UX hiring is still quieter than it was a few years ago. Most of the design roles we recruit for at the moment are replacement hires, or a company bringing in its first product designer, and each of those roles tends to attract a lot of applications. When hiring managers have that many portfolios to look through, the ones that are easy to follow get read properly.
A while ago, our UX team sat down with two experienced design leaders to talk about what they look for when they review a portfolio. One was Juliana Ferreira, a design director whose recent roles at the time included BT and gov.uk. The other was Gavin Wignall, formerly Global Head of UX Design at Boston Consulting Group and Thomson Reuters. Gavin described the market then as "incredibly tough out there", and much of what they said applies even more now.
The CV usually comes first
It is easy to assume the portfolio is the first thing anyone sees but in most searches it’s usually the CV. Recruiters and hiring managers usually start with the CV to get a sense of someone's background: the companies they have worked for, the industries they know and the kind of products they have worked on. Once job history and skill background has been established then the portfolio is explored.
Our UX team's advice is to make the CV easy to scan and easy to find. Using the same terms as the jobs you are applying for, such as SaaS or design systems, helps recruiters and hiring managers find you. Keep it to two pages, start with a short summary of your strengths, and avoid unusual fonts or colours. It is also worth asking a recruiter, hiring manager or peer to read it before you send it out.
Once the CV has done its job, the portfolio matters most. Gavin was clear that for design roles it is not optional, and that even a small portfolio is better than none.
What to put in each case study
Both Juliana and Gavin said the content matters far more than how elaborate the portfolio is. Juliana's advice was to keep each project short and to tell it as a story: "Your ability to tell a good story in a couple of slides is key. The structure should be: short context, problem to be solved, how you did it, your impact. Also indicate your role on the specific project."
That last point is often missed. Most design work is done in teams, and a hiring manager wants to know which decisions were yours. Saying plainly that you led the research, or designed the checkout flow while someone else owned the visual design, makes the rest of the case study easier to trust.
The visual side still counts, because the portfolio is itself a piece of design. Images should support the story rather than fill space, before-and-after screens work well when they show a real change, and the basics of alignment, type and consistency will be noticed. A portfolio with careless layout makes people wonder about the rest of your work.
Should you include numbers?
This is where Juliana and Gavin disagreed, and both have a point.
Juliana's advice was to "show data in numbers wherever possible", because a clear result is strong evidence that the design worked. Gavin was more cautious. "You don't know what's real and what's not," he said, pointing out that portfolio metrics are hard to verify and are sometimes stretched.
The practical answer sits between the two. If you have a genuine result, such as a change in conversion or a drop in support tickets, include it, and explain how it was measured and what else might have contributed. That context is what makes a number believable. If you don't have reliable figures, describe what changed for users instead. A hiring manager would usually rather read an honest account than a statistic they are suspicious of.
How many projects to include
Some hiring managers like to see a wide range of work, and others prefer two or three strong projects. In our experience, it often comes down to personal preference, which makes it hard to get right for every application.
Juliana and Gavin both leaned towards fewer, better projects. Gavin suggested putting your strongest work first, since many reviewers will not get much further. Simularly, Juliana suggested showing your best and most relevant work rather than all of it. In practice, that often means adjusting the order or the selection for each role, so the first project a hiring manager sees is the one closest to the job.
If your best work is under NDA
Many designers cannot share their most interesting work because of confidentiality agreements. Gavin suggested creating a fictional project that shows how you approach a problem, from research through to the final design. It will not carry the weight of real shipped work, but it shows your process and your thinking, which is much of what a reviewer is looking for.
Another option is to show the work privately. A password-protected case study, or a short deck you walk through in an interview, can let you talk about projects you cannot publish.
Where to host your portfolio
On platforms, Gavin was relaxed. "It's not impressive anymore that someone's built their own website if I'm honest," he said. "For me, it's more about the content than the delivery."
That still holds. UX designers have plenty of ways to publish a professional portfolio without building a site from scratch. Framer and Webflow are popular choices, alongside platforms such as Squarespace, Figma Sites and Notion.
Behance and Dribbble can still be useful for showcasing visual work and helping people discover you, but they are generally better as supporting channels than as the only home for detailed UX case studies. PDFs and Figma presentations can also work well for applications and interviews.
Whatever format you choose, make sure it loads quickly, works well on mobile and makes your strongest work easy to find.
Looking for your next UX role?
We recruit product designers, UX researchers and UX and design specialists across the UK, Europe and the US, and we are happy to give feedback on a portfolio before it goes to a client. You can browse our current jobs or get in touch with our UX team.