17 comments

  • Chad EngleChad Engle, over 4 years ago

    Site looks good, really liked reading about that design - I remember it well :)

    Couple thoughts from the hiring angle:

    1. I don't know your name (it's not in the content, header, URL, about me etc.) I'd add that in somewhere on this page. Maybe in the CTA? I know it's a sub-page but, if I'm interested or someone shoots me this link I don't want to dig around to make sure I get your name right in an email intro.

    2. If this is your favorite project and your first, it's odd that you've been in practice for 8 years and this site launched in 2015? It's 2018 now... What did you do before the site launched? (2010-2015) What have you been doing since? (roughly 3 years) Honestly, none of this matters but, the setup of the paragraph made me think about it more than I should have. I don't think it's a bad angle to showcase your favorite project to date or even that it was your first project but, the math confuses me. Maybe soften the "in 8years of practice this is my favorite thing" line? Potential employers like to look for gaps in work or employment, it's like a litmus test on reliability.

    3. I get urgency but, this sounds a little desperate: "would love to be booked BEFORE September ends". Urgency is a more well founded emotion, desperation often leads people down bad paths. I don't want to be scared of hiring you :)

    4. Results - do you have any results from the site? Word of mouth, did it go viral, it sold out in an hour, etc.

    These are minor however, these little things made me think too much if I'm trying to hire you.

    Love the case-study and design, keep up the epic work!

    2 points
    • Karl WeberKarl Weber, over 4 years ago

      Hey friend,

      1. Your feedback is SUPER helpful. Honestly the initial audience was people who already knew who I was, or that I sent an email to with a link, but this is kinda blowing up so I should probably introduce myself.

      2. Also I should do some editing to make it clear that this isn't my first project ever, just the first project I did at RALLY.

      3. Yeah I can dial back the desperation, I really needed a job and the goal of this site was to get one and it worked soo... YAY!

      4. Results are that I got a job. It very clearly communicated my skills and my commitment to art and design on the web. Over 600 people have visited the page, which is a success in my book.

      Thanks again for your feedback and I'm glad that you liked it. I was surprised that it worked so well considering that I had to design and build it so quickly.

      2 points
      • Nick B., over 4 years ago

        I might be wrong, but I think the results Chad was inquiring about are results around the Epicurrence site, not your portfolio site. Do you have any data around the site that proves it was successful and helped the client? Hard data like that can be really persuasive in convincing employers that your designs don't just look good, but they also result in tangible business outcomes. It also communicates an attitude that you care enough about your client's goals to measure that sort of stuff.

        1 point
        • Karl WeberKarl Weber, over 4 years ago

          Yeah I think I can add more detail about the event. It sold out. So it was a success. I should be more clear in the portfolio that I developed the site, I didn't design it. That the design was a collaborative process with Ben doing most everything and I just seeing if is crazy ideas would work.

          Thanks for your feedback.

          1 point
  • Account deleted over 4 years ago

    It looks nice and the writing is good but it the performance is so bad I had to bail. I think it might be the colour changing body text that is slowing everything down

    2 points
    • Karl WeberKarl Weber, over 4 years ago

      Whoah Whoah bad performance? What browser are you using?

      0 points
      • Account deleted over 4 years ago

        On the latest version on Chrome (Version 69.0.3497.100), Macbook pro with 16gb of ram and 3.2ghz I7. When I scroll it goes to like 2fps and lags quite a bit.

        Edit - just tried it again. I starts lagging when I get to the epiccurence text on the left, then by the time the first image is there it slows down until it is basically unusable.

        0 points
        • Karl WeberKarl Weber, over 4 years ago

          Oh yeah it's the lighten diagonal bars on the text. I've got too many and they are too big. I just updated them so it's much faster on Chrome, I'd try it again. On Safari it's wicked fast though.

          Thanks so much for telling me, I literally had no idea about the chrome issue.

          0 points
          • Account deleted over 4 years ago

            No worries man. It's a bit better now but it's still pretty laggy. I just tried in Safari and it's super smooth there.

            0 points
    • Adam Fisher-CoxAdam Fisher-Cox, over 4 years ago

      Yeah the scrolling was super janky on Chrome, MacBook Pro early 2015. Also - who are you? Is your name anywhere on this site?

      1 point
      • Karl WeberKarl Weber, over 4 years ago

        i just pushed an update, check it out on Chrome, and Safari. It should be much faster now.

        0 points
        • Adam Fisher-CoxAdam Fisher-Cox, over 4 years ago

          Definitely better, but I'm still able to scroll faster than the browser can paint the page.

          1 point
          • Karl WeberKarl Weber, over 4 years ago

            I think that's as good as it will get in Chrome, Safari performance is fantastic though. Chromes blend modes are not as good yet.

            Thanks for looking at the page.

            0 points
            • L W, over 4 years ago

              The thing is, all these new features are great, but the reason why you don’t see them being implemented is because the browsers don’t support them well. You’ve got to find a way to make it work or at least gracefully degrade. It’s a red flag for me when someone isn’t too worried about a site not working well on the browser with 63% of the desktop market share. On top of that it’s your portfolio and people will judge you by it. Still, your clients are not web experts so they probably won’t know.

              3 points
              • Karl WeberKarl Weber, over 4 years ago

                I mean, like I get that, but I think it's good enough on Chrome now. Web performance is very important to me. The whole thing was done in a rush over a weekend because I HAD to get a job, and I actually got a job because of it so... It worked.

                I also don't feel like I'm done with this page. More performance improvements and additional detail and interactive content related to the project are in the works. Keeping an up to date portfolio is super important, and I haven't tried it until now.

                1 point
  • Willem ShepherdWillem Shepherd, over 4 years ago

    Interesting site - I feel like the writing is quite dry and lacking conclusions. It just sort of states facts.

    The ticket system was built on Stripe and express.js. It was my first project in Node and I was very grateful to have the opportunity to choose which tech stack to use for the project.

    Why was it built that way? what did it do? how did that help? why were you grateful?

    This trend is consistent on most of the site. You have explained a couple things that happened, but not why, how you were involved, what the impact was, why the choice mattered.

    We spent time experimenting with various canvas based animations recreating seismic waves recorded by seismometers, and lots of creepy rotating and expanding polygons.

    This is super cool! - but why did you do that? what was the impact? it sounds like you just played with a bunch of visual canvas rotations and then didn't use them.

    I would also suggest killing the green diagonal stripes that change the text color. They are distracting and also cause readability issues at multiple stages. I thought for while they were links but then realized it it was a visual choice.

    Glitch

    0 points
    • Karl WeberKarl Weber, over 4 years ago

      You're right, I need to work on the copy a lot to keep it from just describing what we did, but help to tell a story about why we did it.

      I've been making small changes to the portfolio to improve performance and to avoid visual distortions on larger screens, it should look much better now.

      0 points