Designing the visual aspects of an ePortfolio is important. The look and feel of an ePortfolio represents its creator and is the first thing a viewer notices. ePortfolios can be minimalist or elaborate, depending on the creator's purpose and profession. To create a professional ePortfolio, pay attention to color, consistency, and simplicity.
Color
Color is great for headings, subheadings, text, or backgrounds in your ePortfolio, as it is one of the first things viewers notice. It can be helpful to choose a color palette before you begin creating your ePortfolio. Many site offer pre-generated color palettes. Design Seeds, Pinterest, Colour Lovers, and Color Hunt are great places to find color palettes. You can also create you own color palette using Adobe Kuler.
If you have a photo that you would like to be the main image for your ePortfolio, you can upload it to Canva and they will generate a color palette based on your photo.
Consistency
Consistency means that the look and feel of your ePortfolio is holistic and reilable. Some things that help with consistency are:
- Sticking to a color palette
- Organizing your content in a predictable way
- Using the same font styles consistently
Consistency makes your ePortfolio look more professional and helps guide your audience to know what to look for and where to find it.
You should choose up to three fonts: one for headings, one for subheadings or text boxes, and one for paragraphs. In addition, keep in mind that your reader may have an easier time reading 14-pt paragraph fonts (rather than the essay standard, 12-pt. font).
Simplicity
Your Aportfolio should have a sleek look. This helps viewers focus on important information. Busy web pages can be distracting and overwhelming.
Some tips for keeping your Aportfolio simple and clean:
- Use white space. If you have a lot of information, you can always add another page or section. White space (which just means space without words, pictures, videos, etc.) guides the viewer's eye to information you want them to know. You can learn more about white space here. Creative Bloq has put together a great collection of websites that use white space.
- Break your paragraphs up. Use a bit of white space in between your paragraphs. It makes it much easier for viewers to read.
- Don't write too much, or too little. Give context to your documents and pictures. Explain what you learned or what you found challenging. On the other hand, don't rewrite your paper or provide so much detail that the reader feels bogged down. One or two paragraphs should be enough to get your point across. If people are interested, they can read your paper/document.
- Don't overwhelm viewers with too much color on one page. Use your color palette wisely. Colors in the background can help give your Aportfolio a more asthetically pleasing look. Colors within paragraphs should be used to draw the reader's attention to important information.