5 mistakes that make even the best UX portfolios face rejection
And how to avoid them!
I’ve reviewed many UX portfolios to date, advised designers to fix them, and actually rejected candidates with sub-standard or copied portfolios, but if I would have to count the number of near-perfect or outstanding portfolios that I’ve seen throughout my career, they were only a handful of them!
The problem is not that design case studies are not good or visuals are not good. But the problem is that good designers do some mistakes that bad designers do not. Bad designers get rejected because they’re bad at their work — simple. It’s easy for them to understand this thing, and it’s easy for an interviewer as well to tell them this truth.
But when good designers get rejected, most of the time they don’t even understand the reason behind that rejection, because many times even the interviewer can’t tell them the reasons.
The first and very common mistake that many designers do is —
Including ‘everything’ in every single case-study
It’s your portfolio — not a to-do-list.
You don’t need to include each and every design process in every case study. From journey-map to empathy-map to site-map, from a user-flow to user-persona to user-journey. It’s like they’re forcefully trying to complete a check-list and in same pattern.
You see 3 different case studies in someone’s portfolio, you will see the same check-list repeated over and over again. If the problem statement was different, user requirement was different, why is your process same? And if your process is same, how can the there be any innovation, when all of these are fictional projects that you are doing for your portfolio?
They’re including everything in all projects, just because they read somewhere that these processes are important.
Undoubtedly they are — but as the design processes are important, the ‘reasoning’ behind them is also equally important.
If you cannot ask yourself ‘WHY’ should I include this process in this case study? If you can’t have the power to skip it, or do a different thing for it — how can a design manager trust that you will ask ‘WHYs’ once you join his team? And if that’s the case — why should you be hired?
The second most common mistake that designers do is —
It’s a case study, not a story book!
Making your case studies unbelievably long.
When you are presenting a portfolio, it’s advisable to keep the text in your case studies short and crisp. Be precise and very concise with your words. Do not write lengthy paragraphs and stories that no one wants to read.
Agreed. That your portfolio might be one of the best design-portfolios of the world, but the interviewer isn’t going through ‘your’ portfolio alone, right? He has to read 10 portfolios and short-list 5 candidates for the next round — all in maybe 4 hours? So, at any point if he feels he’s getting bored or annoyed, you are rejected right there and then.
That’s why you might not even get a reason why you are rejected!
Lack of context and over complicated case studies
After a very long case study, the last thing that the interviewer wants to see in your portfolio is lack of context.
If you have solved a design problem somewhere, it’s solution should not be present at the end of the entire case study. The interviewer has forgotten what you were talking about at page-3 when you present it’s solution at page-10. It’s impossible to remember so much, when you have to study 10 portfolios with 5 case studies each (on an average, so that makes 50 case studies in a day), and that is a lot of work!
If you have talked about a design solution at some point, show a glimpse right there, right next to the solution that you have provided. So that there’s clarity of thought. Do not say that — hey you remember, the problem that I solved in the very beginning? This is it’s design. Nobody has time to go back and refer to the problem that you solved earlier.
The second thing is — complicating your case study for no reason. Do not be a scammer! Don’t forcefully over-complicate things. The interviewer who is sitting to review your portfolio can understand it in seconds, that you are trying to hard to present yourself as a smart designer.
Many times designers will make an application and a website for something that isn’t even required!
Don’t believe me? I came across a project in someone’s portfolio where he had designed an app to remind a customer that his order is ready.
Suppose you are at Starbucks and you paid for your order, came back and sat in your chair and forgot about it. Starbucks staff usually makes loud announcements with your name, something like — Steve, your white macchiato is ready! Now, Steve knows it. He heard it. He has to get up from his chair to get that order. The last thing he needs is — his phone buzzing at the same time, announcing that his coffee is ready. I don’t need such an app on my phone. There is simply no requirement.
Now this — is what we call forcefully complicating things and making them complex just to look cool. Visually the app looked really cool with animated graphics and all — but otherwise, from genuine business perspective, is such an app even required? Think about it, and you’ll say ‘Hell, no!’
Lack of a continuous evaluation
Now you tell me, as a designer, what’s more important?
Validation at the end or evaluation, side by side?
Of course — a continuous evaluation that helps the interviewer also keep context of things, and remember what he’s reading. If you are solving a problem, design it too. Early designs, sketches and even wireframes, save the cost of production and save you from serious mistakes.
If you validate at the end, and if there are mistakes in your designs, that means — starting from scratch. You just wasted your efforts of weeks in your portfolio, and it might later multiply to your effort of months and years in a job. Not a good sign!
That’s why even in your portfolio, you should include those rough sketches and basic work that shows how you thought about design solutions, how far away were your thoughts and how you brought everything together to form a sensible solution.
Finally — that very sassy and complex looking ‘About-Me’ information
When an interviewer is reading ‘About Me’ section, all he wants to know are a couple of things —
Who is this person, apart from being a designer — He/She is a designer, I know that, so are 10 other people who have applied for this position, but who is he/she as a person?
Why is this person trying so hard — Believe me, anyone who has studied tens and hundreds of portfolios and interviewed multiple designers, can read between the lines and understand where are you trying too hard. A designer is also a person, and your bio should be as ‘humane’ as possible. If it only includes about design and processes and outcomes and achievements, it’s not you.
You are much more beyond your work and profession. You might love coffee, you might love cats and hate dogs or vice-versa, you might love rains and evening-walks, there might be things that an interviewer would want to know about you, beyond your interest in this job vacancy! Include them in your bio and let them see your human-side for once.Why has this person written this particular thing — This can refer to just anything that you have included in your bio, so be careful about every part. Your words might be harshly judged, so be empathetic, down to earth and responsible with them.
There are many designers who include things like ‘I don’t like reading’, which can impact your profile seriously, because reading can be a very serious part of your job, when you are given big product requirement documents to read.
But — being honest is equally important, so if you don’t like reading-books, there are better ways to say that. You can always say that I’m not a book-lover, but I am looking forward to read some product requirement documents.
These are the five most common reasons why a lot of portfolios and ultimately designers end up facing rejection, and many times they don’t even get to know why they’re rejected.
Did you also face rejection because of one of these reasons? Evaluate, analyse and fix the problem before you face another one!
© 2024. Mehekk Bassi.
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