A little review help

[miniwheat]

Howdy folks!

 

I'm new to GSAP (and coding in general) and am looking for a little help with a review of my simple portfolio website. I'm not asking for something as cumbersome as a full blown code review but if someone is bored and wants to gloss over a few of my animations and point out any glaring issues I would be deeply grateful. I realize it's a large ask so no worries if nobody has the time, just trying to get my ducks in a row before starting to interview. Anyhow... Thanks in advance and GSAP is freakin' awesome guys, solid work! 

 

Github Repo

strangeMindDesigns.com

[GreenSock]

Hey @miniwheat! First of all, thanks for being a Club GreenSock member! 🙌 We couldn't do what we do without supporters like you.

 

This must be an exciting time for you - new to coding and getting your portfolio site officially online. Congrats. 🎉

 

You're correct about this not really being something we can do a review on here in these forums - we really try to keep things focused on GSAP-specific questions. 

 

My favorite effect on the site was the brain drawing on and them morphing into those letters. Making use of the bonus plugins I see!

 

Overall I'd just recommend thinking through what exactly you're trying to communicate and only use animations to enhance that message. I think the temptation for a lot of people is to spend too little time on the design and UX strategy, but have lots of fun animating things which can end up getting in the way of the UX or delivering the message they were really trying to communicate. I see it all the time. 

 

I'm not totally sure what the key message is that you're trying to put out there or what "success" would look like for your site in particular - I'm just offering some general advice for anyone to think through in a situation like yours. 

 

If your goal is to convince a potential employer to give you a shot, think about EXACTLY what they'd be looking for. What would impress them? Don't make them work too hard to get the info they're after (maybe skills, accomplishments, etc.?). Don't hide things behind buttons they've gotta hunt for. And again, a very clean and pleasant graphic design is probably worth a lot more than a cool animation at this phase (sounds odd for me to say that, right?) But clever, delightful animated flourishes on the site can go a long way to make a good impression. Be very careful about making your visitors sit through lengthy animations before they can get to the rest of your site - that was a common thing way back in the early 2000's that ended up annoying people, especially repeat visitors who had to sit through the same thing every time they came back to the site.

 

Anyway, good luck with the site and landing a job!

[miniwheat]

Hello! Thanks for the reply! I really appreciate all the solid advice in your post, a lot of it really hit home. I definitely went a bit overboard drawing and animating things that's for sure. 😅 So thanks again, this has given me a great starting point from which to make some serious improvements.