This article was updated on February 20, 2026, to reflect the latest information.

TL;DR: A strong UX design portfolio goes beyond eye-catching visuals. Hiring managers want to see your design process, evidence of user testing, storytelling, and metrics that link your work to real outcomes. This article features advice from Hesseltje (Hess) van Goor, Chief Operating Officer (COO) at SearchSmartly, on exactly what she looks for — and what makes candidates stand out — when reviewing UX design portfolios and take-home assignments.

You’re applying for a UX design job and you’re not sure what to put in your portfolio to stand out. We’ve got you! We interviewed a COO (and hiring manager!) to give you the best tips on what to include in your UX design portfolio.

Skillcrush launched its Break Into Tech + Get Hired program in 2021. Since then, we’ve successfully helped over 90 percent of our students get hired. Our expert job search support and personalized feedback help Skillcrushers thrive during the interview process and beyond.

One alumni of our program, Seyi Ibitoye, shared an experience with Skillcrush that truly inspired us — a detailed feedback email he received from a potential employer, Hesseltje (Hess) van Goor, Chief Operating Officer (COO) at SearchSmartly. Hess, who studied design and has worked in both web design and User Experience (UX), shared her thoughts on his interview and take-home exercise, including what he did well and what he could improve.

We were so impressed by the constructive feedback that we asked Seyi and Hess if we could interview them for this post on what aspiring UX designers should include in their UX design portfolio.

Table of Contents

• What Should a Good Design Portfolio Include?
• What Makes a UX Design Portfolio Stand Out?
• How Do You Assess a Design Portfolio?
• What Are You Looking for in an Assignment That Might Not Come Across on LinkedIn or in a Portfolio?
• How Do You Approach a Design Assignment?

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What Should a Good Design Portfolio Include?

A good design portfolio might include a portfolio website, a sample homepage design or template, webpage prototypes, detailed case studies, testimonials, and more. But a great portfolio isn’t just a collection of eye-catching passion projects — it reveals your design process to hiring managers and recruiters.

Different design roles call for different areas of focus. A graphic designer might highlight typography and visual design. A product designer might lead with color palettes. A UI designer might focus on wireframes and usability. But for UX designers specifically, Hess looks for something deeper.

She says, “In terms of career goals, if you’re looking for a role in graphic design then what you need is different from UX. People come to me with Google UX certificates, user personas, and show the work, but for me, a strong UX designer understands their format — the environment where they’re designing.”

She adds, “The great ones have a sense of how a browser works and how the work they’re doing is being rendered. They go a step beyond and tell the story around that in their portfolio. I want to see interaction with customers and demonstrate that you spoke to someone about your work and an evolution in your work.”

In other words, Hess wants to see iteration. “Go from V1, test, and adjust. Usually, in UX portfolios, candidates go in and do their primary and secondary research, have an idea, get it prototyped out, and end with a Figma prototype. I get a low and high resolution piece. What I don’t get is a validated Figma prototype. In reality, you work in a product lifecycle and then the learning starts.”

Even if you haven’t worked with real clients yet, you can still build a strong portfolio. Show that you understand user research and can adjust your designs based on feedback. As a UX researcher candidate, if you can demonstrate experience with user testing, usability testing, and interaction design — in addition to the final product — your portfolio will stand out. You don’t need years of experience to showcase your thought process and skills.

What Makes a UX Design Portfolio Stand Out?

Having reviewed many portfolios as both a design professional and COO, Hess has identified 3 things that make candidates stand out.

1. Storytelling

Hess says storytelling is the most important element of a strong UX design portfolio. “In terms of wowing me, a portfolio I would sometimes refer to when the candidate’s portfolio is missing a story is one from an agency. I would refer people to them because I think there’s something wrong with their storytelling.”

2. Metrics

The best UX designers link their work to outcomes. Hess explains, “The most powerful way for a designer to articulate their value to themselves and the company they work for is metrics. This is the impact, how we measure things, and very often people miss that. I look at design as a subject adjacent to tech and marketing. How you position yourself comes back to what you want to get out of your career.”

3. Interest in tech and accessibility

Hess also looks for candidates who show genuine curiosity about technology and inclusive design. “With UX, show you have an interest in tech and accessibility. Think about where you’re going and work backwards to see what kind of scene I’m going to end up in [as the user].”

Together, these 3 factors show hiring managers that a candidate has gone the extra mile — highlighting their craft, marketability, and commitment to designing for a wider audience.

How do you assess a design portfolio?

When assessing a design portfolio, Hess looks for 3 things: versatility, a glimpse into the designer’s thought process, and the ability to adapt to trends.

She explains, “Before we launch any recruitment, we do a job design exercise. For this position, we needed someone who was versatile and could adapt to all sorts of situations. Someone who is organized and on top of things with excellent communication and who gelled with the product and with the market.”

For take-home exercises, Hess keeps her brief intentionally broad. “I observe how a person approaches this task. There’s predetermined scoring, and some code up entire websites, but what we were looking for was understanding of how an applicant approaches a situation.”

The questions she keeps in mind when reviewing: How do you cope with an assignment? Do you ask follow-up questions? How do you interact with me as a recruiter? Do you have several prototypes or just one? Are you adapting your design to the brand?

As a designer, just as with resumes and cover letters, you can tailor your portfolio to each company. Applying to a startup? Show range and versatility. Applying to a larger enterprise? Show depth and problem-solving skills.

Is Tech Right For you? Take Our 3-Minute Quiz!

You Will Learn:

☑️ If a career in tech is right for you

☑️ What tech careers fit your strengths

☑️ What skills you need to reach your goals

What Are You Looking for in an Assignment That Might Not Come Across on LinkedIn or in a Portfolio?

We asked Hess what she hopes to see in a take-home assignment that LinkedIn or a portfolio can’t reveal. Her answer was simple: “Initiative and proactiveness.”

The candidate Hess ultimately hired demonstrated exactly that. “The person we hired asked for an extension. Very few people take the initiative to question something. She asked a question and I liked that because it showed she was proactive and engaging with me in a conversation about it, which is something I need in my business.”

What happened next was even more impressive. “She took the Red Cross landing page assignment and interviewed 6 people in her network about why they would or would not donate to a charity. She identified a number of themes relevant to the problem at hand — establishing trust, etc. — and brought those insights into her final design, which was on brand to the Red Cross.”

And she didn’t stop there. “We had asked for the landing page but her final output was a mobile app. She changed my brief based on her understanding of the customer.”

Hess admits that, at some companies, that would be a red flag. But for her small business, it was exactly what she needed. “There’s no one size fits all approach but, ultimately, it’s a dating exercise. Am I going to be happy working with you and is this person going to thrive in the environment we have here?”

How do you approach a design assignment?

We also asked Seyi what advice he’d give for approaching a design assignment — and how his thinking has evolved.

Early in his process, Seyi was focused on output. “Back then, I was focused basically on getting out the design. Get the design out there and put all the things you learned, push it out, and let them see you learned so much.”

Now, he starts by stepping into the user’s shoes. “The first thing I think of these days is to sit back and look at the brief from the beginning. I imagine the end user and what is coming out of this project, think from that person’s perspective and not from my perspective. I want to sit down in the user’s chair and think of what I want and what I expect from this.”

His biggest shift has been moving from aesthetics to usefulness. “Most of what I did before is look at how someone else did it and see if it looks good. Now, it’s about whether something is useful. Does that box need to be there? Will it still function? Before I go into my aesthetically pleasing skills, I like to do that part that speaks to you when you look at the design first.”

Hess reinforced this point: “Show your work, show your thinking. I have seen design tasks completed with 60 to 70 percent written and some diagrams. One person put in an assignment with a lot of writing, but the writing was good and walked me through their thinking process. It just showed this contextual awareness.”

Her advice: talk to real people. “If you can find an individual you can get for a 5-minute conversation about the assignment, it will show you’re proactive, doing the research, and your interest in the company. It will show the process of UX and is ultimately what the employer is looking for.”

What did Seyi learn from this experience?

Reflecting on his interview with Hess and SearchSmartly, Seyi had nothing but admiration for the candidate who got the role. “I looked up Diana and I would’ve picked her too. She created the user persona and user flow that I’ve incorporated into my designs right now that I didn’t have back then. It was really impressive and I was blown away.”

Looking at Diana’s work helped Seyi rethink his entire approach to UX. “I use Diana’s work as a reference point and as a base for the moodboard I’ve been making so I have a clear picture of what I’m looking for. Most design roles have UX ingrained in them somehow, so you need to have the user’s thinking cap on, even if it’s graphic design.”

His advice for user testing: keep it simple and repeat it. “I like to give my family members and anyone around me the design to test. I do this 2 to 3 times in the interaction process. When the new person doesn’t ask me any questions after going through the new page and can explain to me what I’m trying to achieve, I feel something is working. User experience is like a door and if the user notices he is using the door, then it’s not working but if he notices after he enters, then you know you’ve got it right.”

📌 PS — Want to learn more about how to break into web design and get hired? Check out our Break Into Tech + Get Hired program for tech skill training and job search support!