Website Creation: Elevate Your Game

By Ella Harrison

The internet is the fastest growing mass medium in the world. With the convergence of technology, society turns to the world wide web for many daily needs – news, entertainment, communication. Because of the widespread use of the internet, creating a website is the most logical way to make work easily accessible for future employers and interested internet users. However, if it had not been for my Digital Storytelling class, I might have never taken the step to create my own website. Thankfully, through this class I was given all the resources required to succeed in creating my own online portfolio, Ella in Your Corner.

BUILD YOUR BRAND

My Lockscreen

The first step in creating my e-portfolio required some slight soul searching. “Who am I?” is such a daunting question and I did not know where to begin. As I procrastinated creating my e-portfolio, I grabbed my phone and took a look at my lock screen. It is an image I see every day, but the picture of the Appalachian Mountains in my home state of Tennessee caught my eye. The subtle blues and deep greens remind me of home, and the saying “home is where the heart is” could not be more true. I decided then I wanted my e-portfolio to be a welcoming home to all of my hard work. I chose these colors as the starting point for my Wix website.

BUILD YOUR SITE

After I nailed down the colors, I started to work on additional elements.

- Website Name

- Site Design Theme

- Font (Roboto and Montserrat)

- Pictures

- About Section

- Blog Section

- Social Media Links

Once I created these basic components, I took a step away from the website to work on my other projects for the class. At the beginning of April, however, I began working on revisions so I could add my blog posts and visual projects to the website.

For my blog section, I wanted to create a standard layout, so I added a “repeater” to the page. This streamlined the process of adding all my blogs to the site after I edited them. I went through the same process when creating the page for my visual projects. The visual projects took longer to revise, but I enjoyed seeing how my skills developed throughout the course of the semester. During finals week, I worked on adding little details to the site such as hover boxes. Finally, I created a resume to add to the portfolio.

My website during the editing process.

WHAT I LEARNED

Throughout this process, I experienced how frustrating learning something new can be. I consider myself a quick learner, but for some reason I struggled for a long time with understanding Wix. The first two days I worked on the website, I spent hours trying to do things that should have been simple. However, once I finally got the hang of it, I unlocked the powers of Wix. In all reality, Wix simplifies website creation enormously. After I familiarized myself with the program, I learned how to link documents, how to incorporate buttons, and how to use the design elements we learned in class on a website.

HOW I WILL CONTINUE TO LEARN

Next semester I am enrolled in Sports Reporting, and I want to continue using my e-portfolio in that class. I think that if I work hard at updating this throughout my time in college, it will make my job search post-grad easier. I want to continue learning the Wix software, and I want to add more interactive elements in the future.

If I can create a website, you can too. It is intimidating, and it does require hard work, but anything worth sharing does. At the beginning of the semester when I asked Dr. Sturgill for her best piece of advice, she said that if you have an idea for a project, do it now. I encourage you to do the same. If you are contemplating creating a website, do it because there is no better time than the present.