When searching for a well done portfolio website, I came across a lot of the same thing- photos without captions. While many photographs can certainly stand alone, I always want to know more. Captions help give meaning- which is why I think photojournalist Marco Di Lauro’s portfolio has the right idea. Under his features option, every photo is accompanied by a caption, and as you click on the photos at the bottom, the photos and captions link up. Context? Why not?

Screen shot of Marco Di Lauro’s Features Option

The actual portfolio option is stand alone pictures, no captions. The photos are center stage which is a good thing as we discussed in class, but I think the features format worked best.

What also caught my eye is the full screen photo slideshow, accompanied by audio, that you see when you first visit his website. The images seem to pop out at you. I thought this was different and worked well.

Screen shot of photojournalist Marco Di Lauro’s portfolio website.

There are also options to look at his tear sheets, a bio, and his blog which he uses to keep viewers informed about his work.

He credits the people who helped design his website, RAT CREATIVES and SMAUG (in case anyone wants to see their work as well!)

The website does work on a mobile device, however does not scale as I had hoped. You can also highlight text, which helps with web searches.

Moving on to my pick for a project website…

UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Journalism‘s project “Reframing Mexico” has a simple presentation concept that works really well. Under the project title it instructs visitors to “choose one of the subject words below to view Mexico City in a different context” with word options such as passion, stigma, and struggle. Upon clicking on the different words a new group of multimedia work pops up in a box below, including both video and infographics.

Screen shot of UNC’s Reframing Mexico Project

Being that there were only multimedia pieces being used, I think this was a clean and creative way to categorize their work. The site is available in both english and spanish, but the icons for other options may be hard to understand. They use a small graph for infographics and a movie reel for their video stories, however people who aren’t familiar with journalism jargon may not catch on right away. Information about the project can be found clicking in the “i” icon, which brings you you to another page with bar options on the bottom. I think including that bar on the bottom of the homepage would be more helpful.

The website does work on a mobile device.