Website UX & Design (Portfolio) – Seth Kingdon

A simple website is a glorified business card for you or your business.

Put a website URL in a social media profile, in the footer of your email, or on your resume for people to learn more about you.

Your website

Your website is about YOU. Here are some things to consider about your site:

Benefits of having a website

Having a website answers the important questions: Who, what, where, and how to contact.

Q 1: Who?

Who you are is answered with a website. Show pictures of yourself or your products and attract views by sharing your core values.

Q 2: What?

What you offer is showcased with a website. Are you a freelancer showing off your portfolio or a business offering in-store purchases? A website can tell others about it.

Q 3: Where?

Where you are is defined on a website. List your email, phone number, and address for others to find you more easily.

Q 4: How to contact?

Similar to where, how to contact you is clearly listed on your website. Isn’t that the ultimate function of a website, for others to contact you and learn more about you?

What I’ve built

Here’s a screenshot of a website I built for a client. He’s an author of a clean action-packed children/young-adult science-fiction novel series. Check it out! (NathanRoten.com)

Information and details about the books

The homepage is the place where you showcase your most important work because it’s where people will land most often.

As you can see, I provided links for the user to buy or learn more about the books on the homepage.

Opt-in form to collect email addresses

As the user scrolls down the webpage, they will see a place to enter their email address to subscribe to future emails. Directly below that is a place to get a free book (another way to get an email address). Both of these connect to Mailchimp, an email marketing platform.

Important tabs on the header

The tabs at the top are the most important pages I (and the author) wanted viewers to click:

1. EARN YOUR SUPERPOWER! – COMING SOON

An immersive audio story for kids and a way to generate revenue for the launch of the third book.

2. JOIN THE ACTION!

A way for users to donate to join the launch of the third book.

3. FREE BOOK

A landing page and way to further collect email addresses.

4. BOOKS

An overview of the books and a link to buy from Amazon and other retailers.

5. NEWS

Recent blog posts and news that also enhance keywords on the website.

Content written on pages and blogs gives your website the keywords it needs to boost your homepage higher on Google’s ranking (SERPs).

Contact form

At the very bottom of the website is a way for users to contact the author.

NOTE: For you, this may be the most important page you have on a website. This is an easy way for a user to contact you.

Social media links

Social media links to Instagram and Facebook are on the header of the website. These links increase awareness that you are a reputable entity and a further way for others to learn about you.

Google Analytics

Something that you cannot see is the connection and monitoring of Google Analytics. Here’s a screenshot of the data:

Must-haves for your website

First and foremost, you must have details about you or your business. It may seem pretty simple, but users should be able to know who you are and what you do after visiting your website.

You must have a contact form or an appointment scheduler on your website. This is what having a website is all about.

Other things you should have on your site:

A simple URL.
Easy to navigate site with the proper headers.
Include the basics of SEO (such as meta title, meta description, and permalinks).
Fresh, quality content users enjoy reading.

No-nos for a website

Vague details that amount to nothing about you or your website.
404 pages or broken links that end in a roadblock (this is bad for user experience and bad for SEO).
Too many popups that hinder your user from reading your content.
Automatically playing music or videos that will disrupt the user if their volume is turned up on their device.
Advertisements that take away from the user experience and slows the site.
Hard to read text and headers.
No call to actions (like not having a contact form).