[mhulse]

Hi folks,

This probably will end up being a cold post, but I am looking to get some constructive feedback on a draft navigation system geared for my personal/professional website. This is what I have so far:

MAIN NAVIGATION:
01. Home
02. About
03. Portfolio*
04. Resume
05. Contact
06. Scripts**
07. Forum
08. Feedback
09. Dotcoms***
10. Links

*PORTFOLIO NAVIGATION:
01. 3D Imaging
02. Analog Art
03. Digital Illustration
04. Digital Imaging
05. DV Production
06. Font Design
07. Interactive
08. Logo Design
09. Print Design
10. Programming
11. Sonic Comps
12. Website Design

**SCRIPTS NAVIGATION:
01. (.fla)
02. (.dir)
03. (.php)
04. (.cpp)
05. (.js)

***DOTCOMS NAVIGATION:
01. mydotcomsite.com
02. mydotcomsite.com
03. mydotcomsite.com
04. mydotcomsite.com
05. mydotcomsite.com
06. mydotcomsite.com
07. mydotcomsite.com
08. mydotcomsite.com
09. mydotcomsite.com

As an alternative to the above navigation system, I was also thinking about having four main links:

NAVIGATE - PORTFOLIO - SCRIPTS - DOTCOMS

Those four would be the main visible links, and the rest would be hidden via a dropdown and/or Flash-based navigation...

Anyway, please feel free to comment/suggest/critisize the above mock navigation... I am also contemplating having sub-links for my portfolio section too...

What are peoples thoughts about one-word links vs multi-word links... example:

Print Design vs Print
Sonic Comps vs Audio

And so on...

I am looking for constructive feedback, critisizm, and suggestions.

Thanks in advance, cheers!
< /m>

[DjB]

i think it's not bad.i like it.in my opinion, you should use one-word links but just for sub-links.keepgoing mate.good work

[mhulse]

Originally Posted by DjB

i think it's not bad.i like it.in my opinion, you should use one-word links but just for sub-links.keepgoing mate.good work

I think I agree... thanks for the input

Originally Posted by justlivyalife from www.webdesignforums.net

Not a bad idea, but unless you have a huge amount of stuff to put in each category, then you will find that there won't be much content on the page...

Yes, I have had other people suggesting this too. Although, I do know that I could easily have 10+ solid works per section...

...Perhaps splitting your categories up into smaller sections rather than having 10 in the portfolio, have between one and four.

...I will brainstorm on combining the sections and post my results later today.

Question: I do not want to over/under-do it... Does anyone have suggestions on what would be a good maximum amount of works per section?

Question: Which one do you subscribe to: "More the merrier", or "Less is more"?

If I combine the portfolio into smaller sections, and keep the amount per section limited to ~10, then I will be able to really pick my best work. In general, what do employers like to see?

Another problem I am running into is this: A lot of my work fits many categories... Hmmm, I guess this is another reason why I should combine my portfolio into fewer sections.

...Once you have a large amount of stuff within these sub-categories, then you should expand. Just my view anyhow.

I would have the links as multi-word, as they are likely to have more weight with search engines.

Thanks for the input Justlivyalife, I really appreciate it.

Keep the suggestions coming! Thanks in advance!
Cheers, Micky.

[mhulse]

Alas! I think I have figured out the best way to set-up the links/navigation for my portfolio:

(This will be one of the main-navigation links:) "Selected Works"

And on the "Selected Works" page, I can have some sort of list/thumbs that would have this info next to them:

X <--- (thumbnail here) "title here" - 03/30/04 - Web Design
X <--- (thumbnail here) "title here" - 02/17/04 - Identity
X <--- (thumbnail here) "title here" - 02/10/04 - Sculpture
.........
.........
.........
X <--- (thumbnail here) "title here" - 01/12/04 - Interactive
X <--- (thumbnail here) "title here" - 12/22/03 - Photography

<<< [1.2.3.4.5] >>> (some sort of next/prev links)

I think the above setup will be the easiest way for users to navigate my portfolio section.

I could even have links to specific categories somewhere on the same page, for example:

(link to:) View All
(link to:) Web Desgn
(link to:) Identity
(link to:) Sculpture
.........
.........
.........
(link to:) Photography
(link to:) Interactive

And if any of the above is clicked, lets say "Sculpture", the thumbnails/list would then refresh to show only sculpture related works...

Hopefully that all makes sense? Hehe...

Please feel free to reply with your thoughts/comments/suggetions... :)

Thanks in advance,

Cheers!
Micky

[mhulse]

Just out of curiosity, has anyone seen any code that would do something similar to what I have described in my last post? Dynamic Flash/PHP scripts would be preferable...

There's no good reason to "completely" reinvent the wheel, right?

[mhulse]

So, just to clarify, I will sum up the complete website navigation system that I am now envisioning:

(These would be the main links for every page:)

1. [HOME]
2. [SELECTED WORK] or [PORTFOLIO]
3. [SCRIPTS]
4. [FEEDBACK]
5. [LINKS]

The "[HOME]" (home-page) would have my "news entries" and the "about" information.

The "[SELECTED WORK] or [PORTFOLIO]" page would be as described in post #4 above. Within this section, users would be able to find a link to my resume.

The [SCRIPTS] page would behave like the portfolio section... The main categories would be: CSS, PHP, JS, CPP, FLA, and DIR.

The [FEEDBACK] page would be contain a guest-book and possibly a contact email form.

The [LINKS] is pretty self explanatory...

At the bottom of every page, contained within the footer, will be these links:

1. [HOME]
3. [CONTACT]
4. [DOTCOMS]
5. Copyright info...
6. Unique hit counter
7. Date/time

Hehe, ok, I am really starting to like this navigation set-up... Thanks to all who have given me feedack so far (DjB), I really really appreciate it.

I am still open to suggestions.

Thanks
Cheers
Micky