Flush), and I’m glad I did, because I’m (currently, at least) going with a different approach.
Usability Testing
While setting up the basics of the site today, something dawned on me. I thought about the importance of usability testing as mentioned by Steve Krug in Don’t Make Me Think! While I don’t have the money to conduct the proper research (nor do I really need a usability test for a site this small, though it’s still important), I have the resources: designers I know (including most of you guys)!
Live Construction
Long story short, I’m going to construct my site live. As I work on it, I would like everyone to give me feedback, whether via Flush or by email. I haven’t gotten the whole plan worked out, but I will probably provide mini-plans for the next few things I wanted to work on, like navigation, layout, special coding, etc., and visitors can give me suggestions, comments, notes, criticism, food, etc.
I figured that this way, I would be more motivated to work on the site, because I don’t want it to look like this for longer than I need to. Displaying incomplete work to the public makes me uncomfortable.
Beta Mode
I’m calling my current site “in beta mode.” I’m not sure if “beta” is the right word because it seems to me that every web service I’ve used that are in “beta” mode (Gmail, mind42, Blogger before) are pretty much functioning services. Am I using the word “beta” correctly?
Anyway, the beta site is up, and the first round of feedback is appreciated. As of right now, the site:
- has a gridded background that I use to layout the content. I might take that out in the final version and let the content stand on the invisible grid, including the black-border boxes.
- has a text-based navigation. I plan on making the navigation image-based but still accessible when all the CSS is taken out, because I know it’s better to have the navigation text-based so if I’m making it image-based, I should at least make it accessible. I want to do this because I have this “hover” idea that I want to try.
- has a giant orange/yellow image as a space holder for either current news images or a Flash slideshow/movie, which is a pretty common feature these days. I’m not doing this just because everyone else is doing it; but because I want to learn more ActionScript. And if that couldn’t be done in time, I will just leave it like this and rotate images periodically or with JavaScript.
Please Comment/Critique/Suggest/Wash Your Hands after Using the Bathroom
So if I could get anybody to make any constructive comments on what I have so far, that would be really great, even if you think it’s silly or unimportant. If you don’t tell me, I won’t know what you’re thinking. Eventually (soon), I’m going to add a comment box on the beta site so you can give me notes while you’re looking at the page. But for now, comment via this post.
Flush.
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