[IxDA Discuss] Portfolios

[Katie Albers]

Since I know about my own experience, I'll stick to it.

My portfolio is a PowerPoint file (and anyone who knows me will find 
that hysterically funny) because (1) I have NDAs that specify I can't 
reproduce work done online; (2) I've done a lot of work on internal 
and password protected sites, so they aren't accessible; (3) I've 
worked with a lot of startups that went out of business (but many of 
the NDAs are still enforceable); (4) Many of the projects I've worked 
on have been superceded by later work; (5) Many of my salient 
deliverables are text based. In short, why require employers to refer 
to two separate portfolios.

Is it optimal? no. Is it a reasonable representation of what I've 
done? probably...and it has the advantage of allowing me to explain 
my role in each project clearly.

So, the reasons I use the type of portfolio and treat it as I do are 
precisely your reasons for finding print style portfolios depressing.

In fact, it seems you object to the content, not the presentation 
method. If you want a portfolio that tells you what the person's role 
was, what the project was, what the challenges were, what kind of 
team they worked with, then why not say *that* rather than blaming 
the presentation method. I've seen a lot more online portfolios that 
just point me to the sites than I have print portfolios that do the 
same.

Katie

At 11:07 AM -0800 2/22/08, Cindy Alvarez wrote:
>On Fri, Feb 22, 2008 at 10:38 AM, Jeff White <jwhite31 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>  For months now, I've been wanting to redo my portfolio. I'm curious as to
>>  what approaches everyone is taking out there, and I'm really interested in
>>  tangible, print style portfolios, not a website.
>>
>>  What approach did you take for your portfolio? What have you seen from
>>  others that you like? What resources are out there for portfolio
>>  inspiration? Hiring managers - what about a portfolio inspires you? Or
>>  depresses you? :-)
>
>
>As a hiring manager, print style portfolios depress me.
>
>Seriously, I would expect an interaction designer to have their portfolio
>online, and here's why:  when people show me a physical portfolio, the
>burden is on me to ask "why is this relevant?  what was your contribution?"
>When people put their work in an online format, it's their responsibility to
>figure out "what can I show?  how can I explain why what I did was
>valuable?  how can I explain my thought process?"  That's the same type of
>critical problem-solving that I expect them to be able to apply to a
>software design challenge.
>
>I don't have super high expectations for the level of visual design or the
>amount of detail (I know many people have worked on projects where they
>cannot publicly show work due to IP issues) - but I expect to see that the
>effort was made.
>
>Cindy
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-- 

----------------
Katie Albers
katie at firstthought.com