About Web Site Portfolios

Most web designers create a portfolio of their completed web sites. They display this on their own site in the form of a portfolio in order to provide you the opportunity for online viewing of their completed projects.

Before viewing the Digital Mouse Designs Portfolio, it's not only important, but to your advantage to learn more about web site portfolios in general.

Some designers may include additional samples which are not necessarily live sites, to give you more of an idea of their talents. Additions to a portfolio may include but are not limited to:

Design demos that were created for a specific client where the client selected a modified version or different design altogether. In some cases these samples can be purchased and modified to your site needs which can save you design time. They may be in the form of web site templates and available for modification and purchase as well.
Web site template created specifically for purchase.
Web sites that have been removed from display on the Internet by the client. The design may still be well worth viewing, but for their own reasons a client may elect to remove a site from use.
Designs or artsy "doodlings" not used on any web site may be included in the portfolio to show you additional samples of our style and creativity. This usually happens when a design pops into our heads but we may not have a specific place to put it into a web site project. A client may find something they feel is perfect for their project!

The difference between a web designer's portfolio and other portfolios is that a web designer's portfolio is online for the world to see! What this helps designers to do, is to create web sites for anyone, anywhere in the world! This is one of the great advantages the Internet provides. We are not limited to transporting our portfolios and ourselves to your office across the country or the world in order to show you what we can do.

For Your Best Viewing Advantage

In order for you to best view any web site, it is strongly recommended that you always keep your browser updated to the most current version. We just can't stress this enough. Not only is this practice related to computer security issues, but you're cheating yourself out of viewing capabilities if you don't. You could be missing so much of the new technology that older browsers are not capable of handling. (Like how the site is intended to be viewed for example!)

If your browser is not up to date, not only is your computer more at risk but you'll miss viewing some very cool stuff! Browsers and browser updates are free! Updating is quick and painless! You have only yourself to blame if you're cheating yourself out of the latest and greatest!

In order to make this a quick and simple process for you, above are the links to update your browser. We recommend Firefox. It's the safest and most standards compliant browser currently available. You can download Firefox from many pages on our site, just look for the Get Firefox image links. Both PC and Mac browsers are listed. Mac browsers are those indicated with a after the browser name.

Important Things to Remember

When viewing a designer's portfolio it's so very important to remember that:

Sites are designed following the client's wishes. Most designers are very conscious of their client's ideas. What this means is that what you see in any designer's portfolio is not necessarily the full extent of their capabilities or style, but instead is what the designer has been asked to create by each individual client. In all honestly, any designer that's been in the business for any length of time has at least one site in their portfolio that they absolutely hate, but the client loves it!

This isn't necessarily a bad thing when you consider that some clients have some terrific ideas! However, in some cases it puts limits on the designer. How we may feel a site should look, is sometimes different than how the client wants it to look. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this, it's normal. It brings diversity and challenge to our job as your designer. It's also what helps to make the web what it is today. Imagine what it would be like if every site out there looked the same? Pretty boring if you ask me!

There are always going to be differences of opinion. The client likes one look — the designer may prefer another. It's part of this business. Because we do this day in and day out, it's definitely to your advantage to listen to your designer when they make suggestions about your site look. It's even more important to pay particular attention to functionality issues. That doesn't mean you have to "listen and obey" but it does mean that you should at least seriously consider what your designer is telling you. A good web designer will give you the best information they have so that you can make informed decisions about your web site.

It's probably safe to say that it's every web designer's dream to have free reign to be able to create each client's site in their own way. In this way we all could really show off our capabilities and our own personal style. But we work for the client and so it's our job to follow each client's wishes as best we can.

Some designers have done work that by contract they are not allowed to share with others. Some may be works in progress and "not ready for prime time" others may be private login type sites for example.

Many designers opt to use what's called "screen shots" in their portfolio. A screen shot is a "mini-version" snapshot, usually only of the site's home page and quite often does not do the actual site itself justice because the image can degrade in the resizing process. It's kind of like trying to put a size 13 foot into a size 8 shoe — something's gotta give! When a link to the web site itself is provided, it's to your benefit to visit the site itself. Also keep in mind that the screen shot does not provide a complete view of the entire web site and all it's features. A screen shot is meant to be a sample only.

Our clients are very important to us! The designer may be kept so busy creating web sites for clients, that they may not have time to keep their portfolio up to date! There may be any number of projects that are not yet included.

There's no law that says you can't ask the designer if there are any additional sites they can share with you. You may that learn there are!

These are very important issues to remember when you're cruising portfolios. What you see is not necessarily all there is to a designer's portfolio nor are they the greatest extent their talents!

Now that you've gained a bit of knowledge, the Digital Mouse Designs portfolio awaits you!