My Experience with Squarespace
Over the past four months, I've been using Squarespace to build my professional graphic design portfolio. Over this time, I learned a lot about website building and Squarespace itself. Compared to my experience on other website building websites, such as WordPress and SportsEngine, Squarespace seems to be very easy to use. The layout of the website builder makes it simple to drag and drop elements and templates to help you build a perfect website. Others agree with the sentiment, as Forbes says, "Squarespace scored highly against its competitors for several reasons including its scalability, beautiful templates and lengthy trial." This alone shows the ease of the website builder. Despite this, I do think there are some quirks that don't make too much sense.
Firstly, when I was trying to make my portfolio, I wanted to include sliding galleries to show off my work. Unfortunately, the ones currently offered have less functionality than the former gallery feature on the website. Luckily, I luckliley was able to get someone to share their gallery with me, but it was strange that I couldn't just use it on my own. This is especially weird to me, as galleries are such an important part of a website. Another strange little thing is that you can't have a portfolio thumbnail, like the one seen on my project page, on the home page. You can get around this by using an image box, but it's just strange that you can't just use a portfolio button. It would keep websites more cohesive. Just missing features like this seems a bit strange and makes the website builder harder to use than it has to be.
Another gripe I have with Squarespace is the error messages. I tried to upload a PDF to the website, and all I was told was "Couldn't upload. This file is corrupted or invalid." This gives me zero explanation of the problem or how to fix it. After doing further research, I was able to find an article explaining the fix. This Squarespace Forum article says it all: "I was mistaken when I thought the failed file was smaller than the others. In fact it (and of course the big pack) are just over the 20MB limit for uploads. I wish it gave an error message and explained why it was failing." I'm glad people were able to find the fix, but it is so strange that they couldn't provide a solution or at least an explanation directly on the website.
Despite these minor gripes, I really am a fan of Squarespace. I chose them to build and host my portfolio, and I am very glad I did. All of the features on the site are very useful for building a good-looking website quickly and easily. Another review of the site says that, "Squarespace designs make great use of images and the full width of the screen. They allow you to highlight key information - your website may contain a lot but you can still direct people primarily to just a little of it, allowing those who want to go deeper easily to do so." So, all in all, it seems like a lot of people do like the website builder, and I was and am very happy using it.
Ryan Lopano
