Michelle Novak Portfolio Website

Portfolio website for a UX / CX designer & a11y advocate.

Goal

Accessibility is very important to Michelle and she was not happy with the experience of the previous CMS nor the accessibility of its theme. It was time for a new, more accessible, site that would better showcase her work and provide a better experience for her visitors.

Process

Michelle came up with the basics of a design that I used to create a simple but effective WordPress theme. Starting with design primitives and a color palette, I created a theme that was accessible, responsive, and easy to manage.

I relied completely on native WordPress functionality for the content management and display, the only plugins that were installed were:

• WS Form and SMTP Mailer for the contact form
• SVG Support for allowing SVG uploads

I also created:

• a custom post type for the portfolio items, which allows Michelle to easily add new projects to her portfolio.
• a custom taxonomy for the portfolio items, which allows Michelle to categorize her projects by design discipline.
• a custom password protection form used for selected work that needed to be protected from public view. This allows Michelle to share her work with potential clients without making it publicly available. To denote these protected projects, a custom lock icon is displayed next to the project title.

Outcome

The new site is a more accessible experience that better reflects Michelle's work, and just as important, it is easier for Michelle to manage her content. Because we kept things simple and relied on native WordPress functionality, we were also able to achieve a very high Google Lighthouse score.

Visual Comparisons

A before and after comparison between the previous and current site.

Before and After - Homepage

Feel free to get in touch with me with any questions, corrections, or takedown requests.