MarkedUp career guides
A Portfolio Review Checklist for Designers Applying for Work
Review your portfolio as both a body of work and a small website someone has to use. This checklist helps you decide what to show, make your contribution legible, and catch presentation problems before sharing a link.
The first screen: answer three questions quickly
Within the first screen, a visitor should be able to work out who you are, what kind of work you do, and where to begin. You do not need a slogan. A plain role description and one or two relevant projects can orient a busy reader more effectively than a long personal statement.
- Is your name and professional focus easy to find?
- Can a visitor open a relevant project without guessing where to click?
- Is there a working way to contact you?
- Does the page still communicate its purpose on a phone?
Project selection: make each project earn its space
Choose projects that collectively support the roles you want. A narrower set with clear reasoning is often easier to evaluate than a large archive. Include different kinds of work only when each adds evidence; do not use variety as a substitute for explaining your contribution. UConn’s guide similarly advises prioritizing strong work and keeping a portfolio current.
Case studies: make your contribution and decisions explicit
- State the problem, audience, constraints, and project status.
- Name your role and distinguish it from the team’s work.
- Show what informed a decision, not only the final visual treatment.
- Explain what was tested, shipped, measured, or left unknown.
- Credit collaborators and confirm you have permission to share the material.
Presentation: check the site, not just the screenshots
Open the live portfolio at a phone width and a desktop width. Test navigation, project links, contact links, image loading, keyboard access, visible focus, and browser zoom. Check that important explanations are not available only on hover. Give meaningful images text alternatives; decorative images should not produce distracting redundant descriptions.
Ask for feedback that reveals a specific gap
Give a reviewer the role you are targeting and a short time limit. Ask them to think aloud while finding one relevant project, then ask what they think you contributed and what evidence they would want next. Compare their answer with your intended message. A reviewer’s taste is one perspective; repeated confusion about the same information is a clue worth investigating.
- “What kind of role do you think I am applying for?”
- “Which project would you open first for a product design role, and why?”
- “Where did you need more context to understand my contribution?”
- “What did you assume about the outcome that the page did not actually say?”