I noticed a few people’s portfolio websites having some really obscure traits. This is my seemingly obvious list of what I think shouldn’t be on any site, especially portfolio websites. I’ve seen a few websites recently with one or two items from my list and it turned me off so I decided to write a list of a few things in hopes it’ll make you think. Since we’re all working on the LT3media portfolio its another thing to think about.
- postNUKE/phpNUKE: The bane of my existence. It just screams you don’t know how to code or laziness. It doesn’t just look awful, it’s not right for a portfolio.
- Blocking right mouse click: A right mouse click javascript alert is what turned me against JavaScript in the first place. Most importantly its quite pointless, sometimes people want to link certain images or open in a new window.
- Admin Button: Maybe this is just a feeling of mine and not others but I hate seeing ‘Admin’ buttons on a webpage, I feel that the owner must be too lazy to type in ‘/admin’ and its only the team who benefits from the button. Your portfolio should be designed for your clients, not you.
- No Personality: Leaving yourself off your website is a bad idea. People trust your company more if they know who’s behind it. What separates you from others is YOU and your company, its your skills that seal the deal.
- Don’t use nicknames: This ties in with the last point but xXHiddenxXxNinja82Xx or even something cleaner is still unprofessional. Take your company seriously.
- Spell Correctly: This goes for grammar too, I can’t stress it enough. If you have a bit of money get a copywriter.
- Adverts: Now I don’t know how people do it but don’t put ads on your company website. It just makes people think you don’t have enough cash coming in which makes people wonder why. Whether its Adsense/Banners/Popunders/Popups it doesn’t justify it. This is the strictest of the No-Nos.
- Gallery system: Don’t be lazy and use a gallery system, it looks so awful when you have mashed up templates and you should be proud enough to go out your way with each client.
- Outsourcing your main site: Try not to outsource your portfolio website, your portfolio website represents what YOU can do and why people should hire you.
- Contact Form: This is not the most important but the idea of best usability and friendliness profits from me putting it in here. Rather than an email, make it simple by putting a contact form. Don’t make the client work for THEIR money!
- Addresses: One last hint, keep the URI uniformed. I’ve seen websites with different sorts of URIs, such as:
- website.com/portfolio.php
- website.com/contact/
- website.com/index.php?area=about
