[ICD2k3]

hello,
I recently updated the design of my portfolio and was wondering if any of you could do a quick usability test for me. Just check out the site at: New Media Design - Justin Schrader and answer the question below when you come back to macnn...




Don't read below until after viewing










How long did it take you to realize that the middle bar is draggable for resizing the portfolio content? Did you realize it at all?

Oh, and what do you think of the design? Thanks guys

[Aron Peterson]

That's very good! Very unique. Don't change a thing!

[MacBurg]

Its a great idea and works well once you drag it to fit the screen, but its hard to figure out when you first arrive, and it gets frustrating trying to figure out how to access the main menu again. Maybe include a small symbol or something to make it a bit more obvious?

[mac128k-1984]

Nice design, took a little longer then I'd like to load, and I agree with MacBurg that first coming into the site, its not obvious that middle bar is draggable. In fact I did not know it until I finished reading your post.

[JonoMarshall]

Great interaction, didn't realise you could resize the middle bar though.

One small point is that the small black text becomes difficult to read within the top/bottom areas of the page (where the background has shading).

Really liked it though... kept me interested for a long time!

[Thorzdad]

Nice design.
I didn't stumble across the re-sizable middle line until after you mentioned it. Nice effect.
Ditto on the small black text becoming unreadable against the background gradients.

Overall, though, a pretty fun interface.

[eyevaan]

clever design - the rollover effect at first is a little forced, I don't necessarily believe it should pulse and bleep like so many other sites, I wondered if you had tried a horizontal sweep instead of the vertical that you currently use? The overall feel of the site runs left to right, so it might tie it together that way.

Add a comment to the pane slider, I saw the icons but dismissed them and could not figure out how to make it come back, perhaps type would draw the attention back to it. Of course, simple type at the bottom stating, "Drag center line to resize pane" would take care of all of that.

Painful load times but I am behind a firewall right now so that might just be me.

Overall: Excellent idea, very parallel to your work, nice executions of the projects. Good coloring. I like it.

[torsoboy]

I thought it was pretty okay, but I had a few problems:

I couldn't find my way back to the main menu
The small black text was hard to read against the red background
I didn't know that you could drag the middle bar
When you view a couple of the examples the bottom examples are no longer selectable

Other than that it was pretty nice.

[ICD2k3]

Thanks for the suggestions! I just sat down and made several changes based on the comments.

1.) changed the description font (Verdana 10px)
2.) changed arrow rollovers using Mouse.hide to draw attention to the middle bar if the use unknowingly rolls over it
3.) added a "drag to resize" tab at the bottom of each portfolio item
4.) added small maximize (+) and minimize (-) buttons to each item
5.) changed the code so that if u click on any tab that is open you can close it (an X will show up on the right side of the tab). This way it allows users to go back to the main menu, or view all the selections without a portfolio image taking up screen space.

I think this makes it a lot more usable. Comments are still welcome as-always though thanks