Creation: What do i want?

 What do i want from this new portfolio? Beautiful and innovative design.

Content:

In my acompanying sketchbook i have mapped out four root headings: projects, contact, cv and blog. Within the project section are five projects: evolving communities, rereading the book, sound journeys (from my second year) and safe way home and one deadly sin from my second year. These are projects that i felt were conceptually strongest and demonstrated an array of skills.

What i realised whilst typing this was the necessity of expandability: i need to ensure that i can easily expand the projects within to at least double that amount without having to edit the CSS or rewrite the entire website. This is a problem with both of my previous websites, partly beause of the site frame and the nesting that i created. If all projects are available immediately from the same menu (which is possible as i dont have many), i can easily add to it.

Inspiration:

http://de-war.de/ Axel peemo's draggable menus inspire me. I love the idea of the user being able to redifine the way that the website is setup. However, for me it is taen a step too far with complete informational overload, and i dont know what i'm doing or how to revisit something i liked.

http://lucuma.com.ar/

This is stunning. The information is all on a roll, and the menu takes you to different sections. I love the rendering and rolling menus, as well as the beautiful artwork. I love the simplicity of this project.

http://mootools.net/ (a great javacript resource) was used in the interesting layout by http://melissahie.com/ I am very drawn to animated actionscript menus. What was also interesting about hers was the inclusion of a 'skills' section which i was unsure about including seperately to the CV section. HOwever, i will keep mine seperately as the CV will illustrate my skills, but i may create the CV in a different layout to my current CV which was educational history, qualifiations at the top with skills at the bottom.

http://www.thesecretlocation.com/ this website reminded me of the 'sound journey' project.

http://www.seymourpowell.com/ this website has  choice between flash and HTML version which i think is great! it shows that non-browser detection can look fine. It aso has a custom loading menu and contact information on the home page (a great idea).

browser detetion: http://www.echoecho.com/jsbrowserdetection02.htm and http://www.echoecho.com/jsbrowserdetection02.htm are useful website resources

http://www.erwinbauer.com/ is a static portfolio website which rather than using sidebars to navigate content outside of the frame, it allows the user to drag it with the mouse. It is very involving, but i found it tedious after a while.

http://mukustudios.com/ again, out of frame navigation but with a left sidebar. I love the neutral grey background with vector art and colour.

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/10/30/65-excellent-flash-designs/ i found this article very useful and it highlights some of the drawbacks of flash http://www.janholoubek.com/ is great and i love the smooth transitioning.