Back to Stories

Let’s talk about UX portfolios

Building a portfolio as a young UX Designer or student can be a catch-22: To share your design experience, you need to gain that experience so you have something to share.​ So where do you begin?

Jason Banks

Jason Banks

Let’s talk about UX portfolios

Start with what you know

Your portfolio should help others understand

  • How you think and how you approach your work​
  • What skills and interests you have​
  • Who you are as a person​

Case studies are a great way to show your potential

What should it contain?

  1. Role: What were your responsibilities in the project?​
  2. Team: How and who did you work with? (stakeholders, developers, designers, product managers, etc.)​
  3. Design story: What ideas lay behind your design?​
  4. Design decisions: How did you translate business or user needs into your design?​
  5. Way of thinking: Why you did what you did during the project.​

Let your personality and interests guide you

Authenticity rules
As you write about yourself, and your work and your aspirations as a designer, remember that writing well is a necessary tool in a designer’s toolbox.​

Let your personality shine, be honest about where you are in your career, and what you want to do.​

Where to build​ and show your portfolio

  • A structured PDF
    Made in (for example) Figma
  • Personal Site
    Wordpress, Notion, Webflow etc
  • Portfolio Platform
    UXFolio, Coroflot, Squarespace etc.

A final thought and a misconception

Why do you want to join the design industry?
Do you want to design mobile apps? ​
Do you want to specialise in something for the future?​
Do you want to work in a specific industry?​

Try to be specific with what interests you, and where you’d like to go in your career.​

Don’t be afraid to show your failures and challenges
There’s a big misconception that it’s important to show only the good stuff in a portfolio, to show how well you did and how everything worked out fine. This is far from the truth.

We want to know how you handle failure and setbacks when they happen – and they will, often more frequently.

Guides + Insights​

How to build your first portfolio​
https://www.semplice.com/beginner-guide

How to write case studies​
https://www.semplice.com/how-to-write-case-studies-for-your-portfolio

How to write your about page​
https://www.semplice.com/how-to-create-your-about-page

How to finish your portfolio​
https://www.semplice.com/portfolio-building-checklist

Jared Spool (UX industry veteran) on building a portfolio to land a great design job​
https://blog.uxfol.io/how-to-build-a-ux-portfolio/

Jake Knapp (Design Sprint inventor) on how a good design story gets you hired​
https://blog.uxfol.io/jake-knapp-design-portfolio/

Inspiration + Portfolio Samples​

Novia Chao (Early Career)​
https://www.noviachao.com/

Victoria Tu (Early Career)​
https://victoriatu.info/

Birgir Baldursson (Early Career)​
https://www.birgirbaldurs.com/

Jaclyn Chao​
https://www.jaclynchao.com/

Malin Bergqvist​
https://www.malinbergqvistdesign.com/work

Bestfolios (Inspiration)​
https://www.bestfolios.com/

Jason Banks
Written by

Jason Banks

UX Design Lead

jason.banks@humblebee.se

More stories

What if City Apps were more like this?

What if City Apps were more like this?

If there’s two things we love here at Humblebee; it’s the city of Gothenburg and usability! So we decided to sprinkle a little design magic dust onto the city of Gothenburg’s digital services.

Amanda Stiernspetz Fälth

Amanda Stiernspetz Fälth

How we interview at Humblebee with Hannes Larsson Westerlund

How we interview at Humblebee with Hannes Larsson Westerlund

At Humblebee, we take culture fit seriously when evaluating job candidates. In this article, we'll explain how we use our definition of culture fit to support our interviewers and provide a positive interview experience for candidates.

Hannes Larsson Westerlund

Hannes Larsson Westerlund

2025 is soon. Is your digital service ready for the new accessibility law?

2025 is soon. Is your digital service ready for the new accessibility law?

The Accessibility Directive, set to become law in Sweden on June 28th, 2025, mandates that all commercial digital products and services be made accessible to as many users as possible. Failure to comply may lead to consequences, similar to the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018.

Martin Gaffron

Martin Gaffron