BrZaik.com (v3)
Visit Work
For the next version of my portfolio site, I looked at what worked well and ripped out all of the distractions.
The third release of my personal portfolio at brzaik.com was born out of my desire to simplify, refine, and focus the image I presented for myself and my work online. Much like sites like Apple.com draw people in with a minimalist design and some big, beautiful header, I worked hard to condense the couple most important messages and put them right in front of people above the fold. I came up with a layout that dedicates much more screen space to project visuals and keeps the viewer focused on what she reads. I created a simple set of layout templates for project detail pages like this one and paired them with an elegant typeface (Warnock Pro, from Adobe) that doesn't overpower other elements. And then, once these elements were in place, I sliced out everything else in an effort to remove all potentially distracting sidebars, buttons, and icons.
Front and Center
I thought about how type could be used as a form of user interface for the first 600 pixels of vertical space on the front page. I placed my visual identity at the top, and then came up with three sentences that introduce visitors to who I am and what I do. Right there in three sentences, people find a link to my daily blog on Tumblr, a contact form, and two pages about my design process and my background. There are no icons or formal menus.
Follow Me
Below the fold on the front page, I took inspiration from front-end designer Soh Tanaka and created a context-specific menu that allows visitors to navigate a list of featured projects based on common categories. There are no parallel elements like tabs that force people to not only scroll but also click back and forth. Everything is accessible just by scrolling up and down. This one-dimensional navigation is meant to be fluid and natural - it's built to behave the way people expect the Web to be. And there are big, vivid images linking to more information about specific projects. Each one is an adventure of its own.
Last Updated on Aug 14, 2011