How to Choose the Best Layouts for a Professional Portfolio

I’ve hired designers for 14 years, sifted through ~1000s of portfolios, but never read a full case study. Shocking? Maybe. But let's be real: time is a luxury, and hiring managers don't have it in abundance. Here’s what catches their eye and could seal the deal for you. 1. Speed wins: Your portfolio needs to cut to the chase. Show high quality visuals of your work above the fold on your landing page. It shows what you’ve accomplished right off the bat. 2. Make It scan-friendly: Optimize your headers, images, and image captions. A quick scan should tell everything the reader needs to know. If your design fundamentals are solid, your portfolio will reflect that. 3. Long text blocks are your enemy. Remember, hiring managers skim a lot. Ever skimmed through a long read online? Guess what? They do the same thing on your portfolio. ==== BONUS: 3 more pro-tips to really stand out: → Avoid red flags: Clunky navigation, low-res images, or a slow-loading site? That’s a hard pass. Make everything about your portfolio high quality and easy to navigate. - Tailor-made: Adapt your portfolio for the type of work you’re trying to get. Trying to get work as a product designer? Gonna be hard if your portfolio is full of web design and logos. - Be easy to find: Make sure your LinkedIn, resume, and contact info are just a click away. Don't make them hunt for you. TL;DR: Make the hiring manager’s job easy. Don’t give them easy reasons to say “NO”.

New Year, New Portfolio Tips This week, I spent a significant amount of time reviewing portfolios with talent—one of my favorite activities. Having examined hundreds over the past three years, I've gained a good understanding of what clients seek, irrespective of job title or industry. First and foremost, a hiring manager is unlikely to spend more than a minute or two reviewing your portfolio. If your work isn't easy to navigate and your top projects aren't immediately visible, you're doing yourself a disservice. The best portfolios feature key projects on the first page, allowing viewers to quickly grasp the person's contributions by reading a brief snippet at the top and viewing images, wireframes, or other relevant content below. In the UX/UI world, showcasing your entire process from end to end is crucial. Most importantly, remember that less is more. It's better to have 4-6 standout projects than 12 lacking detail. Hiring managers typically focus on the first few projects to understand your experience and design thinking, making decisions on the next steps from there. If you're seeking a new role in 2024, invest time in refining your portfolio with this thought in mind: If someone has one minute to review my portfolio, will they understand my work experience and design thinking process, enabling them to decide if I align with the job they are hiring for?

Lately I've been stretched pretty thin and haven't been able to record as many videos for Sweatpants BI talking about great #dashboard #design and #datavisualization but I still love sharing about it (which is part of why I've been switching back to LinkedIn lately to talk shop). One of the things I love most is reviewing portfolios that are shared with me because I enjoy getting to see different techniques and approaches to #powerbi scenarios. Here a few observations on portfolios I've observed that I thought might be helpful, especially when sharing portfolios to land an interview or win a job: 1. Simplify your colors. Learn how to use a color wheel, pick one color as your base, a color on the opposite side for comparison, and use gray or tones/tints for everything in between. The Power BI tools that I design look dynamic because of how I scale my color choices but I always try to never use more than 2 colors. For my Maven Space Challenge entry, I chose purple & orange to evoke sunsets & space. For my Maven Slopes Challenge entry, I picked blue and an orange-ish yellow to evoke cold and warmth. 2. Learn contrast. When you're dropping a bunch of data visuals on your audience, they won't know where to look first but their eyes will gravitate towards regions of greater contrast. If you place your most important visuals on a dark or light background relative to the rest of your layout and then use your data colors to really pop that contrast, you're effectively grabbing them by the cheeks and directing them where to look (which I don't advise you actually physically do... so stick with color). 3. Spellcheck for your life. If forced to choose between two candidates with strong portfolios, I will almost always side with the portfolio that has fewer typos because to me it indicates an overall stronger attention to detail. I also need to make sure any tools I deploy to my business customers look precise, professional, and trustworthy. If you're not dashboarding in your first language, no problem! Find a friend or colleague to review while the stakes are still relatively low. 4. Demonstrate that you enjoy data by having fun with the dashboard. Yes, fun! Even when someone's design choices don't land, I still love when I can tell that someone enjoyed building whatever tool they're sharing. Little tricks like making careful use of iconography, putting time and consideration into color choices, and even getting clever with text & descriptions tells me "this person enjoys building and is probably a naturally curious individual", which just so happens to be the kind of people I hire. People often message me for my "Space Challenge" dashboard but the "Slopes Challenge" infographic I built last year was easily the one I had the most fun building and I think it shows. And if you don't follow Maven Analytics for their wonderful #dataviz challenges, you really should. Their contests are an amazing source of inspiration :)