#24 How to convert web designer’s portfolio to UX portfolio

A lot of web designers want to transition to UX designers, as that seems like an easy thing to do on its surface. If you are serious about moving in to user experience, you need to spend some time to work on your portfolio towards that direction, in order to convert your web designer’s portfolio to UX portfolio.

As a web designer, I understand that you may have only done web-based projects or websites. And the final output for those projects might be something that you are not happy with, or not what you intended. 

But you can actually take those projects and turn those into case studies by shedding lights from a UX perspective.

You can articulate how you would reframe the project from a UX point of view, and rework on the project based on that new perspective and process.

If you have a project with a final output that you don’t feel comfortable, you can document the whole process, and clearly point out what went wrong, what you would have done if you were given enough resource and opportunity, then actually work on ideal design to prove your point.

  • Document the process of your project from start to finish
  • Point out issues along the way:
    • what went wrong
    • what you would have done if xyz (e.g. if you were given enough resource…)
  • Try to be as objective as possible, don’t just blame others. It’s OK to criticize, but when you do, you should propose a solution.
  • If the final product turned out to be very different from what you originally designed, compare those two, and point out pros and cons for both.
  • Come up with a revised plan and strategy to improve the process and output.
  • Include user test as part of the process so that you can learn from users.
    Create a design mockup based on the revised plan and strategy above.
    Articulate improvement points of your new design.
    Point out potential issues of your new design too.

The key point here is for you to clearly demonstrate how you can learn from your past experience, analyze issues, come up with a better plan including how to collaborate with other stakeholders such as clients, developers and managers, and improve your design output.

If you can put your serious effort and pull out these together, I think the whole documentation of your thought process to an improved design output can become quite convincing in showing your problem-solving skills and a healthy, positive mindset as a UX designer.

You first need to get through a stereotype label that recruiters and hiring managers will immediately put on you that, ”you don’t have enough experience”.

A UX designer solves a user’s problem, rather than simply creating fancy visuals. And you need to concretely show your ability to do so.

Being a UX designer is a journey of continuous learning.

In addition to above, you should constantly work on your own UX projects to further build your experience and portfolio. Check out my other article on how to work on your own UX project.


Check out YouTube version too!

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