Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Lucy's Online Portfolio

Hi everyone!
So I've been meaning to work on my resume over break, but I somehow got sidetracked and created an online portfolio instead (productive procrastination?).
You can view it herehttp://lucyz.businesscatalyst.com/
What do you guys think of it? It's currently incomplete, but I'm actually really proud of how it turned out!
For those of you who are wondering how I made it, I used Adobe Muse (http://muse.adobe.com/).
The software is currently in its beta stage, so you can go download it right now for free!
According to the Adobe Muse site, "Create websites as easily as you create layouts for print. Design and publish HTML pages to the latest web standards without writing code. With easy-to-use master pages, built-in tools for interactivity and more, Muse makes it a snap to produce distinctive, professional websites."
Features include:
  • Plan your project - I love how you can create site maps! I'm an extremely visual person, so anything with maps/diagrams/charts etc. make me very happy!
  • Design your pages - Again, I'm very visual. Love being able to directly create the finish product w/out having to code. My only complaint is that you need to create your images first (I'm lazy!); they have no premade images for you to use.
  • Add rich interactivity - They have widgets that you can insert in your pages, like slideshows. If you take a look at my "Modeling" tab, you'll see that I have all of my modeling pictures organized in slideshows. Very handy and pretty! :) For things they lack, like video embedding and text boxes with scrolling, you can always insert HTML. I'd like to see them eventually have widgets for things like creating charts, forms, scrolling text boxes, videos, etc.
  • Publish your site - You can preview how everything looks before you publish. I was disappointed by the publishing because you get a free 30-day trial for the hosting site "Business Catalyst" before they start charging you. Apparently you can also export the HTML to a host site of your choice, but I haven't tried this out yet. I had hoped that Muse would eventually be a software released on a CD that you'd buy, but it seems that they're going to go by the monthly subscription option. :( What a shame!
If you're wondering what my experience with websites has been, I've been creating them since I was nine and completely obsessed with Neopets (does anyone remember that?). I took an internet publishing class my freshman year of high school where we used photoshop, flash, dreamweaver, etc. but my memory of it is pretty hazy. I understand HTML and CSS to the point where I can edit the code to achieve what I want, but starting from scratch would be very slow-going for me.
This software is great because ANYONE can use it. Whether you know a lot of HTML or very little, you should be able to create something very satisfying so long as you know what you want your site to ultimately look like. Great for artists who don't know coding.
For a software that's in beta mode, I'll give it a 4/5 simply because I'm so sad that you have to pay to keep up a website hosted by them! Other than that, it's a great tool and I highly encourage all of you to try it out.

What do you guys think? Let me know what kind of programs you guys use to create sites.
xx Lucy
Be sure to check out our joint twitter (http://www.twitter.com/neonrouge37) and YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/neonrouge37)!

2 comments:

SunshineCitizen said...

The design is amazing, very clean and elegant! Love productive procrastination ;)

Neon Rouge said...

Thank you! :) I really appreciate your feedback!

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