A quick & dirty field study of personal websites found in my bookmarks. Collected as inspiration for redesigning my own website.

1. ● Unstructured collection
● Comments on structure & design, less on content
○ type classification: artist-, designer-, tech- portfolio, blog…
○ misc good/bad attributes
● Sources
○ my bookmarks
○ connections’ websites (don’t take it personally 😅)
○ this Medium post (thanks Tarunika)
Quick & dirty study
of personal websites
August 20, 2019
Thor Galle

2. Zain Khoja
https://zainkho.com/

4. ● design portfolio focus
● simple nav: Work, About, Travel, Resume (CTA!)
○ good for opportunities/recruiters
○ travel as a sidetrack + creative showcase
+ simple, focussed project tiles
still visual, comprehensive
+ maintained (see 2 versions)
+ bold
+ visual details
➢ masked picture titles in Travel

5. Kaiwei Wang
http://kaiwei.design/

8. ● design portfolio focus
● 1 page scroller, SPA (screenshots are bad)
+ visually impressive
➢ dynamic transitions, animations
that feel right
+ depth of project content
➢ structure, table of contents
➢ clean design, dynamic visuals
+ highlights first
“misc” category
+ question-mark popup
−

9. Laura Meskanen-Kundu
http://lauramk.me/

11. ● design portfolio focus
● 1 page scroller
● nav: work, about, contact, blog
○ blog = Medium outlink
+ detail in projects
+ creative timeline
+ resume easily accessible
− dry entry, no personal intro
(also because of monochrome)

12. Frederik Vincx
http://www.frederikvincx.com/

14. ● networking focus
● 1 page scroller
● content: hero, personal story, recent articles, pro bono service design, fully
booked, previous projects
+ good copy & CTA’s
+ consistent color style
+ funky intro
− convoluted succession of topics
➢ 3x articles, 3x projects
− consistent style makes blog tiles
a bit boring

15. Kevin Siemler
https://meltingasphalt.com/

17. ● writing focus
● sitemap: (home), about, archive, “goodies”, subscribe
+ clean overall, spacy
+ previews of articles
+ clean archive page
➢ maybe even manually written in WP
+ nice/fun about page
− some unclear sections
“needs some love”, “goodies”?

18. Jenny Odell
http://www.jennyodell.com/

21. ● art portfolio focus
● simplistic sitemap: projects, writing, about
+ creative full-page hero
with dreamy video backdrop
+ simple projects
− mobile unfriendly, big images
won’t fit even mid-size laptop

22. Robert Walter
http://www.rwalter.de/

25. (science project) portfolio focus
+ formal & functional intro
+ year-categorized projects
+ creative link thingy
− projects: only images, text relies
on hover over tiles

26. Devine Lu Linvega
https://wiki.xxiivv.com/#home

29. site of a modern Leonardo da Vinci
+ completely eccentric
➢ the tracker, custom date format,
“archive of everything”
➢ enormous content-wise
+ neo-noir design details, mood
➢ details
➢ fonts, shades, styled photography
− a maze to navigate
−

30. Lynn Fisher
https://wiki.xxiivv.com/#home

33. portfolio + networking
+ creative landing page
➢ the responsive clothes length is
internet-famous now
+ nice highlights
+ remake every year
+ functional archive
−

34. A few more

35. + readable titles
+ photos for context
− no personal intro first
http://fleurjongepier.nl/blog/

36. + nice content highlight
+ portfolio: tech icons
+ dark design (code-y)
− tech icons not clickable
− content limited to posts
https://danieldunderfelt.com/
tech writing focused + small about

37. + nice app sections
+ icon+banner image
− some detail/spacing off
http://drik.eu/
portfolio focussed

38. + clean archive
https://kamranahmed.info/
tech writing

39. + simple
+ direct
http://nxhx.org/#background
focus on writing
− weird nav

40. Anti-examples
these have some elements to avoid

41. + directly readable content
➢ but just latest content
− unclear info-architecture
➢ APPS, APP-O-MAT ?
− no blog overview
− boring layout
https://loufranco.com/
theme

42. + succint & clear article titles
− messy & crammed visual overhead
− self inflicted screamy ad-banners
➢ the blue and red
https://davidwalsh.name/
focus: writing, selling services

43. − style mess-ups
➢ callout bad contrast
➢ navigation bad constrast
➢ line-height of titles, padding
− unclear custom tabs
http://arankhanna.com/work.html
focus: all-in-one portfolio

44. + Works for basic articles that are
linked by others
− endless scroll of items, no
structure
https://pawelgrzybek.com/
classic coder blog
writing focus?

45. Conlusions

46. Set your goals first there is no silver bullet design
Who is your audience? What do they want? What do you want?
Some examples:
For portfolio sites
● audience: recruiters, HR or your peers
● they want: to get an idea of your personality, what cool stuff you do, how you do it
● you want: to have fun making the site, sell yourself & show off your abilities
For blogs
● audience: anyone interested in your writing topic
● they want: to get insights, to learn something, to be moved, to follow you
● you want: to share your thoughts and observations, possibly sell your knowledge

47. Types of sites identified above & specific take-aways:
● writing-focussed blog → get people interested in reading, focus on content
● art project portfolio → creative visual design helps
● design portfolio → why, what & how did you design?
● science portfolio → show it & embed your research
● tech portfolio → document your apps: what and for whom?
● networking portfolio → why are you worth following?

48. General take-aways:
● Make some kind of intro to yourself
→ it humanizes you
● Document processes where relevant (design process, tech process)
→ provide learnings for audience + insight in how you work, displays openness
● Highlight your most valuable pieces of content
→ those are not always the most recent
● Combine inspirations & make it yours
→ What’s that quote again? Oh yes, “Good artists copy, great artists steal.”

49. Don’t
● Be boring
● Use unconventional navs / hierarchies that only you understand
(I’m guilty as well)
● Overcomplicate things (I’m guilty as well)
→ here Steve Jobs can go again
● Oversimplify things
→ too little structure is possible, especially with lots of content
● Use hover styling for functional elements (I’m guilty as well)
→ probably 50% + of your visitors are on mobile
● Use http. Try to use https.
→ browsers will make your visitors feel a bit less secure