13 tips on how to boost your design portfolio: insights from analyzing 300 portfolios
🔗 Link to this article in Russian | Ссылка на данную статью на русском языке
Hey there! I want to share with you some helpful tips that I discovered after looking at over 300 PDF portfolios of UX/UI designers. These tips can help you identify weaknesses in your portfolio that you may not have even realized were there. Most of the tips in this article would fit for PDF portfolios rather than Behance cases and so on.
My name is Andrei, and I’m an experience designer. Recently, I looked at 300 portfolios of designers and realized that as beginners as senior-level designers make mistakes. As I reviewed the portfolios, I noticed that certain mistakes kept recurring. At one point, I decided to compile a separate list of these mistakes and create a checklist to help prevent them from appearing in your own portfolio.
The tips are divided into 2 groups:
- Before exporting the portfolio to PDF
- After exporting the portfolio to PDF
Before exporting the portfolio to PDF
01. Make sure to avoid grammar, spelling, and other errors in your text
A common issue I’ve noticed in portfolios — grammar mistakes! For example, some designers might miss an article before their profession, or mix up a letter in a word. These kinds of errors indicate a lack of attention to detail. Here are a few examples of mistakes I’ve stumbled upon:
- “IU”/UX Designer (instead of “UI”/UX)
- “I am _ UX/UI designer” (no article before specialty)
- “Education: Mogilev State Univercity” (instead of University)
When proofreading your portfolio, try reading the sentences in reverse order. This helps you focus on individual words and catch mistakes that you might have missed otherwise.
02. Don’t go overboard with the number of pages
When your portfolio is one of hundreds being looked at, there’s a chance that the viewer won’t make it all the way to page 78 as I did in one of the portfolios I reviewed! People often scan portfolios quickly and don’t take the time to read everything closely when analyze portfolios first time.
That’s why 30 pages is usually enough for a designer’s portfolio. Remember, brevity is the soul of wit!”
03. Make sure to translate all the text in your portfolio when you’re creating a version in another language
When you’re translating your portfolio into another language, it’s important to make sure that every word is translated. For instance, if you’re translating a portfolio from Russian to English, it’s easy to miss a few words and leave them in Russian.
This can cause confusion for English-speaking clients who might not understand what certain terms mean. For example, if you’re a freelancer, not everyone might know what that means. So make sure to double-check your translations and ensure that everything is clear and easy to understand for your audience.
04. Don’t include hobbies in your portfolio
Talking about your love for football or sewing is not something that clients or potential employers want to see in a designer’s portfolio.
However, if you want to share your hobbies, focus on things that could be helpful to others. For example, if you write articles about design or speak at conferences, it would be useful to include this information. These hobbies show your willingness to share knowledge and openness to other people’s opinions.
05. Try not to overload your pages with too many effects
While it may seem tempting to add all kinds of decorations and embellishments, doing so can distract from the actual content and make the file size too large when exporting to PDF.
Instead, focus on using just the necessary amount of effects in your portfolio, and avoid going overboard.
06. Keep devices consistent in your mockups
This point might be subjective, but I’ve come across a few portfolios that break this rule. In all cases, use the same devices for your mockups.
Different design approaches could indicate inconsistency in the designer’s work. The exception is when designing for specific operating systems, such as an app solely for Android. In that case, including mockups of iPhones would be inappropriate.
07. Check the quality of imported images
If you’re placing an image that spans the entire page, make sure to pay attention to its resolution. Otherwise, instead of a high-quality image, you’ll end up with a bunch of pixels on the screen, like in the example below.
Low-quality images can show a lack of professionalism on the designer’s part, and potential employers may find it difficult to fully evaluate a designer’s work. Additionally, it’s important to keep in mind the size of image files and try to make them as small as possible. This will speed up the processing of your portfolio by recruiters.
If you’re importing illustrations, insert them in vector format (such as SVG), rather than in raster format (PNG or JPG). Vector images are smaller in size than raster images. However, this approach doesn’t work for photos. When importing raster images, pay attention to the file resolution.
08. Keep consistent page orientation
I’ve come across portfolios where all pages were in a landscape format, except for a few pages that were in a portrait format like a long scrolling case on Behance. These pages need to be zoomed in for comfortable reading, which won’t work in your favor if your portfolio is being chosen from hundreds of others.
The reader is more likely to skip over that page, even if it contained something important. To avoid this, maintain consistent page orientation and aspect ratio throughout your portfolio. If you have a long scroll-like page, break it down into multiple pages.
09. Move your NDA projects to the end of your portfolio
When creating a portfolio, it’s important to prioritize showcasing your best visual work first. Sometimes, people include NDA (non-disclosure agreement) projects in their portfolio, but these projects can be difficult to showcase effectively because they often require blurring or hiding important design details.
To make sure your portfolio is visually engaging and effective, it’s better to either leave out NDA projects or place them at the end of your portfolio. That way, your most impressive and visually appealing work will be showcased first, which will make a stronger impression on potential clients or employers.
After exporting the portfolio to PDF
10. An image can accidentally be exported as a whole page
Sometimes, after the final slide of a portfolio, there can be extra pages that include a mockup that was accidentally exported separately.
When working in Figma, there may be other elements like images or text next to the portfolio that can be accidentally selected for export. As a result, these elements may be exported as separate pages. When assembling the pages into one file, it can cause confusion, like in the example below.
The application screen was exported as a separate page after the portfolio, and it can be easy to miss these pages as they tend to hide after the final slide.
After exporting, make sure to go through your portfolio page by page to check for any misplaced mockups or elements that don’t belong there.
11. Portfolio size matters
A 100-megabyte portfolio can be challenging to open, and even if it does, not all computers can handle processing such large files. The largest portfolio size I have seen was 500 megabytes, which can be quite cumbersome for a recruiter to work with.
To make it easier for recruiters to view and process your portfolio, aim to reduce its size to around 20–25 megabytes. This is also important because many email clients have limitations on the size of attached files.
For example, Gmail’s attachment size limit is 25 megabytes. If the file is larger than this, Gmail will transform it into a link to Google Drive, which can make accessing the file more inconvenient
12. Check the layout of your portfolio after exporting it
Sometimes, the layout of the elements on a page can get messed up after export. Elements or text may shift around, which can make your portfolio look unprofessional. To fix this, try proofreading your portfolio with a focus on layout.
13. check the page numbering in your portfolio
During the editing process of your portfolio, pages may be deleted, moved, duplicated, or altered, which can affect the page numbering. Before exporting your portfolio, double-check to avoid issues like the ones shown below:
Summary
In summary, when preparing your portfolio, be patient and meticulous because your portfolio is a showcase of your experience. Don’t ruin it with silly mistakes like misspelling your profession or having a file size of a few hundred megabytes that may scare off potential employers.
Use these tips as an additional checklist before the final export of your portfolio because you only have one chance to make a good first impression.
