Hi ya’ll,
So I just finished up this portfolio this past weekend and throughout the process I showed it to many of my friends to gain feedback. Unfortunately, their feedback has been a bit TOO positive or their responses were lacking in detail as to what I could do to make it better. So, I would like to hear some honest, detailed feedback from ya’ll. What are the key areas that are positive and what are my obvious weaknesses that I need to work on improving?
Btw, I will be graduating soon and would like to have a strong portfolio to send out by the end of April, before I graduate.
- Do you think i am not ready to graduate? After viewing my portfolio, would you recommend that I postpone my graduation date?
Thanks, I hope to hear from you soon.
Working on Version 2.
Updated 3/25/2011
- Fixed links at end of projects.
- Removed master copy renderings from “Digital.”
- Changed “Home” introduction.
- Fixed typo on intro page from “Case.”
Updated 3/26/2011
- Working on version 2, eta: 1-2 weeks.
Hey Jaewoo,
Just gonna comment as I go through… scattered thoughts but you’ll see how I’m guided through your portfolio on my own and if that’s what you’re trying to go for… Also graduating in May, so take advice with a grain of salt.
- This big blue shape is kind of weird. The arrow points you to the right where you have big action items that don’t actually link to anything (typographically also hard to read with the condensed font you chose), but your navigation is on the left, so a little bit of bad visual flow.
- First project to click on: Creative (no idea what this is before I click it). There’s a play button awkwardly placed at the top left, and another similar shaped/sized right arrow button on the way right… try to group navigational elements together. Clicking ‘Play’ doesn’t do anything for 3 seconds so I just click on the right arrow.
- Flipping through, a LOT of text set in a really unreadable font that’s on some textured background. Don’t want to read it all.
- Then I notice you lumped like 6 different projects into one page, which is really weird and confusing. Not really clear that there’s 6 different projects at the beginning.
- Really going through each page is exhausting at worst. About 5 minutes into this page I still don’t really know what kind of designer you are. At this moment I’m guessing you’re a graphic designer.
- End of Creative… don’t really understand why this category is called Creative… seems more like an assortment of experiments/random stuff. Would definitely weed this down a LOT, especially all the text. I click the ‘Next project’ link and… oh, 404 error.
So far, not that impressed.
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Armored vehicle project… again, this font you chose is really hard to read at the size you’ve set it at. I would consider another typeface.
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Interesting problem statement, nice sketches… all of a sudden the final design. Why did you choose this striped appearance (besides that it’s inspired by architecture)? Does it psychologically make the vehicle look stronger? I don’t see any people using this so I can’t understand the scale. Is this meant for every-day people? There should be some justification on the aesthetics.
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You talk about hands-free sync as one of the biggest features (at least it seems that way), but I don’t see any visual of someone using it inside? You can’t just say that there’s hands-free sync. What’s the interface like? Interaction? How do you activate it?
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This project raises more questions than it answers (for me)…
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Case project- producion typo at the very beginning. You don’t show overall view/orthos so I can’t even get a good grasp of what the case looks like. I feel like you chose the shittiest looking market cases in your problem brief… I have a ZuneHD case that reveals even more than yours does… so ??? Are you trying to sell that you’ve taken a design to production? Cause you should really go in depth more about that process than treating this like a revolutionary design.
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Milk project - I like the end result, but again you don’t justify your aesthetic choices. It’s crucial because this packaging project is basically an aesthetic design.
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Just noticed, the play button that I don’t use is covering the title of each slide partially… very annoying.
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Tablet - UI is fine (probably not what your’e going to do, so I’ll skip on critiquing that), but the ID presentation is very underwhelming. Your CAD renders aren’t very appealing, and your photos are really yellow/sickly looking. UI and ID don’t really work together that well…
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Sharpener is… okay. Designing for kids is a touchy area where ergonomics plays a large role, didn’t really see much of that or of testing/research with kids. (If it was, I skimmed over it/didn’t notice).
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Digital/sketch - okay, you’re really good at sketching. Might leave out those master copies you did.
Hopefully not too harsh. There are some serious issues in communicating your project intent. You need to simplify, simplify, simplify. Your organization could also use some work: put the better projects that show off what you want to do up front. Remember you are not guiding them (unless you feature some), and you don’t want them to think you are a graphic designer if that’s not what you’re going for. I would also take out some of the weaker projects and really emphasize a few great ones.
A few points to focus on:
- Reduce amount of text/process slides
- Change your font for legibility
- Reduce number of projects
- Structure/order the projects in a more convincing way. Employers might not even make it through to your best ones.
- Visual presentation needs to be higher quality (the tablet, the case… couldn’t really get a sense of the product as a whole)
- FIX THE NEXT PROJECT LINKS.
I would say your strongest projects that I was the most interested was the armored vehicle (but it’s severely lacking research-backed substance and usage/context shots with humans) and the tablet (needs better visuals).
That was super long and rambling… hope that helped.
@Tarngerine
Thanks, although brutal, helped alot.
Links at least have been fixed.
Will be working hard to make the necessary changes.
Will be adding more process pages to help connect the dots better and tell a more fluid story from start to finish.
Looking forward to other people’s feedback.