Here’s what I have in my head in the design of this site.
User
- Human Resources staff
- Hiring Manager
- Third-party Staffing Recruiter
- All within the general scope of a company delivering a web product or computer/mobile application of some sort.
Tasks
- Learn more about Jacque Harper.
- Verify what Jacque Harper is capable of contributing; see examples of the kind of work he has done.
- Download Jacque Harper’s resume.
- Contact Jacque Harper by email, and/or get other contact information.
Goals
- Simple and transparent navigation: user should be able to see the scope of the site at a glance.
- Familiar, non-fussy interaction.
- ordinary paradigms for links
- no unneeded swooping, sliding or resizing
- just let people read
- Thorough descriptions of projects/samples: enough to answer questions, not so much as to overwhelm.
- Allow a sense of humor to show through, while not succumbing to the temptation to make everything a joke.
- Allow a bit of didacticism in the tone, to demonstrate that a lot of what I do is thinking and educating. But avoid the temptation to make everything a lecture.
- User should leave with the feeling that “this guy has some interesting things to say, has done some interesting things, and he might make a good addition to the team.”
Constraints, Assumptions
- Keep it simple to maintain. To that end, this version uses a WordPress theme with minimal added CSS.
- For now at least, avoid the temptation to spend hours crafting a completely bespoke grid-based and fully responsive site. You’ve only got so much time for this and behaving like a front-end developer is just a distraction 🙂
- Not all past projects can be freely spoken of.
- Not all projects which can be spoken of have compelling visuals to accompany them.
- The majority of users will visit this site only a few times.
- The majority of users will be using a desktop computer and a standard- or wide-screen monitor, although some will use narrower-screen devices.