6 ways to power up your portfolio

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As a creative director, I see a number of web design portfolios. Here are my top tips to make sure your portfolio impresses.

01. Screenshots aren't always best

Obviously you’ll be chuffed to bits with your sparkling new design so you’ll want to drop it in as many iPhone and Mac templates as you can, but that isn’t always the most attention-grabbing approach. 

Try using client photography as the ‘hero’ image on your landing page, then of course, use your screengrabs once you’re into a particular case study. If the client’s photos aren’t all that (very probable), look at what you’ve put on their homepage. Could you use their logo and their colours to send the message as opposed to tiny images of screenshots?

02. Create attention-grabbing titles

Instead of starting your case study off by saying “Look at the new redesign of XYZ.com”, you can make this more engaging by saying something along the lines of “Improved new customer interactions and conversions by 24%” by picking out key stats from Google Analytics. 

If they don’t have any specific statistic that you can flaunt or they’re something like a barrister, no bother, just instead talk about improving the user experience through a more simplistic navigation, more effective mobile website or even just bringing their site into the 21st century.

03. Let the client sing your praises

Clients can be seen as the bad guy, so make sure you take advantage of their praise

Get as many testimonials or quotes as you can directly from the person you worked with on the project. This helps enormously for people to understand your capability to work with others, not just your design/coding skills. Given how much of our work requires human interaction, it is vital for prospective clients to understand that you know how to manage yourself – and relationships. 

In addition, it’s useful to ask clients to add their comments to your LinkedIn. Quite often that may be a client’s first interaction with you as opposed to coming onto your website. The old adage of word of mouth being the strongest form of advertising is still alive and well...

04. All about the detail

In your case studies, pick up on the small details you agonised over and the reasons why. For example, talk about the complexity of a JavaScript-driven menu that allows you to navigate to the lowest level in the site in just a couple of clicks to improve UX. 

As long as you don’t get too geeky, this will illustrate how you approach work – with clear attention to detail. Ask how a fine furniture maker might talk about the beautiful mahogany cabinet he’s just made that took him 3,000 hours to produce. He’d likely mention joins, hinges, handles and polishing. When you consider your work is akin to a traditional craftsman, you can begin to see more than just graphics and code.

05. Tell a story

It’s easy to just explain what you did when talking about a project, but it can be far more interesting to explain why you did it. By weaving the redesign or project into a narrative you can begin to draw in the audience a little more than a simple deluge of facts and figures. 

For example, as opposed to “we redesigned and built the new eCommerce store for XYZ.com”, you could begin with explaining who they are, what their current scenario was and the solution you came to help evolve them out of their current predicament.

06. Don't get cocky, kid

There’s nothing worse than a pretentious designer’s overly ‘designed’ website, which they’ve thrown all the bells and whistles at to showcase their abilities, but neglected to provide clear routes to see the work itself. 

I should know, because as a junior, I spent every waking hour redesigning my own website to chuck in more wizardry that I’d learnt, only to realise that basically all anyone needs is a nice, simple, clean looking page with a clear list of all the work completed, complete with the ability to jump into it, and an easy way of moving back to the list, or jumping to the next item. Oh – and make sure your images are big, bold and extra clear. On mobile and desktop!

Don't repeat your mistakes

Generate speaker Jenn Schiffer

Those in tech who do not study art history are doomed to repeat its mishaps. It's time to discuss those mishaps and how we in the industry are making the same mistakes. If we want to turn things around and have a positive and profound affect on society we need to act.

Jenn Schiffer is the Community Engineer for Glitch.com at Fog Creek and she is going to tell you how to avoid making mistakes in her talk at Generate New York from 25-27 April 2018.

Get your ticket now

This article originally appeared in Issue 270 of Web Designer. Subscribe today.

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