I began rebuilding my next portfolio (V2.0) with several objectives. One of those is that I wanted to document/share the progress and experiences I've gained. I'm not quite sure who this might benefit the most. Perhaps it's also a way for me to document my own journey while simultaneously processing the things that I had rediscovered, relearned, or learned along the way.
I came from a software development background. I think some of you who have been following me for a short time, who have been on this platform, will know that. I started there and quickly found my passion and interests in UX (we never called it that 20 years ago). As a software developer by training, there was no clear/obvious way for me to transition from a dev to a designer, so I had to figure something else out.
While we also never called it front-end development back then, I knew it would be an area that would get me closer to doing what I felt UX should be at that time.
Created My First Set of Wireframes in 2006
From a web development and UX perspective, I created my first set of wireframes back in 2006. What I didn't understand at that time is that those wireframes, and the ones that would follow, would be extremely important later on.
It was probably around 2009 that I began to see the potential value of starting/maintaining a portfolio. Back then, portfolios felt more like a creative's thing. But I ignored that feeling and decided to document my learnings, experiences, challenges and how I helped solve some design challenges using, yes, front-end development. By the time I was a mid-tier dev, I had already become the highest-paying freelancer in the market. While my peers were competing over 8K contracts, I had already secured my first 12K, and after that, 15K.
While it wasn't the portfolio alone that was helpful, it did play a crucial part in helping to convey to clients my potential value and why it was worth their investment to work with me.
Fast forward 19 years later...
This next showcase project will be slightly more elaborate and complex compared to FocusFlow, for which I finished building the first working version (currently v1.1.0).
This project aims to demonstrate my capabilities and skills in front-end development and the UX side of things. It's about being a FED while still being able to think and solve problems that directly affect the UX of the app/digital solution. It is about seeing how the design idea can be translated into something physical. And ofcourse, identifying potential issues before they even become a reality.
Near Perfect Showcase
Professionally speaking, I think AceIt, a student assignment tracking dashboard, might be a near-perfect showcase idea. It perfectly blends showcase elements, including Forms, Data Visualisations, and Responsive Web Design. To make things better, this is also an ideal size/scope for a showcase project to use MobX (a state management solution) for React projects that are slightly more complex than a single-page website.
Frankly, I am quite excited about working on this showcase project. I'm perhaps even more excited to see it take shape over the next few weeks. I'll share another update soon.
