Portfolio Review: Design Insights and Performance Tracking

It’s another Syntax Highlight. In this episode, Scott and Wes take a look at portfolios and websites and evaluate them from the perspective of a hiring manager.

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Show Notes

04:50 - https://shaquilhansford.com/

• Not optimized for desktop
• Lots of spacing issues overall
• Too many accordions - could be lists in multiple columns
• Social links could be in the footer
• Twitter is on point - iwantyoutohire.me
• Phone number on website is good

11:31 - https://www.benlammers.dev/

• Gimmy dat yellow
• The design and polish is really good
• Data URI images can overload CPU
• Semantic headings, but HTML should use some work
  • Four H1s on the page
  • 20 H2s
  • 40 H3s
  • Main tag

20:28 - https://www.zubairaziz.com/

• Lots of empty space
• Photo is key
• Not sure what to do when I land on the page
• Blog is nice, but two posts from May - add more or drop it
• Portfolio is just enough
• Nav animation should only happen on initial load

29:39 - https://codebyfil.dev/

• This is a great example of something that is good, but needs a bit of polish
• Tone down the border radius
• Tone down the box shadow
  • Border and drop shadow
• Images aren’t links
• Footer padding or space - contact is ridding the bottom
• Scott’s HTML breakdown
  • Four H1s
  • Six H2s
  • Four H3s
  • 18 H4s
  • Five H5s

37:39 - https://www.johngeorgesample.com/

• Clean but maybe too clean
• Nav is too distractingly too big
• Need active link indicator in main nav
• div div div div - take a look at those semantic HTML tags
  • No H1 or H2
  • HTML needs work brother
• Use × instead of X
• Asterisk doesn’t work on mobile

46:52 - https://stordahl.dev/

• Great images
• Nice typography
• Sign-up for newsletter is great
• Store = A+
• Scott’s HTML breakdown
  • Two H1s, one of which is just nice to meet you
  • Zero H2s
  • Articles should be articles
  • No section
• 1px move on hover is nice - could use a transition

Links

• Axe Accessibility Testing
• Gatsby
• Next.js
• https://feathericons.com/
• Snipcart
• GeoGuessr

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