Sam Hulse { portfolio } stay hungry.stay foolish

A quick round up of the internet in 2007

Social networking went crazy

Myspace continued to grow as Facebook made a global appearance, and even Granddads and Grandmas joined in. Similar websites are bringing social networking into our professional lives allowing interaction between people from similar fields opening up all kinds of new business opportunities. Perhaps more importantly however, the internet is now seen as a social medium - and more websites are giving the users control.

Internet Explorer started to work

Sort of. Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7 and standards-based design took another step forward. IE7’s CSS support is still terrible, but it’s a work in progress. Word on the street has it that IE8 will pass the Acid2 test.

The web got off the desktop

And onto everything else. Many new games consoles now come internet enabled, allowing for a full internet experience in the living room, along with portable devices such as the iPhone and iPod Touch boasting a full web browser on a decent-sized portable screen, with the PSP not far behind.

Opera went head to head with IE

Opera plucked up the courage to take on Internet Explorer because of it’s lack of support for standards and is asking the EU Commission to force Microsoft to comply with industry standards for web browsers and either unbundle IE from the OS or include other browsers along side IE.

Microsoft is abusing its dominant position by tying its browser, Internet Explorer, to the Windows operating system and by hindering interoperability by not following accepted Web standards. Opera has requested the Commission to take the necessary actions to compel Microsoft to give consumers a real choice and to support open Web standards in Internet Explorer.

Fasthosts had a hard time

After being hacked in October, many customers were also hit hard again in December when their passwords were automatically reset, leaving many web masters shut out to customers for a couple of days before Royal Mail delivered their new passwords by post. Wouldn’t an email have done nicely?

CS3 Landed and Microsoft Expression Appeared

Adobe released CS3, and with incremental improvements across the board the verdict was positive. Flash, specifically ActionScript, was given a large-scale overhaul also with ActionScript 3.0 being released. Microsoft released Expression and while nobody ditched Adobe’s new offerings, it’s worth noting a new competitor.

4chan had problems

The popular image based bulletin board 4chan had a rocky time in December when its account with its domain name registrar was stolen, forcing the site to close and warn users about the potential loss of their personal information.

Ah fuck.

This video surfaced. Watch it on YouTube.

So basically, erm, what I was thinking of was, erm… Ah fuck. I can’t believe you’ve done this.

It took me a while to get my portfolio online. Partly because I wasn’t sure of exactly what I wanted it to look like, but most of all I was lazy; but one thing I’ve found is that it’s so helpful to have it online both personally and for potential clients - so here’s 5 tips to help you build an effective portfolio.

Design

Make something that stands out. A lot of people combine multiple web technologies to great effect along with Flash and video and high impact imagery. A portfolio is a place to show off the skills that you have and make you stand out from other people a client may be considering.

One thing you have to remember, though, is that it should be easy to find the information the user is looking for. Just because you know how to use your complex flash navigation doesn’t mean your visitor will.

Work

Being at college may seem like more of a chore than fun at times, but that project that’s kept you up all night for the past 3 weeks is a great example of something that you should include in your portfolio. Self initiated projects along with work for clients and school or college should all be included to show the range of things you’re capable of. Link to both images and the actual work if possible (ie if it’s online) - but use blank windows for external links so that visitors don’t lose your website. However, if you worked as part of a group state exactly what you did. Even if it’s unintentional, it may look like you’re trying to pass other peoples work off as your own.

Ad Free

Don’t put adverts in your portfolio. Ever. It’s relatively inexpensive to have a portfolio online, and if you’re struggling to find enough work to even cover the cost of keeping your portfolio online - chances are you don’t need one. You should be covering the cost yourself.

Content Management

It’s a lot easier to update your website using a Content Management System (CMS), than to have to upload new files all the time, which means you’re more likely to; and keeping content fresh on your portfolio is a good thing. Updating often will mean people are more likely to return to your website if there is fresh content to look at each time.

Blogging is also a great way to keep visitors returning to your website, but try not to overload the website with unrelated personal blogging unless it’s clear that you’re running a portfolio and blog.

Categorise

From time to time I get asked to do specific work, maybe just CSS work or just the graphics. Split work up into categories by what you’ve done and apply appropriate tags to make it easier for people to see your skills in a specfic area and also quicker to find a certain piece of work.