To understand more about the field in which the design would be developed for competitor analysis was needed to determine elements which are being displayed in current interior architecture portfolio websites. When researching into interior architecture portfolio websites, it showed that at this time there are not a large amount of portfolio sites out there for this subject in comparison to others. Interior architecture companies were found more so than portfolio sites, showing that many different elements could be included into the portfolio to show originality and personality through the site. To understand more about the site’s functionality, each site was tested using Nielson’s Heuristics to pinpoint where each site excels and where they could be improved, allowing an overview of which elements are important to include into the new site in comparison to competitor sites. This was done by layout out the main elements of Nielson’s Heuristics, along with some of my own points which I believe are important, and judging each site out of five on how well they perform compared to each task. Having these charts allowed for a good overview of how each site works and can easily show my I prefer these sites in comparison to other portfolio sites.

The first interior architecture site to be looked at was ‘Lancaster Interiors’ which was a portfolio website created for Amber Lancaster to demonstrate her work in residential and commercial design. The site itself is very simple and is used to purely demonstrate her work through the use of a large image gallery which can be seen on the homepage. The overall design of this site is very simple and is purely used to just display the work of the designer in a basic way. When going through the different elements of Nielson’s Heuristics in comparison to the design, it showed that this site did not have too many elements to keep it engaging for the user. Along with this is proved to be the lowest scoring out of all the sites which had been analysed, demonstrating room for improvement, although what I would like to take from this site would be that the work takes priority within the design, which is an element that would need to be placed into my own work.

The second site is the portfolio of Victoria Spicer, of which is not an interior architect, but when coming across this site, I was very impressed with the animation, user engagement and design layout of the site itself and wanted to use the overall design as inspiration towards the new portfolio site. The site uses a top navigation, which although is not sticky provides animation each time the user scrolls up to it, along with the animated page transitions and image load ins, provides the user with good visual representation of the portfolio of work. Although when looking at the site through Nielson’s Heuristics, it can be seen that it does fall slightly short when it comes to help documentation, recognition, error prevention and system status. This is due to the fact that there are no elements in the site asking for the user to input information to contact the designer, along with this the site also does not have an easy breadcrumb trail leader the user back to the homepage. As much as the page transitions work well, they do not aid the user when trying to return back to different pages of the site.

The next site to be looked at was the portfolio of Adele Bates who is an interior designer and has an original style of website. The style of website stood out to me because it was different to the standard types of portfolio’s which can be seen form most interior architects, with the navigation placed on the sides of the screen and the centre column being used to display all of the work and information for each page. The page transitions on this site also keep the user engaged, along with the animation of the page as it loads while the user scrolls down. Although the site itself does not contain much colour, the animation and interaction options still provide the user engagement opportunities to ensure the user has an enjoyable experience within the site. When it comes to the Nielson’s Heuristics analysis, it turned out that this site scored the highest in comparison, proving the style and overall functionality of this site should be taken as inspiration for the new portfolio website.

The portfolio of Emma Kay was the next site to be looked at, with the different format of scrolling across the page, rather than down. Having the different scrolling style made the website stand out, and with the cohesive theme being used across the whole site, really made an impact on the user. The colours which have been used within the site are all displayed within the images which have been chosen to display specific colours, providing a theme of colour as the user scrolls through each page. When compared to the other sites using Nielson’s Heuristics it showed that the site worked really well with the navigation, layout and consistency within the site but did not provide much user feedback including help documentation, error prevention, system status or any other form of system feedback. Overall the layout of the site and how it is used to demonstrate the portfolio work is good, and will be taken forward to the new portfolio design.

The final portfolio site to be looked at was the portfolio of Sara Zofko who is an interior decorator. The style of site was at first glance very similar to the portfolio of Emma Kay, but the theme which has been used on the homepage does not continue throughout the site, making the overall experience slightly confusing for the user when clicking through the different pages of the site. Although the different style pages make the experience confusing for the user, the layout for the portfolio projects works well to display the variety of work which has been completed and having each individual job being displayed on its own page provides detail for the user. When looking at the different heuristics of the site displayed positives in almost all areas, although the site itself lacked consistency in the design and layouts, along with the lack of colour throughout. The elements which will be taken from this site into the final design includes the easy navigation and how the portfolio work is being displayed.

Overall from look at competitor sites within the industry there are many different elements which can be taken as inspiration from the sites seen above. All of these elements will be taken into account when the development of the portfolio website begins.

Bibliography:

Adele Bates. 2019. Studio – Adele Bates. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.adelebates.com.au/profile/. [Accessed 24 February 2019]

Amber Lancaster. 2019. interior design – Amber Lancaster. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.amberlancasterinteriors.com/. [Accessed 24 February 2019].

Emma Kay / Creative Director & Stylist / Interiors / Props / Set Designer. 2019. INTERIORS / STILL LIFE – Emma Kay / Creative Director & Stylist / Interiors / Props / Set Designer. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.emma-kay.net/editorial. [Accessed 24 February 2019].

Nielsen Norman Group. 2019. 10 Heuristics for User Interface Design: Article by Jakob Nielsen. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/. [Accessed 24 February 2019].

Sara Zofko Interior Decoration. 2019. PORTFOLIO – Sara Zofko Interior Decoration. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.zofko.com/3937022-portfolio. [Accessed 24 February 2019].

Victoria Spicer. 2019. Victoria Spicer — London based Set Designer. [ONLINE] Available at: https://vspicer.com/. [Accessed 24 February 2019].