We already talked about UX design and the UX designer skills in a different article. We can’t forget that UX design is focused on the user.
In that article, we didn’t talk about the UX designer portfolio. It is the presentation card for a UX designer.
In the portfolio, you will expose your work, abilities, and experience in a way that will be understandable for the possible clients. Having a portfolio opens many doors in the industry. It is the way to catch the attention of the big companies.
First of all, let’s talk about the general graphic design portfolio. Every graphic designer should have one. An online portfolio is almost always the best choice.
Besides showing your work as designer 24 hours per day, it is a cheaper and easier way to promote yourself and to find possible clients all over the world.
Another way to present a portfolio is in a PDF format, but it has too many limitations. These are some useful tips to create a great portfolio, no matter the format:
- Focus on a specific field: you need to think about who is going to see your portfolio before design it. You must do research about the company or clients you will work for, and adapt your abilities to their necessities.
- More images than text: try to avoid overloading it with information. You need to put only the necessary information on it. Don’t give unnecessary explanations. Remember, your clients want to see your work as fast as possible.
- Be selective: just put your most relevant work on it. Choose carefully the projects you want to show.
- Useful information: you have to put only relevant information on the portfolio. Remember to add your contact information and keep it updated.
- Testimonies: it will give you great results if you write your past clients’ opinion. It will give an idea of how you work to your future clients.
Making An Online Portfolio
As we already said, an online portfolio is the best option, not just for UX designers, but for all kinds of designers and professionals.
An online portfolio allows creating links to other pages related to your work. Also, you can upload videos explaining your job, products, and prototypes to the clients, making it more interactive.
You can use Tracking Code, which is a tool that allows you to check how many people visited your portfolio, how long were they there, even which projects they saw, all this through an analytic page such as Google Analytics.All this information will help you improve your portfolio and adapt it to what your clients want to see.
You’re maybe thinking “alright, all this sounds amazing but, where can I start building a UX designer or any kind of portfolio?”
Well, it’s pretty simple, nowadays there are many free communities or applications that help you create it. Some of them even give you portfolio models. These are some of the most used:
- Behance: this is maybe the most popular one and the one that gives the best results. Many designers around the world use it. You can sign in with a social media account like Facebook or with your email account.
- Word Press: with this one you can create an online portfolio quickly, it has over 30 models that may help you a lot.
- Coroflot: it’s a website just for designers, where your portfolio not only will be exposed to professionals like you; it will also be available to possible clients and companies.
- Tumblr: it is another great option to make a portfolio. It offers a lot of models. You have to choose which one fits you the most and adapt it to your necessities.
- Dribbble: this is another community just for designers like Coroflot, and at the same time it resembles Behance. It counts with a board of works. Users can interchange work opportunities. Here, recruiters and companies can find the best designer for them.
When you’re going to create your online portfolio, there are some useful things to keep in mind. The first one is categorizing your work.
Designers, and all professionals in general, usually have more than one specialization. It’s a good idea to classify them to make it easier for the clients that are getting to know more about you.
The second thing to keep in mind is the clarity and simplicity of the content.
The designers have to use images and a few words that explain almost everything about their work. This makes the portfolio simpler and more readable.
UX Designer Portfolio
After speaking about the types of portfolios, and which one is better to expose your work, it’s time to talk about UX designer portfolio itself.
We already gave you some advice to make a great portfolio. Although there isn’t a model about the things you should put in your UX designer portfolio, here are some things you need to have on it.
First of all, you have to introduce yourself. If you put your personal information on it and tell some things about you, the client will have an idea of who you are. Don’t forget putting your contact information in there.
The second thing to keep in mind is your specialization. If you are focused on Visual Design, your portfolio should show your work properly. Your presentation must be flawless.
For a Front-End Designer, the presentation is as important as preparation. Coding should be proper. The most important thing for Interaction Designers is the organization of the information following the techniques of the field. All these are areas of UX design.
The clients need to know your practice expertise before they hire you.
Nowadays there are many tools and techniques in UX design. It’s impossible to know all of them. You need to focus on a few and develop them as good as you can. The ones that you choose are the ones that you’re going to put on your portfolio.
Remember, for the most part, clients want to hire you for a specific project. If you did research about them and the company, you should express in the portfolio their problems, limitations, the process and the possible solutions for them.
If you didn’t do research because you want a general portfolio, not one for a specific client, don’t worry. You can develop all those items, including the results, with a project you did before.
The important thing here is to give them an idea of how you work and how you can solve their problems.
Every UX designer should practice storytelling before doing a portfolio. It isn’t just a way to show your work and abilities, it is also the way you can sell yourself as a professional.
A UX designer portfolio is one of the simplest ways to promote your work. It will be available on the internet for many possible clients 24/7. There are many designer communities on the internet where you can expose your portfolio.
You need to expose your work properly to catch the clients’ attention. Also, you have to make it as simple as you can, putting on it only necessary information, having lots of images and not too much text.
And remember the thing you can’t forget it’s your personal information, possible clients won’t hire you by telepathy.
