9 design portfolios to inspire you
Q: How can I make my portfolio stand out?
When I started in recruitment, I remember seeing mainly “pure” UX and UI portfolios. I remember UX portfolios being process-focused, like a science experiment at school, but not appealing to the eye.
Since then and the emergence of the product design job title in digital, expectations regarding portfolios have changed slightly.
If you do not have a “top” brand on your resume, your portfolio is vital.
Chris Andrews who, heads up design recruiting at Notion, paints this perfectly.
What the best product design portfolios have in common:
They are visually appealing.
A lot of hiring managers these days are not designers. They don’t think in service blueprints or IA (all very important, of course); they think in visuals, business outcomes, and whether person can help us solve a business problem. Make it look nice. Focus on visuals.
The majority of us think visually. We process images thousands of times faster than text.
The work does the talking
People want to see what your outcomes and to see live work or the impact your work had on the business.
Easy to digest, not chapter and verse
I know as a recruitment person I do not read masses of text on portfolios, I want to see live work, some data and options to see more understanding of the process later. I can’t see many busy hiring managers taking the time to read every case study in detail.
Ok, let’s dig into some portfolios:
What I like:
Visually appealing
Links to live work
Video intro - very cool
Strong testimonials
Not got reams of text, options to view more
Jessica Hernandez and portfolio here
What I like:
Researcher with a portfolio
Links to research studies
Fun landing page to navigate. I want to know more!
Showing a fun personality
What I like:
Links to clients he’s worked with and what he’s done for each, so you can check out live links.
Shows more about Robin and what he gives back to the community through talks etc.
World-class work for top brands and agencies.
Luke Taylor and portfolio here.
(UX focus)
What I like:
Decent visuals, but as a UX Designer, does a solid job of explaining how we works through processes for range of different clients.
Very clear outcomes. I can imagine reading this as a client, you know what you will get.
What I like:
Tangible outcomes and success on each project including press coverage. The work does the talking!
Demonstrates how he blends leadership topics with hands-on work
What I like:
Distinctive portfolio style, showing personality and natural flair.
Clear understanding of his role on each project
Links to live work - the work does the talking!
(Design leadership focused, so not examples of hands-on work)
What I like:
Shows his leadership credentials through the talks he’s linked
Clear to see links to the community work he does through UX Collective
Well designed, and the landing page makes it clear even though he’s a leader, he is a designer at heart and is still great at craft.
When you get to a leadership position, you still need a “portfolio” as such, but it’s more about your teams work, ROI of design in the business over-time, retention of team, running P&L’s etc. All the things that non-design executives care about.
Strong dashboard/data design
Solid walk through of how he/team got to the final outcome
Talks through 0-1 work, which is in huge demand right now .
Appeals to B2B/SaaS type companies, 100%.
Alex knows his super power, and he’s super clear (pun intended) on his offering to clients on his website.
Links to previous work and outputs.
Video to show how he works, who he works with and shows more into how Alex thinks.
Note: I got these portfolios from various "top portfolio" articles or know them well.
What portfolio would you add? Would love to hear thoughts in the comments.
Oh, wow! Thank you for mention! <3