How can you create a UED portfolio that showcases your skills?

1 Choose your projects

The first step to creating a UED portfolio is to select the projects that best represent your skills, experience, and goals. You don't need to include every project you've ever worked on, but rather focus on the ones that highlight your strengths, showcase your diversity, and align with your target audience. Ideally, you should have at least three to five projects that cover different types of products, platforms, and industries. You should also consider the quality, relevance, and recency of your projects, and avoid including outdated or unfinished work.

2 Structure your case studies

Structuring your case studies in a clear and compelling way is the next step. A case study is a detailed description of how you solved a design problem, from research to launch, and should illustrate your design thinking, process, and outcomes. It should have an introduction that summarizes the project, your role, the client or company, and the main goal or challenge. Additionally, it should have a background or context section that explains the problem, user needs, market opportunity, and scope and constraints of the project. The process or approach section should outline the methods, tools, and techniques you used to research, ideate, prototype, test, and iterate on your design solution. The solution or outcome section should showcase the key features, functionalities, and benefits of your design solution supported by visual evidence like wireframes, sketches, mockups or screenshots. Finally, it should have a reflection or learning section that evaluates the results, feedback and impact of your design solution as well as identifying lessons learned, challenges faced and opportunities for improvement.

4 Showcase your skills

The fourth step is to showcase your skills in a way that demonstrates your expertise, versatility, and value. Your skills should not only include technical and software knowledge, but also soft or interpersonal skills. To do this, you can highlight your role and contribution in each project and provide evidence of your skills in action, such as user research data or user testing results. Additionally, you can include testimonials or recommendations from clients or colleagues that attest to your skills and performance. Lastly, mention any awards, recognitions, or publications that you have received or contributed to that show your credibility and impact.