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Section 0101
LAEB B274
T/Th 10:30-11:45

Dr. David Blakesley
Office Hrs: T/Th 9-10, 3-4
Office: Heavilon 302c
Ph: 765.494.3772
Fax: 765.494.3780
blakesle@purdue.edu

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Project 1: Web-Based Professional Portfolio

Scenario
You are a student at a prominent university in the Midwest, hoping to gain the attention of professionals in your field and/or to find a job that will showcase your experience, skills, and professional projects.

Prompt
Working individually, you should plan, design, and publish a Web-based portfolio that contains (at minimum) the following:

1. a homepage that visitors can use to get an overview of your portfolio and navigate through it;
2. a navigational system that is clear and easy to follow;
3. an appealing, professional design;
4. employment-related documents (a resume with hotlinks and a narrative hypertext);
5. samples of your work (including Projects 2 and 3 from this course); and
6. any other work that would help represent your experience and talent.

Your portfolio should contain multimedia components that will encourage an interactive learning experience that is both informative and entertaining for your audience.

Steps in the Process

1. Researching the Profession and the Models: In this step, you'll begin to investigate the types of positions you're likely to look for when you graduate and then find/discuss some professional portfolios of the people in those areas.

   By September 6, you should have collected 5 real job ads that you would be qualified for and a list of 5 digital portfolios that might be used as models/examples. Be sure to include full citation/source information for the job ads and the model portfolios. Bring this information to class on Sept. 6 for checking and credit for this step.

2. Planning Site Navigation and Design: Beginning Week 3, you should start planning your portfolio's Web site. In this step, you'll need to prepare a visual representation of your site, with titles of pages and descriptions of each's content. Look at the Web Style Guide for examples of these. Step 2 should be ready for checking on Thursday, Sept. 20
   
   
3. Developing a Web Resume and Narrative Hypertext: Two of the most important electronic documents in your portfolio will be your Web resume and your narrative hypertext. We will discuss examples of these in class. You'll need to begin with the resume portion and then develop the narrative hypertext. Drafts of this work should be ready for peer review on Thursday, October 11.
   
   
4. Site Design: In this step, you'll create the Web pages and navigational system for your portfolio. A prototype of your portfolio/site should be ready for peer review on Tuesday, October 30.
   
   
5. Usability Testing: Once your prototype is ready, you'll learn how to conduct usability testing on your portfolio and on those of your peers. We will begin conducting usability testing in class on November 13. At that time, your site should have been revised in response to the peer feedback received on October 30.
   
   
6. Presentation of Portfolio: Throughout November, you will continue to develop the supporting materials for your portfolio, including samples from the Client-Based Project (Project 2) and the Creative/Professional Project. Beginning Tuesday, November 27, students will present an overview of their portfolios to the rest of the class in a 10 minute presentation. Then you will submit the URL of your portfolio to me (to blakesle@purdue.edu) at the end of the semester on December 6.
   

Grading
This project counts as 40% of the course grade. You will need to complete all of the steps in the project (Steps 1-6) to receive credit. I will evaluate your portfolio on the basis of its professionalism, its overall design, the integrity of its information, and its use of multimedia components.

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