Review of 12 Best UX Designer Portfolios: Examples, Why You Need One, What It Consists Of
Why should a UX designer build a portfolio?
A UI UX design services portfolio is an international standard of work for every designer in the industry. Paul Rand used a portfolio, and Austin Kleon still recommends collecting it in his international bestseller Show Your Work. Building a portfolio is also part of the brand strategy of digital agencies and product companies. In a word, it’s a standard.
Before you start assembling your portfolio, ask yourself a series of questions. What task do you want to solve with your portfolio? With what elements do you want to convince even the most demanding employer/client of your professionalism? What do you want to tell your clients and what should they know about you and your work when they first look at your portfolio?
Your UX design portfolio isn’t just a virtual gallery of all your most beautiful work. It’s a carefully crafted story that takes you behind the scenes of your methods and processes. A good portfolio shows how you tackle a range of UX and interface design challenges. It also shows your thought process and approach to problem solving.
And your portfolio should not only reveal your work culture, but also be nicely packaged.
So, let's take a look at 12 portfolio examples and see what makes each one so strong.
Interesting fact: For designers, Behance, Dribbble and, of course, their own website work equally well to attract clients.
1. Portfolio pitch from UX designer Gloria Lo: Tell us what your specialty is
Who is Gloria Lo ?
Gloria Lo is a self-taught designer from Sydney, Australia. In her own words, she uses design to improve the lives of others and strives to learn something new every day.
Why is Gloria's portfolio awesome?
A good portfolio presents you as a designer and highlights your strengths. Employers and potential clients want to know who you are and what issues you can solve. Ideally, you can convey this in a few seconds on the first screen.
Gloria has used a three-tier structure. We are greeted by an attractive headline that reveals her strengths with four simple verbs. It is now clear that Gloria is a creative, multi-talented soul with quite a few hobbies under her belt. And (funny!) these verbs are highlighted in different colors when you hover over them with your mouse – an interesting and pleasant touch that highlights her personality!
After such a tempting title, you want to know more about Gloria - and, of course, we read the text under the title. Right there, Gloria tells us what exactly she specializes in and what she is interested in. She manages to express her thoughts briefly and succinctly - the most delicious thing in just two sentences.
"ABOUT" - It's cool that in this section we are greeted by a video and a detailed description of her values (including with emojis), as well as a detailed review from her employer and links to her music and art - all this helps to feel the designer.
What can we learn from Gloria Lo?
Make a meaningful introduction. Aim for compactness and succinctness. In the ABOUT section, expand on your work culture. Don’t be afraid to add personality to your visual presentation – be different, stand out.
What to remember and take on board?
The viewer should have a clear understanding of who you are and what you do within seconds of landing on your UX portfolio. Make a compelling headline that communicates the most important information at a glance.
2. Portfolio of UX designer Moritz Osterlow: tell us how you came to the result
Who is Moritz Osterlow?
Moritz Osterlow is a multi-hyphenated UX designer from Germany. He specializes in interface design and web design.
Why is Moritz's portfolio awesome?
Moritz's portfolio captures the essence of what UX design is: the full cycle of solving a user's problem. Moritz doesn't just show the finished product; he shares in detail all the steps, methods, and thought processes that helped him get there.
Each project is presented in a detailed case study format, which immediately immerses us in the world of problem solving from the task formulation through research to the result. Click on any of these examples, and you will immediately feel like you are in the room with Moritz himself, as if watching over his shoulder as he works on the design and development of the next solution.
Moritz meticulously documents and documents every step. It is this approach that allows us to take the journey with him, even after the fact. Moritz does a great job of recreating the context of the task: competitor analysis, interviews and surveys, user profiles, information architecture, wireframes, prototypes, and usability testing. At each step, he explains what he did, why he did it, and what he learned as a result.
What can we learn from Moritz Osterlow?
When presenting your work, follow Moritz's example. Don't reveal the finished solution, but allow the viewer to move through the case with you and explore your thought process. Start at the beginning and walk the viewer through the main steps that led you to the final solution. Showing cool designs right away is also a good practice, just make sure you demonstrate the process as clearly as possible, step by step.
What to remember and take on board?
Demonstrate your process in your portfolio, not just the finished product. Talk about the methods you used and what you learned while working on the project. Share the challenges you faced and how you eventually solved them. Each case should tell a complete and logical story.
3. UX designer Elizabeth Lin's website and portfolio: visualize every step
Who is Elizabeth Lin ?
Elizabeth Lin is a San Francisco-based product designer with a passion for fashion, teaching, and the classical saxophone.
Why is Elizabeth's portfolio awesome?
Elizabeth Lin's portfolio is a classic storytelling exercise. Like Moritz, she presents her design work in case studies, documenting her process from start to finish. But Elizabeth's portfolio has a twist — using visuals to draw attention and emphasize the story.
Each step in her research is illustrated with some kind of visual element—whether it's a virtual wall of sticky notes, a survey form that was sent to study participants, or early prototypes.
Another strong feature in her portfolio is the small notes to the right of the text. The notes are highlighted in a different font and color than the main text. These snippets draw the eye as you scroll, immerse you in the project, and create a thoughtful atmosphere. Here are a few notes: “It was great to see how differently teachers would use this dashboard” or “We didn’t move forward with this research because we wanted to test the basic solution first.”
Supporting your case studies with visual nuances brings the project to life. Elizabeth’s portfolio is a great example of how visual and textual storytelling should work together to reveal your approach to UX design.
What can you learn from Elizabeth Lin?
The goal of your UX portfolio is to show and tell. Like Elizabeth, support each case study with interesting and useful visuals or real artifacts from your project, rather than just illustrations.
When working on a new design project, try documenting your process: take screenshots of the user interviews you conduct; take photos of your wall covered in sticky notes after a hard brainstorming session; keep your mockups and wireframes handy as they go from low to high fidelity. When it comes to adding a new case study to your portfolio, these artifacts will help you tell a coherent story.
What to remember and take into account ?
Use visual elements to capture attention and reveal details in each project. Illustrate each step with photos, diagrams, and other visualizations.
4. UX Designer Olivia Truong's Portfolio: Describe the Problem in Its Entirety
Who is Olivia Truong ?
Olivia Truong is a product designer based in Boston, Massachusetts. Olivia loves getting out into the world and capturing its beauty and weirdness.
Why is Olivia’s portfolio awesome?
A UX designer is a problem solver. So your UX portfolio should demonstrate how you identify and solve different user problems. Olivia’s portfolio does this very well, as you’ll see in her Routr case study , where she solves the problem of boring dates.
Olivia begins her case by framing the problem in terms that are close to her own. She doesn't just talk about the "user's" problem - she frames it as "our" problem, inviting the reader to step into the user's shoes, as she did.
Olivia then goes on to explain in detail how she attempted to solve the problem in the "Something Must Be There" section. As we dive into the case, we learn how she scoured the internet and app stores for a solution, only to find that none of the existing solutions met the requirements.
In the next section, "Dating," Olivia shares the next steps in her problem-solving journey: brainstorming the elements of a successful date.
Having carefully defined the problem and described her approach to solving it, Olivia moves on to "creating a journey." Notice how, even as she talks about her solution, Olivia continually refers back to the user's original problem.
Olivia’s portfolio shows her as a thoughtful problem solver, which can earn her extra points in the eyes of a recruiter or potential client. The focus on problem solving also conveys another important UX trait: empathy for the user. When you read Olivia’s case studies, you don’t get the feeling that she’s just going through the motions; she’s genuinely engaged with the problem and how to solve it for the user. That’s the mark of a passionate UX designer!
What can we learn from Olivia Truong?
UX designers are problem solvers, so make sure your portfolio highlights that. Olivia’s portfolio teaches two lessons: first, start each case with a detailed description of the problem, and second, frame the problem in a way that conveys depth (empathy). Think about the language you use. Don’t just frame the problem — put emotion into it!
Olivia describes how planning dates was “a pain in the ass” because “coming up with ideas is not the easiest thing to do in a busy life.” This approach is much deeper and more empathetic than the dry one: “users have a hard time coming up with new date ideas because they are so busy.” Last but not least, always check in with the original problem – even if you are already making progress towards a solution.
What to remember and take on board?
Your UX portfolio should demonstrate your approach to problem solving. Start each case with a detailed description of the problem, use emotional language to convey empathy. Check in with the problem again and again.
5. UX Designer Amy Wu's Portfolio: Show Measurable Impact
Who is Amy Wu ?
Amy Wu is a San Francisco-based UX/product designer and an experienced public speaker. She also has several impressive awards to her credit, including the Paula Rhodes Award for Exceptional Achievement in Interaction Design.
Why is Amy's portfolio awesome?
One of the biggest challenges you'll face as a UX designer is measuring and demonstrating the impact of your work. You know you've improved the user experience, but how do you justify it?
Check out Amy Wu's portfolio. Amy does something incredibly important (but incredibly rare): she puts her UX design work into a business context.
Take her case study Citi Bike Onboarding , for example . Amy sets a clear business goal — “to increase ridership among first-time users, especially tourists” — followed by a specific success metric. Amy also provides a project timeline, underscoring the significance of her work: “Within 6 months, Citi Bike rolled out a new onboarding experience to 330+ kiosk stations. August 2014.”
Amy concludes her case study with a data-driven post-launch analysis of the new onboarding experience, demonstrating how the Citi Bike redesign impacted the user experience (UX): “We found that one month after launch, we saw a 14-month increase in one-time users.”
What can we learn from Amy Wu?
Amy demonstrates how to work in a business environment. This is essential if you want to practice UX for life, but it’s a nuance that many designers tend to miss. Sure, you’re in business to care about users, but it’s also important to recognize that companies have their own goals and plans to achieve. So you need to show how UX contributes to those goals.
Bonus points if you, like Amy, demonstrate the business impact of your work. If you have data related to the project, this will be easy — but what if you don’t have any specific metrics? Even without data, you can frame your work in a business context. Follow Amy’s example and describe the business or product goal at the beginning of the case. What do you hope to achieve with your work? How do you plan to improve business metrics and customer happiness? For example, making an app more user-friendly should help improve retention.
Before you begin, establish some success criteria. How will you measure the results of your work? What warning signs will you look for after a product launch or relaunch? The best UX designers are those who can advocate for the user while meeting the needs of the business, so try to demonstrate this in your portfolio.
What to remember and take on board?
Add facts about the impact on business metrics to your portfolio. Describe the business goals and success criteria for each case, and describe significant growth in numbers if possible.
6. Daniel Autry Designer Portfolio: Showcase Your Skills in Complex Projects
Who is Daniel Autry ?
Daniel Autry is a designer, developer, and behavioral scientist based in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is fascinated by social products and currently researches the intersection of technology and mental illness.
Why is Daniel’s portfolio awesome?
Daniel Autry’s portfolio features some great healthcare work, but that’s not the only reason he made the list. Daniel’s portfolio also helps answer a popular question: how many projects is “right” to showcase in your UX portfolio?
Before we go any further, let’s get one thing straight: there is no “magic number” when it comes to projects in a portfolio. Some people will tell you five, seven, others will say three – you might even hear that one is enough!
Daniel has four projects on display in his UI UX design agency portfolio, and there’s no magic number. He’s simply found a number that works for him: he has just enough projects to show off his range as a designer, but the number of projects is limited so as not to overwhelm the user – smart UX design in action!
We see just four case studies, which show that Daniel is a versatile designer who has worked on a variety of projects across a range of sectors, from healthcare to fintech to e-learning. So it’s not just about how many projects you showcase: it’s also important to build a diverse portfolio.
In addition to the four projects, Daniel’s portfolio also includes a section dedicated to “other work.” Here, he references articles he’s written on Medium, additional projects he’s worked on, and upcoming projects. This approach helps keep your portfolio organized, especially if you’re struggling to decide which of your best works should be featured.
What can we learn from Daniel Autry?
Daniel's portfolio gives us an important example of the "right" number of projects in a portfolio: there is no such number!
Every UX designer is unique, and your portfolio should reflect that. Don’t get too hung up on whether to include three projects or five; instead, focus on choosing a few projects that best represent who you are as a designer. If you want to establish yourself as a versatile, flexible designer, offer as many diverse projects as possible.
If you see yourself as an expert in a certain field, highlight projects that demonstrate this. At the same time, don’t overwhelm the viewer: a hiring manager looking at your portfolio probably won’t be looking at a dozen UX case studies, so choose wisely!
What to remember and take into account?
There is no simple rule about the number of projects you should include in your portfolio. Show a sufficient number of different projects and demonstrate your skill set. However, limit the number of projects so as not to overwhelm the user. If you have projects from other areas that you want to show, create a separate section.
7. Product Designer Portfolio (UX/UI) Vera Chen
Who is Vera Chen?
Vera Chen is a product designer at Microsoft. She has a master's degree in human-centered design and engineering and also dabbles in singing and acting.
Why is Vera's portfolio awesome?
Vera's portfolio isn't just a beautiful thing (just look at those illustrations!); it also highlights the importance of context when presenting a UX solution.
Vera dives into the problem statement in each case study through the backstory, describing the events that led her there. She also clearly explains her role in each project, who she worked with, and what tools and methods they used. Just by including these few extra details, Vera paints a clear picture of what the project was and how she contributed. Another great example of UX storytelling!
Take an example from Vera's wedding library. Look: she devotes two entire sections to describing the setting. First, there's the history of the project, which sets the scene. Then there's the context section, a detailed account of newlyweds Murphy and Diane and the frustrations they faced while planning two weddings.
Vera doesn’t just tell us what the problem is. She shows us in detail how it came about and in what capacity Vera was hired to help solve it. By the time we scroll down to the workflow, it’s easy to see how each step fits into the overall project. It’s a bit like reading a novel: you need a bit of context before you can form an attitude toward the characters and the plot.
What can we learn from Vera Chen?
There are two very simple but effective takeaways from Vera’s portfolio. First, provide context for the events that are taking place – this will do the trick. Vera doesn’t start by stating the problem; she “sets the stage,” describes the people, events, and circumstances surrounding them, and then leads to a specific design problem. Aim to preface the problem statement with a short paragraph that sets the “scene.”
Second, list your role in each project. What were you tasked with doing? How did you fit into the overall team? Listing your teammates is a nice touch, by the way; UX design is a team effort, so it’s important to showcase your specific contributions while acknowledging that the end result was a team effort.
What to remember and take on board ?
For each specific case in your UX portfolio, provide as much context as possible. Describe the setting with a brief backstory before you begin to formulate the problem. Describe your role in the project and, if necessary, who you worked with.
8. Portfolio of UX designer Zara Dray
Who is Zara Dray?
Zara Dray is a UX designer based in London. In her spare time, she makes videos, ceramics, metal sculptures, and music.
Why is Zara’s portfolio awesome?
We’ve talked a lot about the importance of communicating your UX process. Now it’s time to reflect on the power of a beautiful UI! Which brings us to Zara Drei’s portfolio, the epitome of digital elegance.
Zara specializes in creating digital products and experiences for luxury brands (fashion and beauty). This is what she tried to reflect in every detail of her portfolio. In fact, browsing Zara’s portfolio is like wandering through a beauty salon of a luxury store or flipping through the pages of a glossy magazine, and this is no coincidence. She paid as much attention to the color palette, typography and imagery as she did to the writing of her cases. The result? A flawless portfolio that really leaves its mark.
What can we learn from Zara Dray?
Your UX portfolio isn’t just a website, it’s part of your personal brand. Just like your case studies, the overall aesthetic of your portfolio should tell a story about who you are as a designer. Look at how Zara uses color and imagery to convey a sense of luxury throughout her portfolio; how can you create a similar effect?
Take the time to flesh out the nuances of your personal brand. Are you fun and quirky? Fancy and edgy? Corporate and serious? Perhaps you’re drawn to eco-friendly design. Once you have that in mind, you can start thinking about the colors and imagery that will help convey that. Just because you’re a UX designer doesn’t mean you can neglect the visuals of your portfolio. Your portfolio should reflect your personal brand, so treat it like any other UX project and deliver the brilliant presentation it deserves!
What to remember and take on board ?
Your portfolio website should reflect your personal brand. Visual design plays a crucial role in this. The best portfolios offer the whole package: detailed case studies packaged in stunning UI design and impeccable UX — so aim to pump up all the points on the checklist!
9. MetaLab Interface Designers Portfolio
Who is MetaLab?
MetaLab is a UI team headquartered in Canada. They design, engineer, and conduct product research. Their clients include Slack, Google, Uber, and Amazon.
Why is MetaLab's portfolio cool?
They inspire with the scale of their projects and the warmth of their presentation. The guys are among the leaders in interface design. You can consider examples from their portfolio as reliable samples for presentation at the start and improve further.
What should MetaLab learn from?
The guys write about working on large international projects in a lifelike manner. Such a simple manner of presentation inspires you to start. For example, this is how they write about Slack : “Stuart and his team came to us when Slack was a rough prototype and asked us to help make Slack great. As a result of our comprehensive work, we managed to create a cool product with brand design and stitch together a single communication system across the product interfaces, mobile app, and the entire marketing system.”
10. Product Designers Portfolio (UX/UI) from Outcrowd
Who is Outcrowd?
Outcrowd is a UI development team headquartered in Ukraine. The guys design, engineer, and conduct product research. They also have a huge number of design concepts in their arsenal.
Why is Outcrowd 's portfolio cool?
The guys try to put more effort into the visual presentation than Metalab. They work interestingly with animation, and present the interface work elegantly and softly.
What Outcrowd can learn from ?
Try to create a similar demo with animation of key objects in your current or next project. For example , this is how the fintech project Clover is packaged .
11. Portfolio of product designers (UX/UI) from Cuberto
Who is Cuberto?
Cuberto is a design agency from St. Petersburg with a representative office in the USA. They help launch projects for Russia and the world. The guys specialize in the design, development and development of mobile and web products for startups.
Why is Cuberto's portfolio cool?
The site has a menu button called "Our Showreel" - behind it is a cool video with lots of design concepts and real products. Such a video helps to quickly explain to clients what you are capable of and powerfully present the results.
What should Cuberto learn from?
Express presentation of the most important objects in the portfolio using a showreel - a short video that presents the flow of creative works of the author, agency or UX designer.
12. Portfolio of UX / UI designer Taras Migulko
Who is Taras Migulko ?
Taras Migulko is a web designer, interface designer (UX/UI), motion designer, 3D designer and illustrator from Prague.
Why is Taras' portfolio cool?
Taras' portfolio contains the same amount of work as an entire design studio or digital agency — this inspires development and experimentation.
His portfolio includes websites, mobile and web application interfaces, concept design with animated illustrations and 3D.
Taras is skilled in illustration, 3D, branding, designing websites and interfaces, and also creating motion concepts and showreels.
What to remember and take into service ?
Anyone can do the work of an entire studio. You just need to learn, experiment and build skills through practice step by step with visual feedback.
Taras also has a cool express presentation of the juiciest objects in the portfolio using a showreel - a short video that presents the flow of creative works of the author, agency or UX designer.
What to Consider When Creating a UX Portfolio
Now that you’ve found inspiration in other UX designers’ work and learned the right lessons from it, you can create your own online presence. Consider all the essential UX portfolio tips you’ve learned in this article:
Make it clear right away who you are and what you do.
Be available for communication.
Please indicate your current employment status.
Reflect your individuality.
Accompany the cases with explanations and images.
Talk about the process as a whole, not just the final product.
Write useful texts with an emotional streak.
Describe your full range of skills and abilities.
Provide basic information about each project.
Include only your best work in your portfolio and create a showreel.
Strengthen your portfolio with design concepts and showreels.
Show your height.
Where else to get inspiration
Conclusion
A portfolio is a strong plus both in finding clients and in employment. Clients and employers value confident and tasty-packed guys who can break down the task into stages and move towards the goal from stage to stage through visual results. Therefore, save portfolio examples and a checklist to your bookmarks and go ahead — pack up.
You can train additional UI UX development services skills on the Breezzly platform . On Breezzly, you will be provided with a series of projects, taught a work system, and trained in skills in a whole range of tools (Figma, Principle, ProtoPie, and Tilda) — all of which will help strengthen your portfolio.