On design portfolios and giving feedback
Today, I had the opportunity to give my personal input and feedback on a design portfolio. I chose to document my findings in a post.
It is important to note the main goal of your portfolio and the message it communicates. The best way to come up with a really good portfolio from is to treat your portfolio like a UX design project.
A portfolio site should be able to do these three main things well;
- Tell who you are and what you do.
- Show your work and process.
- Tell your career plans and directions going forward.
Other things to note;
- Make use of a good layout.
- Be sure that every UI element communicates the right thing.
- Take note of visual hierarchy, everything on the site should not be given equal priority. If you highlight everything, you highlight nothing.
- Text should be legible and readable. Don’t use a light colour text on a light background.
- The site should not be too heavy to load or scroll. Take care of the mobile view.
- Your projects should not be equal to a gallery. Nobody is going to have time going through all your works. Select the most important and necessary works, display them in a nice order.
- Eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.
- The things that matter most should never be at the mercy of the things that matter least.
- Most importantly, your projects should show process not pixels. People want to see the process behind your results. Clearly, specify the tasks you did and activities you took part in if it was a teamwork.
On giving feedback, I make sure to give feedback that is actionable, specific and kind. I also make sure to ask if the designer wants a visual design critique or a product design critique, where they are on a project and what they plan to do next. This way, I and the designer are on the same page, it becomes easier to know what to critique and to reason alongside the designer.
