Sometimes You Need to Scrap Your Portfolio and Start Over (UI/UX Design)

www.mlwebco.com - In this video I offer advice to designers struggling to land . Sometimes you gotta scrap your current portfolio and start over relearning new ways to design better.

[@LaithWallace]

This is a great point Mike. I changed my UX portfolio to match a more professional UX Designer with multiple years of experience. I used the same work as I used before but I told a story of how I got to the end result rather than showing the end result and the response was way better. I mean recruiters and hiring managers loved my portfolio and it got me interviews for some great jobs. Mike is right. Just keep at it and you will find the right opportunity.

[@tjshoutout98]

What major is more helpful to become a UX designer? Computer science or cognitive psychology?

[@Thatman8317]

Great Video Mike I totally scratched my portfolio and starting over What was in my was class work from "08" so Im giving my new work a new look Im focusing on simple & clean designs

[@meowdora1615]

Mike! I just got an entry level UX Designer job!! tomorrow is the 1st day! yahoo!

[@Ralphunreal]

Great video Mike. I am literally in the middle of making a new simple portfolio website like yourself and once that is up I felt kind of weird having my old projects on my new portfolio website. I was considering starting over since they are old and I learned so much more now. It got me a freelance 5 month gig so that was great but I feel that I need to make even greater projects even though many people tell me they like my work.One great project is better than 4 average projects I think. What do you think about having case studies, sometimes when I apply for jobs they recommend doing that.

[@anirudhbbalotiaa]

Great post Mike! Its been a while since I updated my site/portfolio and this reinforces the fact that I should see it from a new perspective. Any videos of how to transition a website designed in sketch to make it up and running using wordpress or own domain/space?

[@CityHighKustomz]

This is really helpful advice, thank you! I'm in the process of transitioning from graphic/visual design into Ux and was thinking that revamping my portfolio is the way to go and you just offered the push to confirm what I'd been thinking all week! :)

[@MikeLocke]

Glad you can take away some nuggets of inspiration.

[@farhaddad]

Nice video and important message. However, you've assumed that those who we borrow from spent a lot of money to be able to create something unique rather than admitting that they are more creative. It is like when someone sees a design that I made or a photo and asks me what program I used to make it or what camera brand did I use.

[@saminehadadi7633]

I'm really interested to watch your new video :) please come back and talk again

[@clamochi]

hi mike..i wanted to ask a question..how to make a blue-box comes out in illustrator?

[@Ralphunreal]

Mike, do you know if we can use any image from google as long as it is for my personal projects in my portfolio?

[@Teamshmo]

I think this is the normal next step for really anything. Start with the basics and slowly progress to a particular style that you are good at. Get super good at it to the point where it's literally easy and then try a new one and repeat. Eventually you'll be able mix and match styles into your work and already know what will look good before you ever get to the computer. Soon people will be looking at you for inspiration.

[@VIDDTHEDESIGNER]

thanks this video motivated me to scrap my portfolio update my projects and helped rethink my creative process

[@dominiccontreras069]

Thanks for another great video, Mike, I like what you said about leveling-up one's design game by changing their design style / approach for a better one (styles and techniques of top tier designers). Keep up the good stuff, peace! P.S. Liked the new look and feel of the video, has that swag feel into it, haha! :D

[@MikeLocke]

;) ...thanks

[@chasexu7881]

Hi Mike, Do u mind if you can tell me how much UI/UX designer usually make? I'm here in Vancouver and wondering if I should try to study this.

[@simonkeane]

Google it, can vary greatly based on what city you're in.... Despite that you shouldn't be studying it just because it makes a lot of money

[@ashishjb]

thanks very much

[@the_original_ninjas]

Great Video. Thanks Mike for bringing out things that hardly would be addressed by anyone. Cheers!

[@christophermartorina9374]

hey Mike my name is Chris, I was hoping you can tell me some good sites where I can post my portfolio work? places where I have a good or a better chance of being recognized

[@daniyaliqbal1801]

www.behance.net

[@P8860]

Man your advice is the best Mike. You're adding so much value to us struggling designers who just want a chance. It's crazy that you had over 10 year experience and they still rejected you for the job even though you were fully qualified. I'm going through the exact same thing. Applying for jobs really sucks sometimes.

[@mrsbeliever3197]

Wow Mike!! Thank you so much for the advice. Great information! I will put the PRIDE TO THE SIDE, start over and recreate.

[@shawnastephens7021]

Wow...funny listening to these tips because I just started re-building my entire portfolio just 2wks ago because I realized that my portfolio just needed some work. Therefore, I've been heavy on Dribbble and Behance just picking up inspiration. As designers, the improvement process will always be ongoing. Great advice!!

[@Ralphunreal]

Yea I am also starting from scratch most likely. Did you remove all your old projects and planning to put the new one's as they get done? The only thing I worry about is that these projects take time and if I have one then the chances of getting hired might be low since they might want to see multiple projects.

[@shawnastephens7021]

+Ralphunreal Yeah, I totally understand. It's a bit of a challenge when making the transition. Because I come from a heavy print and web design background, I kind of feel like I have to start over which is going to require some invested hours. The User Interface design side will come more natural to me since I already have a pretty solid understanding of good design principles. Some old pieces I "might" consider revisiting but most of these new projects will be new personal projects just because I feel my portfolio needs an uplift and I need some new presentations. The peak time for hiring is usually between Sept. and Dec. So yeah, as you have stated, you don't want to miss out on a good opportunity and you want to have something to show. My thought: Even if I have just two UI/UX projects that are VERY well executed, I will still apply :)

[@ETStudios1]

This is a spectacular bit of advice for someone currently planning to do a portfolio redesign! Do you have any portfolio advice for someone in multiple disciplines? Particularly from a UX standpoint. I'm focusing my next portfolio update on the fact that I do web/app design, computer graphics, and animation, and have been trying to figure out how to pull that all together without clutter or building three separate portfolio sites.

[@stephanienoel2902]

That is a great question because I am interested in more than one.

[@nitras.design]

The way I done this was just have a single portfolio and use categories. As wide as my skills go. So when I am applying for a job I can send the client a link with relative designs or mockups. I am currently looking into even more customisation. So that I can create a link with lets say 5 pieces in the portfolio. It's easy enough to make fe. in wordpress a hidden category group and send such a link. but since i use a custom 'framework' i'll have to think a bit more how to add projects to a custom link :) Just some thoughts

[@ETStudios1]

Nitras Interactive That's a good way to do it, and my goal is one portfolio, if I can manage it. Unfortunately, at least in my case, I can't necessarily cleanly break things into categories. Computer graphics get used for the animation, app, and web design projects, and animations are used for gifs and commercials for the web and app designs, and then I have pieces that aren't part of a larger project. Wouldn't be able to give any help based on the framework, but in terms of pure code, you should be able to do that with a .php page and a lot of if/elseif or switch statements. You can send people links to the same page, with a variable in the URL, and based on which variable you sent, it'll give them a different collection brought into the page. Assuming I'm understanding what you're trying to do. And thanks for the thoughts!

[@KrisJolls]

Gold

[@brandonglenn9285]

Golden. Thanks, Mike! Love your work.

[@kathrynking2892]

Thank you Mike! This just what I had been thinking, but needed to hear!

[@krome431]

Hello Mike, I'm a Graphic Designer trying to learn Web Design, UI, and possibly UX. I have learned HTML and CSS including HTML 5 and CSS3 but I have a hard time memorizing them all. So should I take time to read and memorize the entire code? Also, I'm trying to go for the visual aspect of UI/UX career instead of Development, so is it relevant for me to memorize all this?

[@fitfuelplanner]

hey man, check out Derek Banas here on youtube // what I do is that I create notes for myself, (such as the website "learn x in y minutes") Don't worry about memorizing anything as you can always look up syntax stuff if you need to or look at stackoverflow the more you build, the more you'll know whether you like the front end or the back end as well as if you like designing or writing scripts You can do it, it just takes a long time lol go through your source code and comment every line explaining it to yourself

[@stephanienoel2902]

Great advice.