Its entirely possibly to build a strong portfolio, break into the industry, and succeed without previous UX design experience. Our career-change programs are designed to take you from beginner to pro in your tech careerwith personalized support every step of the way. Olivias portfolio portrays her as a thoughtful problem-solvergranting her huge bonus points in the eyes of any recruiter or potential client. Be sure to mention what you would have done differently if you did. This case study does an excellent job of laying out user research findings. UX designers spend their time making, creating, and organizing the interfaces people interact with daily, like mobile apps, websites, smart watches, and physical products. I strive to uncover, understand and empathize with users frustrations, motivations and Showcase your go-to tools for different methodologies and prepare to talk through some of their pros and cons. After such an enticing headline, were inevitably curious to know more about Gloriaand sure enough, her portfolio delivers. UX design skills include the ability to. Attending a hackathon gives you the opportunity to design a real app while collaborating with a real team of other designers, developers, and engineers. (including typography, color palettes, logos, and visuals). If you want to brand yourself as a versatile, adaptable designer, feature as diverse a variety of projects as possible. If you see yourself as a specialist in a certain industry, highlight the projects that demonstrate this. When you enroll in the Google UX Design Certificate, you'll explore the design process, including empathizing with users, defining their pain points, coming up with ideas for design solutions, creating wireframes and prototypes, and testing designs to get feedback. Interested in other portfolio examples? This focus on problem-solving also conveys another essential UX trait: empathy for the user. Personal projects can also show research skills: conducting independent research or preparing heuristic analyses of existing products showcase your thought process. Polish your hackathon project before presenting it as a case study (and acknowledge that you did so). This shows humility as a researcher and that you are willing to learn and improve as you go. He includes plenty of colorful visuals to showcase his process and reinforce his text, and he even includes a digital project report booklet where you can get an in-depth look at his research. However, sometimes it is possible to sanitize research documents to the extent that nobody will be able to recognize what company or product they concern, while still preserving some ability for readers to understand what you did. Fast and flexible, the UX design curriculum is hosted on Coursera, one of the worlds leading online learning platforms, so you can learn at the pace thats right for you. In her own words, she is passionate about improving the lives of others through design, and is constantly looking to learn new things everyday. Karina also recommended four UXR portfolios to check out. Be sure to include how you advise the scope of the project, and think through some of the following questions as you put together your portfolio: From choosing a research methodology to picking your sample and sharing your insights, you make tons of decisions as a researcher. A strong portfolio tells a story that is tailored to engaging specific members of your audience. Those planning to attend a degree program can utilize ACE recommendations, the industry standard for translating workplace learning to college credit. So, its not just about how many projects you showcase; its just as important to pick a good variety. We recommend including the following artifacts directly from your past studies: We recommend including the following artifacts used to communicate research findings: Portfolios should clearly communicate the context of the research that you have conducted. My oh my. Priyanka doesnt just limit herself to her portfolio website; she also shares her case studies and tips via Medium (where shes accrued over a thousand followers!). Being able to connect with employers through the program was the support that I needed. You'll even create a portfolio that includes three projects to share with potential employers to showcase the skills you learned in this program. For further tips and advice on building your own UX design portfolio, check out these articles: If youd like an inside look at how hiring managers will evaluate your portfolio, check out this video where Dee analyses some more UX design portfolios: And finally, if youre a UX designer looking to specialize, weve also written guides to build portfolios for UX writing and UX research. You may not have a huge budget (or any budget at all) when working on a passion project. Along the way, you'll work through a curriculum designed with input from industry leaders and top employers, like Figma, Adobe XD, Deloitte, Cognizant and Accenture. Artsy and edgy? Hiring managers reviewing portfolios are ultimately making a business decision: they need to feel confident that value added by the researcher that they hire will offset the costs to recruit, hire, and onboard that employee. She has given as much thought to her color palette, typography, and imagery as she has to writing up her case studies and sharing her process. How to create a POWERful case study for your UX portfolio by David Travis - POWER method explained in more detail. How to Break Into User Research: Career Advice for Aspiring UXRs. Short videos present user task flows in a way that doesnt rely on big blocks of text. Yang Qian, a product designer at Palantir Technologies, presents a case study from a three-day LinkedIn hackathon for design and engineering students. She also discusses how she would test and iterate with more resources, giving her interviewers a preview of the value shed bring to the company. Specialties: User Experience Design (Mockups, Wireframes, & Prototypes) User Interface design (Web, Zenprint provides order and wholesale digital printing services in the Australian market. Watch UX Portfolios, 3 minute video with Check out her talk for more details! In this guide, well take a closer look at Pro tip: To make your portfolio presentation stand out, speak to how you set expectations with your stakeholders in the beginning of your project, and how you follow through at the deliverable stage to make sure insights are actionable for each stakeholder? If you have to sign an NDA, make your case study password protected or keep it general, focusing on the early ideation. These should be your best work, and you can always swap them out for new case studies as you gain experience. Would you have chosen a different method if you had more time, funds, or a bigger pool to recruit participants from? Just because youre a UX designer doesnt mean you can neglect the visual design of your portfolio. His solution? Learn the foundations of UX Oftentimes, stakeholders come to researchers with lots of high-level questions or gaps in their understanding. Complete a Google Career Certificate to get exclusive access to CareerCircle, which offers free 1-on-1 coaching, interview and career support, and a job board to connect directly with employers, including over 150 companies in the Google Career Certificates Employer Consortium. Companies like Apple, Meta, Google, Amazon, and AirBnB are known to hire interns on their UX teams. The aim of your UX portfolio is to both show and tell. Resist the urge to simply redesign the interface. The work that you do is detailed and context-sensitive, so it may feel difficult to summarize for general audiences. This can be more challenging than an unsolicited redesign, as it lacks the inherent structure and constraints of an existing product. Then theres the context section, a detailed story about newlyweds Murphy and Diana and the frustrations they faced when planning two weddings. We learn how she scoured the internet and App Store for a solution, only to find that none of the existing solutions fit the bill. Its true that presentation matters when it comes to portfolios, but visual appeal is a secondary concern. Is a Master's in Computer Science Worth it. There is no hard-and-fast rule when it comes to how many projects you should feature in your portfolio. Join over 150k subscribers to get the latest articles, podcast episodes, and data-packed reportsin your inbox, every week. Demonstrate what strategy/product decisions you influenced through your research. Not to worry. For each step, he explains what he did, why he did it, and what he learned as a result. How to Build a Strong UX Research Portfolio with Examples Research Methods & Deliverables Interviewing & Research Skills Last Updated: November 23, 2021 How to Build a Strong UX Research Portfolio with Examples The 6 key components of a good UX researcher portfolio, according to a user experience career coach. He is fascinated by the social product space and is currently researching the intersection between technology and mental illness. Try to include at least one live case study. Subscribe to the weekly newsletter to get notified about future articles. In just four simple verbs, we know that Gloria is a creative, multi-talented soul with quite a few hobbies in her repertoire. Next, Olivia explains, in detail, how she set about trying to solve this problemin a section aptly named There Must Be Something Out There. When reading Olivias case study, you dont get the feeling that shes just going through the motions; shes genuinely engaged in the problem and how she can solve it for the user. Saurabh presently works as Staff Over the length of his professional career, Saurabh has played a key role in over 15 user-centred innovation technologies, authored 40+ peer-reviewed research publications and holds 15+ filed/granted Patents. Remember that most of your readers will be unfamiliar with the context of your work. Luckily, its possible to craft a stellar portfolio that shows off your skills before youve ever had a paying client. Moritz leaves no stone unturned, documenting the project from start to finish. Next, you can then to enroll in a UX design certification programpreferably one that provides personalized UX mentorship and portfolio reviews. Click on one of her unsolicited portfolio pieces and youll be taken to a full-on, published blog post. She also clearly explains her role on each project, who she worked with, and what design and prototyping tools and methods they used. Select a program, get paired with an expert mentor and tutor, and become a job-ready designer, developer, or analyst from scratch, or your money back. Despite the fact that these unsolicited redesigns are pure passion projects, Priyanka lends them the credibility they deserve by documenting her process in detail. Then design it. Many people use images from the final, polished design from their projects. How do you gather buy-in throughout your research? If you aim to be a generalist, choose projects where you worked on all elements of the design process. Seriously, we're fast. Directly beneath that unmissable heading, Gloria tells us exactly what she does and what shes passionate about in just two sentences. For each step you go through in your case study, include a photo or screenshot of how it looked in action. Portfolios are living documents. 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