Re-reading Refuse to Create a UX Portfolio again nine (almost 10!) years after it was written was an eye opener. I’m definitely blown away by the 50K+ views and 1.7K claps. Thank you! In addition, I’m also surprised by how much the field of UX design has evolved. In 2014, I thought I made some valid critiques about the overemphasis on deliverables over problem-solving in portfolios. However, in 2023, the expectations for UX portfolios have changed significantly.
One thing is true. There are certainly those who have doubled-down on creating and advocating for UX portfolios. The UX Portfolio Workbook and Designing a UX Portfolio that I cannot find on the O’Reilly site (possibly out of print?). And that makes sense. People have to showcase their skills somehow.
When I wrote the article, highly visual portfolios on sites like Dribbble and other sites that highlight still screens, animations, or mockups reigned supreme. These did (and still do) showcase mockups where often the difference between designs varies by a certain font here, a few colors choices there. The thinking behind the work is left out.
Now when I do a search on Google’s homepage (using the new Generative AI), the results are similar to what I was advocating for: Case studies (In my article I pictured case studies that one might find, say, out of a Harvard MBA class but with amazing visual examples…)
Today, UX candidates are still expected to have some type of case studies, but the focus is less on pixel-perfect visuals. Rather, a ‘portfolio’ is now an opportunity to showcase process, strategy, and impact. The best portfolios walk through an entire UX engagement from initial research to final design. They demonstrate how the designer arrived at solutions based on user needs. An effective portfolio shows the thought process behind design decisions. My quote from 2014:
“Rarely, though, do I see UX Portfolios start off with a business challenge. If, as Mike Monteiro argues, designers are problem solvers, then we should be highlighting the problems and our approach to solving them rather than only focusing on the end solution.”
While visual artifacts like wireframes and prototypes are still included, they serve to support the narrative rather than being the main focus. The title of this article is ironic today, because refusing to have any type of work artifacts would be career-limiting for most UX designers. However, the content raises fair concerns about portfolios as pure eye candy. So today I present four problems that still exist, especially in the context of unprecedented changes facing the product design / UX industry, from a portfolio perspective, in 2023.
The problem of generative AI
Generative AI is, and will be, a problem for the UX profession. In fact, this article was co-written by Gen-AI (well, not this sentence at least 🥹). However, the same problems facing the writing professions now will be facing the UX profession soon (possibly sooner than we anticipate). Two immediate examples of how Gen-AI poses a problem come to mind:
The example below is my favorite one. When I first saw this on X, I was blow away.
The tool is Wireframe Designer, designed / developed by Wu Chenmu. It has a pro version / subscription available. While I haven’t personally tried it yet, it looks pretty intriguing, and I think it’s just the beginning of using prompts to create full designs (and even design systems).
So, what happens when your hand-crafted, bespoke app or web design that took you 5 months and multiple rounds of stakeholder revisions can basically be recreated in seconds with generative-AI? Arguably, at this point the actual visual designs will matter less, if at all.
I wanted to test some of this out. I simply fired up Midjourney to create an example mobile app landing page for a luxury car company. It took me 5 seconds.
If I wanted to take the example further, I could consult with Claude.ai, ChatGPT4, or even AutoGPT to find ways of figuring out the sections, taxonomies, common user interactions, and accessibility concerns I need to tackle for the aforementioned mobile car app. I could take the ‘not quite there’ designs from Midjourney as inspiration and create something pretty quickly, at least enough to show to a client. In under an hour. I could then test it out on Usertesting, Maze, or any other online testing service. I could then use a Gen-AI service to describe the value proposition, metrics, etc. You get the idea.
In this world where everything one works on can take months to achieve, what happens when a designer creates a simulated speedrun of the entire design lifecycle in a fraction of the time?
Problem 1: How does one compete against generative AI that can effortlessly create various design deliverables ?
The problem of specialization
Specialization is…a problem? Before, say, 2010–2012 (I am picking these dates arbitrarily, but you get the idea..) designers often tackled every type of UX problem that came their way. Site navigation, system design, UI design, user research….one or two people often tackled all of these tasks. Now, every aspect of UX design has become specialized. There are qualitative and quantitative ux researchers, ux engineers, motion designers, ux designers, content writers, etc.
Instead of someone becoming a ‘one person army’ and having a swiss-army knife skillset, that one person now has a case study where they ‘partnered with quantitative researchers’, or ‘advocated for better content design’ or ‘collaborated with a ux engineer’. All of this makes tasks like interviewing and constructing case studies a bit of a (scratches head) challenge, since the skills that..let’s use the role of a UX designer…involved one person doing everything have now magically morphed into that of a UX Conductor, orchestrating a shared problem solving practice amongst different practitioners.
The problem is that evaluating (and interviewing) a ‘UX Conductor’ is a difficult thing to do. For instance, if there was an existing design system already created (often by a DesignOps team), how does one evaluate the UX Designer’s visual design skills? At this point, does one simply evaluate the coordination efforts, treating the UX Designer as an effective (or not…) air traffic controller of sorts? An interviewer has to take the candidate’s description of how things happened and what responsibilities were divvied up as true, since the other team members aren’t on the call to corroborate the story.
Problem 2: How does one deal with increasing specialization and evaluate the UX Designer as an effective ‘UX Coordinator’?
The problem of design systems and ‘commodified design’
Design systems are amazing time saving tools and repositories available to us. Without them, we might still be deciding whether radio buttons or checkboxes are a preferred pattern to use (are we over deciding this? someone please confirm!).
However, now we have these robust things called Design Systems. And Design Systems allow us to save time by not rethinking every component that goes into a complex website / app. Often there are spec sites, Figma libraries, and more, for us to effectively push more designs out into the world at ever faster rates.
However, one big problem remains. What is the value-add of a product designer when, say 80% of what goes into a design has been thought out already? How does one differentiate their work, in terms of visual and interaction creativity, from other designers?
There are two immediately clear, and one less clear, answers here:
Show a unique journey across screens and interfaces that is wholly unique
Go deep on a particular component that is either new or updated
(My favorite) Just show how whatever you did improved whatever metric you are tracking
Either way, one is up against the system — the design system. A UX Designer’s solutions have to be ever more clever, ever more unique, ever more bespoke, and involve an ever-increasing number of stakeholders, quant and qual inputs, metrics served, and revenue generated than before.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7e696d32-9a75-4d2d-a3ab-762cad192acd_1600x1600.png)
Problem 3: How does a designer showcase their abilities in a world where nearly everything is a readymade pattern or component? Is the orchestration of components enough to communicate skill?
The problem of differentiation
Ultimately, expectations for UX portfolios and case studies have matured in the past 9 years. The most impressive UX candidates today can balance visual storytelling with substantive process documentation. They use their portfolios to highlight their approach to complex problems. While deliverables remain an important part of the story, the emphasis is on storytelling and conveying strategic insight. In 2023, portfolios that lead with business context and user understanding stand out. But what can one do to stand out, especially when everyone is describing their work in similar terms?
“Ryan Quintal, the Head of Design at Visible, offers an insightful list detailing the diverse skills that a Product/UX Designer should possess at various levels. You can use this list as a benchmark to identify and highlight specific skills that align with your current proficiency level in your case studies. For instance, let’s delve into a few skills that Ryan highlights for a Principal Product Designer (PD.IV):”
Demonstrates advanced knowledge of one or more product design specializations
Experience shipping products for internationalization and accessibility
Has strong, trusted relationships within the company
Easily adapts and scales their communication for developers, designers, stakeholders, and executives
Helps choose new tools and processes for the team
Now, if I’m a Principal Product Designer, I might craft a case study or two showing how I demonstrated advanced knowledge of a product area and shipped a product, paying extra attention to a11y (Accessibility) and i18n (Internationalization). I might follow it up with a case study discussing how I scaled a design to another platform, or helped standardize a particular process for the team.
Problem 4: How does a designer today stand out from those that are using similar techniques to showcase their abilities? What can one do to differentiate themselves and their uniqueness?
Conclusion
The problems and opportunities facing UX designers in 2023 are complex. Generative AI, increasing specialization, ubiquitous design systems, and the need to differentiate one’s skills all pose challenges for aspiring and experienced designers alike.
Yet there are paths forward. Designers can showcase their strategic thinking and business impact through compelling case studies (rather than focusing solely on deliverables). They can highlight their orchestration and collaboration skills in an environment of specialization. Even with robust design systems, designers have opportunities to customize journeys and components. And everyone has unique experiences that inform their perspective — tell your story.
The future of UX design will likely include increased use of AI tools. However, human creativity, empathy, and contextual understanding remain vitally important. No matter how polished an AI portfolio may be, insight and impact matter more. We all have opportunities to grow and refine our skills. Focus on problem solving, not deliverables alone. Tell compelling stories. Work collaboratively. And you will continue to evolve into an indispensable UX designer.