One really powerful way to showcase your work is the full screen flash portfolio. They say you should let the work do the talking, and that’s exactly what this type of site does. It showcases work full screen in the browser with the minimum amount of navigation and layout elements. In this article I’ll go over things you should keep in mind if you’re considering a portfolio like this and I’ll showcase a few examples and bring forth what I consider their strong and weak points.

So what’s to like about a full screen flash portfolio?
It’s easy to see what the strong points of this type of site are. Large images with a minimal interface allow your work to shine like it never has before on the web. Flash navigation and layouts often confuse (or in the very least challenge) users, but if you build this site right anyone can operate it. Using a “next” or “prev” button to browse a gallery isn’t that hard and that’s all the majority of users will want to do.

The fact that you build the site with very little interface means that your work takes the spotlight more than on any other type of site. No header graphics, text or other excesses to distract the user while he’s browsing your pieces. It’s all about the work.

Another strong point is that you don’t see this type of site that often so you’re fairly original. I’ll go into the reasons for this in a little while.

Things to keep in mind
Ok so let’s say you’re thinking a site like this might be good for you, what do you need to consider before you take the plunge?

Can you afford to just showcase the work?
This type of site will only work if you mainly want to express your visuals. If you want to have an elaborate about me, a contact with some encouraging words, explain the way you work and bring forth some case studies you’d best have a look at some more classic layout solutions. The reason for this is that this type of site is very different in use from what your viewer will normally see. Research proves that the majority of users will not invest time to learn how to navigate your site, if the navigation you’ve created bothers or frustrates them they’ll just exit the site. This means that for the full screen flash portfolio to be crystal clear to all users from the moment it loads it has to be very simple in use. Since your portfolio has the function of netting you clients or jobs this is obviously very undesirable. So to make this type of site work I would strongly advise you to keep it stupid simple.

There is nothing to hide behind
Since you want to use as much screen space for displaying your work you won’t be able to have great looking graphics and a good layout to boost the overall look and feel of the site. It’s your work and only your work that will decide how you come across. So consider carefully if this is what you want and if you feel your work is up to it.

Also keep in mind that larger displayed work means that the tiny details will be much more visible. For some people this isn’t a problem at all but a positive thing yet for others this means that their work might start to look a bit sloppy.

Are you capable of properly building it?
This is the big question. Most creatives I know like to build their own site which of course makes perfect sense. They know themselves and their work best and usually have the skills to make a portfolio that expresses them best. In case of the full screen flash portfolio however I would only advice to do this if you’re sure you can build it properly.

I say properly because if you build it poorly it’s going to hurt you bad. Earlier I said that you don’t see these type of sites all that often. Part of the reason lies in the fact that you need to have some real action script skills to make this work, it can get pretty technical. You have to be able to make flash check the screen resolution and size the movie accordingly. If the user re-sizes the browser window flash needs to automatically recalculate the new size of the movie. The images need to be loaded dynamically one at a time, you can’t pull the old flash trick of loading the whole site at once since you have to work with very large image files that can fill very high screen resolutions(you can of course pre-load the next image while the user is viewing the current one). And of course flash has to effectively scale your images to always fit the browser window.

So another part of the reason you don’t see full flash portfolio sites all that much most likely lies in the fact that most creatives would have to spend some cash to have it built for them.

Let’s examine some examples.
Now that we’ve given the pro’s an cons some thought lets look at some examples of full screen flash sites. As far as web design is concerned I can be pretty blunt but these are, as always, my opinions. I’m not at any point attacking the people who designed or scripted the sites but simply saying how I feel it would’ve been better.

01. Brooke Pifer | Visit site

Brooke Pifer’s site might be the most well know example of a full screen flash portfolio, and as far as I’m concerned it’s also the best from what I’ve seen. The reason is because of it’s perfect technical execution and it’s simplicity in use.

The site is easy to navigate by using the “prev” or “next” buttons or by clicking “gallery” to access a thumbnail navigation. Giving users multiple ways to navigate is in most cases a very good thing.

Other strong points lie in the things this site does not do. It skips extra nonsense like sound, splash screens, unnecessary content and also does not suffer from extreme load times.

02. Filippa Smedhagen Sund | Visit site

Filippa Smedhagen Sund’s site has been out there for a while but it doesn’t look dated at all. It’s a site that combines full screen images with a unique screen dragging navigation. The navigation works on basic level, it easy to use and even explained while the site loads so as far as operating the site goes it’s definitely good.

Where I feel the site fails however is that you can not only drag from left to right but also up and down. Combine this with the fact that the position of the images is random and you can imagine that you’ll soon be lost in the forest of images that is Filippa’s portfolio. In my opinion this site would have been way better off using a simple dragging system that worked from left to right only with a secondary thumbnail navigation like Brooke Pifer’s site has. In essence it does it right but just does too much.

03. Saso Kos Photography | Visit site

Just Filippa Smedhagen Sund I feel Saso Kos’s site does too much. The images look great, load fast and navigating the work is a breeze. Unfortunately by default the site boots up with background music (I’m a firm believer this is a no no 99% of the time), moves the photos around and has a slide show option on. That’s three things happening you never asked for and would most likely want to do without.

The user has the option to turn all of this off, it’s even possible to hide the menu bar. While I applaud the option to turn these options off I still feel the designer would have been better off just leaving them out. That said I do feel that when these options are off Saso Kos’s site is an excellent example of a good full screen flash site.

04. Emmanuel Rouzic | Visit site

Emmanuel Rouzic’s site looks great, but in my opinion that’s about the only thing it has going for it. It’s the perfect example of a flash site gone totally wrong. The load time before the site shows up is extremely long on my reasonably fast broadband connection, if you have a slower connection you can walk the dog in the time it takes the site to load. While the site loads you have deep drum sound effects that remind me off Lord of the rings. This is irritating enough on itself, if you combine this with the long load times and the fact that you can’t turn it off this means that a large part of the visitors of Emmanuel’s site will most likely close the site before it loads.

Those that stay for the ride get a navigation system that looks great but doesn’t have any grounding whatsoever and are once again confronted with the photographers favorite music track. However much I want to like this site for it’s innovative design and great look I can only say that in my opinion this is by far the worst of the bunch.

Conclusion
I love this type of site since it puts the work forward in a fairly unique way and because I’m a sucker for big images on my screen. In conclusion I’d say that if you’re after a site like this remember to keep it really simple in use and carefully consider if you want to built it yourself.

Hope you enjoyed the article and feel a bit wiser when it comes to this type of portfolio. I’m currently experimenting with the code to run a site like this so if you have any good references be sure to share them with me!