Website Brainstorm

My goal in creating a website is to allow potential employers to get to know me better through a digital portfolio. I am interested in getting future internships and ultimately a job in the social media sector of public relations, so it is important that I create a website to show my online presence. I will do this by including diverse content such as:

• About Me Section
• Resume (both digital and printed format)
• Digital Portfolio
• Including my blog, podcast, and video project for this class
• Photography Portfolio
• Social Media Widgets, specifically LinkedIn since it related to work
• Contact Form

These features will allow visitors to my site to understand what I am interested in, by reading my home page's "about me" section. I believe this is critical to have on a website because it allows the user to get a feel for my background and interests in terms of future employment opportunities. By providing my resume on my website, users will be able to view my experiences instantly. This is an important document to have on a work website because it allows for the opportunity of employers to contact you if they find your experience interesting and valuable to their company. It opens doors to future employment opportunities that I may have otherwise been unfamiliar with. I mention including a LinkedIn widget on the website because I think it's important that users are able to view my professional profile on a popular social media that was made particularly for the working world. Lastly, a contact form will allow for users to easily contact me if they are interested in getting further information about me/interested in employing me.

I have looked at a few website building platforms and like the format and services that Wix provides. Below are five website design inspirations.

1. Jessie Sima's use of social media widgets. Keeping the widget's traditional format. Since I want my website to be minimalistic and simple I will probably only put the widgets on the contact page. Already I feel like Jessie's homepage is dominated by the widgets because their color don't go along with her theme. When there's only one image on the screen I feel like there doesn't need to be widgets included.

2. Kate England's name on all of the pages. Would like to have a unique font. I want my font throughout the website to be fun, yet still professional looking - I think this aspect will add some personality to a minimalistic design.

3. Ben Hulse's minimalistic design is something I admire. I want my website to have a white background and one main accent color (probably sea foam, since that's my favorite color). I like the idea of my home page having my name, the navigation bar, and a large photograph. Simple and clean.

4. Rich McNabb's layout/use of navigation. I don't want my home page to look like this but I'd like to have a page that resembles this format where there are photographs that lead the user to another page. My idea in incorporating this into my website is to have a "Portfolio" page which will consist of photographs - clicking on a photograph will lead the user to the designated location, for example a digital portfolio page or a photography portfolio page. This idea would also be useful on my photography portfolio page because it could display one photograph from an album, and clicking on that photograph would lead to another page with the entire album.

5. Pablo Vivanco's Portfolio layout - laid out one at a time, vertically. Allows the project to have it's own space, in order for it to be recognized fully. Important not to crowd the page for the digital portfolio because unlike the photography portfolio, there are descriptions that will go along with my projects.