What’s in a Portfolio?
In my UX grad program, the book looms large. We have a year-long course dedicated to building it, critiquing it, and refining it. Right now, still early in the year, this process feels more like chasing after something wild — you’ve seen others’ well-behaved beasts, but now you have to figure out how to tame the thing yourself.
Last week, my professor told us that we’ll be judged by the weakest piece in our portfolio. Sound advice, but terrifying nonetheless. That night, I dreamed that I was standing in front of my cohort, all my flaws and blind spots on display, pleading with them: “Tell me what you’re judging me by!”
So, as I’m working on the layout for the first work to go into my portfolio, I’m browsing through other folks’ books to search out best practices, interesting approaches, and ideas to draw from.
Here are 3 big takeaways I’ve gleaned from the good examples (and frankly the not-so-good ones) that I’ve found around the web. I’ve credited (and linked to) many of the great ones in the sections below. Please leave any other links and examples in the comments!
Your thought process is what makes you valuable.
The importance of showing process may not extend to all design disciplines, but for UX, it’s paramount. I keep running across this unattributed quote:
“Design is the art of gradually applying constraints until only one solution remains.” — unknown
It’s this process that we want to lay out in the portfolio piece —a walk through the research, the insights, the ideation, the iteration, the testing, the build, all the way to that final, inevitable product. The best portfolios break up each project in discrete sections with clear headings and helpful images to walk through the design process.
Takeaway: How you got from start to end (and how you applied insights and feedback along the way) is what will ultimately set your portfolio apart. Figure out how to show this.
Embrace your inner storyteller… or learn how to become one.
This is a companion lesson to the previous one. There are plenty of portfolios out there that do show process, but if they do it by dumping a ton of information without a clear hierarchy or structure, then they’ve failed to actually tell a story that’s useful. The important thing, then, is to tell a story. Here are 3 practical ways to start storytelling:
Don’t bury the lede.
Take a lesson from journalism, and frame the big picture first. Why is this case study or project important? Why does it matter to users? What was the primary challenge? Great portfolio creators figure out how to present the big picture concisely, up front.
Create an arc.
All good stories include conflict and resolution. To apply this in a portfolio setting, the best ones define the specific UX challenges they faced, then tell the story of their resolution. This gives the piece a narrative, which makes it more engaging and easier to follow.
Less is more.
Once you know the story arc, figure out what details and artifacts are vital to telling that story and throw a spotlight on them. Leave everything else out. The most effective case studies tend to highlight supporting artifacts in a way that illustrates the conflict–resolution paradigm and engages the reader.
Takeaway: Know why the project was important, and use that lens to frame the project as a story with a setup, conflict, and solution. Train the spotlight on the best supporting details and artifacts, and leave the other 4,692 whiteboard snapshots and sketches on your external harddrive.
Keep it lightweight.
This last takeaway is mostly just common sense. Be empathetic to the hiring managers you hope will browse your site — keep your site light weight. Optimize your images. If you build it yourself, minimize scripts and streamline the css.
Takeaway: Respect your audience. After all, you’re a UX designer.
Okay, enough armchair quarterbacking. My next job is to put these lessons into practice and build my own book so everyone can start judging me. 😱
