: Personal Web Designer Portfolio Website Persona I'm working on my first real portfolio website (at http://bobdowns.net) and I learned in one of my Web Design classes at ASU that we web designers

@Heady304

Don't overthink this - decide what you want your portfolio to do (highlight skills, demonstrate technical proficiency, get you jobs that you like) and design for that.

If it helps to have an audience in mind, then sure, generate some personas to test against. But as others have noted, for personas to be really useful, they should be based on actual research with real data behind it. Otherwise you might as well just go with some rough (but generally accurate) generalizations of your target audience and call it a day.

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@Nimeshi706

Noting user's personas is good for thinking about user flow and user experience, of which there is very little for a personal portfolio site. As such, who the recruiter is and their background is pretty irrelevant for portfolio sites.

As it seems like you're looking to create a personal website/portfolio that is relevant to recruiters, I'll address each of your points in respect to that:


Name: Obviously important.
Age: Not necessary in most circumstances but could be helpful if you don't provide an image - age doesn't determine how well you'll fit in or your skill level (generally).
Gender: Not necessary in most circumstances (usually is obvious through the name anyway).
Education: Could be helpful if it's related to the job you want to get; not necessary.
Work Experience: Definitely need some sort of listing. People hire based on what you can do - what you have done is a good indication of that.
Likes and Dislikes: Don't include this. There may be some exceptions, but I can't think of any good ones. This is for discussion later and should only pertain to the way you work individually and with teams.
Personality: Not necessary as this is determined by talking with them and perhaps in an interview or something similar.
Communication style: Not needed at this point. It should be discussed in later conversation/interaction once they know your skill level is high enough. The only time it should be mentioned is if it's a big emphasis to you, like you're really good at communicating with people and helping others communicate.
Computer skills: What does this even mean? Don't include it unless it's dealing with the technologies you use for work and is relevant to the types of jobs you want.
Frequency of Internet Usage: Are you kidding me? This is completely irrelevant.
Websites Visited on Frequent Basis: Same as above ^^ Completely non-professional and unnecessary.
Knowledge of Subject of Your Website: I don't understand this one either. You want to provide some history about yourself but only the relevant history for the jobs you want.
Key Reasons Why to Visit Your Website: Don't include it. They already know why they're there.
Key Needs from a Website on Your Subject: Definitely include contact info. Links to some of your work, other sites you're active on, and some related things can be helpful. A downloadable resume is up to you, I don't use one because it gets outdated quickly in my case. If you use one it should be in PDF format, all resumes should be unless it's an interactive web page or something.


Another thing I'd include that's not on your list is examples of the work you've created. This is vital so that they can get an impression of what you are capable of. Using images, short descriptions, and perhaps a link to it if it's live is very helpful to a recruiter.



To me, the most important things when looking at a person's portfolio is 1) Do they have the skills that I need? and 2) Can they think well? Once both of those things are true then the next most important thing is 3) Are they a good fit for my team and where I want my company to go? But this is often determined after the initial look at a resume, through interviews, conversations, etc.

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