Week 3 Exploration: Digging Deeper With Diigo

For this assignment, we were to review three articles that provide information on how to create a more effective portfolio. Then we were to describe what we’ve gained from these articles.

Articles I read:
Tips for Creating a Great Personal Online Portfolio
Creating A Successful Online Portfolio
Make Sure Your Small Business Website Does These 5 Things

Why did you choose each particular article?

I chose the article Tips for Creating a Great Personal Online Portfolio and the article Creating A Successful Online Portfolio because after I graduate, I need to have a portfolio that I can showcase to potential employers. It’s also great to know these tips for when I create my personal portfolio for hair and makeup, not just my educational projects. I chose the article Make Sure Your Small Business Website Does These 5 Things because I will be starting a small business for my makeup and hair business. Knowing any tips for my future website will be helpful.

Identify 3 points of interest from each article - What did you learn?

In Tips for Creating a Great Personal Online Portfolio, I love that the author suggests to write down goals and then give those goals set values. These values are to help you figure out what task is the most important. The article then suggests sketching out  20 different layout ideas, with pen and paper. I think this is great because it gives you a foundation before you start your work in Photoshop. Lastly, it’s suggested to put your portfolio online as soon as possible when you have a foundation because you can go back to it later to make changes you may want to make later on.

In Creating A Successful Online Portfolio the stress the importance of clarity. They suggest the less is more approach, which is typically in paper resumes. It’s also suggested to use a minimalist scheme because the more information you pack into your portfolio the more likely that information will get lost in translation. Another suggestion is to make sure the navigation of your portfolio is easy. Someone viewing your portfolio needs to be able to view all aspects of the site, easily. It’s also smart to make sure your visual elements aren’t distracting, including the color scheme. The site needs to look inviting, not blinding.

In Make Sure Your Small Business Website Does These 5 Things suggests that small businesses only need to include a minimal amount of information. It’s suggested to include your products, services, what type of company you are, where you are, when you’re open, contact information, an “about you,” and testimonials. Another big item is making sure your website is accessible. This means your site comes up properly when you do a general search in a search engine like Google. The last idea is to keep your websites design simple. It can be overwhelming to a viewer if there’s so much going on within the site. It makes it harder to navigate when there’s a lot of distractions.

How can you apply the insight gained to the portfolio skeleton you are building this week?

After reviewing these articles, I’ll be able to take most of the suggestions given and apply them to my portfolio skeleton. Mostly what I’ve learned is that creating something simple, easy to navigate, easy to read, with visuals that aren’t distracting, is what I need to create. It’s also important for me to make sure that the information I provide isn’t overbearing.

Recommendation article for the MCBS > WDC Diigo Resources page:
Article title: Ten Tips for Successful Event Planning

URL: http://www.buzzbinpadillacrt.com/ten-tips-for-successful-event-planning/

I’d like to suggest this article for those who are in the Media Communications program, some may be considering becoming an event planner, like myself. I found this short list of tips really helpful for event execution.