My Finished Portfolio Website

https://lisalouiseadams97.wixsite.com/mediapractitioner

Social Media; Presenting Myself as a Brand

Presenting Myself as a Brand

Now that my website is up and running, l have made some alterations on my Twitter account. I have yet to create a professional Instagram account because l feel that adheres mostly to photography and designers, whereas l want to tap into the theatre and casting industry so for me Twitter and Linked In are the best forms of social media for me to do so.

I now have a complete and coherent brand which represents my work and my aspirations. I will continue to work on my brand image and work beyond this module and connect with people within my intended industries and hopefully end up in employment! 

My social media strategy is to connect with companies and industries of my interest, interact with their social media accounts and start making myself known. I have also started to connect and talk to post-graduate film and television students who are giving me information and tips into getting involved in the industry. In some cases, l have been offered work experience, which would be a great start to summer! 

Evaluation of my Portfolio

My Final Website

For the most part, l followed my designs and uploaded all of my desired content to represent me as a media practitioner and someone who is interested into getting into the casting industry. Back in the beginning l found that people with high levels of confidence and enthusiasm is just as important as experience and this is something l think l have achieved. 

I used the paneling to split up my information, as inspired by Squashed Robot Films and other contemporary websites, which l think works well for the amount of content and information l have. If l had more professional level content to showcase then l would have used a more complex layout with more webpages. Upon reflection, this has inspired me to create more content and to show off the skills that l have beyond what I've uploaded onto my website and to work hard on the things that l do love like photography and videography! 

I love the coherence of the colours in the images to the layout of the website! 

After some critical thinking and feedback, l decided to include a image of myself in my portfolio as l think it does give it more personality and it creates a link between my name and my face. Although, this may cause some discrimination, l think it's important to take ownership over your work and this website is something I've designed, so therefore that is the level of skill and creativity l have and it doesn't matter how l look. 

Finally, something l wanted to add in was credits. I haven't seen this on individual portfolios, however l have seen companies talk about the people they work with and their clients and l wanted to take the same approach. I wanted to showcase my experiences that aren't on my CV and allow my audience to know about my professional life as well as my hobbies and what I've produced. 

Overall, I've enjoyed this project, being able to create a website that is a collection of my best work, I'm happy with what I've produced at university and can't wait to move into the professional world. My only criticism of using Wix is that it seems to be complicated to fix a easy issue, such as my footer altering in size, dependent on the browser and technology used to view it. This is something l have tried to fix but haven't been successful with, which is irritating as that is the one thing that l think lowers the level of professionalism on my website.

My Finished Website: UX

My website is compete and live! 

Using Wix l have created my online portfolio and am now ready to enter into the world of work...

But of course, my opinion on my website doesn't matter, it's my audiences, as they are the ones that are going to be judging it, viewing and interacting with it. So l conducted a short amount of UX research, sending my portfolio to my friends and family without any context just to have a look!

The feedback l got was insightful, whereas l thought my website was complete, l was informed that when you look at my website through a phone view, the footer at the bottom of the page was disproportionate to the rest of my website. Looking at my website on a phone isn't something I'd thought to do throughout this process, and of course this is one of the main sources of traffic, people using their phones to access my website. So l tried to fix the problem, however the issue on the homepage is to do with the aspect and layout of the rest of the page and is something that evensong Wix's Codex, l can't seem to fix. I will continue to try to fix this issue as it makes my website look unprofessional.

The rest of my user experience feedback was positive, people measured me how they understood the main purpose of the website and liked the content that was on there. I even received some feedback from some very eagle eyed peers about literary mistakes! This helped me to improve the mistakes and make simple adjustments to fix the issues.

Conducting user testing also allowed me to explain my reasoning for doing things, such as the screenshot below shows criticism for speaking in third person, however this is something l found in my research and l liked the appearance of it, as it allows people to read about me and not just from my point of view.

Making my Brand Coherent: Other design elements

To accompany my portfolio l did some extra branding, including business cards, compliment sheets and a letter head. These all create a more successful branding image and replicate a real world company or portfolio.

Business Cards 

A business card is useful in social situations where you are approached by potential contacts within the industry that don't know you or haven't seen your website. This contains your general information such as your phone number, email address and website. I have created some designs that cohere to my portfolio website and my general branding. 

Before I'd chosen my final design l decided to create multiple designs for business cards to experiment and have more choice. 

Design Phase One

Rough sketches of how l want my business cards to look. I used different layouts and features to create a distinguish and sophisticated appearance while also remaining simple and relevant.

Design Phase Two 

Finished photoshop designs. 

I like al of these designs but to cohere with the rest of my branding here is my final business card design:

Letterhead Template 

When becoming a legitimate professional media practitioner you may need to write official letters to companies or people of importance, so thus, l have also created a letterhead template. I added my own signature to create a more authentic piece. 

Compliment Slip 

For similar reasons as l created the letterhead l also created a compliment sheet, so when l socialise at more formal events l can write notes or information in a more formal manner!

Using the same layout as l have for my website, l used the bottom portion of my compliments sheet and letter head, to hold my contact details and then at the top is my logo, replicating the same layout as my navigation bar.

Each of these designs would also have my web address on them, however l haven't received any further user testing yet so my website isn't finalised, these will have to be updated in the future, but for now these are the general designs of extra pieces that conform to my house styles and branding.

I'm happy with these designs l think it looks official and represents my role as a media practitioner.