YOUR WEB PORTFOLIOART340

Your Target Audience Who will visit your site? When deciding where you want

to work, ask yourself: Urban vs. Rural? What is the demographic location? What is the culture of the area you wish to live in? If you were an employer, what would you want to see

on a potential hire’s site? For this project, you will create 3 user profiles for

you, and two of your competitors.

Your Target Audience Q: Why must you understand your target audience? A: It is essential in selecting your design pieces, and

in designing your site for that particular audience.

Give your target user profile a name, let’s say Bob. Ask yourself, what would Bob want to see?

Bob

Personal Logo You will create a logo for your site. The first thing a potential employer will see is your

logo. Create a memorable logo.

TIP: Show your roommates your logo concepts. Ask them a couple days later which one stuck out the most to them?

Keep your logo near the top of your design. Tip: Always link your logo to your homepage.

Joe Shmoe

Personal Logo Examples:

Personal Tagline When a person arrives at your site, they want to know

who you are & what you do. A tagline explains that. Keep it simple and clear.

Spend time to reflect on: What do I do? What experience do I have? What do I

love? Check out: www.sloganizer.net/et _____________________________________________

I design for money. I enjoy it for free. Great design is what I do.

I design to live, and eat to design.

The Portfolio Use large, high-quality images Limit your scope and number of works

10 is much better than 50 Provide who, what, where, when and why of each

example Consider doing a short and sweet description for

each work. Describe the skills you needed to complete the

project.

What can you include? Book designs Design projects Fine art Layouts Magazines Photographs Calligraphy Illustrations

Logos Package design Storyboards Type Web design App design

Anything that showcases your creative skills.

Your Services Eliminate the guesswork. Tell them

what you do. Possible Examples:

Logo design Flyer design Poster design Editorial design Web design Web development Video Copywriting Photography

About Me The place where you modestly toot your own horn. Things to consider including on this page:

Your background information Any interesting details about yourself A picture of yourself

Adds an element of trust Any awards and recognition Your skills Client testimonials

Y O U R O W N H O R N

Contact The second-most important

page on your portfolio site If someone wants to hire you, help them, help you Make it as easy as you can on the visitor Make your contact button highly visible Write a sentence inviting them to contact you Consider creating a user-friendly contact form

Craft Use standards compliant markup Organize your files and folders Remove unneeded images/rules/etc. Avoid spaghetti code! If a potential hire goes under the hood of your site,

make sure your engine purrs like a newborn kitten

jTheir markup is superb. Let’s hire

them.

Usability Clear, visible and user-friendly navigation Beware of uncommon navigations Don't let your creative concept distract from your

work: For example, horizontal scrolling

can be confusing

YOUR GOAL :THIS REACTION

Call to Action A “call to action” is what you want your

visitors to do once they arrive Each page should have one In your case, from the homepage, you might want a

button that leads the person to view your portfolio. Make the action clear. A large button linking to

another page is one solution._____________________________________________What are some other calls to action your site might

have?

Social Media Behance Deviant Art Flickr Linkedin Blogs Avoid using sites like

Facebook, Pinterest & Twitter unless these pages are professional in nature.

Blog Blogs are what’s hot Why? They generate fresh content on a regular

basic, and search engine loves that. An opportunity showcase your knowledge. People can follow you by subscribing to your RSS

feed. Top 5 free blogging sites:

Blogger, Wordpress, Livejournal, Tumblr, Blogsome

Design Considerations Avoid using too many visual elements Utilize whitespace Consider down-the-road how easy it will be to do

updates Subtlety infuse your personality Consider creating infographics Less is more.

InfoGraphics Visual communication at its essence.

Employment Timeline InfoGraphic

Portfolio Examples

Let’s look at some portfolio websites together:

http://dansweetdesign.com/ http://www.gerrenlamson.com/index.htm http://www.markhobbs.net/ http://jawsmartin.com (your peer)

Final Tip Be yourself. This is a personal portfolio site, so be personal. Avoid being too corporate, aka. cold and serious.

ReferencesMunroe, Lee. "10 Steps To The Perfect Portfolio

Website."Smashing Magazine. N.p., 26 2009. Web. 8 Nov 2012. <http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/02/26/10-steps-to-the-perfect-portfolio-website/>.

Hodge, Sean. "Creating A Successful Online Portfolio."Smashing Magazine. N.p., 04 2008. Web. 8 Nov 2012. <http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/03/04/creating-a-successful-online-portfolio/>.