Development of a portfolio website

Competent presentation of cases and works is as important as their quality. Of course, you can continue to send Google Drive links to potential clients and employers, or use various free portfolio hosting services. But in this case, your individuality and value as a specialist are lost.

In essence, you become one of many, and not the only one among the rest.

In other words, if you want to increase the number of orders, move to a higher price segment, or find a high-paying job, you cannot do without an individual portfolio website.

Using standard solutions for presenting your cases, you may encounter a number of serious problems: an inconvenient interface, limitations in the size or number of loaded images, the presence of competitors within one click’s reach, and much more. All this makes it difficult to find clients, and in some cases even forces them to dump prices.

A custom portfolio website does not have these drawbacks and gives you complete freedom of action. Here are some of the main benefits it provides:

• Availability. Potential clients will be able to view information about you at any time of the day. The availability of such a portfolio does not depend on external service providers and the quality of their servers.

• Correct focus. There is nothing superfluous in an individual portfolio: competitors, external links, advertising banners and other elements that can distract attention. All its elements are focused on the highest quality presentation of your services and professionalism.
• Unique design. Individual visual design will help you stand out among competitors, create a corporate identity and increase your recognition.
• Increased reputation. Your own website creates the right image and demonstrates that you are investing time and money in developing your personal brand.
• Ease of administration. Adding new works to an individual website is done as quickly and comfortably as possible. Plus, you are not limited by any limits that standard solution providers may set: photo quality, description size, case structure, etc.

The basis of a portfolio website is a catalog of cases. But to effectively solve problems, it must contain other important elements. We list the main ones:

• A resume is a text section that describes the experience, skills and specialization of the portfolio owner.
• Recommendations are reviews from clients or employers who have already worked with you.

• Awards – a list of awarded awards and information about participation in various ratings.
• Publications in media – this section is required if information about the portfolio owner was published in specialized media.
• Contacts – a list of communication channels and the ability to contact you directly from the site.

To create an online portfolio, you will need to select a technology stack – a set of technologies on which the functionality, server and client parts of the site will be written. Most often, priority is given to programming languages and frameworks that can ensure maximum system performance and reliability. For example, these could be:

• For the frontend part: JavaScript frameworks Vue and React. Vue.js is great for simple and flexible web applications.

In turn, React.js is more about reactivity, and is used in the development of complex component-oriented applications. We can also use standard HTML/CSS/JavaScript technologies.

• For the backend part: for web projects, the priority languages are often Python/PHP and their frameworks – Django/Flask and Yii2/Laravel, respectively. However, depending on the format and technical needs of the portfolio site, we can also use the Java language and the Node.js JavaScript platform.

Portfolio website development is a structured process that consists of six main steps. Let’s look at each of them in more detail:

• Collection of information. The team studies the client’s request, the specifics of his work and analyzes similar solutions that are already on the market.
• Prototyping. Next, a prototype of an online portfolio is created, which schematically depicts the logic of its operation, information architecture and interface structure. The mockup usually includes: a UX project, page warframes, a table describing the functionality and flowcharts of the main modules. Careful design allows for the most accurate assessment of development time and budget, and also eliminates any errors, inaccuracies and inconsistencies during the main implementation of the project.
• Design development. Specialists create a unique portfolio website design, taking into account UX/UI. Priority is given to the convenience of future users and the quality of presentation of cases.

• Technical development. The functional code is written and the project architecture is built. This part of the development can be divided into two components: frontend – implementation of the client side of the product, with which site visitors will interact, and backend – creation of the server side, where data is stored and user requests are processed.
• Testing. All functionality is thoroughly tested and debugged. This allows you to get rid of most of the technical errors that could have been made during the development process.
• Technical support and development. Next, it is important to ensure constant technical development and stability of the project. To do this, we suggest connecting it to our qualified technical support.

A portfolio website is an effective tool that allows you to qualitatively present the skills, experience and professionalism of a particular person or company. With its help, you can attract more clients, increase prices for your services, or get an invitation to a high-paying job – it all depends on your personal goals and priorities.

If you want to launch an individual online portfolio, contact the AVADA MEDIA team. We will analyze your niche and develop a unique technical solution that will allow you to stand out among your competitors.