March 4, 2009 at 11:5610 steps to create the perfect personal website
- Transfer
If you create a portfolio website, you have several reasons: you are a freelancer - and you need to show people what you know how and how you can do it, or you are a student (or unemployed) - and you look for potential employers through the website, or you work in the department a large company - and you create a corporate blog about the life of the company and show what your company does - it doesn’t matter who you are, the main thing is that people will turn to you through the portfolio site (for help or to give you work).
A logo is the first thing a user sees. In the west, people are accustomed to looking from left to right, this is why the logo is usually placed in the upper left corner of the site in order to immediately understand who the owner of this site is.
The logo is not required to contain the name of the owner, but only if you are not trying to promote your name - and use this idea for yourself. And be sure to make the logo a link to the main page!
Here are some examples: in most cases, the logo contains the site address ...
The user must first see what this site offers! Your subtitle should be short and informative, it summarizes your activities.
What questions should be answered when creating the subtitle:
It’s clear that Sarah Longnecker makes videos.
A personal portfolio on a site should determine whether the site is of interest to the user or not. People are interested to see your portfolio and the services you provide, to find out your interests.
Your portfolio should consist of high-quality pictures of your work, and should always contain a link to the work that you have done. What skills do you need to have to complete such a project, and with what programs you did this job.
It would be nice if the client wrote a review. And your visitors will be interested in what project you are working on now and at what stage you are now, maybe they will want to see the history of creating some interesting project that you implemented. Leigh Taylor has good screenshots of the work, and it also shows the programs used.
The subtitle showed briefly what you are doing, now you can fully describe your entire range of services.
The main thing is to write, it is very clear what exactly you are doing: Web design, development, video, copywriting, branding, etc. You can also write your services more specifically, for example: corporate branding, church site design, development of Flash banners and so on ... Chris Spooner clearly shows what the design does for print and for the web.
This is information about you. Let the visitor know who you are, boy or girl, man or woman. Write how much time you do your job. The more detailed information you provide about yourself, the more likely it is that you will order one or another service or buy a product.
Feel free to show your face in the photo or even shoot a video clip about yourself. This will give potential customers a sense of confidence, because they will already represent with whom they are dealing.
Do not be afraid to show your awards and achievements, because you want the visitor to know what you can do. Chikezie Ejiasi showed his photo and also wrote how to pronounce his name.
This is one of the most important elements on your site! Do not hide this information! After all, when a potential client looked at your work and he liked how and how you do your work, he will want to contact you to order your services.
Your contact information should be visible and easy to access. Let people know that they can contact you via e-mail, chat or phone. Also use the form to quickly contact you through the site - this will facilitate the work of the client and allow him to quickly contact you (because he will not need to copy or click on your e-mail, then go to his mail manager and write a letter to you from there) . Respect the time of your client.
The contact information should include: phone, e-mail, "chats" (icq and the like), there may be an address on social networks, as well as a contact form for quick communication. Stuart Johnston - provided a classic format for submitting your contact information.
A blog is always good. A blog with your thoughts, your knowledge, your experience - shows what you know and can do. This will allow your site to grow dynamically.
Let people follow you, subscribe to the RSS feed of your new posts (articles). The number of subscribers will show how popular your blog is.
Let people comment on your posts, just do not use capcha - this is a barrier to comment, minimize all barriers to writing a comment. To combat spam, you can use other methods that do not force the user to do additional work. Chris Wallace has its own blog which helps users on web design issues and allows them to participate in the discussion.
Ask yourself what you want from the portfolio on the site. Looking for a job? Attracting an audience? Maybe you just want people to know about you?
Each page should be a call to action , "Next Step." The best way to achieve this is with a button that stands out from the big picture. A link to a portfolio, a story about you or contact information should say “Click here,” “See my portfolio,” or “Ask me a question.” Matthew Brown's uses a button that stands out from the overall background of the site.
Now that people are showing interest in you and your work, encourage them to find out about you on other sites. They will be able to chat with you on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Last.fm, Habr , etc. Let them know more about you. Sam Brown shows which sites he uses and allows you to study it or even chat in an informal setting.
The manner of presenting information is very important to you. You should not write dryly, as for a corporate site of a large company, add more emotions, because this is your personal site. Be friendlier. When you wrote all the text on the site, read it again and, if possible, reduce the amount of text in two, do not strain users with a lot of information, write clearly and clearly. Marius Roosendaal uses a friendly and relaxing signal for users.
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/ - original
1. Logo
A logo is the first thing a user sees. In the west, people are accustomed to looking from left to right, this is why the logo is usually placed in the upper left corner of the site in order to immediately understand who the owner of this site is.
The logo is not required to contain the name of the owner, but only if you are not trying to promote your name - and use this idea for yourself. And be sure to make the logo a link to the main page!
Here are some examples: in most cases, the logo contains the site address ...
2. Subheading
The user must first see what this site offers! Your subtitle should be short and informative, it summarizes your activities.
What questions should be answered when creating the subtitle:
- Who are you? Designer? Writer? The developer?
- What are you doing? Website Design or Game Development?
- Where are you from? The country? Town?
- Profession: Are you a freelancer or do you work in a studio? Or maybe you are looking for a job?
It’s clear that Sarah Longnecker makes videos.
3. Portfolio
A personal portfolio on a site should determine whether the site is of interest to the user or not. People are interested to see your portfolio and the services you provide, to find out your interests.
Your portfolio should consist of high-quality pictures of your work, and should always contain a link to the work that you have done. What skills do you need to have to complete such a project, and with what programs you did this job.
It would be nice if the client wrote a review. And your visitors will be interested in what project you are working on now and at what stage you are now, maybe they will want to see the history of creating some interesting project that you implemented. Leigh Taylor has good screenshots of the work, and it also shows the programs used.
4. Services
The subtitle showed briefly what you are doing, now you can fully describe your entire range of services.
The main thing is to write, it is very clear what exactly you are doing: Web design, development, video, copywriting, branding, etc. You can also write your services more specifically, for example: corporate branding, church site design, development of Flash banners and so on ... Chris Spooner clearly shows what the design does for print and for the web.
5. About
This is information about you. Let the visitor know who you are, boy or girl, man or woman. Write how much time you do your job. The more detailed information you provide about yourself, the more likely it is that you will order one or another service or buy a product.
Feel free to show your face in the photo or even shoot a video clip about yourself. This will give potential customers a sense of confidence, because they will already represent with whom they are dealing.
Do not be afraid to show your awards and achievements, because you want the visitor to know what you can do. Chikezie Ejiasi showed his photo and also wrote how to pronounce his name.
6. Contact Information
This is one of the most important elements on your site! Do not hide this information! After all, when a potential client looked at your work and he liked how and how you do your work, he will want to contact you to order your services.
Your contact information should be visible and easy to access. Let people know that they can contact you via e-mail, chat or phone. Also use the form to quickly contact you through the site - this will facilitate the work of the client and allow him to quickly contact you (because he will not need to copy or click on your e-mail, then go to his mail manager and write a letter to you from there) . Respect the time of your client.
The contact information should include: phone, e-mail, "chats" (icq and the like), there may be an address on social networks, as well as a contact form for quick communication. Stuart Johnston - provided a classic format for submitting your contact information.
7. Blog
A blog is always good. A blog with your thoughts, your knowledge, your experience - shows what you know and can do. This will allow your site to grow dynamically.
Let people follow you, subscribe to the RSS feed of your new posts (articles). The number of subscribers will show how popular your blog is.
Let people comment on your posts, just do not use capcha - this is a barrier to comment, minimize all barriers to writing a comment. To combat spam, you can use other methods that do not force the user to do additional work. Chris Wallace has its own blog which helps users on web design issues and allows them to participate in the discussion.
8. Call to action
Ask yourself what you want from the portfolio on the site. Looking for a job? Attracting an audience? Maybe you just want people to know about you?
Each page should be a call to action , "Next Step." The best way to achieve this is with a button that stands out from the big picture. A link to a portfolio, a story about you or contact information should say “Click here,” “See my portfolio,” or “Ask me a question.” Matthew Brown's uses a button that stands out from the overall background of the site.
9. Use Social Networks
Now that people are showing interest in you and your work, encourage them to find out about you on other sites. They will be able to chat with you on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Last.fm, Habr , etc. Let them know more about you. Sam Brown shows which sites he uses and allows you to study it or even chat in an informal setting.
10. Language and communication
The manner of presenting information is very important to you. You should not write dryly, as for a corporate site of a large company, add more emotions, because this is your personal site. Be friendlier. When you wrote all the text on the site, read it again and, if possible, reduce the amount of text in two, do not strain users with a lot of information, write clearly and clearly. Marius Roosendaal uses a friendly and relaxing signal for users.
Other tips:
- Let people know where you are from. Many customers prefer to work with people from the same city or at least one time zone.
- Check the code validation - it matters more. Do not write that you make valid sites if your site does not pass validation.
- Make pictures links where you need it. Most users are used to clicking on pictures.
- If you do not have a portfolio, then create a wordpress theme, a beautiful icon or develop a Twitter account, etc. After all, there is a big difference between a site with at least one work in the portfolio and without.
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/ - original