How to Build a UX Design Portfolio That Actually Gets You Hired

Shotgunning vs Targeted Approach

• The group consensus: stop shotgunning applications and start targeting. The more specific you get, the better your chances.

• This also applies to portfolios. When your portfolio clearly reflects the kind of design work you want to do, it helps companies see you as a natural fit.

• Instead of trying to appeal to a broad audience with a generic portfolio, you’re showing exactly where your strengths and interests lie.

• One way to do that is having your Portfolio as a Product:

• If you want to be a dashboard designer, make your portfolio function like a dashboard

• If you want more of a creative role, let your portfolio be the art, not a case study container

• If you want to work in government, show you understand their process requirements through your portfolio

• Choosing or writing case studies can be another way to tailor your portfolio to a specific job or industry. For example, government clients need more process explanation than tech companies.
  
  Other Portfolio Tips

• Make it fun to work on – Design your portfolio in a way that makes you excited to come back to it. This helps prevent burnout and turns it into something you actually look forward to working on, rather than something you dread and keep putting off.

• Being easy to edit matters – Set up your portfolio so it’s simple to update. For example, Gage connected his portfolio to a Notion database, which lets him add or update projects without needing to go into a design tool like Framer every time.

• Creative exploration wins - Unique approaches stand out more than perfect process documentation. Gage says, “I’d rather show you things I’ve shipped and let you play with them than walk you through my process.”

  
  Case Study Tips

• The brutal truth: Recruiters spend ~3 minutes max on your portfolio and typically only look at one case study.

• May says, “You need one really good case study that aligns with what that company is looking for. If it’s not good or easy to find, they’ll judge you on visual design instead.”

• Decision-making over methodology - Show how you think, not just what you did. Most recruiters want to see your process.

• Visual storytelling - Let the work speak through images and visuals instead of heavy copy.

• Interactive elements - May’s experimenting with data collection and expandable sections in her most recent case study.

  
  Transitioning from Graphic Design to UX

  What Transfers Well:

• Visual fundamentals - Harder to train than process knowledge

• Tool familiarity - Figma feels like Illustrator with collaboration features

• Design thinking - Just applied to different problems

  What’s Different:

• Team collaboration - More stakeholders, more constraints

• Structured process - Actually easier to follow than open-ended creative briefs

• Documentation habits - Screenshot everything for future case studies

  
  Tool Talk

• Framer: Great for interactions, painful for complex layouts

• Webflow: Powerful but steep learning curve

• Notion: Surprisingly effective as a portfolio backend

• AI tools: Experiment freely, but master fundamentals first

  
  The Community Factor
  Hawaii’s design community is small but mighty.

  The group emphasized:

• Knowledge sharing is essential - Market changes too fast to figure out alone

• Piʻikū internships - Real client work is important, so participating in an internship like Piʻikū is very helpful

• UX Hawaii Slack - Active community for feedback and opportunities

• Regular critiques - Portfolio feedback sessions keep everyone sharp

Bottom line: Your portfolio should feel authentically you while clearly communicating the type of designer you want to be. Everything else is just execution details.