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I review a lot of portfolios at work and at the community college. From the groups newly minted designers applying to IBM, I find a few gems of beautifully crafted artifacts logically organized into cohesive projects. For the aspiring designers that I teach, here are ten examples from those inspirational UX portfolios.

Show a complete project

Rebecca Li - Product Designer at Facebook -Inspirational UX Portfolio

Rebecca Li – Product Designer at Facebook

Rebecca Li – Product Designer at Facebook

  • Starts with a strong visual artifact of product
  • Quickly defines what the project was about, who was it for, and what she did
  • Clearly outlines her process
  • Finishes with strong visual mockups
Kristian Tumangan - Product Design at IBM - Inspirational UX portfolio

Kristian Tumangan – Product Design at IBM

Kristian Tumangan – Product Design at IBM

  • Shows the research into the value proposition for doing this project
  • Storyboards of how this product helps the user
  • Continues the process with a video of testing
  • Outlines key findings and next steps

Map out the solution

Alan Shen - Product Designer for Netflix - Inspirational UX portfolio

Alan Shen – Product Designer for Netflix

Alan Shen – Product Designer for Netflix

  • Clearly outlines the problem and the context
  • Details solution with a decision map
  • Performs tests and reveals results

Highlight key interactions

Shane Dundfield - Product Designer - Inspirational UX Portfolio

Shane Dundfield – Product Designer

Shane Dundfield – Product Designer

  • Simple breakdown of research and insights
  • Perfect view of key interactions to give reviewers a clear understanding of the solution

Make it visually interesting

Melanie DaVeid - UX Designer - Inspirational UX Portfolios

Melanie DaVeid – UX Designer

Melanie DaVeid – Product Designer

  • Clear process for her approach to problem solving
  • Super interesting illustrations and color w/o feeling over designed

More inspirational UX portfolios

Bert inspiration UX portfolio

Bert – Creative Agency and inspirational ux portfolio

Steven Mengin Digital Designer inspirational ux portfoio

Steven Mengin Digital Designer

Doris Yee Product Designer - Inspirational UX Portfolio

Doris Yee Product Designer

Andrew Doherty UX designer

Andrew Doherty UX designer

Jeya Karthika Product Designer - Inspirational UX Portfolios

Jeya Karthika Product Designer

If you are looking for ways to improve your portfolio, invest time to examine what these designers did to display their work. How did they introduce the problem, show that they were focusing in the right direction, and explore logical solutions?

Matt Eng

Matt Eng

DesignOps Manager. Based in Austin,TX. Worked with clients such as Alcatel-Lucent, Ogilvy, RBC, Deloitte, Whirlpool, Polycom, Symantec, and Pebble. Matt teaches, mentors, and speaks about design, creativity, and fostering stronger connections within teams.