Improve your Online Portfolio

IMPROVE

YOUR ONLINE PORTFOLIO

By Kyra Nankivell

IN THIS ARTICLE I’M GOING TO SHARE LOTS OF TIPS AND TRICKS WITH YOU. I ENCOURAGE YOU TO TAKE THE ADVICE FROM THIS ARTICLE THAT BEST SERVES YOU AND YOUR WORK. IT’S COMPLETELY ACCEPTABLE TO ADD YOUR OWN CREATIVE TOUCH TO MY SUGGESTIONS. I AM EXCITED TO SHARE TIPS AND TRICKS ON HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR DIGITAL PRESENCE AND GET THE ATTENTION YOUR TALENTS DESERVE. I’D LOVE TO SEE WHAT YOU CREATE AFTER READING THIS ARTICLE, FEEL FREE TO SHARE THEM WITH ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA. YOU ARE ALSO WELCOME TO GET IN TOUCH WITH ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS YOU MIGHT HAVE.

I will be walking you through how to build a website portfolio (or digital portfolio) and drawing your attention to features of particular importance. Let’s begin by exploring the definition of a website portfolio. A website portfolio is a collection of digital pages that provide professional information about an individual and showcases their work. In the photography world, a website portfolio may display a collection of images, videos, past projects, testimonials, available services, contact information, and an autobiography. As you can imagine, having a digital one-stop-shop with all relevant details of your work is valuable to your business, especially in 2021. A website portfolio is the foundation of your digital presence and significantly increases your credibility as a professional. So how do you create one? Luckily, there are many options for launching a well-designed and functional website portfolio. I will focus on teaching you how to create yours independently. I suggest creating your own website portfolio if you have: - A desire to learn - An eye for digital design - Sufficient time - Content ready-to-go - Patience If this list of characteristics does not describe you, I suggest contacting a web-site development agency or hiring a freelancer to build your website portfolio. You can simply search for agencies in your area or ask your network for recommendations. To hire a freelancer, you can search for website developers on Upwork or a popular website builder marketplace such as Wix Marketplace. I suggest finding a few websites that you would like to model or having a few sketches to show the agency or freelancer your vision.

If you are up for the challenge and would like to create your website portfolio yourself, you’re in the right place! To begin, you need to decide exactly what functionalities and features you’d like to include. Here are some suggestions: - Slideshow or gallery of images/videos - Booking services or interactive schedule - Contact page with intake form - Autobiography or description - Membership area for visitors - Email or SMS capture - Testimonials - Store with products or services - Ability to leave reviews or rate work - Links to social media - Blog or forum - Publications, press articles, etc. - Embedded social media feed Remember you can always start with the basic features including a slideshow of featured work, about section, contact form and information, social media links. Once you have a solid foundation, it’s not difficult to add features and continue to update your website portfolio. The next step is choosing a platform to build your website on. There are many website builders to choose from and the most common ones include Wix, Squarespace, Photobiz, and WordPress. I am sure you’ve also heard of Shopify, although it will not be effective for a website portfolio. I am personally biased toward Wix because their new Editor X software has a lot of functionality. For this article we will focus on using Editor X, that being said, I definitely encourage you to explore all of your options with other website builders. If you learn best by doing, I encourage you to create an account on Editor X and follow along with me. Head to editorx.com, click “Start Now” and login. Once you’ve successfully registered, you’ll be taken to your dashboard. This is where your website portfolio will appear once you begin working on it. I want to highlight the “Resources” tab in the top left of the dashboard. This is a great place to explore when you are getting started, there are video tutorials and lessons to help you learn the platform. To continue with the website, select “Create New Site” and then choose “Editor X” rather than “Wix”. I suggest using Editor X because it’s the solution to many issues with the Wix platform including responsiveness (the ability of your website to adapt to the device on which it’s viewed). When you select “Editor X” the platform will guide you through a few setup questions and then populate some templates for you. Feel free to check out the suggestions and get a glimpse of the editor. Congratulations! You are now set up on a website builder, familiar with some key components and able to explore website templates. Now that you have a tool to build your website portfolio, let’s talk about design. This is the most crucial aspect of your website portfolio. If your website has poor design you will lose credibility. Think about a time you wanted to purchase an item online; you searched for it on Google, clicked on a search result and you were brought to an unprofessional-looking website. Did you still purchase that item? Or did you go back and click on a different search result? Chances are you did the latter, because the first website looked untrustworthy and you didn’t want to give them your credit card information. This concept applies to your website portfolio. Always remember that your website is a testament of your work and people will judge your work to be the same quality as your website design. I can imagine your creativity has contributed to your success in photography, so let’s use your creativity to build a beautifully designed website portfolio. I will outline some digital design tips and allow you to implement them as you see fit. I assure you, you don’t want an engineering student teaching you how to be creative.

COLOUR THEORY

Colour theory is the science of creating the right colour palette for your website. You want to choose colours that convey the underlying mood of your content. For example, if you are a nature photographer you may choose green and/or blue as your accent colour(s). According to colour theory green and blue represent nature and confidence. Check out the heptagonal image explaining the psychology of colour for more details. I suggest using a shade such as white, black or grey in addition to one or two accent colours. This will minimize your chances of creating an overwhelming website that looks too colourful and therefore unprofessional. If you need inspiration for choosing colours visit colorhunt.co.

A simplistic definition says typography is the visual component of written words. Typography is important to build personality, convey mood, direct user attention and create brand recognition. If you don’t believe me, check out the image titled “Fonts Mat-ter” and let me know which Valentine’s Day card you’d rather receive. There are two gen-eral font families; Serif and Sans Serif. Serif fonts have the little “feet” on the end of the letters (e.g., Times New Roman) and tend to convey values of tradition, respect, stability. On the other hand, the letters in Sans Serif font end in right angles (e.g., Arial) and tend to be straightforward, simple, modern. If you’d like suggestions on font pairings, check out fonts.google.com, select a font then select the “Pairings” tab (or scroll to the bottom of the page).

MANAGE USER ATTENTION

It’s important to try and manage user attention through design. Good design will guide the user through your website portfolio. Firstly, aim to create a hierarchy with your colours. For example, imagine a black background with a title and block of text. We want to make the title standout by using a high contrast colour like white. The body text is less significant than the title so we may choose a light grey colour. This is an example of how colour can be used to show significance on your website portfolio. Next, use whitespace to your advantage. Whitespace refers to the space between elements. In general, more whitespace conveys a high-value product/service whereas little whitespace can appear cluttered and low-value. For instance, consider a thrift store vs. a luxury clothing store. When you walk into a thrift store there are racks of clothes tightly packed together. In comparison, a luxury clothing store has very few items on display, which creates whitespace between the items. Finally, let’s talk about the F-Pattern of scanning. Humans read left to right and top to bottom in an F-shape, therefore it is beneficial to place your titles, buttons and featured elements strategically. For an example of this, refer to the image of Google search results overlaid with green arrows. As a photographer, a website portfolio can be an incredible access for expanding your client base and displaying your skills. The key to creating a professional website without being a professional website designer is using resources available to you and following basic design principles.

Kyra Nankivell

Kyra Nankivell is an entrepreneur and website developer. She creates brilliant websites for her clients and was a founder of a web site development collective aimed at making websites more accessible to those who needed them during the pandemic. Kyra is an active member of the community and encourages others to speak out about injustices around them. @kyranank

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