10 Easy Steps To Design the Best Portfolio Website Design
Generally, most portfolio website designs have the following goal to Build trust & preference so clients and companies can hire you.
So, now the question is how can you build that trust and presence in your portfolio website design?
The answer is Strategy.
Now let’s see step by step how you should design your portfolio website to create trust & preference.
1. Choose Good Graphic Design for your portfolio website.
Choose a color that best suits your brand and how people will perceive it, and choose good typography suitable for your website. Make sure you take professional photos that make you look like an expert, and choose the perfect layout to tell your story. Then make sure these factors all work together to make the presence you want.
2. Make your portfolio website design has a good user experience.
You need to make sure prospects can easily find what they are looking for on your portfolio website. The prospect who landed on your website has to know who you are, what you do, what are the projects you worked on and how to contact you.
3. Include Social proofs to create trust.
In general, humans tend to be more trusting of something that has already been trusted by some others. You can use social proof to prove you are trustworthy by showing:
- Testimonials
- Awards
- Years of experience
- projects done
- Clients
- Publications
If you’re beginning, Providing social proof might be challenging for you. I encourage you to think creatively and work on coming up with an idea to provide social proof to trust you. Still you not getting an answer for this you can write about your mentor under whom you got trained if your mentor is well known in the public.
4. A clearly defined value proposition
Write a clear statement that introduces yourself as a unique person to prospects by telling them what makes you different from others and why they want to hire you.
Most people find it hard to answer the question in their portfolio website design but think creatively and ask the question yourself “why should the Client hire me? How I am better than the other?”.
Best Portfolio Website Design Structure
If you figured out the answers for the above 4 steps which we discussed previously. Now you are good to go for your portfolio website design.
Now let’s go a little deep into creating your portfolio website home page section by section.
1. Hero Section
Hero sections are the first section of any website that can be viewed first before the visitor scrolls. If they like what they see, they will continue looking for more details. In other words, you need an awesome and appealing Hero section.
The here section should be in a way that grabs the attention of the visitors by defining to them who are you, what you do and why they should consider you.
Put your logo or name in the top left corner of the website to let visitors know who you are.
Put a title that clearly explains what you do, such as “I’m a Content writer!”, “I’m a copywriter!”, “I’m a designer!”, “I’m an online marketer!”, you got the idea. You should describe or subhead your title with your value proposition, which clarifies why your visitors should consider you.
Have a professional image that shows you are an expert. If you don’t have one, hire a professional photographer to take your photos. But avoid using stock photos.
An additional goal for a hero section is to get people to click on your “call to action” – the action you want people to take.
My suggestion is to have a contact button because some visitors may be landed a second time on your portfolio to close the deal, so make it easy for them to find the contact button.
2. Trust building Section
Your Portfolio website will be seen by a wide variety of clients and prospects, so it’s important to establish your credibility by showing some social proof. Because people will trust you if others tell about you and how you help them to solve their problems.
Try to add testimonials along with pictures of your previous clients, try to collect video testimonials if possible and them in your trust build section because they will have more impact than text testimonials.
If you want to add logos of your clients don’t include every company you have worked for. Select wisely and include their logos if you worked for a big brand or company.
The Contents you can include to build trust are:
- Testimonials
- Awards
- Years of experience
- projects done
- Clients
- Publications
As we discussed earlier if you’re just starting and don’t have anything to build credibility, consider what can help prove you’re trustworthy?
3. Why Work with you section
In your portfolio website design, it is important to tell the reason why they want to hire you.
In this section, try to explain to your prospects what kinds of problems you can solve for them, how you can help them and what makes you different from your competitor.
The content You can include in this section:
- What kind of services do you provide?
- Addressing the problems your ideal prospect is currently facing
- Your process and strategy to solve their problems.
4. Provide some of your work
This section is the heart of your portfolio website design which shows your work.
Add your most proud 4-6 projects in a very simplified manner try to make it short and sweet and clear to the point, so that your prospects can get to know what your projects are, and how you started and moved from the planning to completion.
The Contents you can Include.
- What is the Purpose of the project and Why did you start the project?
- What is the Objective and What do you accomplish.
- What is your Approach to accomplishing it?
- Project duration and How long does it take you.
- What is Your role, How do you contribute to the team or project?
- Final product overview: Pictures, videos, etc.
If you’re just starting, and don’t have any projects to add try to add case studies and research done by you.
5. Your About Section
You can introduce yourself in your about section so that potential clients can see who is behind the work, get a feel for who you are, and if they would be interested in working with you. Start by talking about yourself.
Remember at last your portfolio website design is the product which is going to sell you. Make sure you included the following contents in your about section.
- Your Name: It is better to start with your name because your prospects want to know about you before he gives the work.
- About Yourself: Starting with Your personal and professional experiences will define your personality. You should include your education, work experience, special projects, awards, recognition and skills. Keep it short, pleasant, and memorable.
- Your Photo: Add a photo of you or a photo of you working on a new project. It’s a unique way to give visitors an idea of who you are. A photo of yours communicates a lot about you: how you dress, where you work, are you friendly/serious, and much more? Make it simple yet welcoming.
- Your Resume or CV: This is optional although your portfolio website works as your resume and CV it’s a good practice if you attach a downloadable file of your Resume or CV.
6. Call to Action
When your clients scroll to the end of your portfolio and you do not tell them what to do next, they will just close the tab or move on to another page.
The best way to close your portfolio is with a call to action – usually “get in touch”. Most people may include inquiry forms, booking options, and phone numbers on their Portfolio website design.
It is important to consider your ideal prospect’s culture, location and behaviour to choose the best call to action you have put on your portfolio website design.
Conclusion:
Your portfolio is your calling card for potential clients, employers, recruiters, or investors. It needs to be designed to effectively tell your story and showcase your skills and accomplishments.
We hope that this blog post was helpful in guiding you through the steps to designing the best portfolio website.
If you’d like to learn more about building a portfolio website, we are offering free consultation calls. Just let us know when you’d like to book a call and we’ll get back to you.
In the meantime, if you have any other questions about designing your portfolio website, please post them in the comments section below.
Thanks for reading!
FAQ’S
What is a portfolio website?
A portfolio website is known as a digital profile which provides professional information about a person and showcases their work, skills, experience and education.
Why portfolio website is important?
Digital presence is very important in today’s world. You will get a positive first impression of your prospects when you have a portfolio website. You can showcase your works, knowledge, and experience to build trust among prospects so that they will feel more confident in working with you.
Where can I build a best portfolio website?
When you are not a web developer, it is better to hire someone like us or choose a platform to build your portfolio website. In this case, we highly recommend WordPress. Because it is very easy and more flexible.
What is the example of portfolio websites?
There are many online platforms where other creators showcase their web design projects at one place where you can take inspiration for your portfolio website design.
Here are some examples to get inspiration:
Behance: Portfolio Website Design
Awwwards: Portfolio Website Design
Best