DEV Community

Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats

Syntax Highlight — We Review Your Portfolios

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes review your portfolios!

Sanity - Sponsor

Sanity.io is a real-time headless CMS with a fully customizable Content Studio built in React. Get a Sanity powered site up and running in minutes at sanity.io/create. Get an awesome supercharged free developer plan on sanity.io/syntax.

LogRocket - Sponsor

LogRocket lets you replay what users do on your site, helping you reproduce bugs and fix issues faster. It’s an exception tracker, a session re-player and a performance monitor. Get 14 days free at logrocket.com/syntax.

Cloudinary - Sponsor

Cloudinary is the best way to manage images and videos in the cloud. Edit and transform for any use case, from performance to personalization, using Cloudinary’s APIs, SDKs, widgets, and integrations.

Show Notes

03:59 - cudd.io

  • Shared component animation between home / about really nice
  • Readable, clear
  • Simple
  • Check the contrast ratio on the white text on light blue: https://coolors.co/contrast-checker/ffffff-56ccf2
  • Nice SSR from Next.js
  • CSS vars
  • Very tall cards without much text, looks like a mistake
  • Better on a short browser window - peep the tall and skinny
  • Card heading should be h3 or h4

10:35 - damonbolesta.com

  • Nice design = super fun!
  • Good color palette
  • Shows your skills straight up
  • Animation
  • Not accessible - EASY fixes with Axe Dev Tools
  • Text on background images hard to read
  • White text on buttons
  • Bold some words in your bio
  • Border radius

21:52 - walterkjenkins.com

  • Map is fun
  • Contrast issues with the color choices
  • Transparency not needed on body content
  • Cursive font for links / buttons is a no for me dog
  • Labels on social media icons
  • Hero overlaps section below it
  • Maps data processing should be h4

29:40 - suhit.me

  • This is an example of a really good one
  • Wicked domain name
  • Design is ON POINT, like this is the type of polish I like to see - I’d hire on this
  • Can’t get enough Inter font
  • Fun little animation
  • I’d go a little easier on the box-shadow
  • Github even has a custom readme
  • Resume
    • Very modern - JS, TS, Bootstrap
    • TypeScript A+
    • Drop the “5” and “3” from “HTML” and “CSS”
    • I’d add color to the resume, its likely not printed
    • Don’t need to say Github and LinkedIn in front of the URLs

37:20 - jacobpawlak.com

  • Initial loading is great - transitions are hot
  • Typography looks nice - not sure about those serif all-cap nav items
  • Slider not very usable
  • View circle on hover is cool, but I’m not sure about following your mouse, covers text
  • T-shirt portfolio is awesome
  • Fun little bits in the footer
  • SSL is broken - fix that sh!t
  • Links don’t show over background images - common issue today
  • External links should probably be indicated as such
  • HTML, paragraphs as h3 & h4, h5, should be

    - (i.e. “here are a few of my recently completed…” should be a

    )

  • Design of resume is KEY - different colors, eh?

47:04 - mrtnvh.com

  • This is a good example of subtle flex of skills
  • FAST AF
  • Makes you say “Ohhhh” when you click a link (something that’s missing from a lot of these single page sites)
  • Personal Photo A+
  • Position sticky
  • Love the skills layout on the about page
  • Email is a button
    • I can’t copy your email
    • We have mailto links - don’t reinvent
  • A+
Links ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Shameless Plugs Tweet us your tasty treats!

Episode source