about

" About " is a commonly occurring page or section on a site that describes who is behind the site and a summary or the purpose of the site. On a personal site, this would be usually be in the form of an expanded h-card about the person. About information can either be on a dedicated page, on every page (e.g. in a footer), or often on the site home page.

The key part of the About is the  of the , which attempts to introduce the site visitor to the person in a simple and plain manner.

Why
An about page or section is a single place to which you can point people who want to learn more about you.

You may choose to share your about page or section with:


 * People you meet in-person with whom you want to keep in touch
 * People who reach out to you and who are interested in learning more about your work
 * Your friends and family

About Section Guidelines
A good About  should be brief. There is always the opportunity to expand later. This is not a resume (that's what h-resume is for). This is to introduce people to the author and owner of the site.

An about section may link to a full about page (see About Page Brainstorming below) that talks about you and your history in more depth.

Tantek
on tantek.com: "My name is Tantek. I work on open web standards and the indie web. I code, design, run, climb, and fight for the users."

Barnaby Walters
on waterpigs.co.uk: "I am a British web developer and luthier working at Vísar in Reykjavík, Iceland."

Aaron Parecki
has a small section at the top of aaronparecki.com with a short bio and some links to projects. He also links to a full/expanded biography as well as an about page.

Ryan Barrett
on snarfed.org: "I live, work, and play in San Francisco. I code, write, and post pictures here."

Bear
on bear.im: "Opsasaurus Ursus - professional curmudgeon currently working at &yet on the Operations Team."

capjamesg
on jamesg.blog: "I am a technical writer by-day. In my free time, I love to code, make websites like this one, and spend time in cafes and drink coffee. I don't have much else to say because I am still figuring out what I enjoy. I like photography too."

Jeena
on https://jeena.net/about is the main h-card with all the detailed data which shouldn't be on the homepage because it is just too much.

Kartik
on https://kartikprabhu.com/about#me is the main h-card with a  which reads -

"I think, discover, compute, make, build, code, design, write, paint, photograph, am!

I study mathematical properties of black holes and their effects on other things in the Universe. I spend my spare time on photography and, sometimes, painting. I write short stories, and haikus on occasion. I am also excited by the wonderful ideas in web design, and play around with the them on this site."

There is a minimal h-card with photo and name in the footer of the site on all pages that links to the full one using.

gRegor Morrill
on http://gregorlove.com/about/ since 2011-??-??

Organization Examples
Inspirational About Page examples from organizations:
 * https://826national.org/about/
 * https://buynothingproject.org/about - this one's pretty simple but community-based so somewhat comparable
 * https://www.charitywater.org/about
 * https://gotgreenseattle.org/home/who-we-are/
 * https://www.apopo.org/en/who-we-are

Brainstorming
An about page can contain any piece of information about you.

A bio
You can reserve your about page as a professional bio. This bio may contain information about your work history, your interests, and your hobbies.

Professional history
On your about page, you may want to share your professional history. This is different from a resume, which uses a more structured approach. On an about page, you can talk about your professional history as if it were a story, rather than a list of accomplishments or bullet points.

Fun facts
An about page could share fun facts about who you are.


 * shared a geek code (now on his home page) as a throwback to the 90's geek codes.

Downsides
About pages force you to sum up your life into words. Your view of what you have accomplished or dream about may change often which means that your about page may quickly become obsolete.


 * removed his about page. He was changing the page too many times because he was unsure how to best present himself and his skillset.