Portfolio Website - Ricky Felix

[wintry oak]

I made a simple portfolio website on Webflow. There are more things that I need to edit. What do you guys think and are there any feedback you can give me?
https://rickyfelix19.webflow.io/

[crude kelp]

Hey @wintry oak !

I love the vibe of the site and some of the little details that makes it more unique and all! Like i found it suprising and nice how the navigation bar is on the bottom on mobile devices, or I also liked the version history thing cool. And the whole design styles page is giving me that designer vibe you know haha so those are all fun small touches! I also find the FAQ section cool

Some stuff for improvements:

• I might would prefer having a lot of stuff on your home page on an about page more, and have more focus on showing your projects. You leave your projects to the very end, and I feel like recruiters would like to be able to find that first thing first to even decide if they would like to know more about you. With the whole "See more" button too on the featured projects part makes me have to do a second step to get there, and as a recruiter i would just wanna jump in and see if you are someone i would like to look into more at all based on your projects
• You could also have a CTA in the header to go to the about me page in case if a recruiter would like to see that first, and/or a cta to resume since that could be a bit want too
• For resume, when it opens, it gets very zoomed in (not sure if this is a me problem though), and you might also want to keep it 1 page long
• the read more buttons to other case studies in the end of the case studies pages all open a new tab which is not something i would advise. THe next / previous button in the bottom is also a bit broken and confusing given that there are 2 other projects right above that.
• In your case studies you are more just saying that oh you did this step or did that step (sometimes with a team). I would like to know more what you did, what were your impacts, what were your ideas, and also what were those ideas at all? What thought process did you go through to come up with that exact solution. Some of the decks might have more info on that, but some also doesnt. And the ones that do have more info are really long and would be nice if you could bring more attention to what you did and the thought process in a condensed way. It doesnt have to talk about everything, it can be one specific feature / aspect of it, but I think i could learn more about you that way! I would be more interested to see what thought process did you go through and what exact problemor reason contributed to place a button to that one spot or something like that, rather than just knowing that you did research. What did the research tell? what did the ppl say that made u do that decision? why did you find that comment to be so important to make that change and not another change?
• For thumbnail projects use more of the high-fi UIs you ended up with - like the ones you have in the header of each case study, those are great! That would tell more to a recruiter about if this case study is something they even wanna look at much, I also have seen hiring ppl to eliminate ppl based on the thumbnail and the mockups in the thumbnail like if there is any UI issues in there
• I personally dont love the menu open on desktop at least. It takes up too much of the page and is kinda feeling slow. Especially if thats my only way to get to your resume and to view all your projects without having to scroll down on the home page.

[rough shell]

really like the color scheme with the orange & green

[wintry oak]

hi thnak you so much for your through feedback 😊 i really appreciate it

just give a moment, im prepparing for my uni and its starting next week

[wintry oak]

thank you so much for you much detailed feedback, it is something i really need much of!!

i initially thought of seperating homepage and about us but due to not having enough content, i combined it into one. perhaps i should only include header, featured projects inside homepage. While the rest of it, I could put within the About Us page

the Projects comment that you gave was the most insightful to me. I, initially thought of giving a quick summary of the whole project. And if they wanted to dive in deeper, they could use the slide. Apprently this causes confusion

this is going to take a while 🥲

uni is starting so i wont be able to fix everything... ill just fixx the most important first for now. especially when graduate role application is opening now

i'll keep you updated

[wintry oak]

thank youuu!!

yeah uhmm.. there's still a lot of things i have not able to implement though

maybe i should consider turning it into a smaller site instead of bigger

idk i want my portfolio at least to be scalable

at this point i think its best for me to hide the slides first and put everything inside the page.

otherwise, ,it would be double work for me

[crude kelp]

Yeah! I think what you have on the projects page is really all what it needs (+ your current header) on the home page! you can also think about having the projects laid out in a column if you feel like there is not enough. Most ppl with their portfolio, they just have the work/project page as their home page tbh

You dont even need to have a seperate featured project. Just have your project page as the home page tbh! and of course keep your current header. I think the FAQ also could work well on the home page and/or on the about me page

[crude kelp]

Yeah, and i think its not something a hiring person would love to do. They want to be able to see your thought proccess as easily as possible

and without any extra work on their side. Especially if the slides will get back into the beginning again that they have read and all that. They might be more interested in the research part and then they would like to be able to see what you did there immediately without having to look for it in a slide, that may or may not have more information on it

[crude kelp]

yeahhh.... portfolios take some time 😦 for me what helped (and I saw you did something similar too) was that I got all my contents figured out in notion first so i could focus on that part (which i think is the most important and most time consuming part) and get that out of the way and make sure that it is good enough

[crude kelp]

Yeah, tbh i would say that you dont need that many projects - and i would say probably would look at 2-3, 4 in less cases. Quality >> quantity. Just choose your top 2 and make sure that they are really well figured out. and then add in a 3rd one. and then if you have time you can rework the last one.

[crude kelp]

yeah, i also think that you should drop the slides! Just get them all on your site and mostly just the most important information in those that tell us about your proccess, and most importantly your thought process and what motivated you to do one thing over another.

I think your slides were diving in a bit too deep, i would try to ifnd something in between the two.

[wintry oak]

okayyy

i think its also beacsue some parts of our slides were part of an assignment

hmm

i only have today tbh

i guess i have no choice but to finish it today

[wintry oak]

you know what.

this isn't a bad thing

cause reducing content and complexity and i focus more on the aesthetic and motion design :))

[wintry oak]

hi @crude kelp , is it okay if i ping you when i finished my update?

[crude kelp]

Yeah for sure!

Good luck with it ☺️

[wintry oak]

probably best to based it on this right now-- https://www.lewi.sh/

the thing is by the end of the my current semester, i am required to make another portfolio

but its okay, i already have an idea on what to do. its just the execution part that i need to think of

[crude kelp]

I think this is a good start, and its the basic setup for most portfolios.

But I think the biggest thing is presenting your case study. Most projects are different in what was going on there or what the outcomes of research were etc. So what worked for him, doesn't neccessarily the best for yours.

I would say focus more on figuring out how you would like to tell the story of your case studies in a way that you keep them minimal but also explain enough of your thought process. Again, just because he told his story in one way doesn't mean that thats the right setup for yours too. Once you have figured out the flow of your story, making a portfolio with new setups / designs / etc is not that bad (unless if you want to replace all your projects with new ones)

[wintry oak]

hi mentor

just a quick update, i have made some short / quick changes to the site

https://rickyfelix19.webflow.io/

except for the projects

and navbar on windows

[crude kelp]

Hey @wintry oak ! I like the new setup more with having a dedicated About me page.

Some things I would personally change would be:

• The heading text (Design to improve lives) - im not sure if that has a great contrast with thee background it is on. You might want to double check that
• For me personally, that teext also feels a bit generic and less personal. I kinda liked your old heading with your picture there too. It made it a bit more personal to me?
• Maybe instead of Featured Projects, just say "Projects" since you are not showing additional ones anyway
• Maybe instead of the "Scroll down to find out more" I would have a button that says "Projects" that would just scroll down to that section, and maybe a button for "Resume" that would open up the resume in a new tab. Or to about me (not in a new tab), depending on which one you think is more important / what you think hiring ppl would be more interested in seeing.
• for the changelog, i would might put the newest changes on top, so just flipping the order of things

[crude kelp]

And I would say you might not need that much text about yourself on the home page, leave it for the about me page! On the home page just have a couple of main words / 1-2 sentences that are most important to know about you (but i think its also okay i f you dont change this)

[wintry oak]

yup okay, was thinking the same thing as well! I shall reply and update later, need to run off to uni now

[green ocean]

Do you have the design in Figma?

[wintry oak]

not for this one

typically i would do in figma

[green ocean]

I was thinking this was a Figma chat 😁

[wintry oak]

feel free to stay and comment on my portfolio

[wintry oak]

https://www.careerstrategylab.com/how-to-write-a-ux-case-study/

[wintry oak]

@wintry oak reminder to finish by this week to apply for graduate roles

[wintry oak]

sadge couldnt make it was busy with work and uni

hmm, hopefully i can do something on tuesday or wednesday since most of the copies are already there

make it work, make it right, make it fast, if you have time then make it pretty

[wintry oak]

hi @crude kelp

i need advice

I'm going to run a co design workshop next Monday

And that will be my first time. however, I feel a bit inexperienced in terms of adjusting our group sizes

currently we have 5 people (+4 people from my assignment group) but 3 directions to work with

and generally speaking we can't include our own because that will create biased or leading answers

should I do each concept at a time or do I split them up?

[crude kelp]

Hmm i have a bit of hard time understanding the task + setup

[wintry oak]

lmaoooo

sorry

I'm going to run an ideation workshop for our assignment

previously we had 6 people and I could divide them into 3 groups because I have 3 approaches to work with

but now only 5

User Driven Product, Design by Metaphor, and Futuring (the 3 approaches)

[crude kelp]

Hm and you want each group to have the same amount of ppl?

[wintry oak]

both are based on Evidence Based Design

[wintry oak]

I think so?

[crude kelp]

And you would like to do it in the least amount of time?

[wintry oak]

cause I only have ~1 hour

[crude kelp]

How long is a task?

[wintry oak]

so it's basically coming into the room. Ice Breaker 1, let them journey through the problem, Ice Breaker 2, conceptualize ideas through design methodologies, share to improve, and end there

that's what I think I'll do

because the purpose of the workshop is to generate concepts proposal

[crude kelp]

Okay so all of them has the same thing but has the 4th thing as different?

[wintry oak]

yea

and I don't think doing it 1 by 1 is good?

cause it takes double the time and double the energy

that's why I wanted more people so each group has more people to work with (or should I just have everyone do it together, so 1 concept done, rest, concept 2 done, rest, concept 3 -> that wouldn't make sense either)

[crude kelp]

What do you mean by 1 by 1?

[wintry oak]

go through the same problem statement however after each concept submission, approach it differently

*Futuring not Figuring lol

design by metaphor case study -> https://www.kentdebruin.com/blog/the-desktop-metaphor

its final capstone projct so i thought "go big or go home"

so we are submitting 9 concepts instead of 3

[crude kelp]

Hmm i feel like if only 1-2 ppl did each one that would be a bit small group size

[wintry oak]

exactly

i feel the same

[crude kelp]

Oh so only 1-2 approach would be good too

[wintry oak]

but if 5 people do each one gonna take a while

[crude kelp]

Im thinking more like

Person 1 could do 1 and 2
Person 2 could do 2 then 1
Person 3 could do 2 then 3
Etc

But it will be still off balance

[wintry oak]

round robin?

yea

i was thinking

[crude kelp]

I mean you can have 1 person do all 3

But its better than having everyone do all 3 time wise

[wintry oak]

group 1 -> concept 1
group 2 -> concept 2
everyone -> concept 3

[wintry oak]

nah thats too hard for them i think

[crude kelp]

What do u mean by collab

[wintry oak]

hmm im unprepared lmaooo

[wintry oak]

cause if theres only 1 person doing it, there wont be anyone critiquing each other before the concept materialize and share it to everyone, for it to grow one more time

thats what i think

maybe im thinking too much about this cause i havnt plan it out

:cry

my website

[crude kelp]

Would it be possible to do eg person 1 does 1 and 2 and then share w everyone?

So not 1 and share 2 and share?

I also dk how usedul this would be but not having them do things in the same order might be good too if you do choose everyone to do multiple

[wintry oak]

hmmmm

damn facilitating 3 concept inside 1 workshop is hard

going to sleep i think need to do thematic analysis for my interview and find matching themes and conslidate everything 😢

carrying my group and putting 80% of the work

they put in work and are good but yeah

im the one that consolidate it

hopefully i can finish within 10 hours, send attendees email, and plan for the workshop

i should be paid for doing this but nope.

[wintry oak]

okay i think I know

group will be divided into two

submit concepts

then midway share to everyone make it grow or shrink

after that we are running it into a future workshops based on the indicators we made

so

• Introduce Plans and Purpose of workshops

• Brainstorming sessions

• Ideation

• Share to the team
  Quick Break

• Future Workshop

• Ideation

• Share to the team

• Ends

• our group shrinks / grew and adjusts it to our design indicators to match our client branding and our design indicators

so in total submit 6 concepts and not 9

[wintry oak]

WE GET FULL MARKS AHAHAHA

well probably the highest within the class

but still jobless (in UIUX)

[main pulsar]

Do you know which content management system is used here?

[wintry oak]

I think he coded it himself sir

since he is an expert in design system engineer

[main pulsar]

Ahh, Do you happen to know any good cms for portfolios?

[wintry oak]

depends

how much do you know about web design langugage?

like HTML, CSS, JS

[main pulsar]

Im very good at html, css

[wintry oak]

then webflow might be a good option

[main pulsar]

The backend worries me lol

[main pulsar]

its a lil expensive

imo

it restricts

[wintry oak]

why would you need a backend? if it's a static website?

[main pulsar]

I want to post blogs and case studies for my projects

Im also thinking of taking orders on my website

[wintry oak]

why not put in the server and fetch it from there?

hold on

give me a minute

[main pulsar]

it would be hard to manage

Basically, I need a content management system ( dashboard ) to manage my website

[wintry oak]

wordpress then or squarespace

or wix

[main pulsar]

Alrightytyyy

Ill look into it

thanks!

Maybe make this hover animation abit smooth

maybe somthing like this ^

[crude kelp]

Those are still pretty static. But if you dont want to use a cms or pay fot those or being restricted, you could do nextjs. I have been doing blogs with it by writing the blogs in md files and theres one js file that calls the md files to show up. And then a css file that styles the different md stuff

(Might need to use some npm packages)

[main pulsar]

Damnn, that's some next level stuff

Next - nextjs, get it?

Yeah, I'll give it a shot

[crude kelp]

Hahah nice

[main pulsar]

Btw, I don't mind using cms Im just trying to find cheaper alternatives

[crude kelp]

Yeah its not too bad tbh. Needs a little setup but after that its straightforward and making md files is easy

Yeah i get that. I used to keep trying to find cms’s too

But i always went back to coding

[wintry oak]

oh yeah there's nextjs

oh yeah @crude kelp I'm going to have to put this project on hold for the time being :((

I need to make a portfolio website for my master degree. I will use a different style since I won't update the work once I submit my assignment

[wintry oak]

am back

uhm nothing much has changed

but uhm are there anything that I should work on improving my website?

[crude kelp]

I would try to improve the visual design of it

[wintry oak]

is it that bad

[crude kelp]

The portfolio itself is a design project on its own

if it is not good, they would assume thats how your designs are also

[wintry oak]

I guess I'm lacking on visual design

[crude kelp]

this might not pass color accessibility

[wintry oak]

I don't come from a design background

so it's subpar compared to everyone else's

hard to read?

[crude kelp]

yeah you can check the color accessibility of it online

[wintry oak]

how do I improve the visual design, through moodboarding?

[crude kelp]

the cards feel a bit oudated and cramped too since they take up so small space

https://color.adobe.com/create/color-contrast-analyzer

the cards feel a bit oudated and cramped too since they take up so small space

[wintry oak]

and find a more contemporary look

[crude kelp]

no, i dont think it is necessarily bad in branding

[wintry oak]

its outdated?

[crude kelp]

it is just not following some basic needs (like accessibility)

[wintry oak]

ah hmm

how about the projects?

[crude kelp]

the cards are outdated. well for one -- why are they taking up such small space?

shadows are also outdated and they are also super strong on your site

[wintry oak]

should I make it bigger and wider?

ooft

I should do the radnolan UI design at this stage

[crude kelp]

I would also update the cards content. for images you would wanna show your end designs more. Eg the logo of things dont matter to people

it doesnt really tell me that i should look at it

[wintry oak]

okay

[crude kelp]

I would also update the titles to be more compelling to read

I have no clue why I would wanna read Midas

[wintry oak]

hmm a do over then

okay

should I change it to a HMW statement instead?

[crude kelp]

is that for how might we?

[wintry oak]

yeha

[crude kelp]

no, not exactly. more like eg "co-working app for workshops to [outcome]"

(or results)

[wintry oak]

okay hm

what about this one

https://www.chelseahendra.com

a friend's

[crude kelp]

i would also update like the spacing of things, there is no spacing between sections

[wintry oak]

is that more contemporary

[crude kelp]

which again is just a little ui basics

[wintry oak]

oh yeah oops

problems here and there huh

spacing makes it more readable

[crude kelp]

yeah at first glance it does look more pleasing and modern

your heading font is also kinda huge

[wintry oak]

really

I see

I'll stick with the standards then

[crude kelp]

there would be a couple of things i would change about your friend's case studies too

but i think its more content wise than feel / look wise

[wintry oak]

okay

shall do it again then

[crude kelp]

or eg these images are also super small

people dont like images if they cant read them

[wintry oak]

yea,

[crude kelp]

because then it feels kinda useless

[wintry oak]

oh yea

how do people usually do this kind of stuff, when do I write, when do I attach images

images with illustration?

write when.... it's important to read?

[crude kelp]

you just gotta ake sure they are readable

[wintry oak]

cause all of my projects are made in a presentation slides

[crude kelp]

you dont have to include everything either

[wintry oak]

then I transfered it to her

here

[wintry oak]

mm okay

[crude kelp]

eg you did some post it exercise -- you dont have to show an image of alll the post its. its enough if you take out some examples that have the main points

[wintry oak]

that's the hardest part

[wintry oak]

okay

[crude kelp]

yeah i can tell its just from the presentation and thats not really good

its hard to read and doesnt tell me much

think about what the main story is, what is the main problem you solved and what the solution is

maybe you did a 100 other things but that is not related to that problem and solution

maybe it helped creating some other solutions, but then they are irrelevant for the story

[wintry oak]

okay

I was trying to hard to follow a template

but all of the projects should have different stories

Portfolio Website - Ricky Felix

I will redo it

[crude kelp]

yeah, you shouldnt just follow a template

ppl actually been calling it a cookie cutter case study and its usually a sign of a designer with not much experience

[wintry oak]

this will take another few months but it sure will be worth it

[crude kelp]

or someone who havent had real work experience but more from schools

[wintry oak]

yup okay

[crude kelp]

which is okay if it is true for you, but you dont wanna seem like that

[wintry oak]

cause I look like I have experience

and I do volunteer

[crude kelp]

yeah and im sure in your volunteer work it wasnt as easy as just fully following the double diamond or whatever other process

[wintry oak]

should probably make a draft in docs first before putting it into my site to see if it makes sense

true

there's no such thing in most cases!

those are meant for academic purposes an introduction to design thinking

unless it's an end to end project

[crude kelp]

yeah that can be good

though i did wanna do that too and it didnt really work out for me haha

[wintry oak]

ahahha

[crude kelp]

You wanna keep in mind that most people will only read the headers

[wintry oak]

okay

hm

I'll just start from the beginning then

might as well use framer this time

to speed up the process

[crude kelp]

yeah for me making it modern was also hard

and what helped me was looking at framer templates

[wintry oak]

okay

I will check them out

or use the ai tool lmao

design sprint is literally using ai

nah I'll look at templates

[crude kelp]

I sent you a dm in case that helps

[wintry oak]

okay

at this stage idk if I should design first or code first

[crude kelp]

i meana if you are just using a cms i would just do it with that

i personally just coded mine, but made sure to create components and some basic design system structure to keep things more consistent

and that i could easily adjust things if needed

my original looked a bit different and i got some feedback from a visual designer and updated my stuff quickly thanks to the system

[wintry oak]

it's for uni anyways

our tutor is lazy anyways

literally told me only wanted the money

[wintry oak]

ill use this one