Hello, it’s Aneta here 👋 This is issue #06 of UX Design Express and today we’re talking about

Designing the experience of your UX portfolio

Ever felt like you're running against the clock or unsure how to make your UX portfolio make a good first impression? You're not alone. Many designers face the same challenges:

• Short on time: Balancing work and building your portfolio can be tough.

• Skill gaps: Maybe you're not a visual design expert or don't know how to tell stories.

• Wrong focus: Ever feel like you're showing too much in your portfolio? It might not be helping.

• Look vs. functionality: It's easy to be an advocate of just one side but together they sell better.

These issues can make your portfolio:

• Not looking good: Your portfolio might not be showing off your best work.

• Showing too much: Hiring managers might get overwhelmed.

• Not showing anything special: If your portfolio looks like everyone else's, it's hard to stand out.

In this newsletter, I’m diving into that exact problem that many of us designers have when creating their UX portfolios

I’ll share with you my practical methods for using the key elements of your portfolio to give a hiring manager what they’re looking for.

Let’s dive in 🐬

01. Design for your readers

Think about recruiters, design managers, designers or potential clients.

1. What are their constraints?

• Limited time to review

• Limited time to hire

• Too many applications

• Too many similar applications

• Too many irrelevant applications

2. How do they behave?

• Busy, trying to get all the tasks done

• Looking at +/- 100 applications

• Frustrated about all the irrelevant applications

• Scanning through portfolios/resumes

• Trying to understand designer’s skills and superpowers

• Evaluating the designer against the role, team, company

  • They might use a scorecard for this and try to use specific things like those described in this article.

3. What are they looking for?

Looking for proof that a designer can do the job they are hiring for.

Skills examples

• Hard skills: product thinking, divergent and convergent thinking, visual design, research, prototyping, system thinking, interaction design etc.

• Soft skills: communication, having a growth mindset, being open to feedback, effective, team player, leadership skills etc.

Check how different companies define different career levels. These skills maps can be used as an indicator for recruitment too, together with a job description.

• Intercom

• Figma

• NNG

4. Helpful questions for you to ask yourself

• Why should a hiring manager review your portfolio?

• What skills/superpowers you would like a hiring manager to know about?

• What you would like a hiring manager to know about you as a designer?

• What would be the most important thing a hiring manager should get from scanning your portfolio?

• What would you show to a hiring manager to prove that you’re the best to do the job?

02. Design the experience

2.1 - Create a wayfinding

So that hiring managers will see what you want them to see. Use your design skills and design the experience of your UX portfolio.

2.1.1. Design the home page like a magazine cover

The first page that hiring managers will see if they open your portfolio. Don’t neglect it. Start selling yourself as the best designer already from the start.

Treat the home page of your portfolio like a magazine cover - design it, make it cool, make it yours.

2.1.2. Make sure your title tells who you are as a designer

Start with a one-liner pitch about yourself. You don’t want to write “Hello. I’m a Product Designer from San Francisco” because there are too many product designers in San Francisco. This statement is not unique and doesn’t show how awesome you are as a designer and a colleague.

Examples

• Product designer specializing in payment solutions for SME businesses

• Passionate designer focused on outcomes – crafted 13 products for 3 million users and 53 businesses over 7 years, receiving 343 positive feedback

• Product designer with a focus on visual design. I thrive on making designs pop!

• Mobile app designer who prototypes solutions in hours, not weeks

2.1.3. Show the juice already in thumbnails

Again, think of it like a magazine cover. Your thumbnail should catch the hiring manager's eye and make them want to click. These thumbnails should showcase your design skills – they need to be top-notch, stunning, and readable.

Ideas for making your thumbnails cool:

• Show the details

• Use interactive elements

• Show a part of the screen

• Use videos to tell the story

• Show before and after (detail)

• Display the key part of the flow

• Use mockups to make it more realistic

What if my designs don't look good because the product is too specific?

You can still use tactics from the list above, such as adding details or using mockups to make it more realistic. Consider reviewing your project artefacts and selecting the most interesting and impactful parts.

You can also:

• Create dedicated graphics

• Show a screen that looks good

• Leverage headings to your advantage

• Use industry photos to show the context

• Show just key elements from the interface

• Use clean and modern typography without images

2.1.4. Quickly communicate the main takeaways

This is the best way to quickly show hiring managers what you have accomplished in the project if we optimise for scannability. Hiring managers might not go deep into reviewing your case study. That's why it's good to consider the Minto Pyramid framework here. We want to efficiently communicate the main takeaways.

How to do it?

1. Share the value in project headings

Discuss the value you've already created in the project heading. You can do it by highlighting:

• The problem you solved

• The outcome you generated

• The user group you designed for

• The specific solution you created

I talked more about headings in my previous newsletter. Check it here

2. Create project summaries and show them quickly

The longer hiring managers take to see the value you created in a project, the less likely they are to notice it. That's why this part can assist you in conveying what you want them to know. Executive summaries can be showcased not only as a project thumbnail but also in the hero section of the longer case study.

Project summary can include:

• The project heading

• The project overview

• Your role description

• The project outcomes

• The solution snapshot

2.1.5. Highlight your key job and superpowers in your narrative

As designers, our primary task is to design, right? So, when discussing our portfolio, let's keep the focus on that. Instead of elaborating on all the steps or fancy methods we used, let's simply showcase our actual design work. That's how we demonstrate our ability to do the job.

Read more about it in this edition of UX Design Express

And if we want to sell ourselves, we need to showcase our uniqueness. That's why it's crucial to highlight your main skills and superpowers.

How should we present our superpowers and skills?

• In the project narrative, discuss the aspects of the work where you used a specific skill

• Utilize testimonials from colleagues, managers, or mentees to substantiate it

• Develop a separate section where you list your superpowers

Check how designers show their superpowers in their portfolios here

2.1.6. Use writing rhythm if you want them to read your descriptions

Employing writing rhythms can visually signal to hiring managers that they won't encounter lengthy blocks of text. This reassures them that you prioritize crafting the best reading experience.

The 1-3-1 format

1 sentence - 3 sentences - 1 sentence

This format is the most popular and common way of structuring blocks of text. In the 1-3-1 format, you commence with a compelling opening sentence, proceed with three descriptive sentences, and then conclude with one sentence. You can also supplement this with bullet points below.

You can also use some alternatives:

• 1-3-1 + 1-3-1

• 1-5-1

• 1-4-1-1

• 1-3-2-1

• 1 + Subhead

Read more about writing rhythms from this book

2.2 - Make it accessible

Don’t overlook accessibility in your portfolio. Take steps to make it easy for hiring managers to accomplish three key tasks: access your portfolio, review it, and contact you.

1. Provide a direct link to your portfolio

   1. Include it in your resume.

   2. Add it to your LinkedIn profile.

   3. Include it in your email footer.

2. Avoid password protection if possible; it creates a barrier.

3. If password protection is necessary, provide the password quickly. Asking them to contact you for a password risks losing the opportunity.

4. Ensure enough contrast against the background. Utilize the Stark plugin and verify everything.

5. Implement all available for you accessibility options, such as alt texts and responsiveness.

2.3 - Make it readable

This is crucial. If you fail to make your portfolio readable, you'll create a significant barrier for hiring managers. They might struggle to view and understand your story, so it's essential to ensure your portfolio is easy to review.

Tips on improving readability in your portfolio:

1. Utilize 2 contrasting font weights (bold-regular)

2. Increase the line height for body text (1.5)

3. Left-align text instead of centering it

4. Use a font size of 14-18px for body text

5. Aim for 50-75 characters per line

6. Use writing rhythms as described earlier

7. Use contrasting colours as described earlier

8. Display visuals that are readable (avoid blurry, flipped, or tiny images)

Check this post to learn more

2.4 - Make it attractive

It needs to be beautiful, or at least clean and modern, because we all suffer from the attractiveness bias, whether we like it or not! But don’t worry, you don’t need to create flipping cards or fancy animations.

How to make your portfolio more attractive:

• Avoid overusing styling

• Large visuals sell better

• Use high-quality visuals

• Display only readable visuals

• Utilize readable and larger fonts

• More white space is better than too little

• Maintain a balance between text and visuals

03. Make a good first impression without having visual skills

What if I lack visual skills?

That’s okay! Some people are good at visual skills while lacking proficiency in others. When I started in UX Design, my visual design skills weren't as polished as they are now. It's a matter of being strategic and making trade-offs.

The first step is to ask yourself this question:

Focus on your superpowers and highlight what you do best. It could be user research, communication skills, or an analytical mindset. Brainstorm how you can showcase it and tell YOUR story. Storytelling has different forms, and you can achieve it also through text.

Tips on building your non-visual heavy portfolio:

• Keep it simple

  • Avoid using the same templates as visual designers

  • Don't put too much effort into using stock images

  • Minimize the use of colours

• Use text, a single sans-serif font, simple layout, black and white

  • Just avoid pure black colour for accessibility reasons

• Consider a different portfolio format

  • It could be a PDF

  • It could be a series of posts

  • It could be one page with hyperlinks

  • It could be anything you prefer

• Review all your materials

  • Your company artefacts (ensure clarity)

  • Templates that resonate with you

  • High-quality UI kits

• Leverage your resume

  • It can become more than just a resume

Remember 🔔

It’s crucial to understand that if you don’t showcase visual skills in your designer portfolio, you will likely attract different job offers and undoubtedly limit your opportunities.

Typically, this type of design portfolio attracts organizations with a low design culture. However, everything can happen! You might have credibility from big brands and good connections or you will create a really awesome non-visual heavy portfolio.

However, most design job offers these days look for visual skills and craft. That’s why in this newsletter edition I recommended focusing your portfolio around your key JTBD - design. The same recommendation comes also from another designer in this video.

Ultimately, it's important to focus on finding your match, but the question also arises: how long can you search for your ideal job? Sometimes, it's a matter of adapting to a changing environment.

That's it for today!

My mentoring sessions are back! ⭐️

There are 3 ways I can support you individually with your portfolio.

1. Let’s do it long-term! The biggest results come from this

2. Hop on a one-time call with me

3. Get the async portfolio review

I’m back in two Fridays with another edition of UX Design Express 👋

Keep designing ✨
Aneta Kmiecik