Building a Small Web Portfolio

Since my undergraduate commencement in May, I have been itching to create my own personal portfolio website. I wanted to curate my own space devoted to my curriculum vitae, projects, and thoughts moving through my education and career. This was for my own organization, but also for colleagues to view my work in an environment I envisioned.

I began looking at sites belonging to mentors, students, and other professionals, noticing that each site fit the person and their accomplishments. Then, I began to wonder, which design fits me? Which platform fits me? If I’m terrible at any sort of creative design, how will I design my own website?

I found clarity when a fellow library student shared some advice: it is never right the first time. Get it functional, get that first iteration out of the way, and improve from there.

Choosing a Platform

With web design becoming increasingly accessible, many services have popped up offering to help users create a website. By no means is this list exhaustive, but here are a few that I discovered and considered, ranging from least coding required to most:

• Wix Wix is a free platform that offers customizable website templates built on HTML5. Once you choose a template, you can click the boxes to add text and click/drag text boxes and images around to change the layout. This platform was useful as a first step in seeing my content laid out on a webpage without having to write code.
• WordPress and Squarespace These two platforms triple as portfolios, blogs, and content management systems. Both allow customizable templates, hosting space, and a unique domain name. Since they are content management systems, you must learn to use their interface and coding may be required if you want to customize beyond the readily customizable features.
• Jekyll (using Git) and Bootstrap Jekyll and Bootstrap are frameworks for developing your own HTML- and CSS-based websites. Instead of placing your content into a text box, you actually dive into the HTML files to write your context. These platforms come with templates to get you started, but do require outside coding and system knowledge, such as Git and Ruby for Jekyll. For two great examples visit the pages of Ryan Randall, an ILS graduate assistant and all around culture scholar at IU, and Cecily Walker, a self-titled rabble-rousing librarian residing in Vancouver, BC.
• Adobe Dreamweaver and Adobe Muse using HTML5 These final two require the most HTML coding. You can find some starter templates, but it is up to you to write and design the majority of the content and website. These platforms offer the highest range of customization, but also the highest learning curve. For a dynamic example of a website built with Adobe Dreamweaver, check out Samantha Sickels‘ media and design portfolio page.

Since I have a programming background, I decided that using Wix felt like neglecting my tech skills. Since I have limited experience with HTML5 and CSS, I wasn’t ready to take on an entire portfolio website from scratch. Therefore, I went with WordPress because I could choose a designed template, but customize as needed.

Using WordPress

I used my Information Architecture skills and decided the exact content I wanted to feature. Since then, I have spent countless hours arguing with WordPress. Consistently asking my computer screen, “What do you want from me?”

WordPress turned out to be less intuitive than I imagined (I shrugged off tutorials thinking it couldn’t be that difficult). It took a few tries to understand the interface with pages and menus. I also didn’t realize that different themes come with different customizable features and that they don’t include different page layouts you can choose from a simple drop-down menu. I typically found a perfect combination of clean, minimal, and functional, but with one unsatisfactory aspect. So close.

Finally, I chose a theme that worked! With some minor set backs with text fonts, I discovered how to use plug-ins. My social media buttons and accordion-style Projects page were the result of Google, willingness to explore, and my conceptual coding knowledge. Brianna Marshall helped me figure out how to set a menu item as a link. And I breathed a sigh of relief.

Tips

If you are creating a personal portfolio or even a quick WordPress site for a library project or service, I have three tips for you:

1. Choose a random theme. Insert your content. Then, decide on a more permanent theme from there. Sometimes, seeing your own name in Comic Sans will put that theme on the “absolutely not” list.
2. Read this article shared with me by the same student who gave me the advice above. It is geared toward IU students, with widely applicable ideas.
3. Persist. You have a vision of your future site’s look and function, keep learning, Googling and exploring until you find out how to bring it to life. I can’t wait to play with more of the coding-heavy platforms in the future!

Find my portfolio website here, and please comment if you have any questions about web hosting and domain names, important aspects of website creation I didn’t touch on.

Then, respond! I would love to hear your thoughts about using WordPress or other platforms mentioned for different functions! What were your struggles and triumphs? Do you prefer a platform I didn’t mention?