A brief overview of avoiding online portfolio functionality pitfalls.
Even if you attended the same school and graduated in the same year, your talents for certain areas of your media arts degree would vary depending on the individual. One student may love making web pages and developing media rich web content while another student despises web page making and would rather focus their energy on making short documentary films. Whatever your area of strength might be a crucial part of your career will land on your portfolio.
Rather than your traditional portfolio with laminated pages that you might give to a perspective employer at interview we have to rely exclusively on a digital portfolio that can be pulled up at any given moment. It might seem clear that having a digital format of your portfolio readily accessible with any employer with internet access would be very convenient on your end, but there are other factors to consider. During a traditional interview, you might get a chance to explain why and how you created your work, but in an online portfolio it’s either there or its not.
One of the most costly mistakes that I have made regarding designing an online portfolio was what medium I used. Instead of traditional HTML code, I decided to make my entire web page from Flash. Now, I am very cautious when I use Flash because I know that waiting for 10 seconds of a Flash animation before I get the final score on a game is downright annoying. The reason I ended up going with a full Flash based webpage was because I thought as a web and flash designer that it would even more enhance my skill.
Making this site took a lot longer that I had originally anticipated. When I finished, I was incredibly proud of myself and was eager to see what those around me would think. I received tons of accolades from friends and family members. Soon, I would discover that my choice for an all Flash sight was a mistake.
Perhaps the first step I should have taken was to find out what employers were looking for. I reasoned they wanted to be wowed and just plain blown away by flash graphics and slick animation. Interviews with employers in my field had a very consistent view. That view said that they were really busy people and did not want to wait an extra 10 seconds for anything to load or to watch animation. They were just like I was with my football scores.
At any rate, I no longer have an online portfolio because I pretty much kind of put a job in my field on the back burner. Now that it’s on the front burner, I’m going to take the time to explore different design ideas and functionality ideas in future posts.
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