How to Get Great Feedback on Your UX Portfolio
As I participate in online design communities, I often see posts like these from UX designers:
Hi everyone! I just launched my portfolio website! I would love any feedback you have. Thanks! [Link to website]
Then, I see a variety of comments about the portfolio. The comments often contain unrelated and conflicting opinions. People from all stages of their design careers — career shifters, early career designers, and senior designers — all chime in. Among the opinions, I see praise and compliments like, “I like your portfolio! It looks interesting and professional.”
Unfortunately, getting feedback this way rarely yields valuable input. It’s hard to improve your portfolio when you receive conflicting, scattered feedback.
And while praise feels nice, it’s usually not actionable. Praise doesn’t help you understand what’s working well about the portfolio. So you won’t know what design decisions to repeat in the future to keep the portfolio effective.
Sarah Doody, an expert on UX portfolios (I highly recommend following her work if you don’t already), says to treat your portfolio like a design project. She says your portfolio is one of the most critical design products you’ll work on because it’s for your career. I agree.
You can request feedback on your portfolio the same way you’d seek feedback on a design at your job — by using effective methods. Here are three methods that work well for getting input on your portfolio:
- Get feedback early and often
- Be specific about what feedback you need
- Ask the right people for feedback
Get Feedback Early and Often
Seek feedback early when designing your portfolio. Process the feedback, make changes, and get more feedback. Repeat this iterative process as much as possible throughout your portfolio project.
Here are some activities you might conduct as you iterate through the design of your portfolio:
- Share a rough draft of your case study to make your writing stronger.
- Seek input on the portfolio’s information architecture so you can organize the case studies in an understandable way.
- Create a paper prototype of your portfolio, then conduct a usability test to see if users can find the information they need.
- Synthesize the results of the usability test, then create a high-fidelity, digital prototype of the portfolio.
Resist the temptation to finish your portfolio before requesting feedback. If you’re a career shifter or early career designer, take note of this. Junior designers often strive for “perfection” before seeking feedback on their designs. (Confession: I did this a lot early in my career. I wish I could get back all those hours I wasted!)
Even if you’re a senior designer, it’s tempting to make your portfolio perfect because it’s about your work. But flawless designs don’t exist in any project. There’s a saying when it comes to software: “Perfection never ships.” The more you strive for perfection, the more frustrated you get, and the more time you waste.
Let go of perfectionism. Seek frequent feedback on your portfolio to make it stronger, and you’ll save hours of time in the long run.
Be Specific About What Feedback You Need
When requesting feedback, tell people exactly what type of feedback you need.
Imagine you’re writing a case study on usability sessions you led, and you’d like input before you refine the draft. When you ask other people to review it, you may ask them for feedback on whether it’s:
- Showcasing your strengths and experience as a user researcher
- Complete (not leaving out any important details)
- Easy to understand
- Easy to scan
- Using appropriate voice and tone
Also, let people know where you’re at in the design process. You may tell people not to give feedback on aspects like type choices and layout because you’re not at those stages yet.
Before you request feedback, let people know what type of role the portfolio is for. That way, they can give you input that’s relevant to the position. Ideally, you’re customizing your portfolio for each job application so it showcases the primary skills the role requires. (Sarah Doody explains more about customizing your portfolio in this podcast.)
If you’re applying for a user research role, for example, you may edit that case study differently than if you’re applying to a generalist UX role. A hiring manager looking for a dedicated researcher may want to see more details in your case study than a hiring manager who’s seeking a generalist.
By telling people what feedback you need, you’re more likely to get the right input so you can move forward with your portfolio.
Ask the Right People for Feedback
Ideally, you’ll get feedback directly from UX hiring managers and other design team members who review portfolios during the hiring process. These are the primary users of your portfolio, so it makes sense to ask them for input.
If you know UX professionals who review portfolios, ask them to critique yours. If you’re interviewing for UX jobs, someone on the hiring team may give you feedback on your portfolio during an interview. Consider revising your portfolio based on that feedback.
If you don’t have access to people involved in the UX hiring process, consider asking designers who recently started a new job. They probably have a high-quality portfolio that helped them get the job. They can share insights with you about their recent experience with designing and revising the portfolio.
Avoid asking random people on Twitter or Slack (or any other design community) to review your portfolio. I would also avoid asking designers who haven’t updated their portfolio in years or haven’t reviewed portfolios during the hiring process.
Overall, do the best you can to get informed feedback on your portfolio. You may not know people with UX hiring experience or anyone else seeking a UX job, especially if you’re new to UX. If that’s your situation, ask the most experienced people you know to critique your portfolio.
Be Considerate When Asking for Feedback
Strive to build relationships with people before asking them for feedback on your portfolio. When you grow your professional network and keep it active, the people in your network are more willing to help you in times of need. This is one of the many reasons I recommend regularly building and maintaining relationships with other people in the UX community.
Avoid asking a stranger to review your portfolio. Evaluating a portfolio and providing thoughtful feedback can take a lot of time. That’s a lot to ask of someone who doesn’t know you. If you do contact a stranger for input on your portfolio, make it easy for them to provide the input. I’ve written more about this topic in my post, “How to Ask an Experienced UX Designer, ‘Can I Pick Your Brain?’”
Treating your portfolio like a high-priority design project means you’ll give it the care and attention it needs. When you seek the right feedback from the right people, you’re on your way to making your portfolio a fantastic product.
I’d love to hear stories about how you’ve obtained feedback on your portfolio. Please share them in the comments. And best of luck with your portfolio and your career journey.
Thanks to David Hoang for his input on this article.
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