If you ask someone in UX what is the one key thing the profession revolves around, they’ll probably tell you something like:
the user
humans
psychology
behaviour
having a vision
And sure, in the middle of work I’ll agree with all of those. But, I am starting to suspect, really it revolves around a single artifact: the portfolio.
If you’re starting out in the field, everyone wants to see your portfolio. UX courses will plan assignments so that they can be used in student portfolios. Stephen Gates and others have pointed out that a portfolio is a great way to show co-workers who are new to UX what’s feasible, or what you’ve done in the past, even (especially) if you have no intention whatsoever of leaving your current position. Mentors on ADPList often review the portfolios of mentees, and mentees often request to see the portfolios of mentors. Senior, expert-level designers will use one of their portfolio case studies as an illustration of a UX concept at a webinar or presentation.
Look at UX articles, videos, Twitter threads, or anything else on the web, and there is so, so, so much advice and discussion about portfolios. There’s an entire sub-industry around advising people about their portfolios. There are even very passionate discussions about how they should be minimized or done away with.
I finally have an MVP version of my UX portfolio online, as of this morning, and already I have a list of things I want to change about it.
Not all portfolios start from the same baseline, though, and I don’t mean skill sets. Some people (including me) have their work wrapped up under so many NDAs and security restrictions, their at-work case studies can never be used in a portfolio (well, unless I made one just for work and never used it in publish, and what’s the point of a portfolio that can’t be used for peer review?). And unless you work somewhere where portfolios are celebrated at work, and therefore you get time to add finished projects to your portfolio during office hours, you need to make and maintain your portfolio in your spare time. Which, to state the obvious, some people have more of than others.
Then there’s resources. Some people can create their portfolio on their work machine with no repercussions (there’s those security restrictions again), while other people can’t. And not everyone can afford a reasonably-performing laptop. They might be limited for machine access, for time, or both.
In these cases, are we measuring the worth of someone’s portfolio, or are we evaluating their baseline wealth and free time? And how do we tell the difference?
In the past few years, some pillars of UX have undergone re-evaluation. Personas are no longer a routine artifact, and it’s now better recognized that they can encourage stereotyping and poorer designs. The same goes for user research (are you being inclusive? are you sure? no really, are you sure?). And these are all good things, because it’s leading to better work with more beneficial results.
Maybe it’s time to re-evaluate the real impacts of portfolios as well.