Good to hear you recommend pdf portfolio, this is exactly what I have always done for the adaptability and the small amount you really should be presenting as a intro to you and how you work and as you mentioned put it on drop box and send the link, the only thing I would add to that is turn the link into a bitly/ short link
@vaexperience3 жыл бұрын
Great suggestion
@clarityofthought3 жыл бұрын
How do you use Dropbox?
@adameberly79493 жыл бұрын
@@clarityofthought It's just like something like Google Drive, you can use Google drive as well.
@flaviomauri2 жыл бұрын
Having long links is definitely a pain, but at the same time I always heard people are weary of shorturls because of the unknown factor and for safety and avoid phishing they should stay away.
@JacobNelson3 жыл бұрын
I've used PDFs and interactive sites to create my portfolio. Also as a senior designer and hiring manager, I've reviewed countless designer portfolios. To be honest, both are fine as long as you tell a story and have a process that shows how you went from problem to solution with all the changes and difficulties along the way. A systematic way to create custom portfolios for the job opportunity is also a good idea - agreed. If you're able to easily create and export your design story/process to an interactive site, then you can forgo the PDF. It also depends on the JD. If you're applying for an interactive design position or something with motion, a PDF won't cut it. PDF, sites, it doesn't matter as long as you clearly show the evolution of the product/project with all the various factors pushing and pulling on you as you arrive at a solution/project completion/product/site launch. I want to see a story and process and final designs. If you're applying for a more UX research oriented role, you can get away with a PDF. If it's a more UI design oriented position, a PDF may or may not cut it. It depends. But in general, good advice. Just my two cents from over 20 years in the design world. Currently Head of Design R&D for a domestic company in Japan. Also, nice channel. Subscribed. Keep up the good work. Cheers.
@Hamyhamster243 жыл бұрын
thanks for the advice!
@OddClarity2 жыл бұрын
Yay for PDFs! Been around since the late 90s and I don’t think they are going to disappear anytime soon. *thumbs up* indeed
@sincerelycin3 жыл бұрын
Thank you for this vide. It’s great you say that because I’m transitioning to UX Design and currently taking a course but I don’t want to pay for a website at the moment. When I was majoring in Fashion Marketing I had to do my portfolio and I created it on power point and exported to PDF and it worked just fine. I still reference back to it.
@deannastoppler10917 ай бұрын
Thank you! Very helpful. I just got your book!
@shaun47873 жыл бұрын
On another thought. What is your thought on "An online portfolio is a must for considerations...candidates w/o an online portfolio will not be considered"? We see this line on LinkedIn job posting all the time. The UX portfolio trend lately is shifting AWAY from having a fancy custom portfolio website that hasn't been updated for years. This "PDF is the best" trend has gaining traction on a lot of UX people's Medium articles lately. A lot of UX people are advocating it. However, the UX hiring practice still hasn't evolved much beyond mandatorily requiring an online portfolio which is custom built. Some even go as far as requiring your sites can't be Wix, SquareSpace templates. It's almost like: not having a sleek looking personal portfolio site means you don't have the "chops", which shall not be considered... Hiring managers use online portfolio websites as a "filter" to screen out "less ideal" candidates. This I found it's troubling because they can't see the forest for the trees. For people who really have a great story(use case) to tell, they can't get pass that first round of screening. For me, when I see that line "Online portfolio required..." I usually want to find out if there's any other way I can send my PDF to the recruiter or hiring manager. I still kept my legacy "design gallery" website which is all eye candy, but not much substance. Apparently, a lot of hiring managers still want to see something like that...sigh.
@ux_mylife3 жыл бұрын
I was doing this too and agree, but someone recently asked why I chose this method and said websites are the most common and easiest to access, and that most recruiters won’t click on the links inside the PDF portfolio and wait for the new page to load. 🤷🏻♀️
@vaexperience3 жыл бұрын
That's not true. If you do a good enough job and grab attention it almost doesn't matter where the link is a hiring manager will click! Trust me. Thats why I said that I'd wait for candidates to come back with passwords for their portfolios. Good UX talent is hard to come by to so every candidate is assessed rightfully. Just make sure pdf or whatever you share tells a decent story and you can capture them with it
@zentastic3D3 жыл бұрын
I never thought about the modularity approach. it makes sense a lot
@jsanclemente773 жыл бұрын
What do you think about Adobe portfolio?
@vaexperience3 жыл бұрын
It's how you use it. But as in the video platforms rarely provide with the best option to land a job at least in UX which is less about the visual pizazz
@kaseysmithcs2 жыл бұрын
Great idea, keep up the great work.
@ffmde82683 жыл бұрын
Great video thank you. I am almost at the end of my portfolio tried to export it from Adobe xd as a PDF file seems like they have some issues sometimes when exporting the artboard as a pdf. Mine is text missing, half images shown.... wanted to copy them and paste it to Figma but the high resolution of images are blown away. Any suggestions?
@flaviomauri2 жыл бұрын
Oh wow, that's actually what I've been doing in the last two years. I have some PDFs on GDrive and link them in the cover letter and masthead of the CV. Although for me that I have a very wide experience/skillset (marketing and UI roles) feels I have too much different material and that recruiters just skip because it's not as immediate as a link to a site.
@billyb863 жыл бұрын
Glad you made this video. I will be not be paying for squarespace now! Very useful and practical tip, especially for a newbie like myself. Thank you for the great content!
@DinmaOkorie3 жыл бұрын
Hmmm I’ve been so lazy and have been procrastinating creating my portfolio because I thought it needed to be perfect and that it needed to be a website. Not that I won’t, but this pdf suggestion is actually amazing. This makes it easier to model your portfolio for different job applications.
@vaexperience3 жыл бұрын
Get after it!
@Ianmundo Жыл бұрын
I’ve seen some real nonsense from people saying they wouldn’t even open a PDF, if a recruiter or hiring manager’s effort to review content is so small, I don’t want to work with them anyway. As a Senior UX Designer, I didn’t go into detail about process, what differentiates me is lots of shipped work, so I show it off. I will go into detail in an interview with a Case Study
@vaexperience Жыл бұрын
That's sensible - there are some idiots who hold odd positions, but that's a good signal to avoid them
@donnorman65262 жыл бұрын
Is crazy you say that because is true! I have been redesign my portfolio online (to impress my peer but also for ego to have a place where I can share my thoughts and work) but...... I just got an answer from apple in california with a simple google slide online.. yeah... so... if Apple picked me for an interview with a google slide I think it says a lot! Also on this presentation I present myself, values, 4 random projects and 2 deep case studies. It's more than enough to prove yourself to the HR.
@Adam3262 жыл бұрын
Does this apply if you are looking for freelancing work? My goal is to have a precense online to where clients would eventually come to me and ask for work. Thank you for all the advice. Currently reading your book and it helps me out a lot.
@vaexperience2 жыл бұрын
Why not both?
@earlhamilton59693 жыл бұрын
Currently in 1st and 2nd stages for various senior roles all off the back of a PDF folio! Could not agree more (as usual).
@ilyakalinkin61023 жыл бұрын
Thanks a lot for bringing clarity.
@vaexperience3 жыл бұрын
Glad it was helpful!
@JAMESAP19943 жыл бұрын
Great vid. I usually export a pdf from figma but the file size is usually too big to be attached. Would you suggest bringing the figma contents into illustrator or powerpoint and creating the pdf from there. thanks!
@vaexperience3 жыл бұрын
Yeah, compressing the pdf in acrobat or import and compress in PowerPoint works well
@adameberly79493 жыл бұрын
I like this idea but I'm very familiar with telling the story web based. If you provide a PDF would the layout look similar? Would the first page be more information like a resume? Would you have page links to different case studies from page one like you might do on a website?
@EverythingsByDesign3 жыл бұрын
Man thanks for this simple concept! I've done mini portfolio sections and sent to recruiters in the past, never even considered making a full on produced portfolio. What screen / page dimensions would you use, or design for? I assume most hiring managers would be viewing on their desktop displays, not mobile right?
@zera97812 жыл бұрын
Hello, can i use google slides as well?
@silversurfer893 жыл бұрын
How about your own website?
@cynth143 жыл бұрын
Are there certain platforms/software you recommend for a PDF portfolio? I don't have Indesign, Illustrator etc. so I'm wondering if using Canva is fine? Suggestions?
@vaexperience3 жыл бұрын
Anything which doesn't make you go crazy :) Figma, Canva, Miro, Powerpoint... as long as it allows you to pull in/pull out cases as needed to make a tailored portfolio for the role and quickly export it that's all what's needed. Just pick the one you're most comfortable with
@SmokebuoyII2 жыл бұрын
I had just recently completed a UX design program and my portfolio is just 3 pdf use cases embedded onto my website that was created using Google Sites. I haven't received any responses from my job applications and I'm wondering if I should just switch to the typical portfolio websites that I've been seeing other UX designers use.
@barryreads6503 жыл бұрын
Hi :) thanks very much for the insightful videos u been posting on your account. I m new here, only just starting to make a career switch to Ux design. I was just wondering whether you could possibly make a video on which you describe what a good portfolio should look like: what info it should definitely include and so on. While I have already watched a few videos of yours where you review different portfolios, I would very much appreciate your take on what a good portfolio should be like. Thanks again and keep up the good work. Best of luck :)
@clarityofthought3 жыл бұрын
I don’t understand - I thought a pdf was in paper format only? Also how can you add a gif
@froggy_froggy46232 жыл бұрын
what about webflow?
@jaysenb3 жыл бұрын
this guy is the UX master!
@tristenvukelich52802 жыл бұрын
how do you list multiple projects within a pdf?
@raedesigns84542 жыл бұрын
You can use a Table of Contents with links to other pages
@sissic3902 жыл бұрын
What is a good length for a PDF case study? I just finished a very well documented case study resulting in something like 35 pages of 1920x1080 format... considering that I also have 2 more case studies on the way... I am concerned that a 80 pages PDF will be a bit too much for a hiring manager to scroll through.... any suggestion about it? thank you in advance!
@alexvarlamov2412 жыл бұрын
I also ask myself this question. I found information that a good length is about 5-10 slides per case study, and the rest can be used as an interview presentation.
@sissic3902 жыл бұрын
@@alexvarlamov241 Ahhh that's unfair! A website portfolio can go on and on forever... While a PDF should not be overwhelming... maybe I should consider a website... I don't want to take out important content from my case study to make it look shorter...
@lalaj20652 жыл бұрын
Can you this type of portfolio?
@floragb82542 жыл бұрын
I'm a UX designer and have only had my portfolio as a PDF format. However, when I look at new job roles, more often than not they literally say in the job description that you need an online portfolio to apply and often won't let you progress without linking a url. Has anyone experienced anything similar, or have any advice on this? I have been getting so stressed about this
@vaexperience2 жыл бұрын
Put it on Dropbox, copy, shorten the url and send it 👌
@floragb82542 жыл бұрын
@@vaexperience awesome, thanks! Hearing it’s still ok to apply with a pdf has taken a huge weight off my shoulders 😂
@TheDascorp3 жыл бұрын
You blew my mind
@linasjokubaitis86213 жыл бұрын
I thought that you will say the best UX portfolio platform - Notion.