A UX design portfolio is the UI UX designer’s equivalent of a resume.
Landing a job in the UI UX design field entails that you need to make a number of decisions. Are you a team player, or is a freelancing lifestyle more suitable for you? Are you more interested in UI design or UX design? Before you settle on a clear pathway, one important factor will determine whether you succeed in any of these options: your UX design portfolio.
There is, however, a dilemma that most UI UX designers who are just starting have been faced with. Unfortunately, you cannot obtain a UX position without a great UX portfolio, but you cannot build an excellent portfolio with no prior experience, either. After all, how can you show what you’ve done without a website or app design? It almost feels like a paradox.
So, how do UI UX designers manage to break into the industry? Well, contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to have a product released to show your designs. All you need is your creativity!
A UX portfolio is the designer’s equivalent of a resume. This is the most important form of branding a UX designer constructs in order to get hired. But a UX portfolio is much more than just an extensive list of previous projects and collaborations.
In comparison to a basic CV, we can integrate a lot more visual elements into a UX portfolio through which we can create an immersive experience for the reader. It is also easier to feature your personality in a portfolio because it allows for much more creativity to shine through. Its main goal is to showcase the journey you have made, to reflect progress rather than just the conclusion and result. By looking over your UX portfolio, the employer should be able to figure out who you are, what you want to do, and how you can tackle a UI/UX issue.
You never get a second chance to make a first impression. This is why we must make sure that our UX portfolio stands out and makes an impact!
What Should a UI/UX Portfolio Include?
You have now decided that it is time to start creating your UX portfolio. It may be confusing at first, but it will help to follow the essential components that any UI/UX portfolio should comprise.
1. Landing Page
In the competitive UI UX design industry, your portfolio should be able to capture the attention from its very introduction. The landing page of your UX portfolio has the role of briefly presenting what the portfolio will detail. It acts as a preview of your work and clearly hints at a call to action.
Besides this goal, the landing page should make it easier for the reader to navigate through projects by indicating sections. A pro tip for ensuring this is to use the same type of formatting to support visual balance. It is important to keep the landing page straightforward to avoid confusing or boring the readers. We can also choose to include a few highlights in this segment because they grab the attention.
2. ‘‘About’’ Section
This section of the UX portfolio allows viewers to meet the face behind the projects. We should start with one or two pictures of ourselves so that the design feels more personal. This page provides a great opportunity to showcase our passions and principles. A good example is to explain that your designs are very user-centric and they focus on crafting a great user experience.
We can get creative with the content we include and add images and videos in this section. Think about just how many resumes an employer has to go through until they find the perfect candidate. Using common templates makes us look lazy and is a no-go. We should always strive to make our portfolios as personable as possible. The About page should mainly include your educational background, work experience, work ethic, as well as hobbies and aspirations.
3. Case Studies
It is now time to truly demonstrate our skills in the form of case studies. Generally, your case study section should communicate three main things: what you know to do, how you do it, and which tools you have used to do it.
If you were lucky enough to have gained extensive experience in the past, make sure you choose the work you feel best represents you. Experts usually advise that we include between two and five projects in our portfolio. Anything that exceeds this number will decrease your chances of having the portfolio looked into. After all, who would want to sit through countless projects just to determine if a designer is suitable for a role?
The case studies you choose to showcase should be high-quality, comprehensive, and relevant to the position you are applying for. Make sure that your UX portfolio includes the following information:
- Project Overview
- User personas and user journey maps
- Wireframes and prototypes
- Usability testing
- Final designs after the research and testing phase
- The progress of your project after its release
Do not allow not having prior experience with UI UX design to intimidate you! There are a couple of things you could do to build up your UX portfolio, from taking online courses to volunteering, and to reimagining already existing designs. As long as you are passionate about the UI UX design field you have countless chances to impress potential employers.
4. Contact Information
It is important that you integrate other links and details about yourself under the same section. Some information that any designer should include in their UX portfolio is:
- Full name
- E-mail address
- Social media links (LinkedIn, Behance, Dribble, etc.)
If the case studies section was exhaustive and complex, this part of the UX portfolio should be simple and straightforward. There is no need to include every means of contact under the sun and sticking to the basic ones will simplify everyone’s work. Some personal information may even be counterintuitive. For example, many designers advise against the inclusion of phone numbers as they may lead to spam.
The purpose of your UX portfolio is to attract as many leads as you can to land a UI/UX role that best suits your skills and interests. If we want our UX portfolio to be prosperous, we need to put ourselves in the shoes of the target audience. If you want to aim for a certain area of design, your work should respond to the requirements and goals of the industry.
If you would like to find out more about how you can increase your chances of a successful portfolio, we invite you to visit our article on how to create a UX Design portfolio.
We at uinkits understand the importance of inputs in great user experiences and creating amazing UI designs. That’s why we’ve developed a Figma UI Kit with design components that include these essential UI elements that enable you to design intuitive and user-friendly interfaces effortlessly.
“You press the button, we do the rest,” – Kodak.
Inspired by this iconic tagline from Kodak, we believe in simplifying the design process for you. Our Figma UI Kit, uinkits, is a complete design system with UI components that allows you, as a UI UX designer, to create your products as quickly as pressing a button.
Our design system includes components, icons, variables, cards, buttons, and everything you need for your design process. All you have to do is take your UI design component needed, and you’re ready to use it in your designs!
