Mistakes I saw in the Portfolio reviews I did yesterday
6 minute read
I blocked out my day yesterday to do 4 portfolio reviews for designers who had booked a portfolio review mentoring session with me.
Here are some of the common mistakes I saw designers making:
They are using ‘lorem ipsum’ in their final mock-ups.
A lot of designers aren’t going to want to hear this, but this shows laziness in your work.
And hiring managers will not hire someone who they perceive to be lazy.
This is probably one of the most important things to help you get a job. Don’t cut corners.
When you start working, you will find that many companies don’t allow lorem ipsum in their designs even if they haven’t been finalised. Even if you’re unsure what the final copy should be, add a placeholder copy that makes sense!
2. UI can be more robust.
You don’t have to be super experienced to create a good UI mock-up.
My UI and visual design skills were NOT strong when I started working as a designer.
However, the UI for my projects in my case study were lovely!
How do you design beautiful mock-ups? Look through Dribbble, Instagram, and Pinterest for examples of beautiful UI design, grab a few examples and add them to your Figma board and iterate over and over again. Use the samples you collected as inspiration and play with their styles.
After you’ve got your first version of the UI. Iterate. Create 10 different versions, improving various aspects each time.
Again, don’t be lazy.
If you think this is going to be time-consuming. Remember, creating a great portfolio takes time. Also, you would rather spend the time now than feeling disappointed not getting jobs.
This won’t be wasted work either. These iterations you create will go into your portfolio! Which leads me to my next point
3. Not showing enough iterations and explorations.
Many portfolios I saw yesterday showed 1-2 examples of explorations the designer worked on. This was when they explored ideas in the development stage (with their wireframes) and their final UI exploration.
Our job is to show we explored multiple solutions to solve our problem. So adding 2 examples is NOT enough. It will make your case study look not very comprehensive and, therefore, make your design project look like it wasn’t complete. Hiring managers want reassurance that you have done the due diligence to pick the best possible solution, not the first one you thought of.
Daniel Fallman talks about the importance of design exploration: “Design exploration often seeks to test ideas and to ask “What if?”—but also to provoke, criticise, and experiment to reveal alternatives to the expected and traditional” ways of approaching problems. This is an effective way to show your ability to think through multiple options and consider various perspectives.
4. Proportions for the content are jarring.
A lot of the portfolios used huge images. These images covered the entire screen; reading the explanation and seeing the picture in one view wasn’t easy. You don’t want your user to be scrolling up and down to understand the story you are trying to tell. The hierarchy was not correct. It made it seem like the images were the most important thing. In some cases, it was true. However, the titles were being ignored due to this.
One of the reasons the images are so big is that designers are using a website builder, and when they add an image, it fills the entire width of the page. Find ways for it to take up less space.
5. Not explaining why your final design was chosen.
This is probably one of the most critical mistakes. Designers were adding all of their methodologies and activities that went into their design project, and suddenly, they added their final design mock-ups. There is no explanation of how they got to this final design or why it was chosen over others. No context was provided. This shows you don’t know why you chose that specific design over another option. And this is probably one of the most essential skills you need as a designer. There are MULTIPLE ways to solve a problem. It would be best if you communicated why you picked your specific solution to solve it.
Creating a case study is one project that never feels complete. You can make changes and improvements forever! However, correcting the vital elements can make a big difference in whether or not you are invited for job interviews.
Unfortunately, creating a case study is a skill in itself that you develop as you develop throughout your career. And if you get it wrong, you won’t be showcasing yourself in the best light.
This week, take an hour to review your portfolio and make some changes. And see the impact it has.
