A UX portfolio without feedback is like a product that never gets tested – it won’t succeed.
As a UX designer, you wouldn’t launch an app or website without external input, so why risk it with the product – your portfolio – that shapes your future? Collecting feedback from seniors, mentors, and peers transforms a portfolio from “acceptable” to “great,” and here’s why:
1. Make it resonate with decision-makers
Your portfolio’s success hinges on how well it speaks to and connects with recruiters and design leads. Feedback helps bridge the gap between your intentions and their expectations. The reason being that, oftentimes, it can be hard to take a step back and identify areas in your material that may confuse or disengage someone completely new to it. For example, there might be small, unintended things in your writing that could sound off-putting to someone who doesn’t know you. On a more practical level: some things might need more explanation, others less. Such issues are hard to catch when you’ve been laser-focused for hours and days, yet they can easily ruin your momentum, especially when the competition is tight.
Seeking outsider insights will ensure that you catch these things, so your portfolio communicates your skills and impact the way you intended and in a way that resonates with decision-makers, positioning you as a standout candidate.
2. Refine your storytelling in case studies
Your professional portfolio must articulate the stories behind your designs. Storytelling is an increasingly important aspect of portfolios, as good storytelling in a portfolio signals good communication skills. Advocating for users and UX principles is at the core of the job of UX designers. After all, it doesn’t matter how much user testing you did if you cannot facilitate change through effective communication and advocacy. Unfortunately, the lack of great storytelling is one of the main issues we see in UX portfolios. The easiest way to fix this is to ask fellow product designers to read and review your portfolio.
A reviewer can highlight where your narrative feels too vague or overly detailed, helping you strike the perfect balance between depth and brevity. This way, you’ll end up with an optimized story without skips.
3. Highlight what should stand out
What you consider your strongest project might not always be the one you’d think. As a product lead, I often see projects in portfolios that should’ve never made it (at least not in the way they were published). The are many reasons for this: non-UX project, showing no impact, outdated, feeling unfinished (“to be continued” or “coming soon”), and so on. Other times, UX designers just don’t realize which of their projects should be prioritized. They highlight projects that don’t show anything of their design decisions or impact.
Collecting feedback helps you identify which projects should take center stage in your portfolio. There might be a smaller project you’re ranking lower that showcases unique skills, like your ability to solve complex problems within tight constraints. A fresh set of eyes, not yet overthinking every detail in your portfolio, will have an easier time identifying these oversights.
4. Prepare for interviews
UX portfolio feedback doesn’t just refine your work; it also prepares you for UX designer interviews. Mentors and peers can simulate the types of questions you might face, such as why you chose a particular approach or how you overcame challenges in a project. By posing these questions, they force you to think of answers, which is interview prep in itself. Chances are, design leads will ask the same or similar questions.
For instance, a senior reviewer might point out that a particular design decision in your portfolio is unclear, prompting you to add an explanation to your case study and practice articulating it for future interviews.
How to get UX portfolio feedback
The first thing we need to agree on is that “the more, the better.” The more people review your portfolio, the better it will be. You should cast a wide net: peers, seniors, mentors, and teachers. Designers from all walks of life. Your only criterion should be that the person you’re asking is knowledgeable about UX portfolios or the UX job market. Unfortunately, your grandma won’t do it for this task, regardless of how amazing she is.
Finding portfolio reviewers can be the hardest part of the entire process. People are busy, and most don’t want to spend their time reviewing a stranger’s portfolio in their free time. Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to this.
You need a two-fold strategy:
- Go to the right places with your review requests.
- Make the process easy for the reviewer.
1. Go to the Right Places with Your Review Requests
Looking for reviewers in dead Slack channels or suspect Facebook groups is a waste of your time. Instead, try some of the following focused methods:
- If money is not an issue, find mentors on platforms like ADPList and schedule a meeting with them to review your portfolio. To maximize value, ensure they have great reviews and relevant work experience. For example, if your goal is to become a product designer in fintech, look for mentors with decision-making design experience in fintech. The more targeted the feedback, the better.
- Reach out to mentors on LinkedIn. Those who explicitly identify as mentors are more likely to help. Just because someone is a Senior UX Designer doesn’t mean they’re open to reviewing portfolios or helping aspiring designers. Mentors, however, are typically more accommodating. So filter for the word “mentor.”
- Portfolio review threads on UX-related Reddits are also great options. Many large UX subreddits have permanent or weekly review posts. If the rules allow, you can also create a new post to ask for reviews. (But make sure to check the rules!)
- If you attended a UX bootcamp or completed a product design-related BA/MA, reach out to your past teachers, mentors, or peers for help. Educators are used to such requests and are usually happy to assist.
2. Make the Review Process Easy for the Reviewer
One major reason professionals hesitate to accept review requests is the cumbersome process of reviewing portfolios. During our research for UXfolio’s Review feature, this was one of the biggest findings. Typically, reviewers create a Google Doc, copy-paste screenshots of portfolio sections, images, and whatnot, and leave their comments underneath. This is a messy and daunting task. However, it’s one way to go.
The Classic Process Made Better
If you choose the Google Doc process, make sure that you take the lead in specifying the steps, while offering some flexibility. Many people think leaving every option open is considerate, but it often has the opposite effect: it creates more work for the reviewer. Provide a clear process and timeline, but keep both flexible enough to accommodate.
Do It in Conversation
Asking for verbal portfolio reviews has pros and cons. The pros: it’s similar to how reviews happen during interviews, quicker to schedule, and more comfortable for the reviewer. The cons: people tend to be less critical in person, and nuances can be lost since the conversation may feel rushed because of the shorter, more rigid time frame.
The Final Boss: UXfolio’s Review Feature
The best option is UXfolio’s Review feature. We put months of research into this feature, interviewing both sides (the reviewer and the reviewee) to remove as much pain from the review process as possible. What we arrived at is one of our flagship differentiating features:
If you build your portfolio in UXfolio, we generate a special review link you can share with anyone. This link will open your portfolio in review mode. Using this mode, reviewers don’t need to register to leave feedback, even if they need to revisit the review later. We learned that:
- Many reviewers don’t need an account since they’re not building a portfolio.
- People are hesitant to register for a tool they don’t need at the moment.
- The option to register a free UXfolio account is always there.
In review mode, they’ll encounter the most streamlined review process ever:
- They can walk through your portfolio and leave notes in the Overview panel.
- They can leave comments for each portfolio section for targeted feedback.
- They can categorize each comment, which you can later filter as you focus on improving specific aspects of your portfolio:
- Design: For typography, color, or size-related comments.
- Structure: For alignment with information architecture or overall structure.
- Content: For writing improvements, clarification, or shortening.
- Imagery: For feedback on supplementary images or graphics.
- They can use section-level emojis to express positive feedback (clap, heart, thumbs up, etc.).
While other tools may offer similar solutions, UXfolio’s Review feature is uniquely tailored to the UX portfolio review experience for both reviewers and reviewees. And what’s best is that this feature comes as part of the best UX portfolio builder tool. You can build your UX portfolio with UXfolio, then immediately send it for reviews.
