Creating a Portfolio Website

Introduction

This lesson contains an activity on the last page that you should complete.

Your Portfolio Website

A portfolio website is a great way to showcase the work you’ve done in a curated way. Not only can you show off the past projects you’ve done, but you can use the portfolio website itself to show your skills. It’s a good idea to create the website on its own domain as this looks more professional to potential employers.

Just like every website it’s important to follow good design principles. Identify your target audience and their goals. What is the persona of someone looking at your portfolio website, and what are they looking to achieve? Make it as easy as possible for your potential employer to find what they’re looking for.

Show your personality

It’s a good idea to reveal some of your personality in the site. Your portfolio should reflect you and what you are like to work with. Don’t go with an either overly serious or overly friendly tone. Imagine that you’re discussing the work you’ve done with your peers, and use that to guide your tone.

Showcase a variety of projects

It’s a good idea to show your versatility by having a variety of projects on the portfolio. This shows the potential employer how you can adapt to different briefs and challenges. From your studies, you should have a number of different projects for different target audiences, and this is a great start for your portfolio.

Showcase your process

It can be a good idea to show some of your process and how you go about solving development tasks. Make sure it’s engaging and informative, but for potential employers it’s great to understand how you might work in their team.

Showcase your skills

In the way you build the portfolio site you can show your design and development skills. Make bold choices to show what you can do, but don’t show off too much and make sure they integrate neatly into the site.

Be honest about the skills you have. Potential employers are aware that you will be strong in some areas and less strong in others. It’s fine to make this clear and will save you headaches in the long run.

It’s a good idea to include links to your GitHub account as well as other project sharing sites like Behance.

Activity