The more comments the better!

[hip_atrip]

I have almost finished my portflolio site (http://www.hipatrip.com)
Please take a look and let me know your opinions.

[snapple]

hip_atrip,

Nice site, what i was most impressed about was the navigation, mainly because - i usually associate that kinda navigation with poor usability (because its hard to go back and find what you want), but you've struck a nice balance because the active navigation area is small enough to cover without to much trouble, yet large enough to easily see the seperate hit areas, i liked it !

Colors, mmmmmmmm ? - I understand that the artwork is the attraction of the site (and so it should be), and that you would not want to distract the user, but i felt it was a little too dull, sorry. Scrolling navigation was nice, loading times for pics were good too.


Personally i would change the font to something more in keeping with the style of the site, maybe the font you displayed for the scrolling buttons under your work ?

I understand that it was only 85% done, but there was a strange 'unbalanced' emptiness about the site, i know you don't want to over crowd it, it just looked a little out of proportion, could just have been the different shaped MC's or the lack of boarder, i'm not sure.

Overall, real nice site - nice work, sutiable site for the work.

Hoped this helped,

Snapple :)

[hip_atrip]

Hi Snapple, thanks for all the good remarks.

concerning colors, tastes differ.

I agree with you about the font thing you mention. A sans pixel font with vertical and horizontal lines should form more an unity with the rest of the site. … but I choose for a serif pixel font because it corresponds with the aritistic atmosphere.

-

The comments are always welcome and are much appreciated. Keep posting them.
:)

[momentus]

Very very nice. I agree with snapple on most points (except I don't mind the colours) and give extra points to you on your navigation scheme. It feels very professional. Have you considered using the same kind of scrolling thing you use for the sub categories for the main navigation as well? Like you click on a box, and instead of having the thumbnail just appear, have it scroll into place as well, maybe with both horizontal and vertical scrolling? Just a thought.

The content itself is amazing as well. I like the 01 pic in # 12, the thing mentioning nick cave and massive attack. Reminds me vaguely of something Dave McKean would do (that's a compliment if you don't know who he is). The sketches were also great.

I really appreciate a clean design. It's nice to see something without so much eyecandy I get a headache.

[hip_atrip]

Originally posted by momentus
Have you considered using the same kind of scrolling thing you use for the sub categories for the main navigation as well? Like you click on a box, and instead of having the thumbnail just appear, have it scroll into place as well, maybe with both horizontal and vertical scrolling? Just a thought.


Thanks for your reply, only I don’t really understand what you’re trying to say (concerning the main navigation). Do you mean the previews (images) or just the navigation itself?

[
Reminds me vaguely of something Dave McKean would do (that's a compliment if you don't know who he is).

Sure I accept this as a compliment, I have some great books of him in my bookcase.

[momentus]

Sorry for being unclear in my reply... I was up pretty late last night.

What I mean to say is that when you mouseOver on the main navigation the square turns black and a thumbnail appears above this. Now when I mouseover on a different square, it too turns black and the thumbnail just changes automatically: there is no transition between the different thumbnails.

Now if I click one of these boxes I get into the subnavigation. For instance, if I click on the box #01_PORTFOLIO_graphic design a snazzy thing appears to the left of this saying 'hand it over' and with the numbers 01-09 under it. In THIS area you have a nice transition between the elements: mouseover on number 02 and a nice green hand smoothly scrolls into place.

What I'm suggesting is that you implement this smooth transition to the main navigation (by this I mean that the main thumbnails would somehow scroll into place as you mouseover different boxes in the main nav) as well because everything is smooth in your site except the thumbnails in the main navigation on the right of the page.

I hope that's more clear.

[hip_atrip]

Ok, that was also my first thought but I wasn't really sure.

Thanks for that suggestion, it's a very good one.