UX Research Portfolio: The Guide

The UX research portfolio can make or break you application. Applying for user experience research jobs can be a lot of work. A lot of consideration goes into an application and employers are asking applicants to not only perform well in the interviews but also to shine through their UXR application material.

One central piece of that material can be your UX Research Portfolio. A UX Research portfolio is a document that highlights and summarizes your previous UX research experience and introduces you as a researcher. It's goal is to convince reviewers of your application of your ability to plan, conduct and present research. The portfolio can exist in the form of a PDF, website or presentation. It may be used to filter applicants before any phone call but you could also be asked to present it in interviews. It's good to check with the employer if they have a preferred format for the portfolio.

Things you want to showcase in your UX Research portfolio:

1. Who you are - a quick intro, make it personal and what got you into research
2. 2-3 example projects

For each project in your research portfolio, make sure to include

• Background or motivation
• Research question & goals
• Method (go into detail here: who were your participants? what method did you use and why? show details of your method)
• Highlight some key insights
• Impact of your research (what did it improve?)
• Throughout the presentation, highlight how you worked with stakeholders (this is very important)

This will be a great starting point for your UX research portfolio.

PS: make sure to respect any confidentially agreements you have to follow (e.g. don't show confidential information of users but also of insights or mocks).

Check out the video below for more on portfolios for user experience research applications.