Storytelling breathes life into design. It turns design documentation into design adventures. If you can absorb recruiters in the narrative of your portfolio, they won’t want to put it down. A compelling story will lead to more interest, more job offers, and better positions. That’s why you should take advantage of Aristotle’s six elements of drama. Greek philosophy might not be the first idea that comes to mind when you think of your case studies—however, Aristotle’s teachings are directly applicable to UX/UI design portfolios. Implement these elements in your work, and you’ll see your case studies transform into job-winning page-turners.
In 335 BCE, Aristotle wrote Poetics, the earliest surviving work of dramatic theory. In it, he laid out six elements of drama, which he ranked in order of importance:
Plot.
Character.
Theme.
Diction.
Melody.
Spectacle.
Go through these six elements and plan how you will include them in your new or existing UX case studies. This way, you can precisely define what you want to say. You’ll sharpen the focus of your UX case studies and make your message crystal clear to recruiters who read them.
Recruiters like Stephen Gay, UX Design Lead for Google One, want your portfolio to tell an engaging story. Watch this video to learn from Stephen why the journey is just as (if not, more) important than the destination:
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Well, I think designing a portfolio is a case study unto itself. Just like an interaction tells a really good story on how to use a product, a portfolio tells a *narrative* on you as an individual and how you think. So, if I see a portfolio that's filled with only finished product, then the story I'm being told is the person only cares about the final result and they didn't really enjoy the journey to get there. But if I see a portfolio of a complete journey,
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then I realize they really enjoyed the design process; they enjoyed the detail, the collaboration to get there. I look for little things like: Does a person cover things like who was on the team? So, are they presenting themselves as sort of the lone hero that did the work? Are they presenting themselves as a core contributor to get to a great outcome? So, I like to see that level of thinking in terms of collaboration.
Let’s review how each of Aristotle’s six elements relates to your UX case studies. For each element, you will have several questions to answer to help with your case studies.
1. Plot: The Beginning, Middle, and End of Your Design Adventure
Aristotle regarded the plot as the most crucial element of a drama, and for good reason. Plot is the series of cause-and-effect events in a story—for instance, the plot of a Greek tragedy tells the events of a hero’s downfall. Without a robust plot, a drama will fail to land, despite how good the other elements are. The same applies to UX case studies. Use these three tips to craft compelling plots:
As you plan your case studies, consider each project's beginning, middle, and end. In each section, write down the individual events that moved the project along. Before too long, you will have your plot. At this stage, do not jump straight to writing! You should first judge how engaging your plot is. Perhaps there’s one event that doesn’t serve the story and another that, while minor, creates a more engaging narrative. Rearrange and refine until you have the outline of a captivating story.
Think of your portfolio as an episodic television series. Each episode, or case study, has its own series of events, while an overarching plot ties the series, or portfolio, together. For instance, the case studies of a UX designer specializing in accessibility will focus on individual stories about inclusive design projects. Each case study will, in turn, contribute to the overall narrative of the designer’s growth, expertise, and passion.
Just like episodes of a television series, your case studies should feel part of the same series. You want the reader to understand how each case study contributes to the bigger picture of who you are as a designer. If you have three UX research case studies followed by one on user interface (UI) design, it can confuse the overarching plot. If you are a generalist UX designer and want to split your expertise into separate case studies, find a way to link them together seamlessly.
A common mistake designers make in their portfolios is not curating their case studies to the roles they’re applying for. This is one of seven mistakes Morgane Peng, Design Director at Societe Generale CIB, explains in this video:
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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.
Plot Your Case Studies: A Checklist of Questions to Ask Yourself
What series of events do you want to tell? What’s the plot of your career so far?
Which past projects have the most engaging plots you want recruiters to see?
Do your case studies have straightforward, well-structured plots that could all be part of the same “TV series”? If they contradict one another, rewrite them to become a cohesive unit.
2. Character: Be the Hero with Help from Your Friends
In a drama, the main character serves the plot with the help of supporting characters. According to Aristotle, the main character should be good, appropriate, and consistent.
In your case studies, you are the main character. Like Aristotle’s main character, you should appear in your UX case studies to be:
Good: That is, you should showcase your abilities in design.
Appropriate: You should display a level of expertise that makes sense. For instance, you cannot claim to have led a team of designers when you’re a junior UX designer.
Consistent: You should play a consistent design role throughout all your case studies.
Character is also about howyou work with your teammates. Think of your peers, managers, and other stakeholders as supporting characters. Use your case studies to showcase how well you work with others.
Consider the “supporting characters” of your case studies. Think of all the stakeholders you interacted with on a project and how you worked with them. Explain how you overcame challenges together, including differences in opinion and points of view.
Here is an example of how to use character in your case studies:
During the project's research phase, I worked closely with Jorge, a UX researcher, to address feedback from users with visual disabilities. These users found the app’s accessibility features inadequate. After we discussed our objectives, we designed a mixed methods research plan that included:
For the research sessions, we recruited individuals who rely on screen readers and magnification tools.With Jorge’s guidance, I drafted the interview questions to align with our accessibility goals and led three user interviews. One of the key insights we uncovered was that the proximity and arrangement of interactive elements created navigational challenges for users relying on assistive technologies.
With this research in hand, I worked with Hannah, our UI designer, to create an alternate app layout. The new layout focused on improved feature discoverability and accessibility. As a result of our work, our post-launch user testing showed that task completion rates increased by 25% for users with visual disabilities.
Character Development: A Checklist of Questions to Ask Yourself
Who is your character in the design process? In other words, are you a UX generalist who covers the entire design process or a specialist like a UX researcher?
Do you play the same role in all your case studies? If not, how can you rewrite your case studies to make your role consistent?
How does your “character” interact and work with other “characters”? Is there conflict or harmony?
Who else should you include in your case study? Who are the important contributors or leaders you should acknowledge?
3. Theme: Context Is Everything
Theme refers to the setting or context in a Greek drama. Just like in a drama, you have to set the scene in your UX case studies.
Provide readers with your project’s context:
Your main goals.
The obstacles you faced.
Your motivations for taking on the project.
Here is an example of how to set the theme in your case studies:
The goal of this project was to improve the app’s accessibility for people who use screen readers. Our customer experience team had received several complaints from users who were struggling with the app’s interactive content.I am passionate about accessibility but had not yet had a chance to focus on it in a real-world project. Given this, I took it upon myself to champion this project and create a more inclusive user experience.
Throughout the project, we faced budget constraints and initial resistance from senior stakeholders. To move the project forward, I collaborated with my team lead on a business case that highlighted the long-term value of accessibility improvements.Thanks to these challenges, the project strengthened not only my accessibility knowledge but also my skills in stakeholder communication and project management.
Remember, if you are transitioning from a non-UX role, theme is a perfect opportunity to present your transferable skills. You can show how the goals, obstacles, and motivations from previous projects directly relate to scenarios you will encounter in UX/UI design. Watch this video with Morgane Peng to learn how to include non-UX experience in your UX portfolio:
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Have you reskilled into UX and product design? Are you not sure how to talk about your past or maybe you're afraid that this will make you less competitive than people who only study UX? This is a common worry for people who do a career switch, so let's look at a few strategies to connect your past working experience with your desired role in design. The first thing you need to realize is that you should not hide it. If you feel insecure about your past, there's
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a high chance that this insecurity will be noticed in your interviews, which can turn people off. And there's actually nothing wrong in finding UX later in life as it's still a new topic of specialization in our education system. A lot of people are like you probably, and there are chances that even your interviewers also switched from their former careers into UX. So instead, focus on why you got drawn into UX in the first place and why you want to work in this field now.
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Talking about your career switch is the perfect excuse to show your motivation and commitment. Chances are that you have less projects to show and less practice than someone who studied at school for 3 to 5 years, and this is something that hiring managers should understand. Use this opportunity to focus on how much you accomplished in such a short period of time, especially if you had to juggle with an existing job in parallel. And here's the secret: the best way to leverage on your past is to find transferable skills. It may require you to change your perspective
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on how you think about your past or brainstorm with a mentor. So here's a few examples from my students or the people I hired. For example, I hired a former chef who could use his experience in the kitchen to prove that he has a very strong work ethic and is able to cope under pressure. I hired a former architect who could talk about his experience in systemic thinking when building physical spaces for people. I mentored a former real estate agent who could show that she has
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good client empathy and that she could analyze client needs. I also hired a former financial expert that helps now the team, the design team, understand the business side of things. And the business culture. Usually it's best to mention all this in your behavioral interviews or have a dedicated space in your portfolio. But sometimes you can go also further and turn your past into a case study. A real example comes from my real estate student. I suggested that
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she create an empathy map of the process of buying a house for the first time. As she knows the clients and their highs and lows during the whole process from her real life experience, she was able to map out the entire process and levels of satisfaction and frustrations. She also added a section where she, as a real estate agent, was able to address the pain points at each stage.
Set the Right Theme: A Checklist of Questions to Ask Yourself
What was the main goal of the project?
What were the major and minor obstacles that you had to overcome?
Why did you take on the project? Why are you proud of it?
Remember to set the stage early—present your theme at the beginning of your case study.
4. Diction: Communication Is Key
To Aristotle, diction (or dialogue) was how the characters spoke to each other. Audiences can learn a lot about a character from the person’s tone of voice. Good communicators are characters who get their points across clearly and efficiently. Bad communicators hide behind their words or try to outsmart their audience.
In the same way, your diction orwriting style influences your case studies’ reading experience. Master how to write effectively:
Use plain English.
Only use technical terms if they’re necessary for the roles you’re applying for.
Use a friendly, professional tone of voice to help recruiters relate to your UX case studies.
The hiring manager who reviews your case studies may not be a UX professional, so write with the assumption that they know very little about design. Here is an example of how not to write your case studies:
Throughout the accessibility enhancement project, I conducted a comprehensive heuristic evaluation leveraging WCAG 2.1 protocols alongside an exhaustive series of multimodal usability assessments. My approach incorporated a robust mix of qualitative and quantitative methodologies to triangulate insights into how users with visual disabilities interacted with our app. The synthesis of these data streams revealed numerous UX friction points, particularly in terms of contrast ratios, hierarchical visual organization, and inadequate ARIA role designations. These findings were pivotal in informing our iterative design processes and optimizing user experience flow.
And here is the same example but in plain English:
During the research phase, we tested the app’s accessibility features using WCAG 2.1 guidelines. We also ran usability tests to get feedback and data from real users with visual disabilities who interacted with the app. Our aim was to understand what problems these users faced with the app. Through our testing, we discovered issues with:
This feedback helped guide our changes to improve the app’s usability.
Don Norman, Founding Director, Design Lab, University of California, and Co-Founder, Nielsen Norman Group, gives his best tips and methods to improve your communication, especially when you need to explain complex subjects:
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People think – professors especially – that what they're good at is abstracting the principles they've learned, and that's what they're proud of and that's what they get rewarded for because the abstraction allows you to apply those principles to a wide range of topics. But then they begin to *talk* in abstractions. And I've had – when students give presentations in my research group, I have to stop them sometimes
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and say, "I can't understand what you're talking about. Give me an example!" And sometimes they even have trouble giving me examples, and I force them to give me some practical examples. The way you learn is by starting with some practical examples that you can understand. Get a couple of those. Then you show the abstraction that brings all these different examples together. Then people can understand it, but you have to start with concrete things that people understand.
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But professors – they love to start with the history of the field or the current problems that are going on, and they start with all this stuff that you don't care about. It's not that it's not important, but the way to get people excited is you give them some interesting examples in the beginning. And if they get interested in that, then they might be interested in the history and the other issues. But, yeah, it's amazing how many teachers we have that teach that don't know how to teach.
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We lecture. Lectures are the world's worst way to learn. But it's the easiest way to teach. Lectures, by the way, are useful because after all what am I doing now but lecturing? Because what's really good about lecturing is it *motivates*. If I can show you how excited I am by the things I'm talking about, maybe you can get excited, too, and I don't expect you to remember the details of what I talk about. What I hope you will do is learn the *excitement*
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and therefore go off by yourself and study the things or learn the things or read the things or try the things that are kind of interesting to you, because – you know: Don't do the things that you are told you must do. Do the things you *care* about. If you do something because you think you're supposed to do it, you're not going to do a good job. If you do the things you love, you will do a great job. Describing something really easily is hard. I have an example. I taught a course at Northwestern on how to give talks.
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So, it was for the students and I said, "Take some piece of research you are working on yourself." And this is a varied audience, so in the audience are lots of people – they're all students. They all are smart, but they may not have any idea of the field that you're working in. So, you have to give a talk for them. And they would give the talk. First, I would do the critiques, but pretty soon I didn't have to; the audience would. And then, that person who gave the talk – and they usually were pretty bad in the beginning –
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the next meeting, they had to give it again. And they had to keep giving it, week after week after week until everybody said, "That's wonderful!" And there was one woman – she was a theoretical computer scientist. That is, she did mathematical models. And nobody could understand her. And I kept trying to help. And one day I kept saying, "No!" And she got really mad at me. And she said, "Damn it – will you stop it?
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Look, it's really very simple. All I'm trying to say is..." And I said, "That was perfect!" And so, maybe the secret is to make the student mad at you and say, "Look, it's simple. Why are you having so much trouble?" I have another rule, and here's what I do... It's quite often when you write, you write these long things and then you have another section where you say "...in other words..." and you write this stuff. And I say, "That's wonderful. Leave the 'in other words' stuff and throw away all the other."
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So, when I have trouble writing something and I just can't explain it, what I do is I stand up and I go walk around the room, and then I go point at the wall or maybe the mirror and I say, "Look, I'm just trying to say this..." and I... We try too hard to explain something, and that makes it worse. And so, what you want is after a bunch of failures and you get upset about it, you quite often can blurt out... the *correct* way of describing it.
Use the Right Diction: Checklist of Questions to Ask Yourself
What is your tone of voice, and is it appropriate for a case study?
Can you avoid technical terms? If you need to include them in your case study, can you explain them simply?
Have you learned how to write in plain English?
Which parts of your case study can you convert into bulleted or numbered lists to aid understanding?
Triple-check your case study for spelling and grammatical errors. If you read it aloud, you’ll quickly identify anything that doesn’t work.
5. Melody: Rouse the Emotions of Your Reader
Actors often perform musical choruses in a Greek play. These choruses—or the melody—reflect the average person’s emotional response to the characters’ actions.
In your UX case studies, melody relates to how you stir the reader’s emotions. Your case study is not a factual report but a story that will get a recruiter interested enough to meet you.
Don’t be afraid to let your emotions shine through in your UX case studies. Show your passion. Melody can reinforce your case studies’ theme. Like in real life, you should charge your project goals and obstacles with emotion.
However, remember to keep it appropriate and professional. Strike a balance between highlighting the emotional aspects of your story and maintaining an approachable tone.
Here is an example of how to include emotion in your case studies:
I’m very proud of the accessibility improvements we made to the app:
We improved the experience of users with visual disabilities.
I greatly expanded my understanding of inclusive design.
The challenges I faced took me out of my comfort zone and grew my skills in new areas.
The most rewarding part of the project was hearing from the people the project benefited. In our usability testing, the screen reader users said they could now easily navigate the features that once frustrated them. This experience confirmed my belief that accessibility should be a priority in every design project, not just a nice-to-have.
You can include emotion throughout your portfolio to engage readers and encourage them to reach out. For example, your landing page should feature a hook that lures hiring managers in, as Morgane Peng explains in this video:
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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.
Sing the Melody in Tune: A Checklist of Questions to Ask Yourself
How do you show not only your technical expertise but also your passion for design?
What is the hook you will use to draw the reader in?
Remember to show your emotional journey throughout your projects, too.
6. Spectacle: Use Visual Storytelling to Make Your Stories Pop
To Aristotle, the spectacle of a drama refers to the staging, scenery, and costume. In your UX case studies, spectacle refers to the visual design.
Your portfolio is a designed product, so it should look and feel good. Use images of your works in progress to tell your story. Make sure your portfolio has readable text. Your portfolio should be usable, effective, and pleasant.
In this video, Morgane Peng explains how to use visual storytelling in your portfolio:
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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.
Create a Spectacle: A Checklist of Questions to Ask Yourself
Before you approach the visual design of your case studies and portfolio, have you optimized the content?
Did you remember to take lots of photos and screenshots of your work in progress to use in your UX case studies? If not, perhaps you can easily reconstruct some of the processes. In the future, remember to document your design process as much as possible.
How can you make your UX case studies and portfolio consistent with your visual style?
Success Is Where Preparation and Opportunity Meet
Now, it’s your turn to answer the questions above for each element. Failing to plan is planning to fail! Spend time planning your UX case studies to save time (and career opportunities!) in the future. And remember, ensure your case studies are short and sweet. Recruiters will often spend no more than 5 minutes reading them.
You can use this template to build a winning strategy for your UX design portfolio as a whole:
Build a Winning Portfolio Strategy
And remember, storytelling is just one of the many crucial elements you should include in your UX/UI design portfolio. Watch this video to discover what senior designers look for in a portfolio, featuring insights from Vitaly Friedman (Senior UX Consultant, European Parliament), Niwal Sheikh (Product Design Lead, Netflix), and other industry experts:
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The Take Away
Aristotle’s elements of drama will turn your UX/UI design case studies into compelling design journeys. Each of your UX case studies should contain (in order of importance):
A compelling plot that is consistent throughout all UX case studies.
A good, appropriate, consistent maincharacter (i.e., you) and supporting characters.
A theme that sets the context of your project and propels you forward.
Pleasant, friendly, and professional diction.
An emotional and passionate melody.
Engaging and attractive spectacle, which includes images and visual design.
References and Where to Learn More
Want to create a portfolio that gets you hired? Take our course, Build a Standout UX/UI Portfolio: Land Your Dream Job, and learn how to showcase your skills, tell compelling project stories, and impress employers.
How to Build a UX/UI Design PDF Portfolio That Hiring Managers Will Love (Includes Examples)
If you already have an online UX/UI design portfolio, do you need a PDF version? The answer is – yes; it is better to be
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