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Three Most Common Mistakes UX Designers Make On Their Portfolios

 2 years ago
source link: https://uxplanet.org/three-most-common-mistakes-ux-designers-make-on-their-portfolios-232433dec2ed
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Three Most Common Mistakes UX Designers Make On Their Portfolios

Number 3 is the reason you’re struggling to get a job

Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

I’m not a hiring manager. Nor, have I ever been responsible for hiring decisions. However, I, like many other designers am very generous when it comes to referrals. Though it is not my place to make final decisions, whenever I’m made privy to available positions I collect quite a few resumes and portfolios from my network.

I don’t give feedback unless I’m asked to. However, I do look through the portfolios and resumes I receive when I’m referring designers. I’m primarily aware of design positions that are at my level, or below. I’m usually looking through the portfolios of my design peers. While I’ve only been in a handful of jobs myself, there are a few common errors I’ve noticed on new designer portfolios, that are easy fixes that make a world of difference.

1. Getting too caught up in the layout

Your layout is extremely important. It’s your visitor's first impression of your design sense. It’s what draws people in, or pushes people out. However, I’ve seen several cases of designers who get too caught up in the layout, and not enough in their content or the purpose of a portfolio.

During my time in design school, we studied front-end development. Thus, we had to code our portfolio from scratch. Many designers in my program stuck to this, and still code their own sites themselves. I strongly believe this is a waste of time.

Firstly, the point of a portfolio is for it to be iterative. It’s not a static site. As often as you get new jobs, or gain new experience and skills, is as often as your site should be updated. It’s not meant to look the same forever. If you’re working with code, your iteration time is doubled.

A mediocre portfolio can land you a job, but a non-existent portfolio cannot.

While working in UX, your portfolio is meant to have two or three case studies. Your content needs to be meaningful and easy to follow. While it’s important that your layout is unique, if you’re too focused on designing it, or having the perfect visuals, you may be losing out on time spent writing compelling case studies.

Portfolios need to look good, but they also need to be easily iterative and well written.

2. Not seeking feedback on your portfolio site

Most of us know it’s important to get feedback on design work. We seek feedback for projects, and case studies regularly. However, I do notice that people don’t always remember to do this for the portfolio itself. Your portfolio is also a complete project that needs feedback from others.

It’s important to have a mentor, or someone higher up the employment ladder, look through your site. They can provide meaningful feedback on how you’ve written your case studies and the best ways to speak about your projects.

They’ll also give you feedback on layout, visuals, and what you may need to add or take out to make things clearer.

While looking through portfolios for referrals, some issues are small, and some glaring, but all of them would have been noticed had another set of eyes looked over the portfolio before it was used.

Your portfolios need improvements and iterations. No one’s going to make it to your beautifully written and designed case studies if your landing page is unusable.

Trying to attain perfection

A mediocre portfolio can land you a job, but a non-existent portfolio cannot. By nature, designers are aiming for perfection. The devil’s in the detail. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but there is no such thing as perfection. And aiming for it with your portfolio is only causing you to miss opportunities.

The very first portfolio I had, that landed me my first internship, was objectively awful. I, like most designers, look back on my very first projects and cringe. They weren’t good. But, these first projects landed me my first job. Which helped me get better, and started my career.

It is infinitely more valuable to have an imperfect version of your portfolio that’s live and viewable than a secret project that sits in your drafts eternally.

Don’t let perfect get in the way of very good. You’re only sabotaging yourself.

The topic of a portfolio is daunting. It feels like there are so many rules. Realistically, the best portfolios are the ones that are stripped down. Make them easy to maintain, and easy to look through. It’s not supposed to be as complicated as we’ve made it out to be.


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