Your work will be evaluated by:

Project requirements:
Written projects should be 10-15 pages with a five minute summary presentation.

The New Roget's Thesaurus : portfolio; valise, brief case, attaché case (container) Webster's New World Dictionary attaché case a flat rectangular case for carrying papers, etc. briefcase a flat flexible case for carrying ones papers, books, etc. valise a piece of hand luggage baggage the bags, etc. of a traveler; luggage.

Lisa and Mary's Definition : portfolio; n and v; a representation of self. It conveys who you are, what you've done, why, and what is important to you. The portfolio tells a story about you and your relationships. An effective portfolio will help you get the job you want. Background The WorkBook is a high quality, full color, volume reference set of photographer's and illustrator's work. It includes beautifully produced samples of their work as well as contact information and Web site listings--it is a valued tool in the advertising and design fields.

To move the quality of on-line portfolio to a higher level and to encourage its use in more professions we've developed a list of features that would give the site characteristics proven successful. In addition to Murray's list of successful attributes and to the list we developed in class, we propose the following qualities: logical, tailored, dynamic, personable, resourceful, and visually and verbally interactive.
 
The list is just a beginning. We also want to emphasize the benefits of using this process in evaluating and building web sites.

Essential Characteristics for on-line portfolios
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On the employer side
Many companies in the creative industry post job offerings. There are few centralized on-line places for a design firm to look for candidates.

The relationship established between job candidates and design firms during an interview is critical. The ability to understand how s
omeone works; how they approach projects and how they communicate is essential to finding right fitting relationships.

On the candidate side
There are few centralized on-line places for a candidate to benchmark digital portfolios or to share work with potential employers.

Candidates need to attract employers, share their professional goals and previous work as well as share their personality.

Goals of our project
We want to create something that will be useful in helping prospective employers learn about us, our work and the way we work. That being the case, we want a tangible product/site that demonstrates our information design and interaction design abilities. We want to produce something that highlights our strategic expertise as well as our visual communication abilities. And we want to work as a team to push the current concept of a portfolio into a broader scope.

Plan and approach
Our plan is to follow standard total quality management process. Research will include bench marking current concepts and surveying professionals. We made a plan and a schedule. We even targeted major milestones. We had every intention of making prototypes of our own on-line portfolios. This would be complemented by charts, diagrams and sketches to support our suggestions and to link our prototypes directly with our research findings.

Expected results
A working HTML site full of rich information, striking graphic design, and an intuitive interface. We expect this to result in a dynamic environment that will attract employers as well as creative types. This space will be adaptable and could eventually provide services to organizations such as AIGA, and to placement and recruiting professionals.

Goals of our project
Research the characteristics necessary to create WOW portfolios. Challenge other students and professionals to move the interview process into a new realm, by expanding the concept of a portfolio.

Plan and approach
Initially we followed our proposed plan and schedule but we quickly found it too ambitious. In order to give the research phase the time and depth it deserved, we needed to narrow our project down to a manageable size and scope.

Instead of creating "a working HTML site full of rich information, striking graphic design, and an intuitive interface," a hub serving individuals, companies and associations, we decided to characterize what constitutes a dynamic and anticipatory on-line space where employers and candidates can exchange ideas.

We spent a majority of our time brainstorming, bench marking, talking to designers and really scratching our heads.

In the Recommendations Section you'll see that Diagram 2 shows the features and attributes that could be added to create a more immersive and dynamic environment for on-line portfolios.

Diagram 1 : Current State of on-line portfolios

Applied concepts discussed in class
A number of our face-to face classes were spent developing a vocabulary for dynamic interactions. Janet Murray proposed four: spatial, participatory, encyclopedic and procedural. As a class we were not completely comfortable with that list and instead proposed these: responsive, connective, navigable, interactive, and immersive.

We also relied upon comparisons between our on-line experiences in class and our face-to-face classes. We found, as we think many in the class would agree, that the on-line experiences lacked in content and satisfaction compared to our face-to-face discussions. There was an expressiveness and reassurance, another level of communication that provided more information when we could look at one another. We wanted to learn from these experiences since it correlated with what we were proposing on-line portfolios do - replace or supplement the live interaction.

Surveyed companies
The companies that we surveyed covered a range of interests. We identified three small, well respected graphic design studios, three strategic communications companies, and three corporations that are known for their unconventionalism and inventiveness. Of course we needed to include Sesame Street because of their excellence in creating experiences that are educational, cross generational, immersive, dynamic, entertaining and appropriate.
 

Type of Comany	Company Name	Responded
Small design studios	Wall-to-Wall Studios	Yes
x	Alben+Faris	Yes
x	Landesburg Design Associates	Yes
Strategic communications companies	The Doblin Group	x
x	E-lab	x
x	Golsby-Smith Associates	Yes
Innovative corporations	Starbucks	Yes
x	Fast Company	x
x	Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream	Yes
x	Sesame Street	x

 
We got a 50% response rate. Two of the three small design studios responded in writing. One declined. We spoke with Mitch at Ben and Jerry's. (She gave us lots of information but no ice cream.) Starbucks anticipated many of our questions on-line via their web site so we didn't pursue them as actively as others. Their website explains culture, typical interview questions, expectations, etc. We were unable to reach Sesame Street. Our contact at the Doblin Group fell through. The written responses to the surveys are attached. Read your own meaning into who responded and why.

Murray's list of essential characteristics
Participatory - how can a on-line portfolio be responsive rather than static? A site that is participatory isn't necessarily procedural or random. Likely, it has an appropriate balance of both. So we wanted to see how participatory an on-line
portfolio could be and still allow the individual control over content?

Encyclopedic - these properties suggest total chaos if the site's navigation isn't well organized. This is an essential consideration for information design. Large amounts of information will enhance the content, interest and depth of the site only if it is available at predictable access points and in reasonable quantities. How many links can an on-line portfolio support and yet still keep visitors returning?

Spatial - how do you indicate the breadth and scope of the site and still maintain elements of surprise? This term made us wonder if "portfolio" is really an appropriate term for on-line portfolio since it means a flat container holding papers. The nature of on-line is not flat.

Procedural - this isn't a characteristic that we felt was as important or relevant as many of the other things we discussed in class, so we let this alone. Many attributes of a procedural site are encompassed in other characteristics and the term implies more structure and rigidness than we feel necessary.

The Dynamic Interaction Class' list of essential characteristics
Responsive - how can provide a rewarding response given that we are working with an inanimate object? Mimicking real life rarely provides satisfactory results but the ability to respond in a timely manner with appropriate responses is essential for success.

Connective - Can we create those "oh ya", "I get it now" feelings on-line? Some sites have done this but the ones we've found are corporate sites where the expectation of authentic personality is much lower. By nature an on-line portfolio should be very personal in appearance, content, voice, etc. At the same time the connection must remain professional. Is there a formula for the correct balance?

Navigable - what is the beginning, middle and end of the experience on line? How do you build an intriguing introduction or overview and still motivate someone to drill further into your site? We related this to party talk. Chitchat is important, some questions and introductions are expected but it is the surprising or deep, the entertaining or enlightening conversations at the party that you remember. What are the visual and structural guidelines for building the transitionary interactions?

Interactive - what makes a site interactive? How do you design a site to achieve interaction and retention? We wanted to map the features of an on-line portfolio to the interactive/stages of attention list and see how our recommendations accommodated these necessary stages.
 

Stages of attention

attraction - to attract people to the site we thought providing a postcard or business card with your web address on it would help with initial attraction.

connection - to establish connection we would provide the postcard/business card and use language that invites the viewer into the site. Connection could also be establish through the many ways that users can contribute to the site (e.g. adding names to the Design Firm Database or adding books to the Design Book List).

orientation - to help orient the user, the content could be logically designed and organized and the language would have a helpful tone.

compelling/appropriate - the site's content and visual design would suggest its encyclopedic nature and compel users to explore the site.

retention - the viewer's attention would be retained by providing information and services (e.g. Design Firm Database, Design Book List) in one place. 

extension/leverage - because of its useful nature, users would begin to use the site as a resource and suggest the site to colleagues.

social reputation - providing information that is timely, useful and accurate would help establish a good/reliable social reputation.

increasing returns - the overall nature of the site would produce increasing returns as users began to rely on the site's information thereby, establishing a sense of community.

Live, an interaction becomes rich and connective through eye contact, voice, tone, rhythm, gesture, body language, (body odor, as Rick Landesburg told us, see the last q/a of his survey reply). These are human indicators of personality, character and ability to build relationships.

The physical portfolio seems to tell many graphic designers about attention to detail, typography and experience. Some surveyed companies felt this couldn't be conveyed on line. Still, human computer interaction designers need to have a digital portfolio of some kind before they will be considered a serious player.

Static
Though we found a number of examples of animation in on-line portfolios we found little or no interaction. The sites tended to be one-way and passive. We felt it was important not only that an employer get to know you but that you get to know a potential employer as well -two-way. This is something that really shocked us. With all the possibilities available, we found most portfolios on-line failed to take advantage of the interactive qualities inherent only on-line.

Partially because the sites were one-way, they also came across as impersonal and expected. Adding features and functions that move the interview process on-line into a two-way exploration we felt we could offer a significantly better product than what exists today. The emotion and feeling occasionally found in other types of sites was sadly and surprisingly missing in portfolios.

Scope
On-line portfolios (or at least groups of them) exists primarily for illustrators, photographers and artists. Currently the on-line portfolio also has some exposure/place with designers, stylists and writers.

We are convinced that portfolios could be useful for many professionals outside the creative industries. Portfolios are common tools in elementary schools, replacing report cards. It is likely using portfolios as tools for describing content and quality of work will grow much more quickly in acceptance than those third graders. Business professionals, teachers and professors, builders and contractors, any number of professions in the film industry, investments, computer science, programming, financial planning, among others would undoubtedly benefit from expanded concepts of the portfolio.

Depth
The on-line portfolio could provide a forum for one step solutions. It offers employers a communication tool in the interview process making it accommodating and convenient.

On-line portfolios could host a forum for a collaborative exchange of ideas. You and your peers could use it as a tool in showing and describing your work. Whether this is helpful at a conference, an interview or an association presentation doesn't matter. Because things are posted on-line there is a shorter response time for the person requesting information and less work for the provider. There is no need for stamps, mailing addresses, etc. Additionally this rich information is available both before the face-to-face contact and afterwards so interactions can be more focused and directed.

On-line portfolios -verses digital or the traditional physical portfolio- allow you expand your geographic boundaries. It could also change the job search process. If you're looking for a job in another city, another state, or even internationally, the web allows broader access to your work. For someone in Germany this makes you a real person and hopefully a real possibility not just a notion in the mail. For example, we were able to approach GSA in Australia and we got a reply within 48 hours. We immediately asked questions and got a prompt response. The way we were communicating, Tony could have been next door rather than in hemisphere.

Brand image
There are five key things about creating a strong brand image that we thought could be applied directly to this project. After all, that is essentially what the individual is doing - creating a personal brand image.

Overall, process as well as content needs to be improved.

Diagram 2  Future state of on-line portfolios

These additional features improve the quality by offering, or laying the ground work to offer, essential characteristics outlined in Chart 1 below.

Chart 1 : Essential Characteristics for on-line portfolios
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Definitive Set of Characteristics and Features
The definitive set of characteristics that we propose are essential for positive user experiences include: logical, tailored, dynamic, personable, resourceful, and visually and verbally interactive.

This list of characteristics builds upon the lists we used to do this evaluation. It does not necessarily replace our original list but we felt the terms were more appropriate for the specific challenges that on-line portfolios present.

The features and functions shown above begin to suggest how an on-line portfolio could be a more positive experience. Here is a brief description of how some of these could work and why.

Features and Functions
Chat spaces - could make the person behind the portfolio more real. You would be able to respond quickly to inquiries and discuss work styles, trends, etc.

Built-in email boxes - offer visitors direct access to the candidate. There is no need to pick up a phone or type a letter or key in another address. It's all right there.

A guest book - allowing tracking of who visits, when and how often. This give you the ability to follow up with visitors.

Virtual interviews and frequently asked questions - these features that anticipate questions from visitors. In many industries there are at least some standard questions during the interview process. Why not anticipate them with answers on-line. The interview then would be used to clarify and show examples. Chat spaces such as Virtual Places would also allow you to travel the net with potential employers to show them work you've done, etc. This is something that can happen before an interview trip across the country saving everyone time and effort that may not be necessary.

Design firm database - this allows design firms to place links within your site. "Spiders" could be used to crawl around the net and search for key words within certain sites. So part of the research process is automated. You would simply need to follow up on any leads the spider delivered via email that you were interested in.

Design Book List - this offers an encyclopedic attribute to the site and moves the on-line portfolio closer to the resource realm. By sharing your resources and inspirations with a community you are telling employers that you think the same as they do if they've read the books you have listed. If they haven't then it demonstrates that you have something to offer that firm.

Elements
That could be used to make an on-line portfolio more personal and expressive. And that exploit the media fully include: sound, images, both line art (hand drawn things are a refreshing change on-line) and photographs. Color, structure, typography (attention to size and leading). The written voice also needs to support the overall impressions you want to leave with visitors.

Summary Benefits

The process we used for this project could be used to evaluate other sites. It could also be used as a tool in building new sites. The characteristics we discussed in class, combined with solid graphic and interaction design elements of color, typography, photography, sound, motion, time, etc. can lead to more satisfying and meaningful solutions. Why? One of the things we've learned through this process is that the questions that you ask are just as important as the solutions you offer and that we need to remember the basics of good design when we create any digital or on-line project. Asking the right questions assures that consideration is given to the content as well as to the structure and design of a project.

This is just the beginning of a really exciting and practical area of research. We are just at the very beginning of exploring the area and we are barely beginning the to push the boundaries of what on-line baggage could be.