UX Career Progression: Creating & Presenting a UX Portfolio

A presentation on how to think about, create, and present your UX design portfolio. First presented at General Assembly Seattle on November 19th 2015.

1. Creating & Presenting a UX Portfolio November 19th, 2015 UX Career Progression
2. Who the heck is this guy?
3. Photo credit: Jeff Croft Personal Site NickFinck.com Role Product Design Manager Employer Facebook
4. UX Career Progression Series • Part 1 - Starting a Career in User Experience Design (blog post) • Part 2 - Finding a Niche and Building a Personal Brand (presentation) • Part 3 - Creating and Presenting a UX Portfolio (presentation) • Part 4 - Interviewing & Landing a UX job (coming soon) • Part 5 - Understanding UX Career Paths (coming soon)
5. ”The User Experience Honeycomb" by Peter Morville Findable Desirable Useful Usable Valuable Accessible Credible User Experience (UX) is about how a person feels about using a system or device. What is the user experience? •It is not: • Designed • Objective • Procedural • Static It is: • Designed for • Subjective • Philosophical • Dynamic
6. Storytelling
7. Photo from https://briankaldorf.wordpress.com #1 — Tell a story And then the creature ripped off both of his arms!!!
8. Explain the challenge Photo of http://simonpan.com/
9. Photo of http://simonpan.com/ Describe your approach
10. Photo of http://simonpan.com/ Talk about what you learned
11. Recap: • Frame the Problem • Cover your Approach • Show your Solution • Explain the Learnings #1 — Tell a story
12. About You
13. Photo from the Denver International Airport #2 — Tell us who you are We’re going to be late to our meeting with the Emperor.
14. Quickly explain who you are Photo of http://zachkuzmic.com/
15. Designing the interactive behaviors of a product or system with a specific focus on their use. Designing the visual qualities of a product or system in an aesthetically pleasing way. Planning for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content. Identifying and organizing information within a product or system in a purposeful & meaningful way. Measuring the quality of a user’s experience when interacting with a product or system. User Research Content Strategy Information Architecture Interaction Design Visual Design Usability & Analytics Understanding the people who use a product or system through observations. Describe your focus
16. Show your personality Screenshot of http://andrewdoherty.com/
17. Recap: • Elevator pitch Who you are • Inject your Personality • Tell us your Focus #2 — Tell us who you are
18. Showcase
19. #3 — Showcase your work Photo of http://zachkuzmic.com/ I just want to pick one of these up and go.. “Zoooooomm!”
20. Have good lead-ins Photo of http://zachkuzmic.com/
21. Open strong Screenshot of http://haraldurthorleifsson.com/
22. Show real client work Photo of http://www.edlea.com/
23. Always explain your role Photo of http://simonpan.com/
24. Show all of your work Photo from http://jenirodger.com/
25. Explain your process Screenshot of http://andrewdoherty.com/
26. Never show work under NDA Photo from What’s New World?!
27. Recap: • Show Real client work • Tell us your Role in the work • Show all Stages of the work • Give an overview of your Process • Never show Work under NDA #3 — Showcase your work
28. Feedback
29. #4 — Get feedback You guys should probably know about something…
30. Find an expert to give guidance and advice My web site rocks!
31. Get feedback often
32. Photo from http://venturebeat.com/ Get your portfolio critiqued by peers
33. Recap: • Find an expert for Advice • Keep getting Feedback often • Have peers Critique your portfolio 4 — Get feedback often
34. Presenting
35. #5 — Don’t try to cover too much Wait, how many projectiles did you say?!
36. #6 — Answer the question I don't know how to put this but I'm kind of a “big deal.”
37. #7 — Be prepared Alright, listen up everybody!
38. Thank you!
39. • Personal Site: NickFinck.com • Email: nickfinck@gmail.com • Facebook: facebook.com/nickfinck • Twitter: @nickf Questions?
40. Creating Better UX Portfolios: 4 Do’s & Dont’s by Harish Venkatesan http://bit.ly/1WZZuCc Minimum Viable UX Portfolio by UX Beginner http://bit.ly/1O4fmOl Better UX Portfolios by Jason Mesut http://bit.ly/1I01qyo 10 Inspiring UX Portfolios by Sarah Hawk http://bit.ly/1MnWIOM
41. Mike Monteiro Ian Fenn Nick Disabato Cadence & Slang Design is a job Designing a UX Portfolio Com ing Soon!