The UX Portfolio Guide For Beginners

Writing, designing and sharing your portfolio is no easy feat. It never seems to be good enough, and you're always going back to make 'small' changes and tweaks. Because it has to be perfect, right?

Well no, not really. I've found that as a beginner the most important element is to make yourself known. And this can’t happen if you’ve locked yourself up tweaking the same heading for hours on end.

In today's post I am going to share some insightful portfolio tips that helped me get my work out.

• Write the text for your portfolio before you begin to design. I recommend using Microsoft Word, Google Docs, your notes app or even using a pen and paper (remember those?) And documenting everything. The most important aspect of your portfolio is explaining the design process. Viewers (read recruiters), will want to know how you got from point A to point B and why, and if it isn’t covered then it doesn’t matter that your portfolio can cartwheel through the sun. It’s out. The best way to document your design process is to make notes as you are researching, wire framing, iterating, designing, and testing. Do not wait until your project is complete to start documenting. I was documenting my changes on Google slides, a notebook and my Notes app. When it was time to set up my portfolio all I had to do was copy and paste.

• I know I repeatedly said to document everything, and I stand by that. But you do not have to share all your notes. You want to summarize it so your viewer can get the information they are looking for. Slapping down giant paragraphs isn’t much of an incentive but breaking up the information into smaller paragraphs or condensing it provides a more pleasant reading experience. If you find yourself using a paragraph, try underlining or italicizing key points that will easily draw in your reader. See what I did there?

• Make sure your portfolio is accessible for everyone. This could be easily done with minimal effort on your end, you can;

  1. Ensure that all your images have alt text provided. This is extremely useful for people who are using screen readers.

  2. Avoid using high contrast colours, this makes your text extremely hard to read. You can check your colour combinations here .

  3. Where possible, use icons to provide even more clarity to your portfolio.

• Pivoting to design tips; do not copy a designers portfolio. Sure you can be inspired and imitate some design aspects or their layout, but your portfolio design should reflect who you are as a designer. And if you’re a beginner and you’re still refining your style, go minimal. I personally used my designs from my project to inspire my portfolio and it helped keep my portfolio consistent.

Templates are your best friend. If you are feeling overwhelmed by the design styles, intimidated by senior UX designer templates or you simply have no inspiration then start with a template. I use Wix for my portfolio and they offer hundreds of templates. I began by finding a layout that I liked that wasn’t too busy. Once selected, I played around with the colours, font and even ended up changing the layout! The main point is that you do not have to start from ground zero. There are resources out there - use them.

• Time yourself. Put a timer on for one hour and go go go! This not only keeps you focused and motivated, but ensures that you are working on key items instead of wasting time.

I can't convince you how much more anxiety inducing it is to keep your portfolio to yourself than sharing it with others. The best thing you can do is release it to the 'wild' and go from there. And don't forget that you can always change your portfolio in the future. But first, you have to make sure your portfolio is out there.