The Best UX Portfolio Platform for UX Designers is Not What You Think
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 23 июл 2024
- The best UX portfolio platform for UX designers and user researchers is not what you think. In the past, I already covered several easy to start with portfolio platforms that anyone can use to build public sites and grow their personal design brand. However, when it comes to getting a UX job nothing beats one specific and often overlooked platform (or method, really).
🙌 If you like this video, you'll definitely like what comes next;
SUBSCRIBE to this channel and don't forget to share, like, comment: / @vaexperience
👕 UX design and user research themed merch by yours truly: / vaexperience
📩 Get my latest (BEST) updates delivered to your inbox: updates.vaexperience.com/
#uxportfolio #userexperience #ux 🎒 Coursera UX courses: imp.i384100.net/dakRLQ
Good to hear you recommend pdf portfolio, this is exactly what I have always done for the adaptability and the small amount you really should be presenting as a intro to you and how you work and as you mentioned put it on drop box and send the link, the only thing I would add to that is turn the link into a bitly/ short link
Great suggestion
How do you use Dropbox?
@@clarityofthought It's just like something like Google Drive, you can use Google drive as well.
Having long links is definitely a pain, but at the same time I always heard people are weary of shorturls because of the unknown factor and for safety and avoid phishing they should stay away.
I've used PDFs and interactive sites to create my portfolio. Also as a senior designer and hiring manager, I've reviewed countless designer portfolios. To be honest, both are fine as long as you tell a story and have a process that shows how you went from problem to solution with all the changes and difficulties along the way. A systematic way to create custom portfolios for the job opportunity is also a good idea - agreed. If you're able to easily create and export your design story/process to an interactive site, then you can forgo the PDF. It also depends on the JD. If you're applying for an interactive design position or something with motion, a PDF won't cut it. PDF, sites, it doesn't matter as long as you clearly show the evolution of the product/project with all the various factors pushing and pulling on you as you arrive at a solution/project completion/product/site launch. I want to see a story and process and final designs. If you're applying for a more UX research oriented role, you can get away with a PDF. If it's a more UI design oriented position, a PDF may or may not cut it. It depends. But in general, good advice. Just my two cents from over 20 years in the design world. Currently Head of Design R&D for a domestic company in Japan. Also, nice channel. Subscribed. Keep up the good work. Cheers.
thanks for the advice!
Thank you! Very helpful. I just got your book!
Thank you for this vide. It’s great you say that because I’m transitioning to UX Design and currently taking a course but I don’t want to pay for a website at the moment. When I was majoring in Fashion Marketing I had to do my portfolio and I created it on power point and exported to PDF and it worked just fine. I still reference back to it.
Glad you made this video. I will be not be paying for squarespace now! Very useful and practical tip, especially for a newbie like myself. Thank you for the great content!
Yay for PDFs! Been around since the late 90s and I don’t think they are going to disappear anytime soon. *thumbs up* indeed
Great idea, keep up the great work.
I never thought about the modularity approach. it makes sense a lot
Thanks a lot for bringing clarity.
Glad it was helpful!
Hi :) thanks very much for the insightful videos u been posting on your account. I m new here, only just starting to make a career switch to Ux design. I was just wondering whether you could possibly make a video on which you describe what a good portfolio should look like: what info it should definitely include and so on. While I have already watched a few videos of yours where you review different portfolios, I would very much appreciate your take on what a good portfolio should be like. Thanks again and keep up the good work. Best of luck :)
Man thanks for this simple concept! I've done mini portfolio sections and sent to recruiters in the past, never even considered making a full on produced portfolio. What screen / page dimensions would you use, or design for? I assume most hiring managers would be viewing on their desktop displays, not mobile right?
Great video thank you. I am almost at the end of my portfolio tried to export it from Adobe xd as a PDF file seems like they have some issues sometimes when exporting the artboard as a pdf. Mine is text missing, half images shown.... wanted to copy them and paste it to Figma but the high resolution of images are blown away. Any suggestions?
Oh wow, that's actually what I've been doing in the last two years. I have some PDFs on GDrive and link them in the cover letter and masthead of the CV. Although for me that I have a very wide experience/skillset (marketing and UI roles) feels I have too much different material and that recruiters just skip because it's not as immediate as a link to a site.
I like this idea but I'm very familiar with telling the story web based. If you provide a PDF would the layout look similar? Would the first page be more information like a resume? Would you have page links to different case studies from page one like you might do on a website?
Currently in 1st and 2nd stages for various senior roles all off the back of a PDF folio! Could not agree more (as usual).
Hmmm I’ve been so lazy and have been procrastinating creating my portfolio because I thought it needed to be perfect and that it needed to be a website. Not that I won’t, but this pdf suggestion is actually amazing.
This makes it easier to model your portfolio for different job applications.
Get after it!
Great vid. I usually export a pdf from figma but the file size is usually too big to be attached. Would you suggest bringing the figma contents into illustrator or powerpoint and creating the pdf from there. thanks!
Yeah, compressing the pdf in acrobat or import and compress in PowerPoint works well
I had just recently completed a UX design program and my portfolio is just 3 pdf use cases embedded onto my website that was created using Google Sites. I haven't received any responses from my job applications and I'm wondering if I should just switch to the typical portfolio websites that I've been seeing other UX designers use.
I don’t understand - I thought a pdf was in paper format only? Also how can you add a gif
I was doing this too and agree, but someone recently asked why I chose this method and said websites are the most common and easiest to access, and that most recruiters won’t click on the links inside the PDF portfolio and wait for the new page to load. 🤷🏻♀️
That's not true. If you do a good enough job and grab attention it almost doesn't matter where the link is a hiring manager will click! Trust me. Thats why I said that I'd wait for candidates to come back with passwords for their portfolios. Good UX talent is hard to come by to so every candidate is assessed rightfully. Just make sure pdf or whatever you share tells a decent story and you can capture them with it
Hello, can i use google slides as well?
Are there certain platforms/software you recommend for a PDF portfolio? I don't have Indesign, Illustrator etc. so I'm wondering if using Canva is fine? Suggestions?
Anything which doesn't make you go crazy :) Figma, Canva, Miro, Powerpoint... as long as it allows you to pull in/pull out cases as needed to make a tailored portfolio for the role and quickly export it that's all what's needed. Just pick the one you're most comfortable with
Does this apply if you are looking for freelancing work? My goal is to have a precense online to where clients would eventually come to me and ask for work.
Thank you for all the advice. Currently reading your book and it helps me out a lot.
Why not both?
this guy is the UX master!
On another thought. What is your thought on "An online portfolio is a must for considerations...candidates w/o an online portfolio will not be considered"? We see this line on LinkedIn job posting all the time. The UX portfolio trend lately is shifting AWAY from having a fancy custom portfolio website that hasn't been updated for years. This "PDF is the best" trend has gaining traction on a lot of UX people's Medium articles lately. A lot of UX people are advocating it. However, the UX hiring practice still hasn't evolved much beyond mandatorily requiring an online portfolio which is custom built. Some even go as far as requiring your sites can't be Wix, SquareSpace templates. It's almost like: not having a sleek looking personal portfolio site means you don't have the "chops", which shall not be considered...
Hiring managers use online portfolio websites as a "filter" to screen out "less ideal" candidates. This I found it's troubling because they can't see the forest for the trees. For people who really have a great story(use case) to tell, they can't get pass that first round of screening. For me, when I see that line "Online portfolio required..." I usually want to find out if there's any other way I can send my PDF to the recruiter or hiring manager. I still kept my legacy "design gallery" website which is all eye candy, but not much substance. Apparently, a lot of hiring managers still want to see something like that...sigh.
You blew my mind
What is a good length for a PDF case study?
I just finished a very well documented case study resulting in something like 35 pages of 1920x1080 format... considering that I also have 2 more case studies on the way... I am concerned that a 80 pages PDF will be a bit too much for a hiring manager to scroll through.... any suggestion about it? thank you in advance!
I also ask myself this question. I found information that a good length is about 5-10 slides per case study, and the rest can be used as an interview presentation.
@@alexvarlamov241 Ahhh that's unfair! A website portfolio can go on and on forever... While a PDF should not be overwhelming... maybe I should consider a website... I don't want to take out important content from my case study to make it look shorter...
what about webflow?
Is crazy you say that because is true! I have been redesign my portfolio online (to impress my peer but also for ego to have a place where I can share my thoughts and work) but...... I just got an answer from apple in california with a simple google slide online.. yeah... so... if Apple picked me for an interview with a google slide I think it says a lot! Also on this presentation I present myself, values, 4 random projects and 2 deep case studies. It's more than enough to prove yourself to the HR.
How about your own website?
What do you think about Adobe portfolio?
It's how you use it. But as in the video platforms rarely provide with the best option to land a job at least in UX which is less about the visual pizazz
I'm a UX designer and have only had my portfolio as a PDF format. However, when I look at new job roles, more often than not they literally say in the job description that you need an online portfolio to apply and often won't let you progress without linking a url. Has anyone experienced anything similar, or have any advice on this? I have been getting so stressed about this
Put it on Dropbox, copy, shorten the url and send it 👌
@@vaexperience awesome, thanks! Hearing it’s still ok to apply with a pdf has taken a huge weight off my shoulders 😂
how do you list multiple projects within a pdf?
You can use a Table of Contents with links to other pages
I’ve seen some real nonsense from people saying they wouldn’t even open a PDF, if a recruiter or hiring manager’s effort to review content is so small, I don’t want to work with them anyway. As a Senior UX Designer, I didn’t go into detail about process, what differentiates me is lots of shipped work, so I show it off. I will go into detail in an interview with a Case Study
That's sensible - there are some idiots who hold odd positions, but that's a good signal to avoid them
Notion ? ( :
Can you this type of portfolio?
I thought that you will say the best UX portfolio platform - Notion.
Definitely one to highlight... but no!
would love to learn about this as well