Essential Projects To Include In A Design Portfolio

93% of Junior UX portfolios I see don't do this. 😔 👇 ↳ Reflect Real-World Problem Solving: → Many portfolios show beautiful interfaces but fail to show the designer's process of solving problems that matter. 💡 Pro tip: If you're new to UX, don't use bootcamp or school projects only. Get freelance or hackathon work as case studies. ↳ Have Personal Branding: → Many UXers don't give enough background on themselves. Companies hire you, not your 𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐨. ↳ Showcase Collaboration and Feedback: → It's rare to see a designer's ability to: ✅ Work on a team ✅ Articulate their working process ✅ Show their design changes based on feedback ↳ Show the Research Process: → The best case studies tend to: ✅ Showcase qualitative and quantitative data to back their designs ✅ Incorporate their insights into their solutions ↳ Show Empathy and Understanding: → I've noticed many junior designers have zero context to their users and the business in their case studies. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘯: → Don't demonstrate their problem-solving process → Don't tell me why they did what they did and why it matters → Don't explain why their solutions help users and the business 🥇 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻: ☑ Craft a compelling story for your case studies that don't bore your reader to death ☠️. ☑ Show the results: what went wrong, what went right and what did you learn? ☑ Show how you've worked with others and leveraged feedback in your designs. ☑ Show your research process, how you gathered and interpreted data, and why it informed your design decisions. ☑ Articulate what problems you tackled and why. Show your thought process and how your design solves these issues effectively. ☑ Please for heaven's sake, get a real portfolio website. In this competitive market Dribbble sites, Behance sites, PDFs, and Figma files are not enough. ✨ Portfolios are hard to maintain and even harder to grow, but if you care about your UX career they are worth it. --- PS: What's stopping you from finishing your portfolio? Follow me, John Balboa. I swear I'm friendly and I won't detach your components.

I have reviewed 100+ portfolio projects. If you want employers to hire you even without experience, Make sure your project does these 𝟲 things. A great portfolio isn’t just a collection of skills It’s a showcase of how you solve real problems. This is what makes a portfolio project stand out: => 𝗜𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 Every strong project follows a simple arc: Problem → Solution → Impact. Make it clear what challenge you tackled, how you solved it, and the results. => 𝗜𝘁 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 The best projects come from real-world problems. Current events: Can you analyze a trending issue? (e.g., election results, COVID trends, mask effectiveness) Daily annoyances: What problem do you wish someone would solve? Do it yourself. => 𝗜𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 Good projects highlight your decision-making and problem-solving. Where did you pivot? What obstacles did you overcome? Show your process. => 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝘁 The best projects happen where interest meets impact. Find a topic you enjoy, just make sure it’s valuable to potential employers. => 𝗜𝘁 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝘁𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 A great project saves you time in interviews. If it’s well-structured, you’ll only need to explain the context once. The results will do the rest. => 𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 (𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝘁𝘀/𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀) Go beyond basic analysis and build interactive dashboards (Tableau, Power BI, Streamlit). Let your audience explore the data. A good portfolio project isn’t just technical It proves you can solve meaningful problems. Follow me, Jaret André to land the job you want 10x faster.

As a hiring manager for product design roles here are the types of portfolios I expect to see for different levels: All: - should demonstrate your ability to define and solve a real product problem and be laid out in a case study that tells a story and is easy to consume using a balance of copy, screenshots/animations and data visualizations. - 3-5 case studies - strong positioning statement - emai, resume, LinkedIn Junior designer: - the less school projects the better - self-initiated case studies solving real product problems are great - freelance product work - volunteer work - actual product work you shipped is most important but understandable you may not have it at this level Mid-Senior designer: - at least 2 case studies must be work that has shipped but at the very least demonstrate measurable outcomes even if only qualitative - Senior designers must have at least 1 case study showing work that has shipped - 1-2 self-initiated case studies are ok, especially if you use that as a way to fill an experience gap Staff, Principal designer: - 3 case studies of work that has shipped and made a measurable quantitative impact at scale - case studies should go in depth about your area of craft - the portfolio needs to speak about you as a practitioner and leader as much as show your work Design leaders: - your portfolio should tell your story and what type of leader you are - case studies are optional #productdesignportfolio #productdesignjob #productdesign #jobhunting