When you apply for a user experience (UX) designjob, you need a way to show prospective employers what you can do. That is where a UX design portfolio comes in. Your portfolio should include examples of your past work and design philosophy. Don’t try to include everything you have done in your portfolio. Instead, choose your best work to attract the attention of hiring managers and recruiters.
What is a UX Design Portfolio?
A UX design portfolio is a digital collection of your work. You can share your portfolio with employers when you are looking for work or with fellow designers when you are networking. A portfolio should include a brief bio or personal introduction, examples of your design work, and contact information. Some people include a resume or CV on a separate page.
Who Sees Your Portfolio?
There are three main audiences for your UX design portfolio: hiring managers, recruiters, and other designers. This can make assembling a portfolio tricky because each of these groups is looking for something slightly different.
Recruiters
Recruiters are tasked with finding applicants to interview for positions. They need to get through many applications quickly, so being able to catch their attention is important. Target your portfolio toward the job you are applying for. If you are applying for a job where you will be expected to perform many tasks along the design process, try to find examples of those tasks you have done in the past. Also, match the language of your portfolio with the language of the advertisement. Many companies use keyword matching to screen applications, and if you include many of the keywords from the advertisement in your portfolio, you stand a better chance of getting an interview.
Hiring Managers
Hiring managers do the actual hiring, so they will look at portfolios more closely than recruiters. HR people are looking for evidence of your design process and how you think as a UX Designer. The point of the portfolio is to showcase your best work, so don’t try to include everything you have ever done. Choose projects that show how you work, not just the final product. Your portfolio should also reflect your personality because the hiring manager needs to choose someone who will fit well with the company culture.
UX Professionals
Toward the end of the hiring process, your portfolio may be passed around to senior designers for their assessment of your skills. These are designers who will be looking at not only the case studies you have chosen but also the design of the portfolio itself. They will look at the consistency of your layout, images, color palette, and fonts. They will look at the quality of your images, and how well you tell your story.
What Goes in Your Portfolio?
So what should you put in your UX design portfolio? Ideally, you should choose three to five examples of your best work, depending on how long you have been working as a Designer. Do not attempt to include everything you have ever done in your portfolio. No one has time to look at it all. Tailor your examples to the job you are applying for to give the company an idea of what you can do. Also, if there are tasks you don’t like, don’t include those examples in your portfolio. For example, if you don’t like conducting user interviews, don’t mention them. You are better off waiting for a job that is a better fit than taking one you won’t like.
How to Put Together Your Portfolio
Feel free to express your creativity here; that is part of what being a Designer is all about. That said, most UX design portfolios include three basic sections: a personal introduction, a collection of case studies, and contact information.
You can organize the portfolio however you like. Some people choose to have a landing page with links to different sections, while others prefer everything on one page with clickable ‘read more’ buttons. However you choose to set up your portfolio, be sure to maintain consistency in layout and visual elements. It is also a good idea to use a photo or logo at the top of the page. This will be the first thing visitors to your page see, so it should be attractive and eye-catching.
The next section shows your work. Some people use logos from companies they have worked for and others use high-quality images from past work as entry points for case studies. Include a summary of the project and what you did next to the image. It is becoming more common to include gifs and videos in portfolios to catch the attention of recruiters and hiring managers. A short video introduction can be a good attention getter, as is a video montage of different work.
Above all, be sure that your portfolio reflects your best. Use examples of the best work you have done with the highest quality images. Make sure that there are no spelling or punctuation errors because this is a sign of sloppy work.
It’s a good idea to put your portfolio on a personal website, even if you have to pay a bit for it. Creating a personal website is a further example of what you can do. However, if you choose not to go that route, there are many portfolio hosting sites to choose from such as Behance and Dribbble.
What If You Are New to UX Design?
When you are an experienced Designer, choosing only three of your best projects can be a challenge, but what if you apply for your first UX design job? Where can you get examples for a portfolio if you haven’t worked as a Designer yet? The three most common ways to build up a portfolio are volunteer work, hackathons, and taking classes.
Volunteer Work
In order to gain experience and collect examples for your portfolio, you can volunteer to do design work for charities and non-profits. You can also create designs for friends.
Hackathons
Hackathons are weekend gatherings of students and beginners interested in design and web development. The goal is to create and code a design in a weekend, and this can help you beef up your portfolio. Remember, showing the process and how you think is more important than the final product. Plus, there is usually free food!
Take a UX Design Class
If you are new to UX design and thinking of switching careers, one of the best ways to collect material for a portfolio is to sign up for classes. Bootcamps and certificate programs are intensive training courses that run from a few weeks to a few months. Not only will you learn about all aspects of UX/UI design, but you will also leave class with a professional-quality design portfolio that you can show to prospective employers. You can choose classes that meet in-person or online to learn design software and other applications. Some people prefer to attend brick-and-mortar sessions when learning new information, but that isn’t always available. Live online classes have a similar set-up with a real-time, remote instructor who can answer questions and take control of your monitor—with permission—to show you how to do things. Training is part or full-time and available weekdays, weeknights, or weekends to meet anyone’s scheduling needs.
Conclusion
It’s easy to learn UX design and start a new career. Check out Noble Desktop’s UX design classes. Choose between in-person sessions in NYC at Noble’s location or sign up for live online UX design courses and attend from anywhere. Use Noble Desktop’s Classes Near Me to find other UX design bootcamps in your area.