By: Ira Deshmukh, Career Community Ambassador

A UX portfolio demonstrates your professional history, design expertise, notable projects, and knowledge of the UX design thought process. Resumés and CVs are usually one-to-two pages long that are professional summaries of your career progress. A portfolio, as a UI/UX professional, allows you to showcase your work and expertise through your projects visually, and enables prospective clients and employers to learn more about the same. 

While portfolios can be made as demo reels (audio-visual format), UI/UX students must have one in a website format since, before employing you for a position, potential customers want to see your design talents. Hence the majority of UX job applications asking for a link to your UX portfolio. So, what should you include in your portfolio? 

• Start with an easy navigation. For clients and employers to discover what they need easily, a UX portfolio website should have clear navigation. Include the following sections: 
  • About: This part should have brief information about who you are, what you do, what services you can offer and your mission-vision statements. 
  • Work: This should include some of your best work. Resist the urge to add all your work in fear of your portfolio being perceived as less. Furthermore, sequencing is an important component of portfolio design since it may affect how the reader views your body of work as a whole. Start and end with your best work sample to make a strong impression. 
  • Contact: Include a contact information section that has your phone number, email address, your LinkedIn and your resumé (optional). 
• Through your portfolio, show off your problem-solving skills. At its core, UX design is about resolving issues. Recruiters essentially want to see your thought process when addressing and building solutions to problems, as well as application of design principles. Display your whole process, from the preliminary user research to the finished item.
• Lastly, do not focus only on the visuals. Numerous product designers appear to place more emphasis on aesthetics than utility or functionality. Verify that you have shown that you understand and are taking usability into consideration. Alternatively, be sure to include many samples of your graphic work.

The Career Center website has a wonderful curation of resources to address any career concerns such as these. Find more here!