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UX design projects are an important part of every UX design portfolio. And as a UX (user experience) designer, your UX design portfolio is essential to landing your first design job or taking the next step in your career. What you include in your design portfolio is just as important as what’s on your resume. As a new UX designer, Including a variety of UI / UX projects in your design portfolio is a good way to showcase your design skills, the thought process you followed, your approach to potential clients and problems.
Your design portfolio will also demonstrate that you understand how users interact with websites and apps and that you tick all the boxes you need to in terms of UX work and real-world experience. When your hiring manager sees your design portfolio and case studies, they can see that you’ll be a valuable addition to their design team and are ready for your next design challenge.
A good design portfolio is especially important for new designers that don’t have a lot of experience yet.
Want to build a design portfolio that will help you land a job as a UX designer? You’ve come to the right place. Showcase your diversity and creativity with these 11 UX design projects, project ideas, and different types of case studies to impress potential clients and companies. It’s just one way to stand out from the crowd!
What Is a Design Portfolio?
So, what is a design portfolio? And why does a design portfolio matter? It helps to frame your thinking differently:
- A design portfolio is your superpower, showcasing your UX magic and captivating audiences with your narrative of pixels and purpose.
- A design portfolio is your passport to opportunity, opening doors to dream jobs and leaving recruiters breathless with your visual resume.
- A design portfolio is your personal branding masterpiece, etching your unique design voice onto the digital canvas and attracting clients like moths to a flame.
- A design portfolio is your evolution in motion, documenting your growth from fledgling designer to seasoned UX maestro.
- A design portfolio is your silent salesman, whispering your skills to potential clients and leaving them convinced you’re the answer to their design prayers.
- A design portfolio is your confidence booster, a visual reminder of your brilliance and a catalyst for pushing creative boundaries.
- A design portfolio is your industry passport, granting you access to the vibrant UX community and forging connections that fuel your creative fire.
- A design portfolio is your data-driven compass, guiding your career path with insights gleaned from every project and iteration.
- A design portfolio is your legacy, a testament to your passion for design that inspires future generations to pick up the digital paintbrush.
- A design portfolio is more than just pixels; it’s the key to unlocking your full potential as a UX designer, so craft it with love and watch your career take flight.
It’s time to get started on your design portfolio!
The Importance of Having a UX Design Portfolio and Case Studies
In the field of User Experience (UX) design, having a compelling UX portfolio is of utmost importance. A UX design portfolio showcases your expertise, UX design skills, and creativity in creating exceptional user experiences. Your design portfolio serves as a visual representation of your abilities and is essential for landing UX design projects and attracting employers or clients.
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A well-curated UX portfolio demonstrates your proficiency as a UX designer and highlights your ability to create user-centric designs. The design portfolio showcases a collection of your previous UX design projects, knowledge of UI / UX designing, providing tangible evidence of your capabilities throughout the UX design process. A strong UX portfolio not only showcases your final designs but also sheds light on your design process, user research, and problem-solving skills.
When potential employers or clients evaluate UX designers, they rely heavily on portfolios to assess their suitability for the job. A UX portfolio allows them to gauge your ability to solve complex design problems, create intuitive user interfaces, and deliver outstanding user experiences. Your design portfolio also showcases your experience in conducting user research, creating personas, and performing usability testing during the design process.
By presenting a variety of UX design projects in your portfolio, you can demonstrate your versatility as a UX designer. Including a diverse range of projects such as mobile apps, websites, or even a lead generation landing page in your design portfolio allows you to showcase your skills in different contexts. This shows that you can adapt your UX design expertise to various industries and project scopes.
Additionally, creating the best UX portfolio offers an opportunity to showcase your creativity, UX skills and innovative thinking. It allows you to present your unique design solutions and UI designs that set you apart from other UX designers. UI designs that are visually appealing and align with the project’s goals can leave a lasting impression on employers or clients. (A solid design portfolio is important for UI designers as well).
Apart from showcasing your UX design skills, a design portfolio also demonstrates your ability to effectively communicate your ideas and present your work in a visually engaging manner. A design portfolio allows you to highlight your design process, provide project descriptions, and showcase the impact of your work on user experiences. A well-designed and user-friendly design portfolio website reflects your attention to detail and your understanding of the importance of the experience beyond the design itself.
Your design portfolio can also help you gain a solid understanding of the work you’ll be doing. Compiling a design portfolio helps you evaluate project ideas, determine project scope, set a project goal, and write a UX case study. This is highly-valued by companies and an essential component of job hunting. Having a great project and UX case study behind you shows your initiative and prowess.
Having a UX portfolio is crucial for UX designers. Your design portfolio serves as a powerful tool to showcase your abilities, experience, and creativity to potential employers or clients. A well-curated UX design portfolio demonstrates your expertise in creating exceptional user experiences, highlights your design process, and showcases the impact of your work on projects. Invest time and effort into building your first UX portfolio, as it will significantly enhance your chances of securing UX design projects and advancing your career in the field of User Experience.
UX Design Projects and Case Studies To Add to Your UX Portfolio
UI/UX designing takes a lot of practice. Here are ten UX design projects and case studies you can include in your portfolio, along with user interface design components to make your work stand out:
- E-Commerce Website Redesign Case Study: These UX design projects demonstrate your ability to improve user experience on an existing e-commerce platform. Showcase your UI skills by designing visually appealing product pages, user-friendly checkout processes, and interactive shopping features.
- Application for Task Management Case Study: Develop an app that helps users manage their daily tasks efficiently. UX design projects like these showcase your UI expertise by creating a clean and intuitive interface with smooth navigation and task organization.
- Media Platform Case Study: Design a user-centric social media platform that encourages meaningful connections and interactions. You can use UX design projects like these to show off your UI design skills by creating visually appealing profiles, post layouts, and engaging interaction elements.
- Health and Wellness App Case Study: Create a health and wellness app that promotes healthy habits and provides personalized insights. These UX design projects show that you are capable of designing clear data visualizations, easy-to-use input forms, and motivating progress tracking features.
- Travel Planning Website Case Study: Design a website that simplifies the travel planning process. UX design projects like this will prove your aptitude for creating stunning destination pages, interactive maps, and intuitive filtering options for accommodations and activities.
- Food Delivery Mobile Application Case Study: Develop a food delivery app that offers a seamless ordering experience. Creating enticing food menus, a smooth ordering process, and real-time order tracking are great UX design projects.
The UX design projects and case studies you add to your design portfolio will help steer your career the way you want it to go!
What Are UX Design Projects?
UX design projects are a key component of your first UX portfolio and resume. UX design projects illustrate how designers apply their skills and evince the claims of your resume. (Learn more about what is UX Design here)
Your UX designer portfolio should include a range of projects that demonstrate your abilities. Present your design portfolio projects as case studies so that you can demonstrate your skills in greater detail. The case studies in your design portfolio showcase your problem-solving skills and illustrate how you arrived at your final design.
The most effective portfolios only include a designer’s best projects. Make sure your projects are challenging and interesting. If the project is too easy or not especially interesting, it may not be the right fit for your design portfolio. You can use a physical document, a design portfolio website, or an online platform to create your UX portfolio and UX design projects.
Related Read: What Does a UX Designer Do?
Inspiration for UX Design Projects
Completing new UX design projects is a good way to enhance your design portfolio and develop your skills (more on becoming a UX designer here). What project should you choose? Here are 11 UX design projects and ideas that will strengthen your UX portfolio and distinguish you from the competition.
1. Mobile App Signup Flow
The signup process is a vital step in the user experience journey and this experience can significantly impact a user’s perception. For this project, consider a user’s needs and create an easy-to-use signup flow for an app.
A mobile-centric project is a great addition to any design portfolio, especially if you’re looking to demonstrate your ability to understand and design for mobile users. It will also demonstrate that you keep up with app development trends, which employers always look for.
2. Single Landing Page
A landing page is a simple but important project for a UX design portfolio. Online, first impressions are crucial. Most visitors only stay for a few seconds before deciding to leave, so a good landing page is essential for most businesses. Landing pages should entice visitors and persuade them to fill out a signup form for future marketing campaigns.
3. Email Template
Email templates are quick and practical additions to a design portfolio. Designing an email template shows your understanding of a company’s key performance indicators (KPIs) and how you can translate these into an effective design.
For this project, design an email template that tries to convert new subscribers into paying customers. You can also create templates for a drip campaign, a series of four emails and email templates that attempt to convert prospective users into actual customers. It’s an exciting design challenge to add to your design portfolio.
4. SaaS Dashboard
Designing a software as a service (SaaS) dashboard is a great way to add value to your portfolio and showcase your digital product design skills. The dashboard should give the user a digestible overview of their account, usage, and subscription information. Consider adding these elements:
- An account overview with current subscription status and expiration date
- Usage statistics for the past month, including total visits, unique visitors, and average visit duration
- A list of active features with a brief description of each
- The ability to upgrade or downgrade their account from within the dashboard
- Links to support resources like FAQs and contact forms
5. Internal Ticket System
Creating an internal ticket system is an innovative way to demonstrate your aptitude with user interfaces, workflows, and data structures. Redesigning an existing website’s ticketing system is one way to approach this project. Travel sites that offer airline or concert tickets are great starting points. Consider your user’s needs—the more user-friendly, the better. This will show your UI/UX design skills and demonstrate your ability to solve problems and think critically.
6. Restaurant Menu
Try adding a restaurant menu to your portfolio. You can do this by converting a favorite restaurant’s menu into a website and app. For this project, focus on the basics. Combine highly readable copy with simple graphics for fast visual perception.
Keep in mind that a menu can also draw foot traffic to the business. In your portfolio, show how your design changes could increase both the user experience and the company’s bottom line.
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7. Desktop Wallpaper Background
Adding a desktop wallpaper can be an effective addition to your portfolio, especially if your projects tend to be complex. It’s important to design this with a specific individual user in mind. Consider presenting this project as a case study, explaining your thinking process, your reasoning, and how your design met the user’s needs.
8. Smart TV App Layout
Creating an interface for a smart television app is another great project to add to your UX portfolio, especially if you want to start designing for apps or mobile devices. For this project, you’ll need to consider things like:
- Screen sizes and overscan in smart television
- Variations in lighting in the room throughout the day
- Living room layouts and typical viewer distance
- Sunlight and reflections
- Navigation using a D-pad
If you’re experienced, add an app prototype to the project. Successful apps should utilize comprehensive testing for all smart TV platforms.
9. (Re)Design a Feature for Your Favorite App
A redesign project is an excellent addition to your portfolio. Consider modifying your least favorite feature on your favorite app. There are many ways to modify an existing design, such as adding a new feature or changing its user interface.
You should explain why you selected this design for your portfolio. Provide examples of your process, including why your strategy is superior to the original. Your goal is to show employers that you can accomplish complex design challenges and understand your users.
10. Chatbot
Chatbots are becoming increasingly popular, so you should include at least one chatbot project in your portfolio. This project can showcase your skills in conversational design, information architecture, and visual elements. You can also demonstrate your ability to create an engaging user experience that users will want to return to.
When creating your chatbot project, design it for a website, rather than for a standalone app. This will give you a chance to show off your skills in web design and user experience. Include screenshots of the chatbot in action and detailed wireframes and flowcharts that show how the chatbot works.
11. Digital Interface for an Appliance
Think about including at least one project that involves designing an interface for a physical appliance. You can show off your skills in interaction design, information architecture, and visual design by creating a functional and visually appealing interface. A smart refrigerator, airplane entertainment screen, or even a smartwatch would be excellent choices for this project.
How To Promote Your UX Design Projects
Once you’ve finished a few new portfolio projects, it’s time to showcase your work. Here’s where to promote your projects:
UX Portfolio
Your UX portfolio is the best way to showcase your skills, get hired, and launch a successful career as a UX designer. Make sure your UX portfolio is easy to navigate and that it includes clear descriptions of your projects. If you don’t have a UX portfolio yet, check out some of the many online portfolio builders.
Design Portfolio Website
If you don’t yet have a UX portfolio website, it’s time to build one. Once you have a website, make sure to add your design portfolio. You can also include anything else that showcases your skills and knowledge.
Email Signature
Linking to your portfolio in your email signature is a great way to showcase it. It’ll also help you connect with designers, clients, and potential employers.
Design Platforms Like Dribbble
Make sure to add your UX design projects to design directories like UXfol.io. You can also submit them to design platforms like Behance and Dribbble. And don’t forget about social media — sharing UX design projects on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn is great for exposure.
Where To Get Inspiration for UX Design Projects
Seeing how other designers interpret projects can be an excellent source of inspiration. Check out these sites to see more UX design projects:
Real UX Design Projects
It’s worth looking at competitors for inspiration. While the resources listed below have a ton of conceptual work for reference, they don’t often have the real-world constraints in place. With that said, looking at sites, apps, products, etc that have won awards or have good reviews, can be a great source of inspiration.
Dribbble
Dribbble is a great resource for finding UX design projects. The site is searchable, and you can also browse popular projects on the homepage or find collections curated by other designers.
Another way to find inspiration on Dribbble is by following designers you admire. This is a great way to see what new projects they’re working on and get ideas for your own project.
Behance
Another great site for finding UX design projects is Behance—a portfolio platform where designers showcase their work. You can browse through other designers’ portfolios or search for specific types of projects.
Behance also has a section called Best of Behance. These standout UX design projects are curated by Behance staff, and range from web design to product design.
Twitter is a great place to find UX design projects. You can find inspiration for your portfolio by following people and organizations who share design-related content. You can search for tweets with the general hashtag #uxdesign or, more specific, for a project like #restaurantappux
Pinterest is a great resource for finding UX design projects. The site is searchable, and you can also browse popular boards on the home page or check out collections curated by other designers.
Another way to find inspiration on Pinterest is to search for a specific design trend. For example, suppose you’re interested in designing an interface for a chatbot. In that case, you can type “chatbot interface” into the search bar and browse pins that fit that theme.
UX Design Projects FAQs
Here are answers to a few common questions about UX design projects:
How Much Time Should You Spend on UX Design Projects?
There is no set amount of time you should spend on UX design projects. However, make sure that the project is representative of your skills and abilities. If it is a smaller project, include all of your work, from UX design research to user testing. If it’s a larger project, focus on highlighting the most critical aspects. Remember, the goal is to show off your skills and abilities, so make sure the project represents your best work.
How Should You Collect Feedback on Your Project?
When you are finished with your UX design projects, it is important to collect and implement feedback based on key performance indicators you’ve set. This will help you improve, and demonstrates that you can implement constructive criticism.
Get some volunteers—a partner, a UI designer, friends, or family—and ask them to look at your portfolio. Then you can tweak your projects based on their feedback. Storytelling and taking the viewer/reader through the journey and rationalizing the decision making (ie why did they choose certain methodologies, what challenges did they face, etc) is hugely valuable.
How Many UX Design Projects Should You Do as a New Designer?
Your portfolio should be informative but concise. Instead of showing everything you’ve ever worked on, curate your best work. Choose a diverse range of projects that showcase your abilities. This will demonstrate that you can take on a range of design challenges, and that you have a strong understanding of the user’s needs, e.g. by building a pricing page or pricing pages, FAQs, mobile apps, or other designs.
Other UX Design Projects To Include?
When building your UX portfolio of your projects, including a diverse range of sample UI UX design projects can help showcase your skills, versatility, and problem-solving abilities. Here are five sample design project ideas that you can consider including in your portfolio:
App Redesign: Select a popular app and redesign its interface to improve usability, enhance the visual appeal, and create a seamless experience. Showcase your skills in information architecture, user flow, interaction design, and visual design to demonstrate your ability to transform existing apps into more intuitive and user-friendly experiences.
E-commerce Website: Design an e-commerce website from scratch, focusing on creating an engaging and efficient shopping experience. Demonstrate your expertise in user research, wireframing, prototyping, and visual design to showcase your ability to optimize the user journey, improve product discovery, and streamline the checkout process.
Dashboard Design: Create a data visualization dashboard for a specific industry or use case. Highlight your skills in organizing complex information, creating meaningful data visualizations, and designing intuitive navigation and interaction patterns. Showcase your ability to present data in a clear and insightful manner that helps users make informed decisions.
Health and Wellness App: Develop a user-centered app that promotes health and wellness. Showcase your ability to create user personas, conduct user research, and design features that support behavior change and encourage healthy habits. Demonstrate your understanding of gamification, notifications, and social elements to create a compelling and motivating experience.
Booking Platform: Design a user-friendly booking platform for a specific industry, such as travel, events, or services. Showcase your UX skills in creating user-friendly search and filtering functionalities, seamless booking processes, and clear communication of relevant information. Highlight your ability to design a seamless experience for different user personas that simplifies the booking and reservation process.
How Can You Measure the Success of a UX Project For Your Portfolio?
To find out if your UX project will achieve your goals, ask the following questions:
Does this UX Project provide insight into how I would manage the UX design process?
Can I upload this UX project to my portfolio site?
Does this UX project create a favorable impression of my skills in usability testing, design and research?
Does this UX project match the roles I’m applying for?
UX and UX designers should always ask the right questions when uploading their UI / UX projects to various sites.
Why Come Up With Project Ideas?
Working on a project gives you a great “feel” for UX work in the field, including thinking about user personas, working in a design team, and doing research. You can also present the final case study to employers.
Why Add “Min Read” to Your Projects?
“Min read” indicates how long it will take to read an article or case study. By indicating the “min read” you’ll increase the likelihood of someone reading your project!
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