Holy Portfoli-o (cheesy, I know)

To kick-off reading about portfolios, I check out the case studies article. This piece talked about giving a more comprehensive explanation of projects than just a screenshot. If done well, this is way more meaningful than a single screenshot of a project because it really describes what went into the project and what the design process involved. This article expanded my view of what can be done in a portfolio. I had never thought of going so in-depth about a project, but I'll definitely consider it after this.

Next I read about the current practices and design patterns of portfolios. This one had some really good stuff because I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't entirely sure what the expectations of a portfolio were. Now, I at least have something to go off of and have some ideas of things to add to my site. I was surprised that most portfolios use light and bright color schemes. I always thought of dark, elegant colors for a portfolio, but I guess everyone has different opinions. The most useful thing was seeing the different elements that are commonly found in a portfolio and how things are generally structured and laid out.

The next article I read was about navigation. More specifically, it discussed balancing aesthetics with usability in portfolio navigation. In designing a portfolio, I think it's easy to get caught up in making things as sophisticated and "cool" looking as possible, and this can leave usability on the back burner. However, it doesn't matter how pretty everything looks if the user gets frustrated and closes the page before getting through it all. What I took away is that it's fine to have a pretty site, as long as the functionality remains simple.

Finally, I took a peek at some sexy portfolio designs. All of these designs are unique, and some are quite inspirational. However, many of them seemed really busy and a bit confusing to me. I understand the allure of a lot of bright colors and dynamic, loud imagery, but too much just makes it seem crazy and almost scary. I feel like if I went to some of those pages someone would leap out of the screen and start shouting at me...not really on my agenda as it turns out. Basically, I'm getting that thinking outside of the box and being unique is a good thing, and a fun design has some benefits in attracting people to your site. It's important to keep it all in check and not go overboard though, because then all of the pretty and fun in the design can backfire in a smoking cloud of rainbow colors and metaphorical glitter. And nothing is worse than glitter. You just can't get rid of it.