I'm just going to list these things out in order of my thoughts - and how I'd decide to hire you or not (because that's how I'd think about it first)
I like that I know your name. It's big. It's Jeff.
I'll check it out at 320px (iPhone 5) - kinda too big! - consider using clamp() for the heading
no idea what those icons at the top do.
I'm pretty bored with the 'typeing in' type animation that 'coders' seem to be doing
"I build cool stuff for the web" Who said? That's subjective... you've got a little window to tell me who you are - and this is too vague: check thisjonathanstark.com/daily/20170911-s... out
I don't feel compelled to push the learn more button
I'm generally worried by developers who prioritize 'dark' mode.
I'm going to scroll...
portrait is all stretched out
The spacing and alignment and type is pretty off / "web" is on a line by itself - and some space that probably needed to be used at this size
"I enjoy bla bla bla (vague again)" and then doubling down on dark mode? Wow. Why? I think you mean you like "theming" and "CSS" and - well, you can tell that story in a much more compelling way. Those things are important. dark-mode gets hard really fast - when the site gets bigger. Why not have more 'modes'? Now I want to know if you used 'prefers' or localStorage or both
things are animating in and out as I scroll - but not in a good way. It's hard to really tell how fast people will scroll. Designers like to pretend that people will scroll all slow and make the animations work all buttery and perfect - but they never do.
padding on the textarea for the form is a red-flag for attention to details.
social icons aren't aligned in the footer
not sure whey the projects are grouped by "react" (a JS library) and "typescript" (arguably a subset of JS) and Python... when people really want to know "what" and "why" and "how" - when they get to the project.
I'm not enticed to click on the projects - and I'm still not totally sure what you do. What are your specialties?
I'm feeling "boot camp" vibes
Just now noticing the menu icon animation on scroll pretty cool!
ok - back to the computer browser
I'd run a lighthouse: 50/100 performance
no errors in the console
All of the HTML is terrifying - but I see #root - so, it's react probably... so, MAYBE the inline CSS is a good thing?
no semantic headers or sections
The snow is fun - but I don't care for the other animations. just feel broken. not specifically yours - but just the scrolling i mentioned. Feels more clunky than 'smooth'
I'm 10x more interested in your blog posts. The thumbnails are cool - and I can actually tell what they are about by their titles. I want to go look at those. Cool! Hearing your thought process is much more impressive than the portfolio site.
I don't know why this website isn't written in super clean HTML and killer CSS since you love theming
I have to go eat dinner now - but I can give you some advice if you like. Code-wise, I don't think there's a point picking at it if it's React. It's more about your developer experience and the code is going to be trash when it compiles anyway.
Let me just start off by saying holy crap, thank you! This response is a treasure trove of feedback and exactly what I'm looking for.
The two glaring things that stood out to me from reading this were honestly things I guess I'm already aware of and have been trying to ignore.
The first of which being I haven't really grasped the conversion between desktop and mobile design... it's tough! Not to mention accounting for multiple screen sizes within the two designs.
The second, and it doesn't just pertain solely to my portfolio, being that I struggle to describe myself. I can go on and on about the intricacies behind a project I'm working on or a topic I care about, but when I need to boil down to a few sentences about who I am and what I do, I draw a complete blank. I definitely need to sit down and figure this out.
I really do appreciate the time you put into this and the honest feedback, I don't take it lightly!
I will definitely be taking everything you've shared into consideration and going back over the whole thing.
As a quick aside, you're spot on. It is React, made with a framework I'm working on utilizing inline styling, with some server-side CSS optimization. So that's where the inspector ugliness comes from (and probably the performance hit, although mobile lighthouse reads in the mid-to-upper 70s on my machine).
Definitely curious. I just ran it myself several times on both Brave and Chrome incognito tabs, both giving no lower than 66 on Mobile, and 95 on Desktop. I'm hosted via Netlify so I wonder if it's an issue with the server you're being connected to
Rewriting is vanilla HTML/CSS has been at the back of my mind for a while (especially now that I've gained a lot more experience with designing for multiple themes). When I started off making this iteration, it was more of a proof-of-concept for the framework I was designing, and it just sort of got to the point of "holy crap this would be a lot of work to do again"
But I agree, in its current form, React is overkill for this and probably doing more harm than good
That would be fantastic. If you don't mind, I might PM you here in a little while to pick your brain on some things. I'm elbows-deep in rewriting everything right now, so I'm sure I'll get stuck somewhere along the way.
Again, I appreciate all the insight you've given thus far!
I'm just going to list these things out in order of my thoughts - and how I'd decide to hire you or not (because that's how I'd think about it first)
Let me just start off by saying holy crap, thank you! This response is a treasure trove of feedback and exactly what I'm looking for.
The two glaring things that stood out to me from reading this were honestly things I guess I'm already aware of and have been trying to ignore.
The first of which being I haven't really grasped the conversion between desktop and mobile design... it's tough! Not to mention accounting for multiple screen sizes within the two designs.
The second, and it doesn't just pertain solely to my portfolio, being that I struggle to describe myself. I can go on and on about the intricacies behind a project I'm working on or a topic I care about, but when I need to boil down to a few sentences about who I am and what I do, I draw a complete blank. I definitely need to sit down and figure this out.
I really do appreciate the time you put into this and the honest feedback, I don't take it lightly!
I can help you sort that all out. The responsive stuff is pretty simple - it just requires a little mental shift.
That all being said: it's just as good as everyone else's portfolio for the most part!
A few tune-ups will go a long way. Then you can totally start getting jobs.
I will definitely be taking everything you've shared into consideration and going back over the whole thing.
As a quick aside, you're spot on. It is React, made with a framework I'm working on utilizing inline styling, with some server-side CSS optimization. So that's where the inspector ugliness comes from (and probably the performance hit, although mobile lighthouse reads in the mid-to-upper 70s on my machine).
I'm in a one-off chrome incognito window and I got 50 the first time and 25/100 when I tested again. Strange
Definitely curious. I just ran it myself several times on both Brave and Chrome incognito tabs, both giving no lower than 66 on Mobile, and 95 on Desktop. I'm hosted via Netlify so I wonder if it's an issue with the server you're being connected to
Consider building it with regular HTML so people can see some proof you can write it. There are thousands and thousands of "React" devs that can't.
RE: score: weird! It's not always consistent - but our numbers are really off!
Rewriting is vanilla HTML/CSS has been at the back of my mind for a while (especially now that I've gained a lot more experience with designing for multiple themes). When I started off making this iteration, it was more of a proof-of-concept for the framework I was designing, and it just sort of got to the point of "holy crap this would be a lot of work to do again"
But I agree, in its current form, React is overkill for this and probably doing more harm than good
It'll be great practice. You can even keep both and compare and write an article. As I said, I'd be happy to help you. 🤠
That would be fantastic. If you don't mind, I might PM you here in a little while to pick your brain on some things. I'm elbows-deep in rewriting everything right now, so I'm sure I'll get stuck somewhere along the way.
Again, I appreciate all the insight you've given thus far!
Maybe you should wait until we talk... ; )
You can find me in the CSS Discord later this evening.