Inspiration

So where to start? How many projects do you need? What’s the best way to organize? There are lots of great resources available to you if you need help getting started or need some inspiration.

How to’s and Examples

If you Google “UX Portfolios” you get more hits than you can read in a lifetime. So, here are a few of our favorites.

It can be helpful to get the viewpoint of recruiters and hiring managers, they are your primary users after all. “How To Create A UX Design Portfolio: Tips from a Senior UX Recruiter,” tells us what they are looking for and how to integrate it into your own portfolio.

“10 Inspiring UX Portfolios and Why They Work”, like a number of blogs and articles, highlights great portfolios and explains what they did right. So you can do it too. These types of blogs get the ideas and inspiration flowing, especially if you don’t want a cookie-cutter site but are stuck trying to get started.

As designers, we are always wanting to create something unique. “How to Make Your Portfolio Stand Out” offers g­reat tips on differentiating your portfolio from the rest.

Templates and Hosting

Templates abound. Some free, some paid. Any website builder you choose will have templates on offer. Check WordPress, Wix, Dribbble, Behance, Coroflot. These tools take the stress out of planning a layout, coding a site, and managing your site. Dribbble Playbooks, for example, takes your Dribble profile, “strip[s] away the Dribbble brand, leaving you with a streamlined website that’s instantly available…”, and lets you assign your own URL if you want to. There are some advantages to buying your own domain name, it’ll be easy to remember when you tell that recruiter at a meetup and it’s easy to find you. If you are looking to do something a little different and have some skill or desire to get a little technical, Semplice is a great option.

It’s All about Your Process

Most experts and bloggers alike recommend using a case study approach for your portfolio. This gives your work context and lets prospective employers know how you tackle problems. Everybody has a picture of sticky notes on a wall. You need to explain why they were there and what they told you. It also can serve as a reminder to your future self of how you approached something, or a novel approach you tried (whether it worked or not). Common advice will tell you to set up a formula including a summary, a description of the problem being solved, a list of steps you followed, and the final result.

Everybody has a picture of sticky notes on a wall. You need to explain why they were there and what they told you.

Muriel Pierre-Louis does this well with her case studies. Throughout her portfolio, she builds up the story. On her home page, she gives high-level blurbs about each project. If you want more, each piece has an in-depth page. It starts with an overview including a mini-version of her formula; summary, role, how long it took, what was the end product, a list of tools used, and a timeline of the process. Then, Pierre-Louis expands on each major part of her formula. This works because it gives rushed recruiters enough information that they can scan over all her projects, but allows hiring managers a clear, in-depth view of her skills and what drives her.

Powerfuel project by Muriel Pierre-Louis

To really stand out, your case studies should also have conclusions, not just a narrative. Think of all the tough questions you hate answering in an interview, and see if you can answer them with your pieces.

What challenges did you encounter?

What did you do differently?

What did you try that didn’t work?

What did you learn?

What did you accomplish?

On our site, we like to include the results of our projects. Hiring managers love concrete numbers that prove the value of your work, particularly in a creative area that can be hard to quantify. We state the metric, show our solution, and then show the result.