Ok, so yesterday I detailed the slog I went through to reach the final design of my development firm’s website.

Today the goal is to perform the breakdown of why I believe the site works as a portfolio site.

Now, I know what you are thinking. “Dave, you are completely biased because this is your own site!” And, of course, if you are thinking this, then be completely and utterly correct. The goal of this is not to say how great I am (if that was the point, then this would be a really short article), but rather to go a little deeper into the design than I would normally be able to because I happen to know the designer. Also as we meander through the site, I will break down the essentials of the portfolio site and give a few pointers I have picked up along the way on how to do it right.

So with that…lets dig in. Read the rest of this entry »

Ok, so if you have read the about page you know I run a small web development firm called Visionary Online. Basically it is what I do all of my freelancing through right now, but I have bigger goals for it in the future.

I founded this company when the tech bubble exploded in 2002 - 2003 and I got laid off from the software development firm I was working for (Enron didn’t help either since the company was in Houston). The goal was to see if I could do the “freelance thing” full time.

Since everything tech-related was about as popular as leprosy, this probably wasn’t the best idea I have ever had. However, I did work on some great projects and got some invaluable experience before I was forced to “get a real job” and move to Florida.

Over the years the site has gone through several interations…some good….some bad. Thanks to the Wayback Machine you can see some of the iterations (2003-2004). The last iteration was done quickly when I was changing jobs…I was never really proud of it, but it was better than nothing (the wayback machine doesn’t have that version for some reason, but it basically looked like this).

So being 2007…it was time to do a redesign. Simple right? Well, as anyone who has their own portfolio site knows…it always ends up taking a lot more time than you think it will… Read the rest of this entry »

Its time to have another Design Breakdown. Now for those of you new to the site, a Design Breakdown is where I take a random site that I like for one reason or another and take it apart to get a feel for the flow, tone, etc. Basically, I detail why I think the site is great, and what things could make it even better.

So, for this breakdown, I chose a new, but very popular site freelanceswitch.com. For those of you who don’t know, freelanceswitch is a blog that releases articles on…wait for it…freelancing. If you are a freelancer of any type, it is really worth a look.

Read the rest of this entry »

So today I am starting a new section of the site. Its called simply “Design Breakdown”. As the name implies, I will be taking a site and breaking it down and critiquing it. For the most part I will be breaking down sites that I have found trolling the web and like for one reason or another. The goal of this is not to bash a site, but rather see what works about it and what could be made better.

It is important to note that, unless specifically noted, I am not affiliated with any of these sites in any way, shape, or form. In other words, these aren’t sites that I designed and wanted to pimp them out.

On a related note, if you have a site that you own and would like it to go through the breakdown, email me and tell me about the site, what its purpose is, and why you would like the community to review it.

So with that…lets begin! Read the rest of this entry »