I hate Nick Finck. Or, more appropriately I hate Things That Are Brown. And by “hate” I of course mean “envy”.
I find competitive analysis to be an essential tool for design. In my quest to design a more appropriate layout and theme for my blog, I did my due diligence and searched the web high and low for portfolio sites from which to get ideas from. This analysis not only grounds you with a firm baseline of what is expected of your design, but often yields a nice list of action items that can be used to outdo your competitors.
I’m a big fan of simple and direct. I believe that if you can take something away from a design and it still works, do it. Which is why I immediately envied Nick Finck’s website. The scribbles on my quad-ruled pad and my chosen color palette to that point were very similar to what he already had decided to place in front of me. What’s more is that he’s also in the same field as I am, so it would be bad taste to copy him. Instead I’ll use his website as a case study.
Because you’ll fall flat on your face if you try putting both feet out at once. Let me elaborate by asking some related questions:
- Is it easier to find fault in your best 5 examples, or your most recent 100?
- Is it easier to find fault in your best 1-2 examples of each category type, or letting me choose a category and then seeing 10 examples of it?
- Are your best examples presented to me, or are they waiting for me to find them (if I can find them)?
After much deliberation and retraction on what I should do with this website, I finally decided on attempting to maintain a blog. I shall attempt to find things to write about, mainly with an eye towards usability. This could involve items I run into on a daily basis, articles that I elaborate on, or eureka moments I have that may make no sense whatsoever to anyone besides me. The point being…that I write about something.
I also intend on updating the theme of the site to better suit my personality. I find stealing a WordPress theme to be a form of cheating, but I need to start somewhere. This will give me something to do when I have inevitable writer’s block. So I have quite a bit of work cut out for me!
We shall soon see how well I fare…