Slowly but surely, my Web site (www.nickrathert.com) is getting updated. The latest additions include résumé and contact info updates and new projects in the Web section of my portfolio (Inventions-Guide.com, Hair-Removal-Specialist-Guide.com and Alaska-Fishing-Lodges-Guide.com). I still have quite a bit of work to do in regards to shaping up my little corner of the Web. However, I think that work will be put into a less hastily designed brand new version of my Web site. Because I had to get this current version of my Web site "out the door" in less than two days, I've never been very happy with its design. It feels rushed to me and it's definitely not the best I can do. Therefore, time to start from scratch.
I'm still in the very early conceptual stages for my Web site redesign, but I'm definitely going to create a cleaner design with more white space. I'm also going to make the portfolio navigation much more user-friendly. I still plan to create a MySQL-driven back end for (at least) my blog and portfolio. I'll also probably add a few social networking features to my site as well. I'm still at the pencil and paper stage planning everything. Staying in this stage as long as possible will help creation and development go smoothly, but it should also keep me from wanting to redesign my site again in a year. I guess we'll see if that actually holds true...
Regarding the current portfolio updates, you'll notice that the live version of Hair-Removal-Specialist-Guide.com doesn't match the version I have in my portfolio. It's a long story, but a design decision was made by a non-designer person of authority and a juxtaposition of the two versions of the site will probably be all you need to see in order understand why the version in my portfolio does not match the live site.
Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys the updates. Please feel free to comment on this blog or contact me.
