Top 5 Portfolio Pitfalls

Designing a user experience (UX) portfolio is never easy. Even with numerous help articles about how to create a great portfolio, building a portfolio can be a daunting process and the most intimidating part of starting a UX job search.

Each year, UX@UA, the largest community of UXers in Arizona, hosts a portfolio party to share examples of UX portfolios and provide feedback to anyone working on their portfolio.

At this year’s portfolio party, we started with a design studio where we asked participants to draw their portfolio pet peeves — or what they hate to see in portfolios. Sometimes the most effective way to learn how to create a great portfolio is to see examples of what not to do.

Based on those drawings, we’ve summarized the top 5 portfolio pitfalls you should avoid when creating your portfolio.

1. Don’t prioritize style over substance.

While you want to showcase a visually appealing portfolio, avoid design decisions that make your portfolio challenging to navigate and read.

Host your portfolio on a platform that’s intuitive for you to use and that helps you highlight your projects and experience. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Focus on creating 2–3 clear, descriptive case studies that are easy to access from your portfolio’s homepage.

Also:

• Have a clear structure and information architecture. Your case studies and bio should be easy to find from the homepage and there should be clear navigation throughout each section of your portfolio.
• Use an intuitive layout that has legible text and appropriate white space. Make your portfolio easy to read and scan by using left-align text, proportionally-sized images, simple font, and a balance of images and text.
• Be mindful of overusing buzzwords. Clear, concise representations of your work style, goals, and experience will always resonate better than using industry jargon.
• Have a clear voice that represents you in your portfolio, but be mindful of tone. Avoid overfamiliar or casual language unless it’s integral to the projects you’ve worked on.

This portfolio has a lot of buzzy jargon and an overfamiliar tone that takes away from the clarity of the content.

The non-intuitive layout leaves a lot of white space and makes it difficult to navigate between different sections of the portfolio.

This portfolio has a non-traditional way of scrolling to find information. While this may look creative, it makes it challenging to find and access the most important information in your case studies.

2. Don’t ignore accessibility.

Prioritize accessibility when designing your portfolio. Your portfolio should be accessible for all users and be responsive on mobile. Don’t assume employers won’t review your portfolio on their phone — your portfolio should be accessible on all devices.

Remember to:

• Use headings to organize and structure your content. Be sure to use headings in order to make your content accessible for screen readers and other assistive technology. Use short, scannable paragraphs and bullet points instead of long walls of text.
• Use descriptive names for links and avoid naming links “click here.”
• Check your color contrast and make sure all content and graphics meet WCAG 2 contrast and color requirements.
• Add alt text and/or captions for images.

This drawing has a few examples of inaccessible choices in portfolios, including poorly named links, bad color contrast, and long paragraphs that aren’t broken up by headings.

This is an example of an error message for a portfolio that’s not accessible on mobile devices.

3. Don’t forget to highlight your project role and process.

Your portfolio should highlight you and the expertise, experience, and skills you gained from your projects. Share what you learned, how and why you made decisions, and how your choices improved the experience for users.

To highlight your contributions:

• Describe what you did specifically in the project. Break down your job title or project role (i.e. content strategist, project manager, etc.) into the tasks you completed. Explain the expertise you contributed and name the specific ways you collaborated with others.
• Explain your findings and how your research, design, and/or content decisions impacted the user experience. Use specific metrics to demonstrate the impact of your work when possible, including quantitative and qualitative insights.
• Reflect on what you learned. What assumptions or predictions did you have going into the project that changed? What challenges did you encounter, and what did you learn from them? How did this project improve your research, design, or content practice?

This portfolio has vague descriptions of the person’s work and doesn’t show the process or their contributions in the projects.

This portfolio doesn’t showcase the person’s work experience or projects.

4. Don’t hide the context and purpose of your case studies.

On your portfolio’s homepage, use representative images that show what your project is about and clearly name your case studies so that reviewers get a sense of what the project is about before they click into your case study.

Avoid vague case study names like “Project #1” or “Passion Project.” Instead, use a name that describes the purpose of the project and what skills or expertise it demonstrates, such as:

• Designing effective error messages for a personal finance app
• Content design: Microcopy for a library collection landing page
• Organizing a design sprint to refresh a health services website

For each case study, explain the context of the project, why the project happened, and what goals you were pursuing.

This portfolio homepage has several vaguely named projects and uses icons instead of relevant images for each case study.

This portfolio homepage doesn’t have descriptive names for case studies and uses a lot of images that don’t clearly connect to projects.

5. Don’t make avoidable mistakes, like typos or forgetting to update outdated information.

Review the details of your portfolio before publishing it and submitting it to potential employers. Be sure to:

• Double check your spelling and grammar. Make sure proper nouns, like product features or your team, are consistently formatted and spelled throughout your portfolio.
• Use consistent capitalization throughout your portfolio. Choose title case or sentence case for your portfolio and stick with it in all sections.
• When using a term specific to your team or company, make sure to define it so all audiences know what you mean. Prioritize an external audience when framing your work and projects. Include projects that showcase skills in the job description of the role you’re applying for.
• Remove placeholder text you may have inserted when you were drafting your portfolio, like [insert more details here] or [update later].
• Check for outdated information and broken links in your bio and case studies. Are you now finished with your graduate degree? Make sure your bio doesn’t still say you’re currently a graduate student.

This list of portfolio pet peeves advises job seekers to: check for typos, include work experience that’s relevant to the job you’re applying for, explain your role in projects, and avoid using too much text.

But the biggest portfolio pitfall? Being afraid to start somewhere.

The biggest obstacle to creating a great portfolio is feeling too intimidated to start. Every portfolio is a work in progress and no one’s is perfect.

If you focus on you and your amazing work experience in a clear and concise way that’s accessible, you’re on the right track. Take it one step at a time, focus on the basics, and you’ll be on your way to having an effective portfolio in no time.

Kudos: Thanks to Bob Liu for the revisions on this story and to everyone who submitted bad portfolio drawings at our UX@UA portfolio party!