Table of Contents
- Why your UX portfolio sounds like everyone else's
- The great UX designer identity crisis
- 1. “I have empathy.”
- 2. “I am a problem solver.”
- 3. “I think outside the box.”
- What to show instead: The receipts UX portfolio
- 1. Show your attention to detail
- 2. Show your collaboration skills
- 3. Show your adaptability
- 4. Show your work ethic
- 5. Show your learning
- 6. Show your curiosity
- 7. Show your initiative
- 8. Show your process
- 9. Show your passion
- 10. Show your failures
- 11. Show your impact
- 12. Show your skills
- The storytelling fatigue (and why everyone’s tired of it)
- Why this happens
- Break the template
- Anti-pattern alert
- The new storytelling mindset
- The recovery plan: From generic to genuine
- The path forward: Building your evidence UX portfolio
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Read time: under 9 minutes
Why your UX portfolio sounds like everyone else's
Let me guess. Your portfolio starts with something like: “I’m a passionate UX designer who loves solving complex problems with empathy and creativity.”
If so, congrats; you sound exactly like every other designer.
Hiring managers have seen that line a thousand times. Your “unique” story blends into a sea of identical portfolios stuffed with the same buzzwords: empathy, creativity, problem-solving.
I get it. I’ve been there. I once spent weeks perfecting my “About Me” section — convinced it showed my originality. But while I was busy telling people how creative I was, I wasn’t actually showing it.
The great UX designer identity crisis
The UX field is filled with good intentions, but also tired narratives.
Everywhere you look, designers describe themselves the same way. But if everyone’s telling the same story, who’s actually listening?
Let’s break down the 3 most common identity claims that are quietly undermining your portfolio, and how to replace them with something real.
1. “I have empathy.”
Yes, empathy matters. But simply claiming it doesn't make it meaningful.
Empathy without action is just sentiment. What matters is how you use that empathy to make decisions, navigate trade-offs, and advocate for users when it's inconvenient.
Too many designers stop at: “I care about users.”
- But do you care enough to say no to stakeholders?
- To redesign a flow that already passed dev?
- To re-test when the data isn’t clear?
2. “I am a problem solver.”
This one sounds noble, but it’s become a generic placeholder.
Solving problems is the job. It doesn’t make you special. What matters is how you solve problems.
- Do you jump straight to wireframes?
- Or do you untangle the root cause first?
- Do you solve for the user, or just ship what fits the timeline?
3. “I think outside the box.”
This phrase is the biggest box of all. Everyone claims creativity. Few can prove it.
Hiring managers don’t want wild ideas for the sake of novelty, they want grounded originality: the kind that solves real problems in unexpected ways, not gimmicks.
Pro tip: Before writing another word about yourself, search "UX designer portfolio" on Google. Count how many times you see the same phrases. Then delete those phrases from your vocabulary.
Your full guide to creating an outstanding portfolio and getting noticed.
What to show instead: The receipts UX portfolio
1. Show your attention to detail
🛑 Don’t say you’re meticulous.
✅ Show:
- Accessibility annotations on wireframes
- States: empty, loading, error, success
- Consistent naming and spacing in Figma libraries
- Micro-interactions with intention (e.g. loading indicators with rationale)
Pro tip: Include an audit screenshot — e.g. where you spotted and fixed inconsistent paddings or spacing. It proves you sweat the small stuff.
2. Show your collaboration skills
🛑 “I work well with others” is a placeholder.
✅ Show:
- Screenshots of FigJam workshop boards
- Team feedback loops with before/after iterations
- Slack threads or email snippets (redacted) showing how you aligned with engineers
- Your role in facilitating or bridging gaps between teams
Pro tip: End each case study with a “Teamwork Wins” section. Call out how collaboration shaped the outcome — not just what you did solo.
3. Show your adaptability
🛑 Don’t say you’re flexible.
✅ Show:
- Two versions of a design (before/after a major pivot)
- How you changed scope or approach mid-project
- Quick design tests you ran based on changing user needs
- How you reframed the problem after new research insights
Pro tip: Use the word "because" often. E.g. “We redesigned the onboarding because users didn’t understand the value prop in the first 30 seconds.”
4. Show your work ethic
🛑 Nobody believes “I work hard.”
✅ Show:
- Design libraries or component audits
- How you helped junior teammates level up
- Wiki pages you’ve written to document systems
- Internal design critiques you hosted or improved
Pro tip: A screenshot of a Miro board with a timestamp at 2:14am isn't necessary, but showing ownership of hard, unglamorous work speaks volumes.
5. Show your learning
🛑 “I’m a lifelong learner.”
✅ Show:
- How feedback changed your approach
- Iterations driven by usability test results
- Before/after snapshots of your own skill progression
- A design critique that stung — and what you did next
Pro tip: Add a “What I’d Do Differently” section in your case studies. It’s humble, real, and shows growth.
6. Show your curiosity
🛑 “I ask a lot of questions” isn’t enough.
✅ Show:
- Research plans you co-wrote or initiated
- Testing ideas or assumptions before building
- Questions you brought into a stakeholder meeting
- Exploratory sketches before you settled on a solution
Pro tip: Use curiosity as a plot device, highlight moments when a “weird” question led to a breakthrough insight.
7. Show your initiative
🛑 “I go above and beyond.”
✅ Show:
- New workflows or tools you introduced to your team
- UX debt you addressed without being asked
- Side projects that solved internal team problems
- Volunteer leadership (mentorship, meetups, brown bags)
Pro tip: Include a “Behind the Scenes” page. Show the effort others didn’t see, the invisible labor that made visible impact.
8. Show your process
🛑 Don’t assume people know how you think.
✅ Show:
- Validation methods: how you knew it worked
- Trade-offs: what you cut, what you prioritized, and why
- Sketches, wireframes, user flows, and decisions in-between
- Decision-making trees (“We considered 3 flows. Here’s why we chose this one.”)
Pro tip: Create process GIFs or videos — a time-lapse of your workflow is more powerful than static slides.
9. Show your passion
🛑 Skip the “I love design” line.
✅ Show:
- Your bookshelf or learning routine
- Design meetups you attended or organized
- Blog posts, talks, or reflections you’ve shared
- Personal projects, design challenges, or open-source contributions
Pro tip: Passion shows in energy, not volume. One great side project says more than 500 words of self-love.
10. Show your failures
🛑 “I fail fast” is trendy, but vague.
✅ Show:
- A test that failed and what you did next
- Feedback that made you rethink your approach
- A design that didn’t ship and what you learned
- Misaligned assumptions and how you course-corrected
Pro tip: Call it “Lessons I Paid For.” Everyone makes mistakes. Not everyone reflects on them.
11. Show your impact
🛑 “I made a difference” is empty.
✅ Show:
- Quotes from users or stakeholders
- Cost/time savings from your design system
- Increased usability, accessibility, or conversion
- Metrics moved (engagement, completion, NPS, etc.)
Pro tip: Even if you don't have hard metrics, use relative ones. “Users completed tasks 40% faster in testing” works wonders.
👉 How to showcase impact without clear metrics:
12. Show your skills
🛑 “I’m good at UX” means nothing.
✅ Show:
- A breakdown of your role vs. others
- A carousel of micro-interactions, transitions, or UX writing
- A project that flexed your strengths (e.g. IA, interaction design, research)
Pro tip: Add a “Choose Your Own Adventure” section — where viewers can jump straight to examples of research, IA, interaction design, etc.
Your full guide to creating an outstanding portfolio and getting noticed.
The storytelling fatigue (and why everyone’s tired of it)
Somewhere along the way, “storytelling” became a checkbox in UX.
- Every designer is suddenly a “storyteller.”
- Every portfolio now opens with a hero’s journey.
- Every case study reads like a high school essay titled How I Solved World Peace with Figma.
But let’s be honest: Most of these stories aren’t stories. They’re polished timelines with predictable outcomes.
“We found a problem.”“We did some research.”“We designed a solution.”“The stakeholders loved it.”
Yawn. That’s not storytelling. That’s reporting.
Why this happens
Designers want to show process, but confuse process with plot.
We mistake linearity for narrative. We avoid vulnerability and skip the messy parts because we think success = perfection.
However, perfect stories don’t build trust. Honest ones do.
Break the template
Real stories don’t move in straight lines. They have:
- Tension (user needs vs. business goals)
- Setbacks (dead ends, failed tests, tech limitations)
- Hard choices (what to prioritize, who to disappoint)
- Growth (how you changed because of the work)
Think less “highlight reel”— more behind-the-scenes documentary.
Tell me about the usability test that flopped.The research insight that made your team uncomfortable.The feature you fought to remove (not add).The uncomfortable conversation you had to advocate for accessibility.
That’s where the story lives. In the conflict, not the checklist.
Anti-pattern alert
If your case study reads like a perfect fairytale with zero conflict, no trade-offs, and smiling stakeholders… You're not telling the whole story.
Design is never that clean. And when your stories pretend it is, it signals either inexperience or a lack of reflection.
Honest stories = signal. Flawless stories = fluff.
The new storytelling mindset
Storytelling in UX isn’t about dramatic flair, it’s about revealing your thinking through human moments.
Try this:
- Instead of “I led the team,” write about how you handled disagreement within the team.
- Instead of “we shipped the solution,” describe the iteration you threw away and why.
- Instead of “we got buy-in,” show the tension and negotiation it took to get there.
Pro tip: When you’re reviewing your case study, highlight the sentence where something changed → a decision, a mindset, a direction. That’s your turning point. That’s your story.
👉 The Power of Storytelling in UX Design: A Comprehensive Guide
The recovery plan: From generic to genuine
Ready to fix your portfolio? Here's your action plan:
Week 3: Story reconstruction
- Rebuild each case study with evidence first
- Add context only where needed
- Focus on decisions and outcomes
- Include failures and learnings
Pro tip: The best portfolios feel like you're sitting next to the designer while they walk through their process. Make yours feel like a behind-the-scenes documentary, not a marketing brochure.
The path forward: Building your evidence UX portfolio
The designers who survive the next decade won't be the best storytellers; they'll be the ones with the strongest evidence of impact.
Your portfolio should answer one question: "What problems has this person actually solved, and how do I know they can solve mine?"
Everything else is just noise.
Final check: If your current portfolio disappeared tomorrow and you had to rebuild it using only screenshots, metrics, and documentation from your actual work, what would it look like?
That's the portfolio you should be building today.
All the best to you all 🍀
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