Website up and running and ready for your comments!

I’ve recently relocated to the Seattle area from the UK, and whilst waiting for the go-ahead from the legal people I’ve been tweaking my website, Linkedin, Instagram in preparation for the upcoming job hunt.

I feel like I’ve tweaked all I can tweak, and if I keep going I’m worried I’ll start all over again! So before I get any closer to the risk of doing that… what do you think?!

www.sophhorton.co.uk

I’m conscious that my copywriting skills probably aren’t the best, so any comments there are very welcome too. (also any non-US friendly terminology or language!)

I’ve used Wix to build the site as I’m not much of a web designer, and found it easier to concentrate on the content when using a pre-built template. I can look at paying to remove the ‘this site was designed using Wix’ banners if it’s worth it?

looks pretty good. my critique is more geared towards the ui.

get rid of the “enter site” splash page. like, immediately. the average person looks at a new website for just a few seconds, and you’re wasting it away on an empty screen.

i’m not a big fan of the slideshows, i’d rather have the images in a line with a little text providing context. that way the viewers can scroll through the images at their own pace. sometimes the slideshow would jump to the next picture before it was even loaded, you might want to make the resolution of the images a little smaller.

i’m not too familiar with wix’s pricing, but if you are going to use site to continually find work it will be worth it to pay for it. just a higher level of professionalism

Thanks Amunta. I totally agree with the ‘enter site’ page… until I pay Wix some money it’s either that or a long weblink that includes Wix… I’m thinking maybe I pay Wix some money!!

I’ve slowed the slideshows down for now, to give a bit more time to actually see them, I’ll take a look at what else I can do there, maybe thumbnails or something might work better?

Sophie, looking pretty solid to me!

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:slight_smile: Thanks Keno.

Completely agree with the Wix bit… I’ll have a think and check out Squarespace, thanks! As I’m not really a web designer, I thought it would be best to use something that took that part away and let me showcase my work, but I think I should have spent a bit more time exploring sites that offer better UX.

I’ve had a play with the galleries, so they now have thumbnails to click on, or arrows. It makes them a bit smaller in mobile view, but I think gets around the unresponsive problems you were having.

As you say, the purpose is to get the work across, so if that’s working then that’s great! I’ll keep playing!

Thanks for the feedback, it’s really helpful!

So I made a little… OK, quite a big… change to my website! Following suggestions from this thread to look at Squarespace, and some great feedback from members of the design community here in Seattle I completely re-designed it!

I think it feels much more in line with my portfolio, which is more about process than images of final products.

I’d love to hear what you think. http://www.sophhorton.co.uk

It feels so good to get rid of the Wix ‘I used a template and haven’t paid for this’ banners!

This looks great now! The first iteration did look a bit templated and I think this does a much better job of showcasing your work and process. Also the UX is much friendlier and more inviting, moving to Squarespace was a good call.

Good Job!

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Thanks! :slight_smile:

Thanks for the feedback Keno:

  • I’ve changed the top text menu so that it doesn’t duplicate what’s on the main page, and called it work, so you end up back on this page if you move out to the sketchbook, blog etc. I think this makes it a bit cleaner? Think I might have a play with the colour / background of that top menu to make sure it doesn’t get lost. It looks alright on my screen on the home page with the lighter background, so I’ll test it out on some other platforms too and see if I can make it a bit clearer.

  • Do you mean a .pdf of the info on that page as a takeaway? Or a CV? Or some more info?

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Cool, I’ll have a think… I wonder if I can do something interesting with it…?! :slight_smile: