Nick’s top 5 personal websites
Nov 2nd, 2008
As some of you may know I am entering the process of redesigning my personal site, no not a re-alignment, a full redesign this time. In thinking about the site’s architecture and design I thought it would be good to hire someone else to do the work as I feel I am too close to the subject matter to offer an objective eye. With that came the notion of communicating to the designer what qualities make up a good personal/speaker website. So I did some searching and found my five favorite personal/speaker web sites, these are the results.
A few caveats here before we dive into my top 5 list. First, when I searched for personal speaker/author websites, I mean just that. This is not to be confused with design portfolios, people who write blogs, etc. I really tried to search for sites of people who typically speak at events, who have authored at least one book, etc. That said I did make a few exceptions as you will see in this list, mostly because either the content or design of the site was so clearly on par with what kind of content and/or design I am looking for in my new site that it was difficult not to list it. So to all of those designers or bloggers who quickly read thru this list and wonder why their site wasn’t mentioned, well, that is why… don’t take it personally.
Stephanie Sullivan
When it comes to good layout, clean design, and straight forward architecture, Stephanie has got it going on. I admit that I am not a regular visitor to her site but I have known her for a quite a bit, mostly in passing at various web conferences. That said, her site’s content matches a lot of the qualities I am looking to maintain on my site. For example an archive of past presentations (I never do the exact same presentation twice and I don’t shop them around, so having those presentations online for everyone to read is a must). Also the fact that most of her pages are nearly a single screen of text and no more. I love succinct content (probably because I am so damn verbose in person). She also has a resources section which is what I am planning to do with some of the IA stencils and templates, etc that I host here.
Matt Brown
Ok, a little full disclosure here before I get too carried away. Matt is the designer I hired for my site. I specifically hired him because of his personal site’s design and because of his design style. If you take a look at his portfolio you will see a very specific style that he has in his work, that’s really the style I am going for. That said the reasons why I like his site is mostly to do with the attention to detail. Specifically grid, typography, color, contrast, page weight and balance. My site won’t have a portfolio or services area (thats what the Blue Flavor site is for), but when you look at the about page and how the information is simplified, and easy to digest because of the design and succinct content. I also really like how he uses the sidebar on the right for content.
John Moore
I had the pleasure of meeting John Moore at The Webmaster Jam Session a few years back. John is an often overlooked marketing speaker with a powerful message. This is a guy who really emerged from the marketing trenches and knows what its like to build a marking practice from the ground up. His experience that he shares from Starbucks and Whole Foods is worth its weight in gold. That said his message is carried thru his personal site in a very concise way. Sure the content includes his brand autopsy and marketing doctor schtick within it, but the message is very refined and clear. The navigation and the length of content is good, its easy to skim the page and find what you’re looking for. The site isn’t overloaded with lots of distractions and it really just gets to the point, that is why I like it.
Howard Mann
What can I say about the Mann, I really love his philosophies and approach to marketing. I feel he’s one of the few marketers who really gets it when it comes to distinguishing ones self. The same can be said about his website. Specifically about his speaking page. I think the video he has up there now is a really nice touch but the content is really what communicates his message. Its one thing to just have a professional speaker site for yourself, but its a whole lot more if you can show the value proposition of why someone would want to hire you to speak at their event vs. someone else. Howard does this in the content and in the video. I like that he has audience feedback quotes right in the content as well as the fact that he focuses on the content of the presentations rather than himself, the biographical stuff is what you put on the about page.
Dorian Taylor
Dorian’s site is a little bit of an oddball on this list for a few reasons. First, Dorian doesn’t position himself as a speaker on his website, he also doesn’t really position himself as a designer or an IA. The interesting part about Dorian’s site is that he uses it not to sell you the role he will play if you will hire him, but more the of perspective he will provide within your organization, because lets face it, when you hire someone your hiring a opinion, perspective, philosophy, and perhaps a vision of an individual. All that said his content, while somewhat intellectually challenging, is very brief and to the point, the architecture of the site is simple, the design is very much backseat and the communication of his thought process is highly prioritized.
Other Notable Mentions
I thought it would be good to include a few other sites that I did review and do really appreciate but didn’t make the top five list for various reasons, none of which are because of lack of quality.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Gary is the next generation of web rockstars. This guy has so much energy that every time I watch one of his videos I feel like jumping up and screaming “fuck ya!” and going out an making something happen. I have been following him for quite a long time and I think his message is spot on. Yes, the first time you watch him you may ask yourself why is this guy shouting at me? And you may be thinking he belongs on some horrible late night informercial. But only once you really start listening to his message will you see why he is so passionate about it. I make a notable mention of Gary’s site because his message is very inline with some of the messages I hope to communicate with my site but it’s also because his site is revolutionary in that he uses video as the primary means to communicate with his audience. At some point I hope to have a video blog not unlike Gary’s here, where I can communicate my vision and philosophies about the web community and hope that people embrace them and, in Gary’s own words “make cool shit!”
Seth Godin
Seth’s site makes the list of notable mentions because, well frankly, if it wasn’t for him I would have nearly as much passion as I do today about the web industry. He has a fairly streamlined site and enough books to mention that you could barricade yourself in a room for weeks. He is also a very inspirational speaker and I just really like how his site’s architecture is so straightforward. If you haven’t picked up Purple Cow, The Big Moo, Small is the New Big or any of his other books I’d highly recommend it.
Scott Berkun
Scott’s site was suggested to me by a friend. I have come across Scott’s site several times in the past while searching for articles about process and project management, but don’t regularly visit it. I like Scott’s site because it has a massive archive of essay’s he has authored over the years and those within themselves are priceless. With my own work I am waffling about including it on my personal site or simply linking to it where it exists on the web. The only challenge with linking is, as you know, one day it’s all the sudden gone and the link is broken and the content is lost (unless maybe you do some cleaver searching with Google Cache or Way Back Machine). I also like how Scott has a point blank and blunk “hire me” link in his navigation. My site needs to have the same thing to usher people on to the Blue Flavor site if they want to have me do their IA or website strategy.
About the author
Nick Finck is a user experience professional who has dabbled in the web for over a decade. He specializes in information architecture, interaction design, usability and user research. Read more
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