UX Design is one market that doesn’t depend on just a good CV to land your next role, however, what does the trick is a great UX portfolio! Creating a portfolio can be very time demanding and sometimes it’s tricky to know where to start so it can be daunting. But having worked with some of the best brands in the world from Apple, Burberry, Sky, Lego, ASOS, Royal Bank of Scotland, Amazon as well as leading digital agencies – just to name a few – we thought we’d give you a recruiter’s insight on how to create a brilliant UX Design portfolio and have put together 4 cracking tips on how to do so:
Make a Website
When recruiting UX designers for clients, nothing speaks to us more than being able to design your own website. It’s time to show off your creativity and talent and pretty much the introduction to what you can provide to hiring managers. This isn’t just a description of the work you can deliver to the end client, it’s also going to capture the essence of your creativity in the best possible manner by creating your own bespoke website. There will be certain elements that are an absolute must when it comes to making a clear and easy navigation and a great way is to create additional portfolios on multiple sites. This will always help you find prospective new roles and jobs that suit your skill-set and expectations.
Story-telling
When telling a story about your projects your profile has to be user-centric. The best way we have found to do this is to search for, and evaluate, the numerous jobs out there and gauge the different types. This is going to help you create a UX portfolio that is going to cater to hiring managers or the end-clients’ needs even before they ask you for it. We would advise you to take a look at other designers’ profiles to figure out what you will be competing against within the market and you can search sites such as Behance to do this. Don’t forget to also create a page all about yourself, which includes a standout description of who you are, and overall what you can do. In order to make your portfolio really credible we recommend putting in such things as testimonials along with links to previous projects.
Projects and Structure
Clients often see portfolios that are sometimes too long or too short. As cliché as it sounds, it’s not the quantity that counts; it’s the quality. What clients love to see is your thought process and your problem-solving skills. The structure is very important when it comes to showcasing your projects and having worked with a range of clients from large blue chips, digital agencies and start-ups, you want to highlight projects that show off your skills in all their glory. So what we often advise is to showcase 2 or 3 key projects which are impactful. In some cases, we’ve also seen just 1 case study which is perfectly fine, as long as it does you justice as a great UX designer and highlights a thorough end-to-end UX process.
Provide Descriptions
User Experience is a thought process, and more than demonstrating your design output, clients and prospective employers want to understand your UX process. They want to be able to see all the steps you undertook from taking a brief to delivering the final solution and the justifications and validation behind your decisions. Annotations are always useful, rather than having a portfolio full of design. Provide an overview of your projects, including what the project was, the objective, your role and the outcome. Combine this with a short annotation for each section of your portfolio whether that be the discovery phase, UX research, sketches, user journeys or wireframes.
Remember a brilliant UX portfolio is a visual journey of your skills. It takes time to craft, and numerous iterations, but eventually you will end up with one you’re really pleased with. With the above steps, we promise you’ll definitely yield results!
For more information on how to structure your portfolio or if you’d like feedback on your current portfolio, then get in touch with your boys Freddy and Sameer!
Written by Sameer Murtaza, Digital Consultant, and Freddy Papworth, Digital Consultant (Contract) – UX and Design Team at RedCat Digital.
LinkedIn: Sameer Murtaza / Fredrick Papworth
Twitter: @Sam_RedCat / @Freddy_RedCat / @RedCat_Digital
Facebook: RedCat Digital
Google+: RedCat Digital
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