Personal Branding

A designers journey of expression

Goals/Vision

The goal was to create a portfolio that displayed my best work and skills to companies I want to work for and show my values to clients for my freelance work.

Deliverables

I needed a cohesive website, resume, and brand image that would show anyone who saw them my design capabilities.

Success Criteria

Impressing interviewers and doubling my freelance clients by providing them with a way to clearly understand my process and how I work.

My Process

Designing without a Purpose = Chaos

As designers, the hardest challenge we face is creating our own brand. I began with loads of crazy ideas;I wanted my website to encompass everything I stood for when it came to design. I jumped straight into design, assuming I knew my user journey and didn’t need wireframes. My portfolio ended up being very busy, had no story and didn't display my skills: https://aakkad.myportfolio.com/

It was a mess. I had to stop myself and reassess my process. I knew I wanted to create a portfolio that served two main purposes:

1. Display my work and skills to companies I would like to work for.

2. Show my value to clients for contract / freelance based work.

In order to land the interview or work with clients, I had to understand what interviewers and clients were looking to see when making decisions.

1. What do clients care most about when building a site?

2. What skills do I need to portray to prospective interviewers?

3. What kind of clients am I trying to attract?

4. How many projects do I need to include in order to accurately portray my skill set?

Even though I had these questions in mind, I didn't explore them correctly, and that is why I .

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Finally Designing with a Purpose

Obviously, this process was frustrating, and not yielding any results. I decided to look back on the questions I initially set out to answer.

1. What do clients care most about when building a site?‍

They want to see that I am capable of achieving their goals. That means I need to show them a variety of different design styles and experiences, but without overwhelming them.

2. What skills do I need to portray to prospective interviewers?‍

Interviewers want to see my skills, but in a different manner. They want to directly see the specific skills that pertain to their job postings. They don't have the luxury of time and need and easy way to skim through a portfolio.

3. What kind of clients am I trying to attract?

I like to work with individuals that understand the value of design and respect the process. I want to highlight the level of detail I exercise and make it clear that I don't just make pretty logos and websites; I create brands and experiences.

4. How many projects do I need to include in order to accurately portray my skill set?

Tactically I need to display a variety of industries while also portraying a variety of experiences. Four projects allows me to have two mobile app and two website projects with each one representing a different experience.

These answers gave me a direction to steer into and became my guiding principals while designing.

The Experience

I began to whiteboard ideas for my portfolio keeping in mind my audience and their goals when entering my site. I explored introducing myself and giving background into my work experience and then guiding the user through my projects. Taking them through step by step to what I wanted them to see. I then took a step back and thought about how people would be arriving at my site. Most people would either find me on LinkedIn or would have met me in person. In either case, they would already have some background into who I am.

I decided the best experience was to make the site as flexible as possible in letting the user navigate to their own destination. The homepage would immediately show the user my various work and allow them to select a project to explore. The homepage would also allow for navigation to a page about me if the user wished to learn more.

Wireframes

Once I had mapped out the flow I went into wire-framing. It was clear that the homepage would need to be an index of all my projects. Each project would showcase which industry and device was worked on so the user could understand which project matches their goals. Inside a project, the user will be presented project details and the process taken to complete the project. I used standard design process to layout the page and determine which details were important for the user to get a wholistic image.

1. Goals

2. Deliverables

3. Success Criteria

4. UX Research

5. The UX Process

6. The Final Design

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