Alec Moody- Environment Artist

[Rick_D]

Yeah my main problem is that the horizontal scrollbar is so alien that it feels like you are being forced to exit your comfort zone in order to look at work which is supposed to be enticing you in.

So either you get someone who loves the novelty, or you get someone who hates the effort. Instead of a vertical system where people would just be looking at your work because they feel comfortable within the vertical browsing method.

Incorporating widescreen is a nice touch but I think it's possible to show landscape images perfectly well vertically, after all left-right or up-down, you will still have a moment where an image is clipped, and a landscape will fit on a widescreen vertical layout just as well as it would on a horizontal layout.

Also, it can't be that hard to line up image sizes can it?

Of course I think this is all irrelevant because you have made up your mind and won't change the design, but for my money you would get better reception from potential employers with a traditional layout that they are used to browsing.

And the point that is interesting to me is that instead of talking about your work we are talking about your layout, which is nice to get people talking, but defies the point of a portfolio.

[Lord Ned]

Of course I think this is all irrelevant because you have made up your mind and won't change the design, but for my money you would get better reception from potential employers with a traditional layout that they are used to browsing.

And the point that is interesting to me is that instead of talking about your work we are talking about your layout, which is nice to get people talking, but defies the point of a portfolio.

I disagree. I think the layout is a big part of your portfolio. You may have all of this great work but if no one can get to it why bother?

[Rick_D]

Of course I think this is all irrelevant because you have made up your mind and won't change the design, but for my money you would get better reception from potential employers with a traditional layout that they are used to browsing.

And the point that is interesting to me is that instead of talking about your work we are talking about your layout, which is nice to get people talking, but defies the point of a portfolio.

I disagree. I think the layout is a big part of your portfolio. You may have all of this great work but if no one can get to it why bother?

That's actually what I said.

[dux]

lol

So - horizontal bad! Vertical good!

[Lord Ned]

Of course I think this is all irrelevant because you have made up your mind and won't change the design, but for my money you would get better reception from potential employers with a traditional layout that they are used to browsing.

And the point that is interesting to me is that instead of talking about your work we are talking about your layout, which is nice to get people talking, but defies the point of a portfolio.

I disagree. I think the layout is a big part of your portfolio. You may have all of this great work but if no one can get to it why bother?

That's actually what I said.

See bolded. It's not defying the point of a portfolio as it's part of it...

If that makes any sense.

[Skjalg]

I think you still misunderstood rick's point. What he's essentially saying is that you don't want to viewer (in this case us) thinking about his layout being bad or encumbering when all we are supposed to look at is great art work. It drags the whole experience down. If you were PR dude and had to check out 50 portfolios today, and on the 9nth portfolio you check out, all you can think about is how shitty the page looks and that it's making you annoyed. NEXT!

Even if you land an interview, the whole mindset of the guy interviewing you will be tainted (probably not that much, but still) with the bad experience of viewing your portfolio.

I can see your point as well tho, that you think that this thread IS about commenting on the layout, which I guess you are right in as well But the poster needs to accept criticism instead of defending it when clearly users are having a bad time viewing it.

[2d-chris]

For an artist, one would assume presentation is highest priority ... no?

[fonfa]

I kinda like the horizontal layout. But I'm on 1920x1200 so there's not much scrolling. Might be annoying on a different setup.

[m8nkey]

Nice content Alec.

I think the UI could do with some refinement. Here's an example of a horizontal layout done right:

http://aspacecodyssey.com/#home

Things done right:

The user can use the mousewheel to scroll the page, as they would a vertical layout.

All the content is on a single page meaning that after initial loading, there's no waiting for shit to download.

The header navigation automatically scrolls to the relevant content so the user doesn't have to manually scroll.

The varying types of arrows utilised in the background compliment the layout and look rad while auto scrolling.

*edit

The general rule I follow for vertical layouts is to work within 960 pixels wide. You'll find most sites do this because everything fits within a browser at 1024 res and the width replicates what people are accustomed to looking at on paper. Wide or re-scalable (liquid) layouts generally look like shit (though there's always exceptions).

If you revise your current horizontal layout ensure each horizontal region fits within 960 pixels and most people won't need to scroll to see it.

I viewed your site on a system at 1900x1080. I still had to manually scroll to see all the content. It feels like a lot of effort compared to using the mouse wheel.

[alecmoody]

I cant get that website to work but I will try again later. I like the idea of being able to horizontal scroll with the mouse wheel and I am researching it now.