What makes a good portfolio or showreel?

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Portfolios are a fantastic way of showing other people that you can design and create the products that you sell yourself on. Starting off can be quite daunting and you may not have enough work, if any, to show for yourself. However, there are a number of good resources out there to get you started on creating a good portfolio. Throughout this piece, I will be referring to my own personal portfolio site and justifying the content and layout within it.
Staring at a blank canvas can be scary at first, so here are some tips on how to start planning the structure of your portfolio:

 Homepage Structure

 Quick introduction

My personal portfolio website.
Users coming to your page need to know who you are and what you are all about. However, in this section, it should be a quick introduction that won't bore the user into clicking off of your site. Keep it short, sweet and relevant. Looking at my own portfolio site you can see that I have introduced myself in a friendly manner and stated the skillsets that I focus on. I have a small graphic representing myself which allows users to learn a little more about me on a more personal level. We can also see this design method with Adrian Samoza's personal website.
Adrián Samoza portfolio website






Showcase your best work

After learning a little bit about you, users will then wish to see what you can do. First impressions are the most important thing when it comes to showing off your work and therefore you should put your best work forward.


I wanted to push my best work to the front so I created a tiled section that shows the pieces of work that I am most proud of. This allows the user to quickly look over my work and select one that might interest them more or is more specific to the job that they are looking to be done. This also creates a layer of interactivity for the user and allows them to have more control over the content they are seeing.

More in-depth information about yourself 

Once users are done looking at some of your work they will want to learn more stuff about you, such as your personal interests, place of study and how long you may have worked in the industry. Keep this section minimal too, you may be the most interesting person in the world, but users don't want to hear your life story. This section should also contain your social media links as users will be able to traverse to different pages to learn more about you.

A means of contact 

Provide users with a way to contact you regarding any questions. This could be a simple form or just your contact details. I highly recommend creating an email form as it is the easiest and fastest way for a user to contact you. As well as giving users the option to ask questions it also shows that you are open and interactive within your own little community. It's the internets way of seeming approachable and friendly.

Additional Pages

Whilst this is the core structure of your homepage you should ideally have a separate page to showcase your work off in more detail and allow you to justify the brief, design choices and time frames/budgets. My personal portfolio site contains pages that show an infographic displaying the product in a manner that is informative and visually pleasing.


Giving the user space and freedom to view your projects allows them to focus on what products you make whilst learning about your development process and skillsets.

Other important aspects to think about when creating and designing your portfolio

  • Keep your portfolio up to date - A portfolio is never fully complete, you will have to keep coming back to it to adjust, edit or replace old work. Remember, the work that you showcase should always represent your best work.
  • Stick to design principles - Keep the page simple, clean and easy to read. Use design principles such as color theory, typography and consistency etc, will make your site much easier to read and understand which is a big plus when it comes to communicating your skills to an employer.
  • Interaction is fun - Allow the user to interact with elements of your page, whether its something simple such as a button, or something more complex, users will enjoy your website a lot more if they have more toys to play with.
  • Provide links to your social media profiles - Showing users that you are constantly working and learning can only be a good thing, it proves that you have a real passion for what you do and that you are always trying to improve yourself. Websites like LinkedIn and Twitter are good examples as they allow you to share media with your followers and employers may look at this to see what you are currently working on so make sure to keep them updated!
CharlieMarieTV has a great youtube video detailing some of her top tips in creating a well-rounded portfolio site.


Conclusion

To sum it all up, a good portfolio is made up of lots of individual elements that show the user who you are, what you do and how well you do it. It includes your best work and wraps it all up a visually pleasing interface that is fun to interact with and look at. You should also link to your social media sites and give users the option to contact you regarding work or any questions. After all, your portfolio website represents you, your views and your work so it should constantly be evolving and updating to show the best you possible.

Sources

Adrian Somoza - Portfolio Homepage - Published November 9, 2015

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