and Google UX Design Certificate graduate. Briefly describe the goals of the project, its duration, users studied and the projects findings. User experience researcher portfolios should be built with the same purpose in mind as other kinds of portfolios. They are supposed to showcase your skills and work experience to potential clients or employers through your past projects. Yang Qian, a product designer at Palantir Technologies, presents a case study from a three-day LinkedIn hackathon for design and engineering students. Method or hypothesis for solving the problem, Design iterations (sketches, wireframes, low and high-fidelity prototypes). Kick off each case study by framing the problem in detail, using emotive language to convey empathy. December 14, 2021. And, of course, all of these insights should come gift-wrapped in a visually engaging, user-friendly package. Describe the results of your research clearly and concisely. Lexie Kane is a User Experience Specialist with Nielsen Norman Group. Each point in her case study is illustrated with some kind of visual elementbe it a virtual wall of Post-it notes, a survey form that was sent to research participants, or early-stage prototypes. Outline that problem and how you went about solving it in your case study. During an interview with the e-commerce platform Wish, Tammy Taabassum completed a four-day design challenge where she was asked to improve the app in some way. At the end of the project, ask for a letter of recommendation for future jobs. First and foremost, provide plenty of background contextthis works wonders when telling the story of each case study. Where most of us might just abandon ship and find an alternative product, Priyanka goes above and beyond: she redesigns the entire experience! Include any positive feedback from the judges, even if your project didnt ultimately win. Just because youre a UX designer doesnt mean you can neglect the visual design of your portfolio. For each step, he explains what he did, why he did it, and what he learned as a result. 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. Keep it compact yet high-impact on the home page, and then provide more detail in a dedicated About section. Remember that most of your readers will be unfamiliar with the context of your work. In other words, Daniel has found the number that works for him: He features just enough projects to showcase his range as a designer, while still keeping it limited enough so as not to overwhelm the usersmart UX design in action! With the new design, the set of tasks took 6 minutes. If you would like more tips on how to structure your portfolio and coaching to help secure your next (or first!) WebIn theory, building a UX portfolio gives tangible proof of ones skills and abilities to prospective employers. Homepage concepts for #DullesJustice project. Many people use images from the final, polished design from their projects. Personal projects can also show research skills: conducting independent research or preparing heuristic analyses of existing products showcase your thought process. Knowing what you know now, what might you have done differently? Showcase your go-to tools for different methodologies and prepare to talk through some of their pros and cons. Just like Moritz, she presents her design work in the form of case studies, documenting her process from start to finish. I landed a great job shortly after completion. You focus here is making this concise and digestible because you may feel compelled to go on for days about this. In the space of just four featured case studies, we see that Daniel is a versatile designer who has worked on a variety of projects across a range of sectorsfrom mental health to financial trading to e-learning. 2019-03-10 For example: Fold these details into the story to illustrate how you craft the path of your research and how you respond to constraints that arise. 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. The list below outlines a few 100-percent online, self-paced programs that you can use to expand your UX design skills and bulk up your portfolio. Because UX research is a subset of the broader field of UX, a research-focused portfolio should adopt the general formatting, structure, and content that hiring managers are accustomed to seeing. Your portfolio should include: Information about you, your process, and your work experience. Show your design process in action through photos, sketches, and screenshots. View Lola Jiangs full portfolio website. Share your research question(s), intended outcome, and decisions you sought to influence (i.e., intended impact). Interested in other portfolio examples? Since a portfolio is all about showcasing your work as a designer, its obvious that you need to get some experience so that you have work to spotlight in the first place. Do you need a degree to become a UX designer? This is much more personal and empathy-driven than if shed said Users struggle to come up with date ideas because theyre so busy. Last but not least, refer back to the original problem throughouteven when you progress to the solution. Just like Elizabeth, support each case study with meaningful visualsthat is, real artifacts from your project, not just illustrations. Be respectful of the original designers, and try not to insult their work. What tell-tale signs will you look out for after youve launched or relaunched the product? When showcasing your UX design work, follow Moritzs example and place your process front and center. Cras mattis consectetur purus sit amet fermentum. Its a carefully crafted story that offers a behind-the-scenes look at your methods and processes. Secondary Research: We analysed industry reports and other public research studies in event and concert industry (software and otherwise). 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. What were you commissioned to do? Here, he links to articles hes written on Medium, additional projects hes worked on, as well as upcoming endeavors. This is a great way to divide your portfolio, especially if youre struggling to decide which of your best work should feature! Weve seen it all. We also engaged in the indie-musician discord groups to understand more Having your own hosted website can often be worth the extra expense. Communication skills are critical for research professionals. If you see yourself as a specialist in a certain industry, highlight the projects that demonstrate this. There are two key lessons we can learn from Olivias portfolio: first, start each case study by framing the problem in detail, and second, frame the problem in a way that conveys empathy. Dont just state the problem; relate to it and put some emotion behind it! This presentation tells employers and teams a lot about how you work and it is a preview of how youll present your future research findings. Keep in mind that many nonprofits and small businesses may need more than just design. This is crucial if you want to practice UX for a living, but its a trick that many designers tend to miss. By now, Gloria has well and truly piqued the viewers interest. Lets get to it! Present the project so that it tells an engaging story: why was this research effort originally started and what did you accomplish? This can be more challenging than an unsolicited redesign, as it lacks the inherent structure and constraints of an existing product. But its also an opportunity to let your creativity shine. But if youd like to get started building a portfolio for free, these platforms can help you showcase your work: 1. Focus on solving a real problem. 8. Then design it. Her teams challenge was to design an app to help college students better connect with their classmates. User Experience (UX), UX Research, Wireframe, Prototype, User Experience Design (UXD), Usability Testing, mockup, Figma, Adobe XD, UX design jobs. Theyll provide feedback, support, and advice as you build your new career. Oftentimes, stakeholders come to researchers with lots of high-level questions or gaps in their understanding. Be clear about the scope and limitations of your project. Even without data, you can frame your work in a business context. WebI am an Egyptian visual product designer based in Dubai I have 16+years of experience divided between Brand designer, UI-UX design, print, social media, and logo design. To see a live portfolio review with a seasoned UX designer, check out this video: Beyond this, you want to make sure that your portfolio meets these criteria: To learn more about these five criteria (and how to meet them), read more in this guide: Five Golden Rules to Build a Job-Winning UX Design Portfolio. If you are applying for UX researcher roles, Clayton Hopkins includes a few pro bono case studies in his portfolio in the form of Medium articles. The Google Career Certificates Employer Consortium consists of over 150 U.S. companies like Deloitte, Infosys, Snap Inc., Target, Verizon, and of course, Google. How do you tackle different UX design challenges? Oh, and these verbs light up in different colors when you hover over thema nice additional dash of personality! For each case study in your UX portfolio, provide as much context as you can. Your UX design portfolio is not just a websiteits part of your personal brand. If you cant reveal the specifics due to privacy concerns or company rules about sharing research, a clean or redacted sample can still help demonstrate your process to prospective employers. Its immediate and impactful. 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. Matchy. Aenean eu leo quam. Craft a compelling headline that provides all the most important information at a glance. What is a UX design portfolio and why do you need one? He is fascinated by the social product space and is currently researching the intersection between technology and mental illness. An unsolicited redesign (sometimes called an uninvited redesign) is an excellent way to show off your skills before you ever land your first job as a UX designer. Identify common job responsibilities of entry-level UX designers and other teams you might work with. Shes gone out of her way to redesign an entire digital experience, just because shes passionate about good UXhow cool is that?! Another effective storytelling technique that Elizabeth uses is to include little bitesized notes and reflections down the right-hand side. Lola Jiang is a California-based UX designer currently working at Google. A UX researcher conducts qualitative and quantitative research to inform the design process and keep the user at the center of every design decision. In broad strokes, a UX researcher is the person on the product team whose job lives closest to the end user. What stood out to me was the simple "POWER" framework that Karina recommended for framing each case study (citingDavid Travis). In fact, scrolling through Zaras portfolio is like wandering through the beauty department of a high-end store, or flipping through the pages of a glossy magazineand thats no accident. In the section that follows, Taking The Dive, Olivia shares the next steps in her problem-solving journey: brainstorming the elements of a successful date. Credit your colleagues by name whenever possible. Dont skip steps. 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. Companies value hands-on experience and the ability to extract value from research. But that doesnt mean you cant keep working on your portfolio. Follow the link to get started for free. Whether youre starting from scratch or breathing new life into your existing portfolio, there are certain ground rules youll need to bear in mind. This much information may be overwhelming to a casual reader and risks pushing important projects so far down the page that they are likely to be missed. Did you consider alternate methods? 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. How to build an amazing UX design portfolio. Include these details to demonstrate your commitment to continuous growth! A hackathon project in your portfolio can demonstrate that you can: Think critically and solve problems under pressure. The viewer should know exactly who you are and what you do within seconds of landing on your UX design portfolio. These should be your best work, and you can always swap them out for new case studies as you gain experience. Nurture your inner tech pro with personalized guidance from not one, but two industry experts. Whether theyre starting from scratch or upskilling, they have one thing in common: They go on to forge careers they love. A strong portfolio tells a story that is tailored to engaging specific members of your audience. If you want easy recruiting from a global pool of skilled candidates, were here to help. 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. I would tell the story of me thriving in highly complex domains, like the chemical processing industry and the American education system. Another way to add real client work to your UX portfolio What people reading your portfolio really need to know is the types of research you have done, how you approach problems, and how you deliver results. Who did you collaborate with on these? Plus, I Jasmine FriedlandTanner Christensenand they are fun to listen to, Portfolios for UX Researchers: Top 10 RecommendationsbyNielsenNormanGroup. Some of the best portfolios Ive seen incorporate samples of the deliverables for a case study. ); it also highlights the importance of context when presenting your UX work. So what can you do? Identify your skills, refine your portfolio, and attract the right employers. Charts, graphs, and other visual representations of data can help illustrate your findings. Jeremy Stokes is a former Google UX intern and current product designer at Duolingo. If substantial design changes were made in response to your findings, include quotes in response to the product before and after. The difference in the ways that real people see the product can help readers understand the impact of your work. Lola does an extremely important (yet scarce) thing: she puts the measurable impact of her UX design in the context of business needs. We hope this list has given you a feel for some of the most important UX design portfolio best practices and left you feeling suitably inspired. Please check back here for updates. Clearly state your role in the project and explain which parts you were directly responsible for. This case study does an excellent job of laying out user research findings. You know youve improved the user experience, but how do you substantiate that? Highlight your specialty. Well look at these in some detail to make sure you understand the context for each, as well as what you can learn from them. Figma and Adobe XD are the design tools taught in the Google UX Design Certificate program. There are more in:Breaking into UX Research: Ideas from our UX Community. With each case study, start from the beginning and guide the viewer through the main steps that led you to the final solution. Your About page is the place to go into a bit more detail about who you are and how you got started in UX, especially if youve switched from another career. -Join a Code for America brigade to help design new tools for local communities. , I did not find a format of Karina's content that was easily shareable, so I created one myself and added my own perspective as well. So youre looking for some UX design portfolio inspiration? Click on one of her unsolicited portfolio pieces and youll be taken to a full-on, published blog post. I just found a of a resource about how to put together your UX research portfolio byKarina Hickey. Before we go any further, lets be clear on one thing: Theres no magic number when it comes to portfolio projects. Of their pros and cons Jasmine FriedlandTanner Christensenand they are fun to listen to, portfolios for researchers. To put together your UX design portfolio inspiration click on one thing: Theres magic! 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