Bring design thinking into my portfolio making
I am embarrassed to say, I have been puzzled for a long while of how to make a good portfolio as an UX designer. UX is not like other works, in most cases the success of a UX work is to make things as simple as possible and so the user won’t be aware of the design. In work, I spend respectably amount of time on making things simple. But when it comes to showcase your work, it’s just not eye-catching at all…
This is my second version of the try, this time I try to bring design thinking and design process into my portfolio making. The very first step is to set a clear goal. A portfolio is to help my audience understand what I have been working on, what is my belief, who I am. Meanwhile, I also wish people to have fun on reading these stories and love the work of UX.
I chose to introduce myself with a moodboard. Moodboard is an efficient and powerful design tool to communicate ideas that are hard to be put in words. I think it’s also perfect for me to introduce myself as it can create more emotional connection, efficient enough for people to know who I am in a glance, and there are so many stories I can share - starting from these pictures. My ideal version of the moodboard is a collection of pictures that when someone hovers on a photo, the photo can be viewed in full size with a mini story behind the picture. But building an interactive demonstration like that can cost me weeks, the simple version below only cost me an hour and it doesn’t hurt too much on what I want to achieve, right? I think we all should embrace the “fail fast” thinking and I might start working on the ideal version later to practice my skill of building a website.
Now, it goes to my projects. As mentioned above, a good UX work is hard to be identified in a quick visual demonstration. Also, it’s not all about the result, the process matters.
It’s very clear to me, design is all about problem solving. I would say the problem solving process is also why I enjoy working as an UX designer. I could sometimes find my assumption is totally wrong with some quick testing/survey, and sometimes the solution is so obvious and I can’t help wondering why I didn’t figure it out until now. I found these thinking process are very valuable and also interesting. Interesting is very important, again, I want people to have fun on reading these stories and love the work of UX. I want these stories can show the value of the UX well, and also I want the impact can be spreadable. I want to help people as I know they are many young ambitious people who wants to build a better world with UX jobs, but they may not know how to start. I hope my portfolio can be not only used for opportunity seeking but also a tool for my vision — Build a better world by UX.
