<aside> 🕸️ What is the preferred medium for a portfolio website? The recruiters we interviewed unanimously said that websites are the preferred platform for portfolios since they are easy to access and more interactive. PDFs aren't as interactive as websites and having your portfolio in PDF format signals to recruiters that you are not familiar with industry standards.
Having a visually pleasing and easily navigable website is a huge plus because it directly shows recruiters your good design skills.
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<aside> 🏗️ How do I start setting up my portfolio website? First, you need to decide whether you will be using a website builder or coding your own website from scratch.
Using a website builder vs. coding your own website Whether you should use a website builder or code your own portfolio website depends on how comfortable you are with coding. Coding is great for making your website very unique, but if you're not comfortable in your coding skills, your work could end up looking unprofessional.
Many designers recommend using website builders. While you won't get to fully customize every part of the website, you're ensured convenience and quality in return. A website builder allows you to easily update your website content on the go and saves you time and effort from coding that you could use to further improve your portfolio content.
According to the designers we interviewed, one of the biggest factors in choosing how to set up your portfolio website is the ease with which you can update the content of your website since you'll likely be making several versions of your portfolio website and updating your work for each recruiting season. This being said, we recommend using a website builder.
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<aside> 💪 Website builders by flexibility
Most rigid Squarespace, Wix (paid subscription*) Pro: This gives you website templates to work with and makes it very easy to update your site Con: The least flexible to customize if you want a very specific look
Semi-Flexible Webflow (paid subscription*), Wordpress (one-time fee for template*), Cargo.site (free for students) Pro: Gives you templates to work with, allows you to easily update your site, and gives you tons of flexibility to customize your website layout (e.g. setting custom padding or layouts) without code Con: Requires learning the software to know how to fully utilize its customization features
Flexible Coding Pro: Very flexible, but is limited by your technical fluency Con: Takes a lot more effort to update, especially for minute and incremental changes
*Technically, most website builders are free and come with a built in yourdomain.website.com (e.g. yourdomain.squarespace.com, yourdomain.wix.com, etc.), but if you want to change your domain name to just yourdomain.com, you will need to pay for the subscription.
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<aside> 🦴 Parts of a portfolio
About Page Introduce yourself to your audience and let your personality shine through here!
Project Case Studies Showcase your skills and experience in project deep dives and case studies. Here is our guide for Writing a Case Study.
Resume Make your resume easily accessible for people who would like to see a detailed view your credentials, past experience, and skills in one place.
Contact Information Provide avenues through which people could best reach you and//or see what you're up to. This can include your email, social links, and other relevant profile links
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<aside> 🔢 How many projects should I have on my portfolio? There is no strict rule for how many projects a portfolio website should have, but as a rule of thumb, keep in mind that quality > quantity.
"Don’t put a project that is less than satisfactory just because you want it to seem like you have done so many projects. 1-2 good case studies is better than 6 not so good ones." – Sandy
On average, the recruiters and designers we interviewed suggested having 3-4 projects on your portfolio site, with the first two highlighted as your most solid project. Recruiters suggest putting your strongest project up top for maximum visibility as they typically do not have the time to go through every single project and choose to click into the first couple projects that surface on your portfolio. If they get enough signal on your skills from the first two projects, then they will contact you for an interview.
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<aside> 👷 Tips for designing your portfolio
Optimize for scannability and familiarity so that recruiters will be able to find all the information they need from you really quickly.
Look at portfolios on Cofolios and Bestfolios and observe how they utilize common design components and patterns (e.g. top navigation bars). These are likely to be the design patterns that recruiters are familiar with, which helps them navigate through your website more efficiently.
Looking at other portfolios' visual design can help you determine how to make your own website's visual design better. However, do not flat out copy other people's works!
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<aside> 🤔 What projects should I put on my portfolio? The main qualification for choosing what projects to put on your portfolio is knowing what kind of role you want to apply for:
"What is the role that you are applying for? Think about it from the viewer's perspective – they're looking for someone to fill a specific role, a specific need. For example, if you’re applying for a company whose core product is a consumer mobile app, ideally you’d want projects that can connect with that more easily." – Lawrence
For your reference, here is a list of different company, product, and job role types to help you determine what kind of projects to take on: Different kinds of companies you can apply to
Although it's tempting to put down all your projects, focus on consistency rather than the number of projects. If you're applying to a Product Design or UX internship role, prioritize and highlight your Product Design/UX projects rather than trying to give equal treatment to every different skill you have (e.g. graphic design, marketing work, coding projects).
Finding a niche within the industry you're trying to go into can be helpful in making you stand out. For example, if you are a very visually-oriented person, having lots of visual design works can get you a first internship in UI design.
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<aside> 🥇 What projects should I include if I'm recruiting for my first internship? Feel free to show personal projects, class projects, club projects, hackathon projects, and app redesigns. These are totally fine as long as you know your design and thought process inside out and these projects can showcase your abilities in problem solving, product thinking, applying or conducting UX research, interaction design, and/or UI design.
Tip: Joining design, product, or engineering clubs can help you come up with the motivation and opportunity to work on projects and collaborate with people in other roles. Additionally, joining clubs can connect you with more experienced members or alumni who can help you get your first design opportunity.
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<aside> ✅ I already have projects in my portfolio but I am having trouble choosing which ones to include. How can I go about deciding? Below are some important factors to consider:
Primary (Most important)
Secondary
Tertiary (only important if you've achieved the primary and secondary criteria above)
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<aside> 👉 Writing a Case Study
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