Learn more about portfolio presentations

Osama Abdelnaser
3 min readJul 24, 2023

--

After adding a few projects to your portfolio, you’ll be on your way to interviewing for a new position in UX design. Potential employers are eager to see what you’ve created, but interviewing is more than just handing your portfolio to potential employers. Professional UX designers put their work into an interview presentation. Interview presentations tell the story of who you are as a designer and the rationale behind your design decisions. They’re usually created with a program like Google Slides or Microsoft Powerpoint so they’re easy to present. In this reading, you’ll learn what goes into an interview presentation. Then, you’ll use a template to create your own interview presentation.

The interview process

To start, consider how you will make use of your time during the interview and what details you will include in your projects.

Presentation timeline

The interview presentation section of the interview process usually lasts about an hour. In that time you will:

  • Introduce yourself and your design background
  • Explore two to three projects
  • Conclude your presentation
  • Open the floor for questions

Project details

Your projects are the core of interview presentations, so make sure that you choose your most relevant designs. Remember, the goal here isn’t to show all of your design knowledge; rather, you want to show that you are a good fit for the company and the position. Before your interview, research the type of products created by the company; this will help guide you in your decision about what products you’d like to present. During your presentation, you’ll need to frame each project.

First, answer the question: “Why did I create this project?” Clearly explain the problem that you set out to solve with your product and the goal of your designs. Be sure to include the target audience and a brief explanation of their pain points.

Give an outline of the decisions and steps you took to solve the user’s pain points and design the product. Include a few sketches, paper wireframes, digital wireframes, prototypes, and mockups of your design to explain every step of the design. The goal here is to show interviewers how you work through your design solutions. You may also include your research, design philosophy, and rationale to further elaborate on your design decisions.

Explain the impact your design had on the problem you intended to solve. Explain how you measured that impact. Be sure to include the relevant data that supports your claims.

Because the design process never ends completely, designers want to see that you continued to iterate your design. These next steps can include any additional research, like subsequent usability studies or the way that you facilitated feedback implementation. The case studies that you’ve created in this certificate program have not launched, so be sure to make that clear during your presentation.

Employers want to see what you learned from your experience working on the project. This will give them a better understanding of the type of designer you are, how you receive feedback, and how you reflect on and improve your designs.

Sources: Google UX Design Professional Certificate

Coursera | Design a User Experience for Social Good & Prepare for Jobs

--

--