What qualities do you think your audience is looking for? What is the story you'd like to tell?

For example, if you are applying for an instructional design role, you'd likely want to demonstrate that you've employed some type of instructional design process but also professional skills such as the ability to work well in a team, communicate with subject matter experts, present well, etc. Many work environments these days place a premium on collaboration, research and communication skills.

• If you are sharing your portfolio with very different audiences, you may wish to create a custom version of your portfolio for one particular employer or type of employer. Creating subdomains (e.g. subdomain.YOURURL.com) is very easy and most hosting sites allow for this. How to create multiple subdomains (websites).

"There is no one-size-fits-all all solution, but I would aim for 6 projects, with no more than 12 total. You can always include more projects upon request as you go farther in any interview process."

- Heather Philips (do's and don'ts)

A well rounded portfolio includes a sense of personal identity, what you do and what you like to do aside from the professional skills and work projects you do.

• As Sadie Cornelius writes on personal identity: "What do you stand for? Jot down a bunch of ideas and then narrow it down to something short and sweet that will be timeless. Ask yourself, what have I been good at and what have I liked for the past 5 years and what will I be good at and what will I probably still like 5years from now? ...don’t be afraid to share a few personal details or quirky hobbies to make yourself more approachable and interesting."

• It's always great to include personal or side projects, or things that make you unique, but distinguish them from your professional work. For example, in an About Me section or in the main navigation under a separate section for personal projects you might have a section called Photography and write something catchy at the top of the page..  "in my spare time, I love to capture the rare silent moments of NYC".

Owning a domain (URL) is relative cheap ($10-40 per year). Try to come up with a  consistent and personalized or unique URL. If your name is pretty common come up with something unique to you and own it. Make it easy for people to remember. Most website publishing platforms allow you to associate your website with your domain.

It's best to avoid "free" URLs provided by the publishing platform you are using (e.g. YourURL.wordpress.com). Though most website building sites like Wordpress and Wix provide these URLs without charge, there are other costs associated with "free".  Having said that, you may wish to experiment with a free URL and create a website before moving it over to your own domain. That way you'll be sure that you really intend to use the site and don't pay for the domain name unnecessarily.

Additional resources:

How to register a domain name

It's hard to tell a story about a design or project you've worked on if you don't provide context. What problem were you trying to solve? For whom? Why? What were the challenges. Though the skillful execution of projects is an important skill set, employers also want to see evidence of ideation, problem solving, research and team processes that you may have encountered along the way

One powerful way to do this is through a case study format that has a balance of pictures and words. "There is a trend toward detailed case studies in design portfolios. It’s a good trend. One strong case study says more about your design ability than 100 thumbnails." Heather Philips (do's and don'ts) 

See these examples. 

http://www.adhamdannaway.com/portfolio/qantas-map-search (Adham Dannaway, senior digital designer)

Remember that some work may require employer permission before you can include it, especially if you've signed an NDA. Most course projects are fine to include.

Everyone wants their portfolio to create a strong first impression as well as to leave a resounding and lasting imprint. Take some time to look at other websites and portfolios. How might you achieve a website that is appropriately simple but also complex, one that is clutter free and easy to navigate? Great organization and design goes a long way; pre-planning and sketching is the key to getting there (see for example, Web Design Tips for a Professional Site).

If you lack the skills to create appealing graphics and only have rough wireframes, low-fidelity prototypes, etc to represent your work, consider creating or finding images that represent your project. You can find images that are labeled 'reuse with modification' using the Creative Commons image search. It helps to use an introductory visual to amplify and bring focus to each of your projects. The detailed may contain additional screenshots, description and links to supplementary materials, but the first image should leave a lasting impression.

Additional resources:

5 Web Design Tips for a Professional Site- by Wix.com

Where to find images in the public domain - Design Hill

Creative Commons image search

For showcasing project work, keep in mind that

"Not every project will fit neatly into the same template. For a given project, think about what steps are important to include, which can be excluded altogether, and how to best represent each part. For example, sometimes a thoughtfully written explanation will serve you better than a snapshot of an illegible whiteboard. If you are trying to show breadth of your research or exploration, show a compilation of sketches, but be sure to explain why you chose the direction you did." Heather Philips (do's and don'ts)

That said, when you include visuals within project work, make were they look the best they can. If you're designing an app, show it on a device. If you're including a picture of brainstorming, think about how big, how you'll crop it and possibly frame it with a border or caption.  And above all, make sure visuals help tell the story of your design project (refer to tip #4 above).

In today’s rapidly changing world, organizations are looking for team players who can provide meaningful feedback, raise questions, work well with peers and management and prioritize teams over their own success.

Group project work is a great way to provide evidence of teamwork. You should always include Project name, description (if necessary), your role on the project. If using images that were not created by you, you should either give credit to the creator in caption under photo or at bottom of page, and/or state as description ("these are the wireframes drawings we created that were used for..."). You might also list other group members, and their roles but check with team members to get their permission to do so. Listing other people's names is not required since you already mentioned it was a group project.

In interviews with 150 senior executives from the nation's 1,000 largest companies, 40 percent of the respondents said that just one typo on a résumé would kick a job candidate out of the queue for consideration. Thirty percent said it would take just two mistakes before the résumé was discarded. (source: Washington Post,\)

Your portfolio is an extension of your résumé and it is important to find and fix all typos, broken links and grammatical errors before sending it out to potential employers.

Equally important, try to get some feedback on the overall design and content before you send it out to employers. Give your portfolio to a few friends, peers, or faculty and ask them what stood out to them and what they would change. You may know best, but you've also grown very intimate with your site and a fresh perspective can go a long way.