What is missing?

Most junior portfolios are missing the crucial things - that’s why 99% fail.

The Checklist

Hands down the best approach to a winning portfolio is:

Show more than one type of project - mobile apps are easy to do but not what most businesses are looking for. And add one out-of-the-box project.

Generalist skills are in demand - next to beautiful UI show that you at least understand the basics of research - even with just competitive analysis.

Project visuals should be above the fold on the first page - not just in a separate portfolio page.

Make a dedicated website - even on a free portfolio service. Don’t send people Figma links - that’s NOT a portfolio. We skip those without clicking.

Don’t talk about using AI for design as currently it doesn’t make you competitive, instead, it shows you’re lazy.

Community Says

• neoeffect: I slightly disagree with the point about AI . I always expect a candidate to have at least one case in their portfolio related to the use of AI, to understand their ability to optimize processes and also to see if the designer can offer something competitive in a landscape where neural networks are increasingly taking on tasks. In other words, it's a test of the ability to turn challenges into opportunities

• Michal Malewicz: Currently the only worthy AI skill is photoshop generative fill and it's not really a UX job skill either - more graphic design. If someone uses chat-gpt for UX work (right now) then for both me and many companies I talked to it's a hard no - it's just too low quality (right now) - it will get better but it's not there yet.

• nikhil_khemaria: Can we have a notion link for portfolio?

• Michal Malewicz: It's better than Figma but still not perfect.

• marcoolmedi: 2024h1 goal is to deploy a mvp portfolio then 2024h2 goal is to turn it into a kick ass portfolio

• Michal Malewicz: Use some kind of activity recording tool like hotjar - even in a free plan - that way you'll know how it converts.

Liked the article? Share it!