The UX Design Portfolio

I love digital design portfolios. I spend a lot of my time finding and networking with some of the best design talent and never get bored of seeing quality UI designs and polished screens. As visually awesome as those portfolios are, this isn’t necessarily the best way to present your work if you’re a UX designer, and I believe there are some subtle (and not so subtle) differences in how you should present your work to the world!

There isn’t a perfect way of doing this – friends, colleagues, recruiters, hiring managers - all have their own preferences on how they’d like to see your UX work. So here’s my take on what makes a kick-ass UX portfolio that’ll get you praise from your peers, and open up the door to those job interviews (if you’re looking!)

1. WHERE TO HOST IT;

I’ve already written about where designers can host their portfolios. Some of the main options include Behance or Dribble – they have the added benefit of being social media sites, which means you’ll be able to get feedback from fellow designers and your work will potentially reach a bigger audience – especially if your work is shared by others. Free & simple to use! The negatives? If you like to have total control over your portfolio, fine tuning every element - move that banner 5 pixels to the right – those sites might not be right for you!

The alternative? Create your own website, or use a CMS. This takes more effort but you’ll have more control over how your work is presented and this allows you to stand out with a more personalised effort.

Another bonus – Many UX design jobs now want ( or even expect) people to have a know-how of coding (HTML & CSS) for prototyping. If you’re able to customise, tweak and amend the front end code of your site you’re already demonstrating one of the preferred skills in UX design! 

The last option – and for me, the least effective – is having a PDF. It’s a linear document that involves a lot of scrolling (think of the UX of someone scanning your document if it has 25 pages!) It also adds another barrier if you’re looking to get recognised by potential employers- you’ll have to email it over before someone can view it, which costs time. In most cases, you’ll want to share your awesome work with others and a PDF portfolio is an obstruction in this instance.

 2. HOW TO LAY OUT MY CONTENT?

One portfolio of a very successful and in demand UX’er I know – he had 3 job offers when I was working with him – was broken down into sections.

They covered off all major areas including mobile UX design, responsive UX design, UX  research, etc. This allows people to quickly find the exact section they’re interested in. Clear & simple – perfect! Looking for a UX designer who’s done a ton of user interviews? Head to that section! Want an expert on responsive design? No problem, there it is. 

 3.WHAT ABOUT THE CONTENT?

This is the juicy bit. The biggest no-no for a UX design portfolio is to have a finalised UI screenshot of the product with a brief description accompanying. This doesn’t give any real insight into your thought process, work style and the choices you had to make at each key step of the project.

Instead, case studies are a popular way to convey your experience. Imagine you’re retelling a story - the story being the product and the process you undertook – and the story is broken up into chapters. These chapters can cover the key stages of UX design including requirement gathering, research, wireframes, prototyping, user testing, etc. It doesn’t need to be an essay, but a breakdown of the actions you took at each step is key. Then, by all means – throw in a flashy, finalised UI screen to show the finalised article… Bonus points if you designed the UI yourself!

If it’s a live product, a link to it is also great, whether that’s on the iOS store, website.

A section (sometimes briefly covered off in visual CVs) is tools used – explaining in more depth what each software is used for, and how often, whether it’s Axure, Omnigraffle, Balsamiq, this paints a more complex picture of a UX designer's day to day work.

Now you’re all set to tweak that portfolio (goodbye weekend!) and get the recognition you deserve!

About the Author

Charlie Duboc is a Digital Recruitment Consultant at Hanover Recruitment, a bespoke consultancy specialising in tech, digital, sales and contract recruitment. Charlie specialises in digital design, including UX and UI.

At Hanover we like to do things a bit differently. We’re friendly, down to earth and consult with you to fully understand your needs. We use our diverse industry knowledge to match the right candidates to the right company and specialise in even the most niche skills. Get in touch today and find out what Hanover can do for you.