Week 11 - Designing a portfolio interface

Wow! I can't believe that there is only 3 weeks left until everything is due. So as I'm getting close to the end, and of course so is the end of the last book for this class: Designing Digital Portfolios. In chapter 11 they discussed about the importance of interface. These sentences caught my attention because not only are we almost done, but in this field we can never stop learning: "Interface design is a specialized discipline that is still changing rapidly... To build an exceptional interface,you must study user interaction, have a special talent for organizing data, and be a good visualizer." In order to have a working interface it is recommended to organize yourself and by that it was summed up in four stages: Group, Map, Schematic, and Look-and-feel.

Group, is knowing what category to put your projects in it could be by date, area of design, illustrations or photos, print, interactive, 2D, 3D, Process like sketches, modeling, character animations, by client, the difficulty of the project or by visual interest the viewer will navigate through. Map, is what you come up with afterwards to organize, it's a flowchart that represents every page in your portfolio. Schematic, is is basically a page layout grid. Look and feel, is think about what style or theme will be use and how people will interact with those decisions. Once all of this is thought of and re-thought and you are happy with the outcome it is important to stay focused and avoid distractions, This book suggested to remember KISS: Keep It Simple, Seriously. Although I know that I have seen this acronym of kiss as, Keep it Simple Stupid.
The most time consuming step is preparation although building also requires time it makes it much easier to accomplish this by having everything already well thought out and then have a working interface.

Week 10 - Nontraditional Portfolios and some basics

A nontraditional portfolio is a distinguished feature with often an unusual exterior. The portfolio must match the work and never overpower or upstage the design samples. Out of the nontraditional portfolio’s that I was able to come across in the last chapter of Building Design Portfolio’s I liked the light box created by Chris Dimino it is an eye catching portfolio and interesting way of displaying all the hard work. Having an Interactive portfolio ….. Being able to have an Interactive portfolio or a website is essential because anyone that has internet connection can view it at no matter what time in the day “a well-designed website is a great vehicle for showing both a designer’s style and areas of expertise”. That is why having a portfolio is so important in this field, keep it update, keep it interactive, keep it interesting. You should visit the sites of my favorite design examples that were used in this book: Amber Frid-Jimenez and Louise Fili LTD.

The development basics now that I have collected all of my work and know that I want my portfolio to impress the viewer I need to go back and look at my master listing. According to Chapter 10 in Designing a Digital Portfolio I need to set the foundation and it’s composed of 1) An appropriate technology, 2) a structure and 3) a visual concept for your interface. This chapter kept on explaining the many different types of portfolios you can design and explained the basics of what a static pages are and a simple motion or interaction site. Descriptions on weather to use web versus portable portfolios and while thinking about all that coming up with a metaphor. A couple of the metaphorical concepts given were: Gallery, Spec sheet/brochure, Outreach, Narrative, Diary, and Experience. While thinking about which metaphor to use it can be "Welcome to my gallery" or pick the project that best describes your skills or instead of displaying interactivity then to consider a slideshow of the best work you own like So Takahasi.

Week 9 - Professional/Student Portfolios & creating written content

Looking through all of the photographs of the work many have done in Building Design Portfolio. I was able to see how many different ideas are out there and how unique most of the portfolios and projects are. Not mattering if they were done by a professional or by a student, they were different styles, different sizes, and a combinations of different color. It made me realize that I also need to work on some projects that will increase my ideas and create my own style. I was thinking about a collection of photographs and combining them with one of my hobbies, scrapbooking. My favorite accessories for scrapbooking are the eyelets if I can come up with a variety of postcards like a series and keep the viewer’s attention and waiting to receive my postcard. I was also thinking some sort of puzzle combination and since the postcards will be a series they must have all 6 of them in order to make out the complete picture of the secret puzzle.

Creating written content (Chapter 9 Designing a Digital Portfolio)

This is a difficult task especially for those designers whom do not like writing as much as they like designing. An easy tip given to this issue was to “design a portfolio with no written content- just your contact information.” Although somewhat risky it can be a solution to presenting animations but not so god when presenting designs. This chapter helped me focus and figure out how much text my portfolio really needs. People want to know about your career or education, the viewer needs to be able to sense who you are, the right text in the right place can help them do that

What you will need to write about:
• Identify your work - Descriptive title
• Introduce yourself – include some personal information either by a resume, a short biography or cover letter
• Explain your ideas and process – Design brief, case study, processing comments, and Philosophy
• Speak directly to your audience – “Adapt vocabulary and style to whom you are writing to from suits to a small design studio or to a highly-focused niche audience.”