English is not my native language, so sorry for any possible typing errors
Here is my idea of a fast, proffesional looking DA portfolio.

First of all, this would be the screen that only the artist would look at when he logs in. That means there will be no "edit" links on the page viewed by anyone else except the artist himself.
Everywhere where there is "edit" link, information is edited/changed/added. That means you can change your name, title (for example graphic designer/digital artist). Categories can be pre-chosen by DA staff, or can be manualy typed by the artist, the way he wants to present himself (for example, "photographer/digital artist/face model").

On every deviation in "normal" gallery, in "edit deviation" part, there would be link "send to portfolio".
Then, with "edit" buttons in the "select category" part in the porfolio, you would assign a category to the celected deviation. The category names would be DA's default, or you could edit them (to make them shorter), so instead of "digital> photomanipulation>surreal" it could be just "digital>manip". The number on the side resembles to the number of deviations in that gallery.
Browsing through the portfolio would be very fast & intuitive. For example, by clicking on the, lets say, "manipulations" link, first 3 deviations are shown in the lower bar, while the selected one from that "list" is in the middle. By clicking on that circle with the letter "i" (info), artist comments (if there are any) would appear in the floating window. If there are no comments, then no "i" icon would be shown. Same goes with the "online" icon in the upper part. It could be easily edited so the online status will not be shown.
Right sections are self-explainatory. You can edit your picture (if you choose not to have one, I guess an icon with DA logo would be the default picture), edit your location, languages, personal info and contacts you want people to view (you can just leave your email, but not msn/yahoo/icq/skype id).

So there it is. No java applets, no slowing-down stuff. Slick & simple proffesional looking portfolio. Kind of like your black leather briefcase wiht your portfolio in it

Good luck to all contestants !