What should be prepared for interactive design portfolio?

A very good translation, which is extremely useful!

as an interactive recruiter, I am often asked, "how should I start to create my portfolio? What is the standard? How can I make it better? " ?

In this article, I will share my advice to interviewers. Is it really necessary to make an interactive design portfolio?

Compared with other industries, education background and work experience are less decisive in the interaction design industry, so the interaction design portfolio may be more important than your resume. Before HR really met you, your portfolio served as the first meeting.

Nowadays, the number of interactive job vacancies is increasing year by year, but with it, there are more interactive designer job seekers in the market. Therefore, if you want to stand out, it is not enough to rely solely on your resume.

Compared with 1 years ago, many companies now know what qualities they want for new employees, so you need to show them that you can meet their needs, which almost determines whether you will be rejected at the first pass of your resume or whether you can go for an interview.

In addition to the role of full-time interaction designer, there are some positions that are mixed with various roles including interaction design, so this is an excellent opportunity to show that you have undertaken a variety of tasks in the project, such as UI design, strategic decision-making or supervising Web development.

Your portfolio is also a window to show your personality. In an era of paying more attention to hiring people who are in line with corporate culture, portfolio is an excellent opportunity to show that you can fit in with corporate culture. Since about 99% resumes follow the same format, it is much more difficult to convey your personality in your resume. What is the purpose of interactive design portfolio?

In my opinion, a good interactive design portfolio at least shows that this person has the effort to express himself in the best way and can present their related works clearly and aesthetically.

A portfolio should show who you are, what you can do, and the interaction design part that you are particularly good at. Remember: don't rely on your resume. According to statistics, recruiters only spend an average of 6 seconds reading your resume. They will look for four key parts in their resumes: your name, current position, previous position and educational background.

resumes are generally boring, but portfolios need not be boring.

Your portfolio should show your cultural adaptability to the company you are applying for. Don't be afraid to add some personality or your own style to the design set. It's an opportunity to impress the interviewer and make you stand out from the crowd. What should be in the interactive works collection?

according to your qualifications, the company you want to work for, and the country where you live, your portfolio will be varied. But no matter what your level, in order to catch the attention of HR, there is one thing you need to do-show the design process.

It's like in a middle school chemistry class. When you do a chemistry experiment, you have to elaborate on your assumptions, the tools you use, who you work with, what you did and what the final result is. This is exactly what an interactive portfolio should have.

For each project, I want to see:

What is the problem

Who do you work with

What tools do you use

Exploration stage (how do you set about solving the problem)

How do you solve this problem: low-income wireframe, prototype, sketch, user portrait, user path and research

Final result (including you) As well as the final results after handling UI designers and development)

(Using ink knife, you can make wireframes and interactive prototypes, and you can get prototype sharing links and export pictures, which is convenient for you to organize your interactive portfolio)

If someone without any interactive background sees your portfolio, the process you present should make them understand.

I also like to see "narrative" in interactive works, that is, "plot development". Between each part of the process, explain why you want to go to the next part of the process-is time running out? Do you think your data is statistically significant? This will help HR go deep into your mind and understand how you deal with the problem.

if you haven't done any UI design, I suggest that you still show the final high-fidelity prototype of the product in your interactive works (of course, please note that this is not your job). In my experience, the company wants to see how your work is transformed into the final style of products.

This is even more important if the company is not mature in recruiting interaction designers, because they may not be able to imagine for themselves how your interaction will be transformed into the final product.

showing companies how interactive manuscripts can be transformed into final products can make them realize the importance of having an interaction designer, not just a user-centered UI designer.

If you want a compound position, your portfolio should not only show visual achievements, and your portfolio is not so "right" compared with other candidates who can show comprehensive abilities (including methods and practices of user-centered design).

Of course, if your best talent is the visual level, and this is your passion, then maybe you should stick to it instead of diluting your energy to be a part-time interaction designer, hosting reluctant user interviews and creating personas ~

This article was compiled by Mo Dao from? TOM COTTERILL? Yes? How To Create A UX Design Portfolio: Tips From A Senior UX Recruiter