After you have completed a web development bootcamp, honed your web developer skills, and successfully developed a good website, then the next course of action is to showcase all of this in a web developer portfolio, which will help bring attention to your work.
In this competitive industry, when you are trying to set yourself apart from other web developers and web designers, it is important to understand how to make a web developer portfolio. This guide will give you relevant tips as well as great web developer portfolio examples so you can create your own amazing portfolio and start your new tech career right away.
What Is Web Development?
Web development involves the building and maintenance of a website. This includes work done behind the scenes, like the coding that brings together the visual elements of a website. This ranges from building a static page of plain text to complex web applications, social network services, or digital businesses.
Web developers build websites by employing a range of coding languages. The language they adopt is based on the type of tasks they are working on, as well as the platforms on which they are working. Besides this, web development skills are currently in high demand across the globe, and developers are well paid too, thereby making this a good career option.
Do You Need a Web Developer Portfolio?
Yes, you need a web developer portfolio. Whether you are a freelance designer, creative designer, or motion designer, this represents a means to showcase your past work, experience, and skills. This is particularly true for careers in art and web development.
Your web developer portfolio website does not necessarily need to be a full-blown website. You can simply make use of a single-page website to do the trick. Remember, a striking portfolio with an eye-catching color scheme and bold imagery will impress potential employers and ensure you get the job you want.
Elements of a Strong Web Developer Portfolio
- Bio section. Your prospective clients need to get to know you. Simply include relevant information about yourself like your interests, hobbies, and specific skills. Ensure that your personality shines through and the text is given a personal touch.
- Projects and code. Display any code you’ve written, as well as other web development projects you think would intrigue potential clients. If you have none, try to build something like a website or a game.
- Technical skills and soft skills. Both types of these skills are crucial for a web developer to have. Showcase your best web development skills on your online portfolio. Before doing so, you should check several job listings to ensure that you meet the required skills for your dream web development position.
- Easy-to-find contact info. The essence of having a web development portfolio is for prospective clients to be able to hire you. To achieve this, they must be able to reach you. You should place an email address or a mobile phone number clearly on your portfolio.
- GitHub. Prospective clients and employers will often want to see your written code. You can add a GitHub link to your portfolio. This makes it easy to view your GitHub repositories.
How to Make a Web Developer Portfolio
When it comes to making a professional web developer portfolio, highlighting your past projects is essential. This reflects your versatility, as well as ensuring that people from different industries can get a sense of your capabilities. Below are some tips on what to include in your portfolio.
Showcase work for a broad variety of clients
To develop your web developer portfolio, it is important to exhibit the past work you have done for a wide range of clients. This tells your prospective employers a lot about your versatility. It also ensures that different clients from several industries can appreciate your work, particularly if you wish to branch out in various areas.
Too many samples should not be included
Avoid adding too many samples to your online portfolio. Indeed, the best web developer portfolios are not overloaded with excessive samples. Experts believe that it is essential to only display projects that echo the type of work an individual wishes to attract down the line. This represents a fine balance that must be managed while showing diversity.
Even though the number of past projects that should be added to an entire portfolio depends on the developer’s taste, it is ideal to showcase between eight to 10 websites that have been developed. After about 10 samples, people often stop going through the projects. This gives an insight into how to keep clients interested while perusing your portfolio.
Share your motivations
You can take your personal portfolio to another level, too. Rather than just posting a link to a project you are proud of, grab the attention of a prospective employer with explanations of how these projects came to be. This implies that you share what you imagined and created, and not just in a manner that makes it meaningful only to fellow developers.
You should talk about everything that you took into consideration during the coding process. However, ensure you keep things conversational to reflect your motivation and thought process to prospective employers from different industries and backgrounds.
Don’t make your design look banal
In recent times, most portfolios are driven by similar templates. To make your portfolio unique, you must break the limits of banal design by creating custom pages. Breaking these boundaries will ensure that your portfolio grabs attention and looks unique.
Make sure your code actually works
Before you can be hired, your portfolio website must function well. Some employers take a peek to see how stunning portfolio websites are built and how clean the code is. For this reason, to make your code shine, it must be free of errors. To enhance user engagement, you should also test it with different browsers so that anyone who clicks through will get the best user experience possible.
Web Developer Portfolio Examples
Creating an online portfolio might seem like a difficult task, but as a creative developer, this is a great chance to prove yourself in an overcrowded job marketplace. You’ll probably wonder what you can include or leave out. However, it does not have to be that way. If you feel stuck, below is our list of hand-picked web developer portfolios for some inspiration.
Denise Chandler
Denise Chandler is an experienced UI/UX and front end developer. She is looking to combine design, programming, and technology to perfect a website’s appearance.
Best Parts of Denise Chandler’s Web Developer Portfolio
- About: This section gives an insight into Denise’s personality. This includes her name, hobbies, and motivations.
- Projects: This part talks about the past works she has successfully completed. This gives an insight into her capability and convinces her prospective clients to trust in her abilities.
- Contact: This includes the different means through which Denise can be reached, including mobile phone number and email address.
Emily Ridge
Emily is a freelance web developer who specializes in web designing. With seven years of working experience, she can provide some extra customization for a website page. For her, no project is too big or small.
Best Parts of Emily Ridge’s Web Developer Portfolio
- Bio section: This consists of Emily’s personal information and other interesting hobbies.
- Projects: This part talks more about her past works. Prospective employers can find several videos and GIFs that highlight her capabilities.
- Social media: Emily is available on several social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Tim Smith
Tim is a web development expert who has 10 years of professional experience. His vast experience and extensive knowledge of web mechanics make it possible to optimize complex integrations that demand little to no maintenance.
Best Parts of Tim Smith’s Web Developer Portfolio
- Personal: This provides an insight into Tim’s personal details. This gives prospective clients a deep sense of who Tim is and his motivation.
- Projects: Tim has worked on several projects over the years, including designing and programming WordPress sites. There are several videos in this section that highlight Tim’s capabilities.
- Contact: This consists of the means through which Tim can be reached, including email address, phone number, and social media.
Miriam Nugent
Mariam Nugent is a Drupal developer who has extensive knowledge in writing in languages like PHP. She has completed several projects over the years.
Best Parts of Miriam Nugent’s Web Developer Portfolio
- Personal: This consists of the languages Miriam can speak. These are English and Spanish.
- History: Miriam has been on Drupal.org for about 13 years and two months.
- Projects: This section involves a variety of projects, which serve as evidence for her hard and soft skills.
Tobias Ahlin
Tobias Ahlin is a full stack web developer who boasts high-level coding skills, graphic design skills, and UI/UX management expertise.
Best Parts of Tobias Ahlin’s Web Developer Portfolio
- Bio section: This includes several personal details about Tobias, including his motivations and educational background.
- Projects: This important section highlights Tobias’ strengths and capabilities through several links and videos of past projects.
- Contact: This consists of the means through which employers and clients can reach Tobias, including his residential address and email address.
Best Web Developer Portfolio Project Ideas
To create an impressive portfolio, you must include innovative projects that will grab an employer’s attention. Each personal project you add will show off what a tech enthusiast you are, and the ideas listed below can help you create an interactive experience across your portfolio.
- One-page layout. Create a modern, innovative, and responsive one-page website for your portfolio. Try to create a perfectly designed page that doesn’t waste even a single pixel.
- Product landing page. New brands are always seeking an online presence. Developing a digital product landing page requires design skills and you must have extensive knowledge of CSS and HTML.
- Login authentication. This is another project that is great for beginners and can help you hone your JavaScript skills. For this project, you can design a website’s login authentication bar, which allows people to log into the site with their username and password.
- SEO-friendly website. SEO is crucial to driving traffic from organic searches. Even though web developers primarily focus on a website’s functionality, they must be acquainted with SEO and web design. In this project, you will use various design inspirations to build impressive websites with easy-to-use navigation menus.
- To-do list. You can create a web app using JavaScript that enables users to make several to-do lists for regular tasks. You must be acquainted with HTML and CSS to complete this project.
Web Developer Portfolio FAQs
A web developer is responsible for creating a website that is compatible with desktops and mobile devices. A web developer is in charge of creating a dynamic user experience by building a website with top features.
Yes, you must include previous projects in a portfolio. Prospective clients need to have evidence of your professional skills.
A web developer portfolio must include a bio section, previous projects, contact details, and details of your professional growth. The design of your portfolio should also have interesting color combinations, various animation effects, and an overall clean design.
Yes, a web developer portfolio is important. It is as much of a key element as a resume or interview. You include your past projects for clients and employers to have a sense of your source of inspiration and web development capabilities.
About us: Career Karma is a platform designed to help job seekers find, research, and connect with job training programs to advance their careers. Learn about the CK publication.
