Download as PDF, PPTX
Uploaded byMel Choyce
Creating a Great Portfolio Site
The document provides guidelines for creating an effective portfolio website, emphasizing simplicity, personalization, and the importance of showcasing quality work. It includes tips on writing case studies, what employers look for in portfolios, and practical advice on building and customizing a site using WordPress. Additionally, it lists various themes and plugins to enhance portfolio functionality.
More Related Content
Similar to Creating a Great Portfolio Site
Creating a Great Portfolio Site
- 1. Creating a Great PortfolioWebsite
- 2. I am MelChoyce • Design Engineer at Automattic • WordPress core contributor • Live in Boston • Connecticut native • @melchoyce | choycedesign.com | melchoyce.com
- 3. What kind ofwork do you do?
- 4. Let’s start with somefun. (and by that I mean embarrassing screenshots)
- 10.
- 11.
- 16. Let your personality shinethrough. :)
- 17. Clever microcopy or introstatements
- 21.
- 24.
- 28.
- 31. Tailor your portfolioto a specific audience.
- 32.
- 34. Don't showcase workyou wouldn't want to do again.
- 36. Don't do somethingcool just because you can.
- 39. Less is more,as long as it's high quality.
- 44. Explain your process.Your work doesn't speak for itself.
- 45. Focus on theproblem you solved, not the tools you used
- 47. I used tojust have thumbnails that opened into light boxed static mockups.
- 48.
- 49. Write a casestudy.
- 50.
- 51.
- 52. Writing a longercase study • What was the overall goal of the project? • What problem was the project trying to solve? • What role did you play in the project? • What was the process you used to solve the problem? • What were the results? • Link to the final product.
- 54. Sometimes shorter isokay.
- 55.
- 56. Writing a shortercase study • What was the project? • What was your role? • Relevant screenshots, mockups, code snippets • Link to the final product
- 57. GitHub and Dribbbledo not a portfolio make
- 58. Make it easyfor the right audience to get in touch with you
- 59. What do employers lookfor in a portfolio?
- 60. – Steve Hickey,Fresh Tilled Soil “Potential. It doesn't need to be perfect, but I need to be able to sense underlying logic and order behind the decision making. …You can't teach people how to think.”
- 61. – Andrew Norcross,@norcross “attention to detail”
- 62. – Roger Huang,@rogerh1991 “Drive. I want to see that somebody cares about their projects, and takes the time for a few related passion projects.”
- 63. – Andrea LeeBishop, @andrealee_b “attention to detail & versatility. Be wary of oversights that would indicate they'd forget it on projects for you too.”
- 64. – Rachel Baker,@rachelbaker “It isn't what is in the portfolio but instead a potential hires responses to questions about "why?" a certain approach was taken.”
- 65.
- 66. • Open sourceproject • Need to pay for hosting • Completely customizable • Total control • Great if you know some code or feel comfortable experimenting • Hosted WordPress service • Free hosting • Partially customizable • Paid upgrades • Great if you’re new to site building/blogging or want to make something fast
- 67. To add yourcontent, you can... • Use or make a portfolio CPT • Use category pages • Make each piece a page
- 68. Finding (or making)a good theme
- 69. What makes agood theme? • Keep it simple so you can customize • Aim for the general layout you want • Avoid themes with too many options • Avoid baked-in functionality
- 70.
- 71.
- 72.
- 73.
- 74.
- 75.
- 76.
- 77.
- 78. Capsule Information: http://crowdfavorite.com/capsule/ Download forWordPress.org: http://sourceforge.net/projects/wp-capsule/files/1.1.1/capsule-server-1.1.1.zip/download
- 79. Roll your ownwith _s _s (Underscores) Download at http://underscores.me/
- 80.
- 81.
- 82. What to usein Jetpack • Photon (load your images from WordPress.com’s CDN) • Widget Visibility (chose what widgets appear on each page) • Publicize (easily share your work with your social media accounts) • Carousel (shows your images with a nice lightbox effect) • Tiled Galleries (adds a bunch of different gallery layouts to chose from. I love the tiled mosaic one) • Contact Form (easily add a contact form to your site) • Custom CSS (lets you customize your css without overwriting your theme) • Portfolio custom post type (coming soon?)
- 83. NextGen Gallery Download athttp://wordpress.org/plugins/nextgen-gallery/
- 84. Contact Form 7 Downloadat http://wordpress.org/plugins/contact-form-7/
- 85. Portfolio Post Type Downloadat http://wordpress.org/plugins/portfolio-post-type/
- 87. In general, worthlooking at... • Security plugin (BruteProtect, iThemes Security) • Backup plugin (BackupToDropbox, BackUpWordPress)
- 88.
- 89. Thank you! @melchoyce |choycedesign.com | melchoyce.com