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Build a Standout UX/UI Portfolio: Land Your Dream Job

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How This Course Will Help Your Career

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    Portfolios can be more important than any degrees  because they show the work. They show the skills.   In most hiring situations, your portfolio is  what gets you invited to the first rounds of   interviews. Employers and clients see if you  can do the work they want to hire for. As a   hiring manager myself, I spend more time on  portfolios than resumes. These days everyone   working in tech is expected to have an online  presence, whether it's on social media or with   a personal website. And your portfolio shows  that you belong to the group. It can even  

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    attract job offers and freelance opportunities  when you're not actively looking for a job. Creating a portfolio can be dreadful. You may be  wondering, "Where do I start?" This course is a   step-by-step guide to help you build a portfolio  that advocates for you and that you will be proud   of. You will learn how to make a portfolio from  scratch to showcase your projects and your work,   how to demonstrate your skills with case  studies, how to manage NDAs, and what to   do if you have limited work experience or are  reskilling into design from a different industry.

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    Hi, I'm Morgan. I'm a managing director and  head of design in the financial industry.   I'm also a hiring manager who has to go  through lots of portfolios every year. And   I'm a design mentor who helps students avoid  seeing a portfolio as a checklist exercise,   but as an investment that will  serve them throughout their   career. I'm really excited to be your  instructor for this course. Enroll now!

In a competitive job market, first impressions count. For designers, this is your design portfolio—a representation of who you are, what you can do and why you’re the best candidate for the job. Join us in this design portfolio course as you learn the components and requirements of an exceptional portfolio that catches attention, impresses employers and wins clients.

What You Will Learn

  • Why a portfolio is pivotal to your job hunt and how hiring managers review portfolios.

  • How to create a design portfolio that communicates your unique skills and personality and makes the reader want to learn more about you.

  • How to create a compelling design portfolio, what it includes and how to implement the key components and arrange them according to industry expectations.

  • The common mistakes designers make with their portfolios and how to avoid them.

  • Why your portfolio needs attention-grabbing hooks and how to create them.

  • Why content and documentation are the most critical parts of a design portfolio and why you should prioritize them over visual design.

  • How to craft engaging design case studies that draw the reader in and sell your abilities.

  • For new and transitioning designers, how to reframe your non-design experiences into robust case studies.

  • What types of portfolio creation tools are available, their differences and why you might choose one over another.

  • How to approach the visual design of your portfolio and apply the finishing touches that will captivate your audience.

  • How to prepare your portfolio and present it to potential clients and employers.

“Your portfolio is your best advocate in showing your work, your skills and your personality. It also shows not only the final outcomes but the process you took to get there and how you aligned your design decisions with the business and user needs.”

— Morgane Peng, Design Director, Societe Generale CIB

In many industries, your education, certifications and previous job roles help you get a foot in the door in the hiring process. However, in the design world, this is often not the case. Potential employers and clients want to see evidence of your skills and work and assess if they fit the job or design project in question. This is where portfolios come in.

Your portfolio is your first impression, your foot in the door—it must engage your audience and stand out against the hundreds of others they might be reviewing. Join us as we equip you with the skills and knowledge to create a portfolio that takes you one step closer to your dream career.

The Build a Standout UX/UI Portfolio: Land Your Dream Job course is taught by Morgane Peng, a designer, speaker, mentor and writer who serves as Director of Experience Design at Societe Generale CIB. With over 12 years of experience in management roles, she has reviewed thousands of design portfolios and conducted hundreds of interviews with designers. She has collated her extensive real-world knowledge into this course to teach you how to build a compelling portfolio that hiring managers will want to explore.

In lesson 1, you’ll learn the importance of portfolios and which type of portfolio you should create based on your career stage and background. You’ll discover the most significant mistakes designers make in their portfolios, the importance of content over aesthetics and why today is the best day to start documenting your design processes. This knowledge will serve as your foundation as you build your portfolio.

In lesson 2, you’ll grasp the importance of hooks in your portfolio, how to write them, and the best practices based on your career stage and target audience. You’ll learn how and why to balance your professional and personal biographies in your about me section, how to talk about your life before design and how to use tools and resources in conjunction with your creativity to create a unique and distinctive portfolio.

In lesson 3, you’ll dive into case studies—the backbone of your portfolio. You’ll learn how to plan your case studies for success and hook your reader in to learn more about your design research, sketches, prototypes and outcomes. An attractive and attention-grabbing portfolio is nothing without solid and engaging case studies that effectively communicate who you are as a designer and why employers and clients should hire you.

In lesson 4, you’ll understand the industry expectations for your portfolio and how to apply the finishing touches that illustrate your attention to detail. You’ll explore how visual design, menus and structure, landing pages, visualizations and interactive elements make your portfolio accessible, engaging and compelling. Finally, you’ll learn the tips and best practices to follow when you convert your portfolio into a presentation for interviews and pitches.

Throughout the course, you'll get practical tips to apply to your portfolio. In the "Build Your Portfolio" project, you'll create your portfolio strategy, write and test your hook, build a case study and prepare your portfolio presentation. You’ll be able to share your progress, tips and reflections with your coursemates, gain insights from the community and elevate each other’s portfolios.

Gain an Industry-Recognized UX Course Certificate

Use your industry-recognized Course Certificate on your resume, CV, LinkedIn profile or your website.

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Our courses and Course Certificates are trusted by these industry leaders:

Our clients: IBM, HP, Adobe, GE, Accenture, Allianz, Phillips, Deezer, Capgemin, Mcafee, SAP, Telenor, Cigna, British Parliament, State of New York

This course addresses a broad spectrum of professionals and is a practical guide for anyone looking to build or improve their portfolio.

In particular, this course will benefit:

  • Entry and mid-level designers looking to build their portfolios from scratch or improve their existing design portfolio.

  • Aspiring designers looking to transition to design from an unrelated or semi-related field.

  • Experts, managers and leads looking to improve and polish their existing portfolio.

  • All design disciplines, including user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) designers, user researchers, web designers and more.

Course Overview: What You'll Master

  • Each week, one lesson becomes available.
  • There's no time limit to finish a course. Lessons have no deadlines.
  • Estimated learning time: 11 hours 26 mins spread over 7 weeks .

Lesson 0: Welcome and Introduction

Available once you start the course. Estimated time to complete: 1 hour 47 mins.

Lesson 1: Attract Success: Your Portfolio is the Key to Design Your Dream Career

Available once you start the course. Estimated time to complete: 2 hours 16 mins.

Lesson 2: Hook Hiring Managers' Attention with Your Design Portfolio

Available anytime after May 07, 2025. Estimated time to complete: 1 hour 55 mins.

Lesson 3: How to Make Your Case Studies Stand Out and Tell Your Story

Available anytime after May 14, 2025. Estimated time to complete: 2 hours 7 mins.

Lesson 4: Land Your Dream Job with a Standout Portfolio

Available anytime after May 21, 2025. Estimated time to complete: 3 hours 21 mins.

Lesson 5: Course Certificate, Final Networking, and Course Wrap-up

Available anytime after May 28, 2025.

How Others Have Benefited

Rachel Gonçalves

Rachel Gonçalves, United States

“She was right on point on practical observations and pinpoints real world scenarios. Whenever I had a question I thought was too specific she addressed it.”

Nico De Backer

Nico De Backer, Switzerland

“Very clear in explanations and good practical references and examples.”

Santhosh Raj

Santhosh Raj, India

“Steady tone and showing real examples of different portfolios, how it worked as best, or why it didn't look good.”

See other reviews

How It Works

  1. Take online courses by industry experts

    Lessons are self-paced so you'll never be late for class or miss a deadline.

  2. Get a Course Certificate

    Your answers are graded by experts, not machines. Get an industry-recognized Course Certificate to prove your skills.

  3. Advance your career

    Use your new skills in your existing job or to get a new job in UX design. Get help from our community.

Start Advancing Your Career Now

Join us to take “Build a Standout UX/UI Portfolio: Land Your Dream Job”. Take other courses at no additional cost. Make a concrete step forward in your career path today.

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Build a Standout UX/UI Portfolio: Land Your Dream Job
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Build a Standout UX/UI Portfolio: Land Your Dream Job

1.4 - 7 Design Portfolio Mistakes That Are Costing You Jobs! And How to Fix Them

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    Everyone makes mistakes. We are humans, after all. But as a mentor and hiring manager, I see recurring patterns of things people tend to do with their portfolios that are not efficient or sometimes counterproductive. So I made a list here. Not managing time strategically. I know it's very tempting to procrastinate two weeks on designing your perfect personal logo, but logos are not compulsory for portfolios. I'd rather have my students spend time on writing good case

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    studies, refine them, test them because that's the reason I hire people, not for their logos. So make sure that you invest your time strategically. Going for quantity over quality. I get it, you want to show that you've done a ton, that you spent a lot of time on all these projects, but let me tell you that I don't know anyone, any hiring managers, who read every single case study on people's

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    portfolios. We simply don't have time for that. So don't let us pick something that you're not proud of. Lacking curation. Curate your work. Don't just list every task that you've done on a project if there's no clear contribution towards the final outcome. Your projects also have to align with what you look for. For example, if you want a job in UX or product design, you may not want to show all the magazine covers that you designed in the last decade.

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    Lack of care. This one is hard because sometimes we spend so much time on a portfolio that we stop seeing the details: the typos, the grammar errors, the misalignments, etc. Or maybe you don't care at all. But either way, if you can't prove that you can design your portfolio right, why would a hiring manager trust that you can do it for their products? Lack of personalization. It's tempting to reuse a popular template, but if it's popular, that means a lot of other people are using it too. And

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    trust me, the initial wow effect fades away very quickly when you're the fiftieth person who has an identical portfolio style or uses the same intro. Lack of self-reflection. In the design field, self-reflection is an important part of the process. Writing about it, writing about what you learned, that you have those skills to be able to problem solve a situation,

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    is very important. By evaluating your own work, you show that you are capable of critical thinking. That is not just about using a tool or methodology. Not following the standards of the tool. Portfolios can be done using many tools, but no matter which one you use, you need to show that you understand the standards of this tool. For example, if you make a web portfolio, then it must be responsive and pass accessibility criteria. If you make a Figma portfolio,

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    then it must be correctly organized in frames and other layouts. If you make a PDF portfolio, then it must have a standard ratio, a table of contents, and pagination. Try to keep all this in mind, but don't be too harsh on yourself. Making a portfolio requires a lot of work and iteration.

Build a Standout UX/UI Portfolio: Land Your Dream Job

2.2 - Grab Hiring Managers’ Attention with Your Design Portfolio Right From the Start

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    The only purpose of your portfolio landing page is to engage people so that they don't click away. You want to reassure them that they've come to the right place, especially if they are hiring managers and that they're looking at a suitable candidate. If your page isn't clear people may just move on to the next candidate, sometimes even without looking at any of your work. This is why you need to nail your hook and introduction. So, what's a good hook? A good

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    hook needs to be visually appealing and clear, even if you don't specialize in visual design. After all, we are visual beings and we rely on a visual perception to gather initial impressions. So, the aesthetic look of your portfolio should not turn people off. Once people start processing what's on your front page they need to find your content valuable. In the case of a portfolio, this content is mostly about you and your work, and the best way to introduce all this is with a

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    well-written headline. An effective hook should ultimately lead people to carry on browsing your portfolio, read maybe a couple of case studies, and contact you. So now, let's focus on the main piece of your hook: the headline. Here are some pointers to write your headline. First, it has to be short and concise to be able to grab people's attention, 60 words maximum. It should give a snapshot

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    of who you are and what you do. Let's take a few common angles that you can experiment with. For example, you can focus on your role, saying something like, "I'm a junior UX designer specialized in mobile interaction and VR." Or you can focus on your industry. For example, "I'm a UX designer working in the B2B finance and highly regulated spaces." You can focus on your value proposition. For example, "I'm a product designer who helps projects drive user engagement and

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    retention." Or maybe your processes. For example, "I'm a UX and product designer who connects data driven insights with UX empathy." You can also mix different angles. For example, you could say, "I'm a UX product designer specializing in accessibility with a background in marketing and communication." But whatever angle you go for, it should allow you to distinguish yourself from other candidates so that people remember you more easily. Try to avoid statements

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    that can be claimed by 80% of the candidates. For example, saying that you're passionate about design doesn't really set you apart. Saying maybe that you're passionate about cognitive design with a background in psychology is already something more unique. Once you have a headline that seems to make sense for you, don't forget to test it. Remember, we designers always seek to validate our decisions by testing them in the real world. You can try your headline with a mentor, other students, etc.

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    Is it easy to read? Clear? Does it do a good job at introducing you? Now, let's talk about photos. Should you add one next to your headline? Usually, we don't recommend using photos on resumes, but portfolios are different. They are personal to you, so you can definitely add a picture of you or your work environment in your portfolio landing page or About Me section if you wish to do so.

Build a Standout UX/UI Portfolio: Land Your Dream Job

2.4 - Turn Your Non-Design Experience into Design Portfolio Gold

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Build a Standout UX/UI Portfolio: Land Your Dream Job

3.8 - Keep it Confidential: How to Showcase Your NDA-Protected Design Work

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    NDA stands for Non-Disclosure Agreement. NDAs  are usually signed between you, as a designer,   and your employer. It's a legal contract that  defines the confidentiality of a project. Maybe   it's the details of the project, the work you've  done for the project, or any kind of information   around it. First, I can only advise you to  respect your confidential contract; after all,   it's the legal contract that you signed. But  you can try to get permission to show some of   the work you've done because there's always room  for negotiation. For example, in my company, if  

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    you've done an internship, we try to authorize a  few screens for you to use in your school report,   and most clients will allow that. If not,  you can always anonymize your projects and   maybe just talk about the things that you've  learned in general terms. You don't have to   disclose the project specificities, but you  can definitely talk about what you learned   while doing the job for the project. If you're not  sure about what is confidential and what is not,  

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    it's always best to ask your company or your  client. For some clients, maybe just the name   is confidential, but you can show the work.  For others, the name is not confidential,   but you cannot show the work. Again, the best is  to ask clients or employers, and if the person you   worked with is no longer there, you can always  ask the HR department and the legal department.

Build a Standout UX/UI Portfolio: Land Your Dream Job

4.4 - Design with Intent: Craft Your Portfolio with Visual Storytelling Tools

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    Most people are really excited about this stage of making their portfolio and indeed it's time to work on the visual identity of your portfolio. I'll introduce here the main visual elements that you need to define and although those elements need to reflect you and your identity, I will also cover the good practices of making your portfolio easy to navigate for your visitors. Fonts and typographic scale are usually made of the following: a heading for your page titles, subheadings for your section titles,

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    lead text for bigger text sizes like in hero areas, your intros or quotes, body text to use for most of your content, and caption text to use as captions for your images or embedded elements. I'd like to mention that it's usually okay to choose one font that is different for your headings compared

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    to your body text, but I would recommend using a standard font for your body text. These fonts are standard for a reason: they are easy to read and you actually don't want to strain the eyes of your reader, especially if they've been looking at portfolios all day long. Colors I use for the following elements: text color, usually black or dark gray, don't go too light as it may make your text difficult to read and not accessible. The reverse applies if you want a portfolio in a dark

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    theme. A dominant color for your main call to actions like buttons and links, a supporting color for your secondary actions, usually less vibrant and less saturated than the dominant color. An accent color, if you're including illustrations or pictures, you can be intentional and choose an accent color and use touches of it for your portfolio. Some background colors, usually a combination of white and grays, to organize your content sections. Again, if you're doing a dark theme, they will

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    be a combination of black and dark grays. And unless you're an expert in visual design, don't go crazy with colors. Use online palette editors to help you choose and calibrate your colors. A grid system. If you're designing your portfolio for the web, you will also need to define your grid system, similar to when you do it for your digital projects. Things to consider are, for example, what's your maximum width? Do you want to center your content on one main column or use

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    layouts and organize content into two or three columns? You can also play with grid offsets to structure your content as long as it's consistent across your portfolio. Responsiveness, again, here for the web, you need to care about how your content is displayed on various screen sizes, usually desktop, tablet, and mobile. You can rely here on the web builder tools that you choose to use and their behaviors, or if you have code knowledge, you can do it with media queries and flex boxes.

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    Accessibility. Your website must be accessible. If your case studies showcase your work on accessibility but your portfolio is not, well, it may constitute a red flag for hiring managers. And finally, a logo. A well-crafted logo can be a big plus for your portfolio's visual identity. However, it is not mandatory at all. If you don't have a strong background in visual design, I would even recommend not to have any logo at all as it can be badly designed and play against you.

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    If you are a UX designer with no visual background at all or maybe a UX researcher with no visual background, then I would actually recommend you to use templates online. Choose one that you can customize, again using palette editors to make sure that your colors are consistent. But you can play around with that and also, as usual, get feedback on your work and iterate from there.

Build a Standout UX/UI Portfolio: Land Your Dream Job

4.10 - Land That Job: What Top Design Leaders Really Look for in a Portfolio

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    Your portfolio is like a friend who can speak  highly of you to any potential employers or   clients. I want to fall in love with how you  present your stuff. These are your technical   tasks. I'm not just looking at your technical  expertise; I'm interested in your journey. The   one thing, in my opinion, that beats empathy is  experience. I want to see the thinking. I'd look   for evidence of them having built components, them  having an understanding of what components are,   and if you can do that, then the world's your  oyster. That's really kind of what I look for. I want to see the thinking process. I want  to see why some decisions were abandoned or  

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    why some directions were abandoned and what was  chosen instead. I would say, for me, it's not that   important what methodology exactly you're using,  but I would still love to see that, of course. But   the more important part is that you can argue why  you decided to move in that way, and that "why"   should not be based on assumptions, not "because  I felt like" or "because I had a feeling that."

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    That doesn't go in my book. You need to have some  objective language in use that clearly explains   that this is objectively better. And again, you  can always say, "Well, drop-downs are faster," or   "This is faster." Well, ideally, you would need  to have data to prove that. The more thinking,   the better. I mean, personally, I have sometimes  situations where somebody would just draw a   solution on paper and give it to me, and as long  as I can follow and understand what the process  

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    was like and why this thing has been chosen,  that's all I need. That's fine; that works for me. If you're looking for a job, most of the time  what you want to convey through your portfolio   is that you've reached the competency levels. To  do that, I would say any kind of project or any   kind of format to show that you've done the work  will work. It could be a fake project; it could be  

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    a real project. Sometimes it doesn't even have to  be linked to a Figma prototype, because I know we   tend to be very, very obsessed with tooling. For  example, I have someone that I've been mentoring   who had a past experience in video editing.  Something they've been doing is actually working   in a clinical office to enhance the engagement  with patients. To do this, they actually made  

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    a bunch of videos of the doctors just to feel a  bit more approachable, so it's not just a screen   between the patients and the doctor. To me, that  is user research. This is also understanding the   problem, the creative ideas, and yes, maybe the  outcome is a video and it's not a screen design.   But if he has this project and some UI exercise,  then yes, for me, he'll be able to do UX work. A few things, and I'm trying to answer  this fast, okay. Work on some components,  

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    even if it's just for your own products. Show  that you have an understanding of what component   design is. Then I would work quite hard on a  couple of aspects, and these are hard skills,   by the way. I'd focus on learning about  typography, spacing, all that good visual   design stuff because it is important in  design systems. And then finally, work   on your writing skills. Being able to communicate  well, especially written communication, is really  

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    valuable. I'd look for evidence of them having  built components, them having an understanding   of what components are, of what a design system  is. And yeah, just try and read about it. I'm not looking for anything polished; that  is just the end product. I'm interested in   your journey. So it doesn't matter if you're  junior or senior, I want to see your process:   how to go from one step to the other, what is the  problem, how do you approach presenting it in a  

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    way which is user-facing, how do you write feature  specs, how do you take it to a wireframing state,   how do you create low-fidelity, high-fidelity  user interfaces. Anything you are building   should not be based on an opinion. You  should give me data. You should say,   "I did this because I did competitor benchmarking.  This is what worked in other games. People connect   better with characters, so it was a good way  to introduce that meta feature." But also,   what did you do? Even if you are just a  student, did you build that prototype,   and did you do some kind of mock testing with  another player just to say, "I also tested it  

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    with somebody who's never used this feature.  This is the feedback I've got." Show me your   process, show me your journey, show me your  objectivity. That is what I want to look at. On a junior level, if you are applying for  mid or senior level, I'm not just looking at   your technical expertise, which I know you  will have. I also want to see soft skills:   how good are you at collaborating, how good  you are at taking criticism and feedback,   how good you are at defending your decisions,  how good you are at taking initiative,   how good you are at aligning your stakeholders.  So my general rule of thumb is everybody who's  

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    hired needs to be good, including a director,  because I have to get hands-on also many times.   They should have solid or technical skills  with potential, but the higher up you go,   I want to also see more of your soft skills:  leadership, collaboration, and all that stuff. I think the biggest thing is storytelling.  To me, basic skill. That's the beauty of it.  

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    I think a lot of this stuff is sketching, it's  whiteboarding, it's customer interviewing, it's   being able to speak with a variety of team members  and get them all to a single story that actually   makes sense to the customer. Really being able  to balance opposing viewpoints and say, "Well,   let's make two prototypes. Great, it seems like  we can't come to an agreement. Let's make one like   this and one like this and test it." I've done it  many times in my life, but if you've ever done any  

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    prototyping or any kind of sketching or ideation,  that is just kind of your basic technique,   just taken to the next level. And with AI, there  are so many Legos for you to play with and so much   opportunity. And if you can do that, then the  world's your oyster. That's really kind of what   I look for: being able to do all these things, but  also facilitate this discussion about how far you   can take it. And of course, everyone's got some  Figma skills. I don't think you need to be a huge  

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    Figma jockey for this thing. Once you've come up  with the idea, it's just a matter of documenting   using your design system components. Hopefully,  you do have a design system; I hope you do, all right. My advice for portfolios,  whether it's design systems or not,  

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    is the same. You should tell the story of  the project. So don't think that a design   system project versus a different type of  project has to be structured differently   or has to be structured in a specific way. Focus  on the milestones that happened in that project,   the challenges that you overcame, and what you  delivered, and tell that story. That should help   you to just have a consistent story arc and really  focus on the project dictating the case study,  

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    not you having to fit every project  into a very cookie-cutter format. In portfolios, if I were to apply for  a job, I would not just be like, "Oh,   I've done this little AR app and I've done  this little VR project," but I would make sure   how it connects to the users and who this was  designed for. One of my projects that I would  

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    personally lead with if I were to apply for a job  is probably this inclusive gym that I've created.   It was a smaller project for me. It's not in my  main research portfolio, but it allows children   in wheelchairs to exercise and play games with  each other. Actually, from an AR perspective,   it's not particularly technically challenging  or hard, but at least it would demonstrate how   I think about this space and what kinds  of AR and VR solutions I want to create.

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    Where I see my responsibility. In a design portfolio, I'm a very visual person,  so I want to fall in love with how you present your stuff and with the style,   with your typography. Typography, that's the first thing I see  in the portfolio. If you're not taking good care   of your typography with your character length,  your line height, hierarchy, all that stuff,  

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    that's already like I'm done with you. I don't  want to see you; I don't want to know anything   about you. Get out of here. No, it's just like,  in the web, everything we do as designers,   a lot of it is text. Most of it is text. So I  look for that care and attention to detail in   a portfolio. That's the first thing I notice,  and actually, it's not because I'm looking for   it. It just instantly pops for me. I see it's  like, "Ooh, ah." It's like, "Ah, you tried. You  

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    tried. Close." I know it's cruel, but sometimes  if you have a lot of portfolios you're seeing and   you don't have a lot of time, you're just looking  for excuses to close that window. You're looking   for excuses to filter out people. That sounds  cruel, I know, but that's how recruiters work.   They have to filter out people because they may  have a lot of options, and they're just looking  

  21. 00:10:02 --> 00:10:36

    for excuses. So don't give them that excuse. I'm  going to say something a little bit controversial:   don't write the whole design process, all  that thing like that cookie-cutter template   design process that I'm pretty sure you didn't  even follow. You just reverse-engineered it   and put it there in your portfolio. Tell  me a story. I want to be entertained. I know that sounds now even cliché. It's all about  storytelling, but it really is. We're humans,  

  22. 00:10:36 --> 00:11:02

    and we just want to gather around the fire and  be told a story before we go to sleep. And in these stories, you can be the hero. All the  challenges that you went through, "Oh man, we   tried this and it didn't work, but that allowed me  to learn, and then I overcame my challenges, and   I became the hero of this story." You can be the  hero of that story. It can be your user. When you  

  23. 00:11:02 --> 00:11:36

    were doing user testing, you found out something.  Tell that story of that person. It could be maybe   it is actually the company. They were struggling  and they were trying to get to a new market or   something. Tell me that story. I want to be  entertained. We all want to be entertained. If   I'm going to be looking at your portfolio, you  better have good typography and a nice story. Empathy is really, really important, right?  We talk about empathy a lot as user-centered  

  24. 00:11:36 --> 00:12:06

    designers, as human-centered designers. But the  one thing, in my opinion, that beats empathy is   experience. Portfolio-wise, specifically, I  really want to see a breadth of experience   there. The reason why is that I think more than  anything, if you have worked for startups and also   larger enterprise companies, if you've worked  on mobile products and you've also worked on   desktop products, if you worked for enterprise  systems and consumer-facing products, B2B, B2C,  

  25. 00:12:06 --> 00:12:33

    that means that you've seen a range of different  needs of the user. And that also means that in   entirety, when you're working on these different  projects and you're consuming the research that   it takes to build these products, you're in a  place where you really understand what the user   needs. So if you have actually experienced what  the business needs and also what the user needs,  

  26. 00:12:33 --> 00:13:02

    if you've experienced how to toggle between the  two, then I can look at that and I can be like,   "Well, you look like you can learn a  lot." With AI, especially for ethical AI,   what I think needs to be done is that there  needs to be a lot more assessment and quality   on designers that showcase a breadth of learning  and a breadth of implementation of that learning. When I'm interviewing people, or especially  when I'm teaching, what I typically like to  

  27. 00:13:02 --> 00:13:29

    do is I like to really, really encourage  my students to go in and just explore the   world and explore the ways that they can  implement strategies in different ways,   and also fail. That's a really big part of  being a designer. I don't even consider the   vocabulary of failure as something that I  have in my book because I don't consider   it failure. I just consider it, "Oh, it's a  learning lesson. We just learned something."

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