Responsive Desktop & Mobile Site

Portfolio: Debbie Sharnak

An academic portfolio website highlighting career achievements.

Debbie Sharnak is an academic, currently working as a professor at Rowan University, who needed a portfolio website upgrade. Her previous website felt a bit dated and lacked a fresh look.

That’s where I came in. The goal for her new portfolio website was to create a professional, modern, minimalistic site that highlights her extensive experience in academia and notable publications.

Responsibilities: Website Design, Copy-editing

THE

BRAND

With the goal of creating a minimalistic, professional website, I set about establishing the site’s branding. I chose a color palette of whites, grays, and blacks to create a simple but modern look.

Color Palette

Heading Font: Adonis

Body Font: Pontano Sans

The Editing Process

BEFORE

AFTER

➤ Bottom toolbar added for easier navigation

➤ Separate pages created for books

➤ Simplified, condensed navigation bar

➤ Modernized color palette

Navigational Updates

The original website featured a navigation bar that listed the sections “Publications” and “Books” separately. For ease of navigation, I turned the “Publications” tab into a dropdown menu that includes pages for books as well as pages for other types of publications. On the “Books” page (seen above), I displayed images for the two books with links to pages for each specific book. This allows for a less crowded, more legible display that encourages viewers to focus their attention on each book individually.

Impact

Since the redesign, traffic to the site has significantly increased and the number of page views has also grown.

This can be attributed to two main factors:

1. Design improvements- the new design of the site is both more aesthetically pleasing and more user-friendly

2. Enhanced SEO- the site is more easily discoverable and search-engine-friendly

15%

Increase in number of total visitors

24%

Increase in number of unique visitors

58%

Increase in number of page views

Thanks for tuning in!

Have thoughts or questions? Let me know!