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you have 10 seconds to catch their attention and prompt them to look into your work more. If their initial scan does not yield anything interesting or promising, you will be passed up.➡️ To solve this issue: Put a problem statement and a few screens of your solution at the beginning of your case study. Call out the circumstances that make your problem difficult. Immediately after that section, show the solutions. Call out how specific things on the screen solve the problems you just introduced.<h1 id="9378">2. You don’t have a story</h1>Out of everyone who has this problem, most people do not have enough detail in order to create a good story. In some rare cases, the story is getting bogged down by the sheer amount of detail that is present.Every project has its own challenges.A case study that is about the personas, and then the journey map, and then the sketches, and so on are all good and well.But if you want to capture people’s attention, you have to have a story.➡️ To solve this issue: You have to decide what the story of that project was from the outset of making that case study. Is it a story of how you surmounted difficulty? Was it a story of how you learned to work within a given product space? Is it a story of how you failed but then created something amazing in the end? Structure your information around that.<h1 id="6473">3. You are holding on to old work or old designs</h1>It can be hard to start from the beginning. But I see so many portfolios that still have old, outdated work. For me, the cutoff is 3–5 projects. If you have any more than that, then you’re just filling up sp

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ace on the page.What is most important about your portfolio is not showing all your work but showing your best work.Every piece of media we put out there is only a sliver of who we really are. We cannot describe on a webpage the full extent of our UX career, nor can we really tell people who are.However, by cutting a piece of you off and showing that to the world, you get to choose what part of you that you are showing off.➡️To solve this issue: Take a long hard look at your case studies, how your portfolio is laid out, what the color scheme is — all of it. And be ruthless with change. That’s the only way a UXer can move forward.<h1 id="8990">4. You aren’t showing any personality</h1>This one is easy. If you are using the same template that everyone else is using, you will not stand out.➡️ To solve this issue: There are so many platforms that allow you to customize your website to your heart’s content. Change the color scheme, the layout, and the font, and most of the time, that will create a big enough change that the original template is unrecognizable.<h1 id="bba1">5. You haven’t proofread your work</h1>Seriously. Just take the extra time to read your case study out loud. Small grammar mistakes and weird sentencing work to chip away at your credibility and, in the eyes of a hiring manager, your ability to create good work.➡️ To solve this issue: Read through your case study. Have a friend proof it. Have your mom proof it. Whatever needs to happen to convince people that you can create good quality writeups with no grammar errors.</article></body>

Most of the portfolios I review have these key problems

Stop yourself from making the same mistakes and get your foot in the door for your next UX role

I won’t pretend I’m some senior designer at a big tech company. What I do have, however, is a few years under my belt now, and extensive experience reviewing portfolios for my company.

There are some portfolios that come across my table that inspire me. And others that are so unpolished. Over time, I’ve narrowed down the mistakes that UXers are making repeatedly — avoid these mistakes to stand out from the crowd. Do these sound like you?

1. You don’t show problem-solving

I talked about what one should do to show problem-solving in my other article, but the gist of the matter is that so many people bury the hatchet. The juicy parts of your project (the renders, the prototype, the solutions you created) are all at the end, and they should be at the beginning.

Recruiters and hiring managers don’t want to scroll for a millennium in order to figure out if you’re going to be a good fit. At most, you have 10 seconds to catch their attention and prompt them to look into your work more. If their initial scan does not yield anything interesting or promising, you will be passed up.

➡️ To solve this issue: Put a problem statement and a few screens of your solution at the beginning of your case study. Call out the circumstances that make your problem difficult. Immediately after that section, show the solutions. Call out how specific things on the screen solve the problems you just introduced.

2. You don’t have a story

Out of everyone who has this problem, most people do not have enough detail in order to create a good story. In some rare cases, the story is getting bogged down by the sheer amount of detail that is present.

Every project has its own challenges.

A case study that is about the personas, and then the journey map, and then the sketches, and so on are all good and well.

But if you want to capture people’s attention, you have to have a story.

➡️ To solve this issue: You have to decide what the story of that project was from the outset of making that case study. Is it a story of how you surmounted difficulty? Was it a story of how you learned to work within a given product space? Is it a story of how you failed but then created something amazing in the end? Structure your information around that.

3. You are holding on to old work or old designs

It can be hard to start from the beginning. But I see so many portfolios that still have old, outdated work. For me, the cutoff is 3–5 projects. If you have any more than that, then you’re just filling up space on the page.

What is most important about your portfolio is not showing all your work but showing your best work.

Every piece of media we put out there is only a sliver of who we really are. We cannot describe on a webpage the full extent of our UX career, nor can we really tell people who are.

However, by cutting a piece of you off and showing that to the world, you get to choose what part of you that you are showing off.

➡️To solve this issue: Take a long hard look at your case studies, how your portfolio is laid out, what the color scheme is — all of it. And be ruthless with change. That’s the only way a UXer can move forward.

4. You aren’t showing any personality

This one is easy. If you are using the same template that everyone else is using, you will not stand out.

➡️ To solve this issue: There are so many platforms that allow you to customize your website to your heart’s content. Change the color scheme, the layout, and the font, and most of the time, that will create a big enough change that the original template is unrecognizable.

5. You haven’t proofread your work

Seriously. Just take the extra time to read your case study out loud. Small grammar mistakes and weird sentencing work to chip away at your credibility and, in the eyes of a hiring manager, your ability to create good work.

➡️ To solve this issue: Read through your case study. Have a friend proof it. Have your mom proof it. Whatever needs to happen to convince people that you can create good quality writeups with no grammar errors.