Web portfolio design 101

I bang on about usability, search optimisation and accessibility every so often in site designs, but given my strictly amateur status I still quiver at some of the godawful sites there are out there. I agree completely with this article though - How Not to Display Your Artwork on the Web:

In the thirteen years I’ve been on the web, twelve of which I’ve spent doing professional web site design, and the last two of which have sent me to hundreds of artists’ web sites, I’ve come to the inevitable conclusion that the thing artists want most when placing their art on the web is for it not to be seen.

There are millions upon millions of bad sites on the web, but artists really work at it.

As an example, I think that jonhodgson's portfolio site is actually quite good, but even that breaks a few basic pointers; the use of a frame redirect from the domain name (http://www.jonhodgson.net/) to the actual location of the content (http://troldeskau.net/jonhodgson.net/index.htm and sub pages) means that your avarage 'net user isn't able to specifically link to the image page itself; not so useful for a potential commission to show a specific example to colleagues, etc. But compared to some of the awful designs out there (including some for my favoured artists) it scores well; brief bio, clear contact details, easy navigation, etc.

The more I trawl around,the more horrors of design I see, I'm always tempted to share them but, well... OTOH, not to my taste at all, and breaks a few UI rules, but isn't this a simply gorgeous myspace layout^[1]?

ETA: [1] there's apparently an embedded music file on that profile, hadn't noticed as embedded music on Myspace doesn't play if you've got Flashblock running.

Myspace mock #1 - Michael Smith

Just got in, so before I catch up, read comments, etc, I thought I'd respond to the email in my inbox. OH good, a friend request on MySpace (feel that irony there). Now, see, I hate MySpace; it has uses, but they're not really for me. My profile says:

NB: if you want to add me and it's not obvious from your profile that I know you, send me a message; I'll deny any request from people I don't recognise, so don't waste each others time, ok? I'm hear to keep in touch with actual friends on here, I use Livejournal, Facebook and similar, better sites for meeting new people.

Basically, I'm interested in three types of people on MySpace; people I actually know that aren't on Fb or LJ, people I've met through the former two that use MySpace as well, and authors/bands that I actually know of^[1]. So I don't want random requests, and I always deny them if I don't know the person; sometimes I reply, mostly I don't. I think from now on I'll post here, publicly, especially if I get a request from someone as easily mockable as this idiot:

Hello I'm Michael Smith, 21yo, living in Oxford. I'm a writer and am currently busy finishing my debut novel, Jamie Roberts and the Puzzle of Darkness. It's the first in my epic fantasy series; Wielder of the Stones. It's out on October 8th.

Right. Jamie Roberts and the blahdy blahdy, part one of an epic... Sound a bit familiar? Look, it gets worse:

THE PLOT Jamie Roberts is 16 years old, orphaned and has never known his family.

Now, I've not actually read the books, despite many attempts to make me, but I do know the basics. A certain Harry Potter is an orphan as well. Hmm, let's have a look at his interests:

Books: I love fantasy stories. I particularly like The Inheritance Trilogy written by Christopher Paolini, and the Alex Rider series written by Anthony Horowitz. My big reading passion is Harry Potter. July 21st can't come quickly enough.

Yeah, there's a surprise. 21 year old wannabe author, spamming friends requests (probably using a script) to people who've specifically said they don't want to know, with no follow up message. I'm pretty sure he's not someone I know from here or elsewhere, but even if he is? A bit, um, challenged in the verbal comprehension stakes methinks? Scary: It's out on October 8th. WTF?!? There are smart, intelligent capable, decent writers on my friends list, yet this kid has a book deal and they don't? FFS. Mr Smith? If you do read this, you did kinda ask for it there...

Meh, the book signing I mentioned yesterday went well, more on that later, but was very very cool.

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[1] Oh, I sometimes make exceptions for very attractive women, but I blame Jennie for that.