Website design & New Media
Visit my New Media portfolio here:
new media final project
For my NMIX 4010: Web Development final project, I chose to create an advanced version of a personal portfolio. I am an Advertising student and have not had a polished portfolio before this, and when I was applying to internships, I knew I was at a disadvantage when I did not link any portfolio (or I linked a singular Canva file) as my work. I also know that, through my current internship at a creative agency, WordPress is a very important tool for content creators and Advertising professionals to know well – so I chose to take this skill that we briefly learned in the beginning of the semester a step further, working toward success in my future career.
What I started with:
I started this project with a novice-level understanding of WordPress. I had only known how to create a page, I did not know the difference between pages and posts, and I had no idea what I was doing with the many sidebar options offered. I spent a little too long finding the perfect theme to only redesign the whole thing after! I went with the theme “Creatify” as I felt the fonts and colors fit my personality very well: a minimalistic yet bold approach with some creative flair. From there, I inserted all of the content I wanted to be in it before adding plugins, formatting, widgets, and other tools. I played around with almost every useful block: spacers, paragraphs, separators, headings, media, images, groups… the works. I am proud of the variety of blocks I used, as for my previous WordPress assignments, I had only really known how to use paragraphs and headers. After setting up my base page the way I wanted, it was time to take it to the next level by adding external widgets, aspects from different plugins, animations, and color.
I first downloaded the Elementor and Simple Grid plugins to have more options for reorganizing my content. I wanted my work to be showcased in different formats, keeping it new and interesting each time – and this plugin allowed me to add grids that made everything look cleaner. Next, I downloaded Simple Google Font, which allowed me to browse right from WordPress. I was able to add fun fonts to some of the less serious pieces within my resume, like my interests and my contact page. As I still felt my portfolio was a little boring, I added animations using the Animate it! plugin, just to add a little more creative flair. I animated a bar that showed my interests so that it would scroll across my front page and placed animations on my social icon widgets within my Contact page as it did not have much content in it and needed something interesting added to it. Too, I added widgets for my New Media Dossier’s Case Study using an external embed site. As I wanted to keep my site simple yet fun, I ended up with a product that I loved and a new second nature to using WordPress editors.
What I ended with:
My final product showcased my growth in using WordPress. I went from making basic e-commerce sites and blogs that showcased Loren Ipsum content, only employed paragraphs and headers, and had minimal styling tools. From there, I grew to using various external plugins, a wide variety of widgets and blocks, personalized fonts, reformatted themes, custom templates, and animations. Though it took many hours across many days to be able to complete to my liking, I am so thankful that I stuck it through to create a product I am proud of (and build on a skill that will serve me well in my career!).
research
AP RESEARCH:
A qualitative analysis on how the use of ephemeral online media encourages reckless offline decision-making behaviors in teens. Score of 5 after submission to College Board. 56 pages.
Honors/awards
- Dean’s List: Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024