Portfolio Guide
What is a portfolio?
A portfolio is a supplemental resource that highlights one’s projects or works. These can be for design, engineering, photography, user experience, professional experience and more. This guide will detail the different sections of a portfolio and general information to keep in mind when creating your portfolio. Keep in mind that the industry is ever evolving, so these practices may change. As of April 2024, these are some current practices to keep in mind and examples to inspire you!
Sections of a Portfolio
Portfolios are usually broken into multiple pages or sections. Each section will highlight different content and is broken down differently. Usually, portfolios consist of at least a home page, a project page, an about page, and/or a contact page . They can include multiple sections for projects such as a graphic design page, and a photography page. Tailor your portfolio to your strengths, and focus on grouping your work in an easily digestible format.
Home Page (aka Landing Page)
A home page or landing page is the first part of your website that people will see, so make sure to create a strong and lasting impression. Highlight who you are through the design, and keep in mind that hiring managers may have hundreds of portfolios to go through so they may not explore the rest of your pages.
It can be helpful to highlight a little of each of your additional pages on the home page, so that people can get a general understanding of you and your work from minimal interactions with your site. Showcasing some of your work and prompting the reader to visit your other pages to learn more is a good way to encourage viewers to get to know your work better. Similarly, including a quick blurb about who you are as a professional is helpful to relate to the viewer and encourage them to visit your about section.
The landing page is one of the most important parts of your portfolio so spend the time crafting it well. Highlight the best of your work, yourself, and let the viewer know how to reach you if they’re interested. The first impression is important to having people continue to view the rest of your portfolio.
About Section
About sections are all about you. This is your space to showcase who you are as a person and a professional. Make sure to keep your design consistent and to know who your target audience is. If you are searching for a job and sending your portfolio to companies, maintain professionalism at all times. There’s a balance between showcasing who you are as a person and a creative individual and being professional.
About sections can include:
- Contact information
- Experience/Work history
- Résumé
- Links to relevant social media (LinkedIn, Behance, YouTube, Instagram, etc.)
- Ex. You’re a photographer who posts your photos on a dedicated Instagram account or a filmmaker who posts your films on YouTube
Project/Work Section
The Project section should highlight your strongest works, showcasing them in a way that details the work you put into it. Not all projects are portfolio worthy, so be selective and deliberate in deciding what pieces to include. Below are some tips for crafting your project/work section.
- Only include your strongest pieces
- Think of it as “you’re only as good as your weakest portfolio piece”
- Less is more, when in doubt leave it out
- Try to find a variety of pieces that highlight your skills, whether it be artistic or technical
- Non client work is okay; we all start somewhere!
- Remember to include information about your work such as title, medium, year, description, etc.
- Organize your projects into groupable categories if applicable. If you do graphic design and photography, consider breaking them into separate pages
Specific to User Experience and Interface Design (UX/UI)
UX/UI Portfolios are unique since they should include a detailed breakdown for case studies showing the process of creation. Since UX deals so much with data and iterations, your portfolio for these projects should reflect those details. This is where you would highlight the process that led to the final design, including research, personas, wireframes, user journeys, and more. Some additional elements to include:
- Break down your process and highlight it by showing instead of telling. Use photos, data, research, sketches, wireframes, iterations and include brief explanations.
- Create high quality mockups to showcase the product
- A detailed case study with research, personas, user journeys, user testing, and iterations is a strong product that many jobs ask for in the description.
Specific to Engineering
- Showcase your projects in detail
- Explain the process of your project
- Check out this resource from MIT for more information to inform your portfolio creation
Examples
UX/UI
Photography
Engineering
Graphic Design & Animation
Overall
- Remain consistent in your formatting, colors, and layouts
- Highlight who you are as a designer /engineer and professional, add your style and process.
- Show, don’t tell
- Ensure your portfolio is mobile friendly and maximize Search Engine Optimization (SEO) if possible.
- Keep your portfolio up to date. Look at it like a working document to highlight your projects and continue to make updates as you produce new work.
- Also make sure to remove projects that are no longer as strong as the rest of your portfolio.
- Less is more –> favor stronger projects over weaker ones. It’s better to have fewer projects that are stronger than to flood your portfolio with work that doesn’t represent your best work.
Cover Image Credit: Meg Flynn (megflynndesign.com)