If you can get past the all-Flash web site, New City Media has a novel take on the -tired- traditional Flash portfolio approach — “info icons”.
Each portfolio page has a smattering of these icons. Hover your mouse over one and a box pops up with additional information about the design element in question.
This is a really great idea. The extra layer of interactivity encourages you to spend more time on each portfolio page and to learn more about the thinking that went into each design.
Although the additional information presented is fairly limited, I found it very engaging.
It was refreshing not to browse through a lot of ‘pretty pictures’ with little sense of whether the designs worked as actual web sites.
Instead, I found myself interested to find out why certain design decisions were made and what they were trying to achieve with the different elements of each client site.
If I was a potential client, this would be the sort of thing that would set this firm apart from its competitors.
Interesting portfolio, it is engaging but when you look at several designs it verges on annoying. Still, it is better then most approaches.
George – interesting that you found that. I didn’t find it annoying at all. In fact I appreciated the use of Flash to provide something other than added ‘glitz’.
this is very good approach rather than the others
I’m pretty 50-50 on the information icons, but I really like the way the actual portfolio is designed. The effects are very slick, and the sort by options are clear and easy to use.