Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Towards Redesign
Every day you have your Web portfolio posted, you are one day closer to
redesign. Inevitably your work and your identity will outgrow your design in
some manner. Changes might be needed to be made structurally in the way you
have classified your assets. It may be that changes must be made visually in the
themes or colors that are used in the site. Or, there might be technical issues that
you have to address which require you to go back and re-slice or export
graphics or pages. Whatever the case is, you should plan to redesign your Web
portfolio site many times over your careers lifespan. Other factors may cause
you to redesign or re-create your Web site from scratch. A change in tools and
technologies might cause you to redesign your Web portfolio simply to explore
and learn. Redesign is part of lifelong learning. You'll realize how much you
learned during the Web portfolio development process when you engage in
redesign. The second time around developing a Web portfolio will be much
easier and you will see that the process becomes part of you. You start to think
about yourself and the identity that you present to your audiences. Redesign
gives you an opportunity to reevaluate how you are communicating with your
user and to assess the persuasion of your messages.
When redesign becomes your focus, it is important that you follow the same
steps as when you initially created the Web portfolio. Don't try to skip over
important steps such as creating a content outline just because you think that
you already know what goes into the Web portfolio because of your past
experience creating one. You should follow the process of conceptualization
and content development when you begin to redesign. Then, you can focus on
developing a new visual treatment for the portfolio. During a redesign, it is
tempting to go directly to visual design and Web development simply because
we are eager to use our new computer skills. But again I must stress that
working on paper to develop your ideas and architecture is critical to success.
