This way your visitors can still check the public parts of your work. Refresh the page, check Medium 's site status, or find something interesting to read. But Denis shows us how its done: find one common thread a color, shape, etc. But its also an opportunity to let your creativity shine., Portfolio example: Jeremy Stokes - Cultivate, Jeremy Stokes is a former Google UX intern and current product designer at Duolingo. UX Challenge And if they are, they can find them in the footer navigation. My Role However all UX design portfolios need to balance an engaging visual experience with one that enhances usability. She uses arrows to point to a specific element. What do you love most about design? If you are creating case studies solely for the purpose of populating your portfolio, I guarantee those won't be competitive enough. They add a touch of personality to your case studies and also some credibility. The idea is to have a functioning piece of software by the end of the competitive event, usually constrained to 24 to 72 hours.. Case studies aren't just for UX portfolios or for consulting proposals: they provide a narrative to describe your work to friends and colleagues. By Lexie Kane on March 10, 2019 Topics: UX Teams Ready to land your dream job? Besides a short introduction, her projects take center stage on her home page. It creates a sense of cohesion even when some of your visuals include colorful pictures. Felipe, whos a senior product designer, created a simple yet engaging UX designer portfolio. The intro is kept short, instead, he uses an About me to list the personal information a recruiter might be interested in. main. A UX design portfolio is a collection of design case studies that showcases your skillset and your approach to the design process as a whole. Our speakers were keen on conveying how important these case studies are, as recruiters won't simply take notice of your design outputs. Valeries is a good example that your thumbnails can diverge from the color scheme of your showcased projects if those dont fit together on your home page. Hi there! Try to include at least one live case study. and capitalize on it. Nicolas UX design portfolio is a love letter to minimalism. Writing case studies for your UX portfolio can feel opaque and overwhelming. Whenever you are showcasing design changes or insights from users, think about how would you present the same things for your clients or boss. What you need is a nice introduction, carefully selected fonts, and a nice, harmonizing color palette to create something beautiful. Max pushes visual consistency even further by introducing all his case studies on a background that echoes the color of the projects thumbnail. Method or hypothesis for solving the problem, Design iterations (sketches, wireframes, low and high-fidelity prototypes). These are only really small details, but when we read these subtitles we cant help but smile. The Notch case study could be used as a template by any designer whos not scared of copywriting. Itll make the time and effort you put into it much more worthwhile. In the Mimic case study Josh decided to showcase the final designs by focusing on challenges and user needs. He uses case study level password protection on two. Case study Roys is a playful and stunning UX portfolio with popping colors. This is a common problem for beginning UX designers looking for their first paying job. In UXfolio, this is a native feature both on the portfolio and the case study level. Its also an option to present more information about the projects right on your own portfolio home page. The goal, of course, is to showcase the skills you used on the project and help potential employers envision how you'd use those skills if you worked for them. Designing a few UX case studies for your portfolio is a powerful way to help you stand out among the crowd. Charlees portfolio is embracing variety while still keeping it focused. In this article, well walk through seven types of portfolio case studies you can add to your portfolio that dont require you already having a job. Working methods, best practices, tips and tricks, Unique insights, design stories, the impact of design, How to Write a UX Case Study: Template and Examples. These research-based design decisions are at the heart of user-centered design. UX designersnewbies and experts alikewill often share a case study on a portfolio website as a great way to get hired. Her project got her an internship, as well as a stellar portfolio piece. Rather than focusing on laying out their design thinking in long, formulaic case studies, they instead focus on simplicity. They also ensure that the end-to-end journey with their products or services meets desired outcomes. Then design it. Heres an example of a good structure to follow: Remember, hiring managers comb through a lot of portfolios, so its important to keep yours focused. Therefore, they should always be in the forefront. She includes affinity maps, a user persona, task flow chart, and low-fidelity, high-fidelity, animated, and clickable prototypes. 3. Remember to keep it concise and precise, as hiring managers will typically scan this part of your portfolio. Valerie features only the must-haves on her portfolio front page: A friendly photo, a short bio, contact info, and social media links. Also, try to make it easy for the reader to establish a connection between those two parts. But, since they are under his own domain name on a dedicated website made with UXfolio, they have a more portfolio-ish aura to them. Usability testing results chart for a Wish design challenge. This way you wont have to leave out anything from your portfolio, but you wont clutter it either. You may also want to include a short bio and links to your social media accounts here. Max took one of UXfolios templates and infused it with cold tones for an ethereal look. What isnt in the design, and why? A typical mistake I see in UX portfolios is lack of content explaining their contribution to the effort, the images are only the final product and not the process to get there. Design leads or recruiters will not read through 10 case studies, so its better to curate your best work only, like Nuwanthi does. They want you to explain your decisions and to tell why you decided to go with those specific solutions. Copyright 2019-2023 Adobe. A UX design portfolio will highlight your unique professional experiences, skills, and design process, and showcase UX/UI case studies and examples. In addition to walking through the entire UX design process step by step, Clayton offers insights into how he and his team responded to the urgency of the process, lessons learned along the way, and the results: three days after launch, the number of volunteers had increased from 100 to 1,200. She keeps it sleek with the white background of her portfolio front page, using one of UXfolios streamlined templates. If you've never written a UX case study, don't worry. Quentin begins with a short overview of the project, then makes a fantastic transition onto the design process by stating the problem. Mood boards and style guides. You can link your case studies directly from this page too. Give it a try! Outline that problem and how you went about solving it in your case study. Why not use the same principles when it comes to presenting your own work in your portfolio? Objective: The objective of this project was to design a responsive newsletter website for my college society that would provide an informative platform for students . 2. Her teams challenge was to design an app to help college students better connect with their classmates. Melysias case studies showcase what a difference a well-chosen accent color makes. Portio Hugo is a simple, minimal and responsive Portfolio Hugo Theme. Her case study thumbnails from cohesion and her choice of shades make the entire portfolio look very professional. This is where you get to show your personality and briefly talk about your history. Check out his UX writing case studies, especially the one for the digital technology addiction app Reboot & Recover. Throughout his case studies, he used many of UXfolios built-in device mockups, so theres a feeling of coherence even between different case studies. You'll learn the skills you need for an entry-level role in less than six months, no degree or prior experience required. She even validates her design decisions by testing her clickable prototype with users. User Research and Testing experience. Now that weve gone through the must-have sections of a UX portfolio and some examples of effective case studies, lets take a look at some additional tips and best practices to refer to when building your portfolio. Using UXfolios thumbnail styles, Quentin made sure that the case study titles appear on hover only. Hyks is a very simple yet impressive portfolio home page, mostly because of his eye-catching thumbnails. But many designers abuse the format. Before we dive into the anatomy of a case study, its important to understand the role of case studies in your online portfolio and where they fit in. Present the right work, summarize your findings, and communicate clearly to showcase your skills. 1. User flows and customer journey maps. These can pull together even your weirdest projects into a coherent whole. Note : I skimmed through Shawn's Grubhub UX project case study. Is a Master's in Computer Science Worth it. Document your process and include visuals in your case studies. The first thing we see when landing on Sagars portfolio home page is a photo of him at work and an introduction with two CTAs. You'll also have the opportunity to participate in a Capstone project to build the front end of a web application. 14 UX designer portfolio examples Let's check out these 14 UX portfolios to help you create your own design in a way that captures the spirit of your work, as well as a sense of who you are. Thats because Nicola experimented with the device mockups arrangement on each thumbnail. Dribbble, another popular UX portfolio platform, lets you share screenshots of your sketches, prototypes, and design concepts. Depending on your amount of experience and personal preferences, you may also choose to include the following pages: Resume: Give it its own page on the site or link to it. Shubham included some of his wireframes, a final, embedded prototype, and even finished UIs to illustrate the entire design process. Jeremy also highlights his visual design strengths with a full brand guide that highlights the meaning behind his design choices. If youve never written a UX case study, dont worry. A good intro section underpins the rest of your case study. No matter how short or long your case studies are, an overview at the beginning is a great way to aid comprehension. It just shows that you could have both a professional social media presence and a portfolio website without having to create separate designs. How does the Pixpa portfolio builder work? One UI/UX case study for your portfolio Up to 3 design screens. He presents interaction coupled with details on what caused problems for users and how this problem was solved. It showcases the entire process in a step-by-step fashion. Check out our portfolio to learn how our digital marketing solutions drive results for clients! Linh used descriptive and straightforward case study titles that make you want to read more. If youre ready to take the next step toward a career in user experience design, consider enrolling in the Google UX Design Professional Certificate on Coursera. Remember: Outcomes are evident for you, but not for others, since they didnt work on the project with you. He included three UX case studies and 3 collections for the rest of his work. Felipe has three case studies in his portfolio. Competitive UX analysis. Whichever methodologies you used to guide your design, these are the ones to highlight in your case study. Youd probably point out details and show what exactly changed so try applying this mindset to your written case studies as well. You should also highlight and tease any emerging technology that you used (such as AR, AI, or VR) to pique your readers attention. An exceptional case study keeps the audience in mind I'm going to repeat what others have said many times before: your portfolio is just another design project. Maintain your tone of voice. Be clear about the scope and limitations of your project. So many portfolios are grid images on a white page, and while there's nothing wrong with that approach, Jared's portfolio stands out for its light grey background and use of color in general. Contact: This doesnt have to be its own page, but be sure to give recruiters a way to get in touch after youve wowed them with your work. A structure with which the industry is familiar and comfortable: The portfolios home page is where your visitor will land. When you are designing your own portfolio homepage pay attention to whitespace and margins. Roy has also created some additional visuals for his case study, to tie each of his sections together. With 9 years of experience under her belt, Nuwanthi knows a thing or two about curating her work. Adobe Portfolio is free with most Adobe Creative Cloud plans and allows you to create a customized site that synchronizes with Behance. Those numbers leave no room for doubt about the quality of WebFX's services. You can do that by creating enticing case study thumbnails and featuring them on your home page. Fund open source developers The ReadME Project. On a mission to create more UX professionals. Use it to establish your readers background knowledge before they move on to the details. Mention what tasks you worked on. Joke made this classic UXfolio template unique, by adding his logo and harmonizing his thumbnails. And that reason is their audience. You can follow this structure, while still expressing yourself with colors, fonts, thumbnails, and other design elements. Jaclyn describes herself as someone with [an] eye for simplicity, keen observational skills, and obsession with organization skills that can be traced in her UX design portfolio. Its hard to choose a favorite from her 4 fantastic case studies. The Prescription tracker case study uses UXfolios sticky navigation section to help the readers comprehension of the projects stages: interviews, user journey, sketch, iterate, prototype, release. Phill applies his storytelling sensibility in presenting the case studies, outlining his thorough process step-by-step. To show this effectively, youll need to retell the start-to-finish narrative behind the process. Alexanders portfolio has some password-protected projects which is a great way to protect sensitive data or case studies that are not strictly public. Short videos present user task flows in a way that doesnt rely on big blocks of text. Besides brightening up the case studies, they create cohesion and connection through her projects. Think about a problem in your own life you wish had a solution, or an app youd love to have on your phone. Sketches, wireframes, and prototypes. Joshs portfolio is a great example of a project-focused portfolio. Featured Case Study: HydroWorx 131% increase in organic contact form submissions 236% increase in organic sessions Ongoing monthly SEO strategy Custom website redesign Comprehensive social media strategy Read Case Study +131% Lead Increase Include 3 to 4 Relevant UX Case Studies Your UX design portfolio should contain 3-4 relevant UX case studies to sufficiently demonstrate your abilities. Be sure to mention what you would have done differently if you did.. Sidney drops a relatable, personal paragraph about distraction then moves on to takeaways that shell be able to use in other projects too. Throughout the case study, we get personas, a hand-drawn journey & flow, wireframes, as well as prototypes to help us visualize the findings Quentins design process. Sometimes its worth redesigning the visuals of your case studies because the finished product will look much more professional. UX Design . She also elegantly solves the issue of how to present small projects that don't merit a full case . If you are making a career change make sure your projects reflect your desired position so you wont confuse recruiters and UX professionals what sort of work you are actually looking for. His passion project, Cultivate, lays out a clear problem to solve: theres a stigma around talking about mental health, particularly within the Black community. A service that uses plant care as a method to empower users to cultivate (and talk about) their own mental health., User journey map from the Cultivate case study. Yang presents the challenge, team, project duration, her role, and the skills she used to get it done in a clear and easy-to-read format. Pick an app or website that youre familiar with, and make it better through your design process.. a short but revealing sentence for subtitle. As leaders, its up to us to start fostering and empowering new design talent now. He paired these descriptions with rough sketches trying to solve those particular challenges. Key Requirements - 4-6 years of experience in building consumer facing products, both UX and UI; A portfolio with 2-3 detailed UX case studies (Launched or unlaunched products) Also, must have a body of work that are currently in use by the intended users at . She starts by outlining the challenge she set for herself, then walks through the steps of her design process, with plenty of images to document her work.. We find Melysias take on this aesthetic particularly stunning because she balances the serious tone of the black background with the colorful thumbnail backgrounds. If you still need projects to fill the gaps in your portfolio, you have plenty of options. Bjorns hero section is simple and welcoming. How do you build a UX design portfolio with no experience? Thus, it is a great template for you if you dont feel like creating separate sections for the research insights or simply want to showcase final UIs as soon as possible. Where are you from? How did you end up in design? The thumbnail generator takes your case studies hero section and your images (with or without device mockups) and offers you various thumbnail options. Setting the scene, as Gabriel does, is extremely important. A UX portfolio is a collection of case studies that reveal your design process and skills through the story of design projects you've been part of. Case studies are an essential part of a UX portfolio. We recommend checking out Melysias B&D case study. Portfolio example: Clayton Hopkins - #DullesJustice, Clayton Hopkins includes a few pro bono case studies in his portfolio in the form of Medium articles. Tie your project to business results if possible. With a bit of iteration and polish after the fact, you can transform these challenges (especially the take-home ones) into fresh material for your portfolio. The case studies in Jokes portfolio are on the shorter side. By re-using this template, he creates a sense of familiarity and security as we click from one case study to the next. I have completed 1 full case study for my portfolio so far and I'm beginning the next. Keep the same tone as in the rest of your design portfolio's copy, in order to form a clear personal brand and consistent browsing experience. Bjorns case study thumbnails dont follow an obvious color story, yet they work together perfectly. If you can tell an effective story while integrating human-computer interaction principles throughout, youll come across as a great UX designer that any company would like to hire. Let's break down how you might do that. Ux Portfolio. How are they different from UX portfolios? Matchy.. Sometimes one sentence, an image, and a clear navigational menu is enough., Your About page is the place to go into a bit more detail about who you are and how you got started in UX, especially if youve switched from another career., Early on in your UX journey, you may not have a ton of design work to include in your portfolio. Such narratives showcase designers' skills and ways of thinking and maximize their appeal as potential hires. The course teaches you how to create a solid UX portfolio in record time. More or less, the case study . Think of the introduction as your time to capture your readers attention in a concise, articulate manner. Like other proficient designers, Sagar showcases 3 case studies, the perfect number according to recruiters. I don't mind if you have a template of case study and you will change in it Recruiters and readers don't have hours to review your portfolio, so feature only 3-5 of your absolute best projects. In summary, your UX design portfolio should contain 3-4 UX case studies and some information about yourself. 1. For her thumbnails, Marthe opted for the same mockups to create visual consistency. Some work may need to be password-protected due to NDAs, but you want to give recruiters something to look at without having to email you for a password first. A case study should reflect a meaningful, learning or growth design experience where you worked with real stakeholders and created something of value for the customers. We chose to showcase the Diem case study from Victorias portfolio because its such a great example of an app concept. Therefore, including a small but unexpected detail might just be your ticket for an interview. So, achieving visual consistency with your project thumbnails can be hard. When recruiters and UX professionals look through dozens of applications they have only a few minutes. What is even better that he still shows some final UIs or design elements on the thumbnails so you can get a sense of his overall work even though you cant peek further. David Travis. UXfolio gives you the power to set up passwords on the portfolio and the case study level. Just imagine: what if the design lead or recruiter opens the case study that youve included only for the sake of having more case studies? This way you can ensure that there is enough material to create an amazing case study. Mina includes only three case studies in her UX design portfolio, which is within the ideal range. About the Author oz Oz first started UX Beginner was a way to document his own journey to become a UX designer. Leslie Griffiths portfolio breaks with the tradition of one-note UX portfolios. Carsons portfolio is simple yet appealing. UX Portfolio Case Study template sections Project Title & Subtitle (A headline and subtitle that indicates the name and goal of the project) Client/Company/Project type Project date (When did you work on the project) Its the starting point and the first impression. Check out these sites for opportunities: -Get matched with a nonprofit project on Catchafire. Choose a project you care about. Having your own hosted website can often be worth the extra expense. How to design your UI/UX case study | Portfolio tips + detailed walkthrough Rachel How 150K subscribers Subscribe 6K 123K views 1 year ago Tips on how to prepare your UX/UI Design case. They may also need help with development and implementation (and the resources that go with it). Just one glance at his portfolio and you know that Doron is not only an exceptional UX/UI designer but also a gifted illustrator. UX heavyweight, 3.5yrs+ experience, with light UI. 7. When opening the portfolio, the lightweight case study thumbnails immediately draw attention. Be respectful of the original designers, and try not to insult their work. Youve landed your first interview for a UX designer role. Our job at UXfolio includes talking to world-renowned design leaders to find out what theyre looking for in portfolios. Its not rocket science, but there are certain guidelines to follow to make your portfolio a success. Our high level goals were to: Make it fast and easy to use for everyone, everywhere. In this blog post, I am explaining the purpose, structure, and best practices of a UI UX Design case study and portfolio. We created it specifically for UX professionals, so its packed with powerful features thatll help you through the portfolio-building process. Problem: Important notices were getting lost among the flood of other messages, with half of the information becoming irrelevant by the time it reached students.As a result, students had to rely on word of mouth to stay informed. The case study ends with the learnings. Yet, each contains a nice balance of text and visuals. Showcase your process, not just the finished product. Heres the proof that you dont have to overthink your UI/UX portfolio to achieve something great. Luckily, its possible to craft a stellar portfolio that shows off your skills before youve ever had a paying client. The case study walks through the projects user research, product design iterations, validation through user testing, and user journey map before wrapping up with key takeaways and lessons learned.. Show how you incorporated it into your design. Feel free to link externally to any documents that may be too lengthy for your portfolio site. Our ambitions were to create a strong foundation that embraced a rapidly evolving business and more diverse user base. This way she avoids an overload of information upon the first impression. Whats more, they will also understand your work and case study quicker. While the project thumbnails are quite large in size their content is way smaller. However, if you take the time to visualize your process and UX decisions, its more likely that it will get them interested. The UX portfolio includes some big names and extended case studies of the work he has done for them. Build a concise, clean, portfolio. Include a section outlining next steps if you were to continue the work. Kurt Winter. Squarespace . An unsolicited redesign gives you the structure of an existing product to start withincluding an established target user basewhile allowing you to put your user experience skills to work. If you have to sign an NDA, make your case study password protected or keep it general, focusing on the early ideation. This is exactly what a great portfolio home page should achieve: it should make your readers want to learn more. Follow his example! If you aim to be a generalist, choose projects where you worked on all elements of the design process.