Modernizing Gabrielle's Portfolio

A case study on freshing up the design and reviving the content of my portfolio.

February 15-22, 2022

The Project

A portfolio is required to apply for the Design CoP within the US Digital Services. They want applicants to demonstrate design thinking and to document their thought process.

As I'm applying for the Design CoP, I need to create new content as my portfolio is antiquated. I get around to redesigning every 4 years. Unfortunately, due to the nature of my employment, I am not permitted to share over 6 years and 17 projects worth of design and development. My portfolio needs to land me a job where I can finally share my work with the world.

My first attempted redesign in 2018 My Portfolio 2018

The Challenges

  1. Very short turnaround
  2. Not being able to share my work
  3. No time to build it out into React components
  4. Styling the entire site

The Process

Design

Fortunately, I recently started reviving my branding for my resume. I designed a new logo. The color palette and typography had already been decided. My Adobe XD prototypes had already been started to reflect the changes of branding in my resume. I coded those pages and then carried the design throughout the remainder of the site.

Gabrielle Bhagwat pink resume

Content

I extensively researched the competition as for what to include in my portfolio. As new content was created, I've slowly been able to remove content that was questionable. I'm still working out the kinks and having a hard time letting some pages go.

Features

I visualized a timeline for the journey that led me to my career in User Experience Design. I wanted to give the user a glimpse of my background - short & sweet.

I added more relevant recommendations and removed the carousel for usability. The carousel was moving too fast to read and the controls were not accessible.

The Results

  • The hiring process motivated me to update the design of my portfolio and to create much needed fresh content.
  • It gave me the opportunity to move the content of gabriellezwilling.com to gabriellebhagwat.com after 8 years.
  • The verdict is not out in whether or not I will land the job.
2022 Version of my portfolio The Final Product 2022

Lessons Learned

  1. Redesign is a long and tedious process; I'm going to manage my site more wisely. I'll make updates immediately after projects while it's still fresh in my mind.
  2. Reusable React components will help with maintenance. Obviously, coding static html + css is inefficient and painful.