The Content

Content

Screenshots, mockups, and stock photos — are not enough.

Content is Everything

How to avoid being cliche.

Honest Portfolio - UX Designer

Words

Sell your work. Explain what your role. Analyze the results. Have it reviewed/edited by another person or the EWU Writing Center.

Good example of clear writing for UX projects by Kristian Tumangan.

Writing Tips

• Language:

  • Clear and direct

  • Use UX terminology

  • Avoid “big dictionary” words

• Active Voice:

  • Direct. Less words to communicate same idea.

  • Examples of

  • Active Voice vs. Passive Voice (YouTube)

• Avoid run on Phrases

  • Clearly communicate to a non-UX person

  • Split into smaller sentences.

• Evaluate Writing

  • Grammarly

  • Hemingway app and What do these scores mean?

References for Writing

• What is UX Writing?

• Copywriting for Designers

• Google UX Writer position

Deliverables

Deliverables are artifacts of a Project. Interviews, Personas, Experience Maps, Card Sorts, etc. not the Project itself, but the artifacts of the processes. Properly explain the deliverables and why it’s included in your Portfolio.

Examples of clearly presented deliverables:

Images

Context is key for images. Not everyone will understand it. Even if they do, eliminate guesswork. Avoid overly generic imagery — see This Is A Generic Brand Video.

• Add titles, descriptions, annotations, notes, etc.

• Select meaningful images.

  • Bad: Laptop and Coffee, Website Mockup, ”Attractive people with thick glasses”

  • Good: The best images are you own

Objectives

Keep these objectives in mind for your Portfolio content.

• Reduce uncertainty about what the viewer is reading and seeing

• Quantify your work whenever possible with analytics, metrics, and measurable successes

• Summarize:

  • What did you learn?

  • Insights that surprised you?

  • Challenges and solutions

  • Avoid, “I didn’t do this”. Focus on what you did.

  • Testimonials

Create Content

• Collect assets for each deliverable to showcase e.g. screenshots, links to files, images of use, etc.

• Write explicitly defined Deliverables for each project e.g. Interview, Persona, Experience Map, Card Sort, etc.

• Save this content to any format, tool, or service you like