Creating my portfolio was a huge challenge for me not knowing CSS very well and not working with designing much. I really enjoyed the process of coding and seeing what will come out when I input certain things. It was frustrating at times not knowing how to change something I wanted to change, however, most of the time I found alternate ways to change the looks of something. Upon finishing I felt very accomplished in what I had created.
Now that I have completed the portfolio, I want to show everyone my finished version. I showed friends throughout the process so it really made me feel confident in showing them when I was done. My goals coming into this class were to learn how to work with websites and designing and learn how it all works. I never realized how frustrating these things can be. But now that I have finished, the portfolio shows that I have learned these things. I will continue to work on my portfolio through next year in order to make it reflect how I want to be seen to employers.
For right now the primary audience will probably be my family and friends. I have told many people about it because I am proud of what I have done and how far I’ve come since the beginning of the semester not knowing anything. Eventually I hope the portfolio will help in my job search upon graduating. It gives information in which most people don’t know about me. My blogs and papers written are about the most important things in my life and I think it really display who I am and where I come from.
I am very pleased with my work, although I couldn’t figure out everything I wanted it still turned out how I wanted. Some say it may look boring, but I didn’t want it to be flashy or bold. I’m not the most outgoing person and can be quiet. I think the portfolio color scheme I have created gives off that type of personality.
As an employer I would want a resume (which I will hopefully soon be adding to the “Resume” page I have created), however with all the information given it really shows the type of person I am therefore I would higher myself. It shows how dedicated I am to my family and the things I participate in. I hope to add more eventually for employers to browse through.
I used the theme Pilcrow in designing my portfolio. My changes were pretty basic because of the plain theme that was given. I first changed the Body background color to a light gray color, along with changing the "container" section to the same gray color. I thought having the whole page one solid color would look very profession and worked with the Header image I chose. To make everything look like it flowed I also had to change the background color of the "widget" section which is on the sidebar. With that I messed with colors to pick for the text of the sidebar information. I first changed the Title color and boldness. And then the actual text color. I chose to do a darker gray so it would not stand out too much seeing as the blog posts are not meant to stick out. I also changed the text hover/highlight color to a navy blue because the theme of my blog was about my college experiences as a student athlete at UMW. The entry title of each "page" was also changed to a bigger size so it was easy to read. For the caption of the photos I imbedded throughout the size I changed the background color to match the website so it didn't look sloppy and just randomly inserted. For the entire site (Site title, entry title, etc.) I went and changed the Font to a Cabria style. I thought it looked very professional.