Portfolio strategy

Structure and homepage

• ✦Lead with a specific headline, not a vague title. Name your role and what you’re good at, instead of writing something like "passionate designer." A common formula: "I help [audience] get [result] through [your method]." For example: "I help SaaS teams cut churn through behavior-driven design."
• ✦Keep your navigation plain. Labels like "Work," "About," and "Resume" beat clever, made-up section names.
• ✦Open every case study with a short summary, covering the problem, your solution, and the outcome, before the reader has to dig for it.
• ✦Use one consistent visual system (fonts, colors, layout) across the whole site. It signals you can execute, not just theorize.
• ✦Design for two reads. Most reviewers scan a portfolio in under 4 minutes first, then read closely only if you make the shortlist. Your homepage and case study summaries carry the scan; the details carry the close read.
• ✦Give every project card context: the company or industry, what you did, and what the project was. A title and thumbnail alone do not tell a reviewer whether to click.
• ✦Test every link. Broken links, a missing password, and forced downloads are the fastest ways to end a review before it starts.
• ✦Go easy on animation and scroll effects. Heavy motion makes some reviewers close the tab.

Essential pages and links

• ✦Work
  The full project grid: every case study you’re including, not just the featured few. See an example Work page →
• ✦About
  Your professional story: how you got here, what motivates your work, and the moment that shaped your approach. Keep personal details brief. Optional extras: achievements, a short pitch video. See an example About page →
• ✦Case study
  The shared template every project card links to: hook, problem, journey, people, outcome, and reflection. See an example Case study page →
• ✦Resume
  A prominent, active link, not buried in a menu (see Resume for what goes on it).
• ✦Contact
  A direct way to reach you: a short form, or a plain mailto: link. Keep it to one click.
• ✦LinkedIn
  A link in your header or footer. Keep your titles and dates matching your portfolio and resume, since reviewers cross-check all three.

Choosing which projects to include

• ✦Pick 3 to 5 projects that match the job you want, not just the jobs you’ve had. In UXfolio’s survey, most reviewers said 3 or 4 projects is the right number. Applying to fintech roles? Lead with your most complex financial-data work.
• ✦Put your most relevant project first. Reviewers open the case study that best matches the role, and treat the first one listed as your best.
• ✦Ground student or concept work in realistic constraints. It’s fine to include if you’re early-career. If you have more experience, prioritize projects that show cross-functional collaboration and business impact.
• ✦Balance your set so it shows range: some deep research and systems thinking, some polished, high-fidelity execution.
• ✦Under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA)? Show your work in an anonymized form. Most reviewers still expect to see it. Blur logos, swap in placeholder data, and add a short description with "more in the interview."

What evaluators look for

• ✦Show your own decisions, not just what "the team" did. Name your exact responsibility, without implying you did everything yourself.
• ✦Keep your portfolio, resume, and LinkedIn consistent. Reviewers cross-check them, and mismatched titles or dates read as a red flag.
• ✦Point to the moments where an insight changed your direction. That’s what shows real thinking. Do not just narrate the steps of your process.
• ✦Close every case study with a resolution. Use a number if you have one ("cut drop-off by 15%"). If you do not have hard data, use a testimonial, a direct user quote, or a clear before-and-after comparison instead.
• ✦Show what did not work and why you changed direction. Being able to understand and explain setbacks and pivotal decisions reads as seniority.
• ✦Be clear about what AI did and what you did. Passing off AI output as your own work and crediting AI with the design both read as red flags. Reviewers want to see that the decisions were yours.
• ✦Mention AI where you used it. For senior roles especially, a portfolio with no sign of it can suggest you’re not keeping up with how the work is done now. Pointing out where you deliberately left AI out, such as user interviews or a strategy call, signals judgment too.

Presenting your portfolio live

• ✦Structure the conversation like a sandwich: tell them what you’re about to cover, walk through it, then summarize what mattered.
• ✦Set the scene in the first couple of minutes: who was involved, what the project was, and why it mattered. Name the stakes plainly. What would have happened if the problem went unsolved?
• ✦Build in tension rather than listing steps flatly (see Writing the case study for the technique). It shows judgment, not just execution of a template.
• ✦Be honest about what did not go well. Being coachable reads as a safer hire, not a weaker one.
• ✦Speak with authority about your trade-offs. Explain why you picked one path over another, given the real business and technical constraints you were working under.

Where to build it

• ✦Dedicated portfolio builders
  Webflow (opens in a new tab), Framer (opens in a new tab), Squarespace (opens in a new tab), UXfolio (opens in a new tab), and Notion (opens in a new tab) are the most commonly recommended. UXfolio is built specifically for UX work, with a case study generator and layout tools already suited to the job. From personal experience: it’s a strong choice because it’s purpose-built for portfolios and the team keeps improving the platform, though the tradeoff is it’s not fully customizable if you want more control over the design.
• ✦Behance (opens in a new tab) and Adobe Portfolio (opens in a new tab)
  These pair well together: start on Behance to build a following and get feedback at no cost, then move to Adobe Portfolio once you want your own domain. Adobe Portfolio can pull directly from your Behance projects, so upgrading is not a rebuild. From personal experience: both are fairly easy to understand, but both are kind of clunky to build with. Adobe Portfolio gives you a little more room to customize than Behance, though design options are still limited on either.
• ✦WordPress (opens in a new tab)
  A flexible option if you want full control over the design, usually paired with a page builder like Elementor (opens in a new tab) or a portfolio-specific theme like Semplice (opens in a new tab). With WordPress and Elementor, customization is essentially unlimited, and the Pro plans include a dedicated portfolio widget. You also own the site outright, unlike UXfolio or Adobe Portfolio, where you’re building on someone else’s platform. The tradeoff is a real learning curve, for both Elementor and Semplice, even though neither requires code. Semplice is more purpose-built for portfolios specifically, while Elementor is more general-purpose and versatile beyond just a portfolio.
• ✦PDF or slide deck
  This one’s disputed. Sarah Doody argues a PDF portfolio is completely acceptable: faster to build, free to host, easier to update than a full site. Against that, UXfolio’s own hiring leads argue PDFs (and Figma files) are hard to navigate, and that getting redirected from a real domain to a PDF reads as less polished. Both are informed opinions. Your call, not a rule.
• ✦Vibe-coded sites
  A newer option: tools like Claude (opens in a new tab), Gemini (opens in a new tab), Lovable (opens in a new tab), Base44 (opens in a new tab), Figma Make (opens in a new tab), and Canva (opens in a new tab) can now generate a working site from a prompt or a rough layout, worth trying if you want more customization than a template offers without hand-coding it yourself. (This site is an example of that kind of workflow.)
• ✦Self-coded
  Still an option if you have the skills, though fewer designers need to now that no-code and AI-assisted tools cover most of what a portfolio needs.

Portfolio builder comparison

Do this / not this

Other perspectives