Web Developer Portfolio Website Guide & Tips

What Is a Web Developer Portfolio?

Every Web Developer needs a portfolio website. Your portfolio allows you to demonstrate your abilities to prospective employers by showcasing the best projects you’ve done. A hiring manager will look at your portfolio to find concrete evidence of your skills and the quality of work you are capable of. Your portfolio is also an opportunity to share your personality with your prospective employer. Let it shine through in the way you describe your projects and the thought process that went into creating them.

How to Build Web Developer Portfolio Projects

A Web Developer portfolio project should be a professional-quality website that you have built for a realistic purpose. You can include projects in your portfolio that are hypothetical or were built during your education, as long as they are professional-level. If you do a certificate program at Noble Desktop, you’ll get the opportunity to build projects for your portfolio as part of your classwork. Certificate programs at Noble include software engineering, front end web development, JavaScript development, full stack development, and Python development.

Choosing Web Developer Portfolio Pieces

Selecting which pieces of work to include in your portfolio is a key part of selling yourself as a Web Developer. You’ll want to choose your best work, of course, and if you can provide evidence of results–for example, increasing business for your client–that’s even better. You should also make sure to choose projects that allow you to tell a story about what you have learned in the process. 

Make sure, too, that you include varied types of work to avoid being pigeonholed as someone who does only one or two kinds of web development. At the same time, you’ll want to consider your personal brand and what unites the different websites you choose for your portfolio. Coming across as someone with a strong professional identity will make you highly attractive to prospective employers.

Choosing a Web Developer Portfolio Website

Have you ever heard the expression “the medium is the message?” The type of portfolio website you choose to showcase your work also conveys something about your ability. If you’re a Web Developer, you should be able to build your own portfolio website as well. There are plenty of pre-built portfolio websites available, but having a prefab website raises questions if you are searching for a job as a Web Developer.

Building a Web Developer Portfolio Website

Your portfolio website should be attractive and accessible. You’ll need a clear navigation menu, a logical organization scheme, and standardization across the different pages of the website. In addition to adhering to general graphic design principles, your website should have a design that is friendly to screen readers and has appropriate color contrasts and font sizes for readers with limited vision. As a Web Developer, you will certainly need to make sure you use responsive design on your website so that hiring managers who may look at your site on a phone or a tablet can have just as positive an experience as if they were looking at it on a desktop computer. Avoid a distractingly complicated design–always err on the side of simplicity. 

In addition to the design of the website, the content is also important. The copy on your website should be well-written, giving a clear idea of each project’s context and the thought process that went into creating it. You should also be mindful of search engine optimization (SEO) so that your website will be more likely to come up if someone searches for your name. Make sure, too, that you have a designated “about me” section that provides your contact details, your resume, and any testimonials or awards that you have received.

Polishing a Web Developer Portfolio Website

As you set up your portfolio website, you should bear in mind that when it comes to a portfolio, less is more. Don’t include a project because you feel like you need more projects in there–having just 3 great projects is far better than having 10 projects if the other 7 are mediocre.

A critical part of the website is the explanations of your projects. Each explanation should showcase the final result of the project, explain your approach to web development, and display your way of working. You should also make sure to include details of every aspect of each of your projects. Share every tool you used when you worked on the project: programming languages, frameworks and libraries, technologies, programs and tools, and any website builders like WordPress that you may have used.

You should also make sure that absolutely every aspect of your site is functional. Just like with a site or app you’re developing for a client, you need to do rigorous testing and debugging. A broken button or poor load time can make a bad impression on a prospective employer. And you should show you can be detail-oriented by securing a custom domain and not using stock imagery on your site. Failing to do either of these can make you seem like someone who cuts corners in your work.

Always make sure that you seek constructive criticism from someone more experienced once you have a completed draft of your portfolio site. A mentor who has been in web development for some time and perhaps served as a hiring manager will be able to help you avoid pitfalls and mistaken impressions that your portfolio might cause. Any certificate program at Noble Desktop comes with 1-on-1 time with a mentor for portfolio review and other aspects of your job search. These certificates include software engineering, front end web development, JavaScript development, full stack development, and Python development.

Learn the Skills to Become a Web Developer at Noble Desktop

To become a Web Developer, you must learn specific skills critical to the job. Noble Desktop can help you build these skills through in-person or live online instruction. Either way, you’ll have access to expert instructors who can clarify issues when you are confused, provide feedback on your work, and guide you through becoming a Web Developer. Small class sizes and the option to retake any course for free once you’ve completed it are additional incentives for studying with Noble Desktop.

Noble offers several relevant certificate programs demonstrating your Web Developer skills and qualifications to share with potential employers and support you in your job search. Completing the software engineering certificate gives you the broadest qualifications and career path options. If you are primarily interested in developing for the front end, consider the front end web development certificate. JavaScript is becoming increasingly popular for web development, so completing the certificate in JavaScript will boost your resume. Opt for the full stack development certificate if you're interested in front end and back end programming. And if you prefer behind-the-scenes programming, pursue the certificate in Python development.

If you’re a beginner in web development, Noble’s hub of articles and resources on web development is a great place to start and plan your learning path. Noble’s web development courses are excellent if you’re eager to start learning but not yet ready to commit to a full certificate.