I review a lot of portfolios. At Public Knowledge Studio, we’re a small team, so every hire matters, and the portfolio is usually the first thing I look at. I’ve also spent years talking to early-career designers who have done genuinely great work but struggle to show it. The portfolio is a strange artifact — it’s a design project about your design projects, and most people don’t treat it that way.

Here’s what I’ve learned about what works.

Your website is your first case study

Before I even click on a project, your portfolio site itself tells me a lot. It tells me whether you understand responsive design, visual hierarchy, and interactive experiences. It tells me if you care about the details.

Use Framer or build something in code. At the very least, use a nice Framer template. There are so many good options out there now for getting a polished, interactive portfolio up that a bare Notion page feels lazy. I know that’s a strong opinion — and I’ll soften it by saying that having any portfolio at all is much better than having none. Start wherever works for you. But if you’re applying for product design or UX roles, your website should feel like something you designed, not something you typed into.

The platform you choose is a signal. A Framer or Webflow site says you understand interactive, responsive experiences. A custom-coded site says even more. A Squarespace template with nice content is perfectly fine. A Notion page with a dozen links says you didn’t prioritise this, and that tells me something too.

Lead with the result

I don’t want to read three paragraphs of context before I know what you actually made. Show me the outcome first. What shipped? What did it look like? What changed because of your work? Once I’m hooked on the result, I’ll happily read about how you got there.

The classic problem-process-solution case study structure isn’t dead, but it’s gotten stale when everyone follows it mechanically. If you’re going to walk me through your process, make it worth my time — show me the interesting decisions, the moments where you changed direction, the constraints that shaped the outcome. Skip the part where you explain what a user persona is.

Show me something you’re proud of

This might be my most contrarian take: I would rather see a side project you’re genuinely excited about than boring production work. If your day job has you tweaking form fields in an enterprise dashboard, that’s fine — that’s real work and it matters. But it’s not going to make me stop scrolling.

Side projects show me that you care about design beyond your 9-to-5. They show initiative, curiosity, and taste. A weird little app you built over a weekend, a typeface you’re working on, a data visualisation of something you find interesting — these things tell me more about who you are as a designer than a case study about optimising a checkout flow.

This doesn’t mean production work has no place in your portfolio. If you shipped something at scale and can talk about the impact, absolutely include it. But don’t pad your portfolio with work you’re not excited about just because it happened at a recognisable company.

Visual storytelling matters

Since a big part of the work we do at the studio involves landing pages and marketing sites, I care about visual storytelling. But more generally, what I’m really looking for is: do you understand hierarchy well enough to know what to point my attention towards? And do you know how to achieve that visually?

This applies to your case studies too. A wall of text with a few screenshots at the bottom doesn’t cut it. Use images, annotations, before-and-after comparisons, and clear visual structure to walk me through the story. If your case study itself has poor hierarchy, I’m going to wonder about the hierarchy in your actual designs.

Dealing with NDAs

A lot of designers at larger companies can’t show their best work. This is a real problem, but it’s not unsolvable.

Show the process. You can talk about the problem space, your approach, the research methods, and the decisions you made without revealing proprietary screens. Anonymise the details responsibly — change the company name, abstract the specifics, but keep the substance.

When the project launches and becomes publicly available, it’s usually no longer bound by NDA. If it shipped, show screenshots of the shipped UI. Password-protected NDA-bound projects are generally considered acceptable across the industry, but check the exact terms of your NDA before assuming.

And if you truly can’t show anything from work — that’s what side projects are for.

Show how you use AI

This is new advice, and I think it matters. If you’re using AI tools in your workflow — whether that’s generating UI concepts, prototyping with vibe coding tools, using LLMs for research synthesis, or building with Claude Code and Figma MCP — show it. Demonstrate that you know how to leverage these tools smartly. It’s a skill, and it’s one that’s increasingly valuable.

I’m not saying dedicate a case study to “I used ChatGPT.” I’m saying that if AI was part of how you worked through a problem, don’t hide it. The designers who’ll do well in the next few years aren’t the ones who avoid AI — they’re the ones who use it thoughtfully and know when it’s helping and when it’s getting in the way.

The about page matters

I read it. I want to know who you are, what drives you, and whether I’d enjoy working with you. Recruiters are curious about your personality — your side projects, your hobbies, something you do for yourself or your community could be what speaks the most about you as a person.

Don’t overthink it. A few sentences about who you are, a photo, and links to find you elsewhere. But don’t skip it.

The short version

If you’re putting together a portfolio right now, here’s what I’d focus on:

  • Build it on Framer or in code. Your site is a design sample.
  • Lead with results. Show what you made before explaining how.
  • Include side projects. Show me you care about design beyond work.
  • Invest in visual storytelling. Guide my attention with hierarchy.
  • Handle NDAs gracefully. Show process, anonymise details, use shipped UI when it’s public.
  • Show your AI workflow. It’s a skill worth demonstrating.
  • Write a real about page. I want to know who you are.
  • Three great projects beat twelve mediocre ones. Edit ruthlessly.

The best portfolios I’ve seen don’t just document work — they demonstrate how someone thinks. That’s what I’m hiring for, and it’s what your portfolio should show.