Would We Hire You? Reviewing Your UX Portfolios Live
14.7K views · 2026-09-23
Product DesignInteraction & UX
Would your portfolio make it past the first scan? We reviewed four real UX portfolios live, from the hero to the About page, and called out what works and what quietly gets people skipped.
Réka Nagy is a Product Designer at UXfolio, the portfolio builder for UX designers and researchers. Talking to recruiters and hiring managers is part of her job, and she has reviewed thousands of portfolios. With Gene Kamenez, CEO and co-founder of Uxcel, she walks through four portfolios from our community using the same three filters she applies on the hiring side: first impressions and relevance, design skills and thinking, and personality and team fit.
"Your portfolio is as strong as your weakest case study." — Réka
What you'll learn:
• The three filters every portfolio goes through, and why nobody judges your designs in the first one
• How to write case study titles and labels a recruiter can scan in seconds
• Why walls of text sink good work, and the 70/30 visual-to-text rule
• What you can still show when your work is under NDA
• How to use AI on your portfolio without looking like everyone else
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:52 How we review a portfolio: 3 filters
5:46 What 100+ hiring managers told UXfolio
7:13 Portfolio 1 (Maya): a hero that makes a claim
8:54 Green flag: titles and labels that say what you did
11:18 Red flag: a cover image that fights the headline
13:35 Inside the case study: results up front
16:49 Easy to scan: headings, contents, custom visuals
18:48 Red flag: too long, with the best outcome buried
21:30 Initiatives and an About page with personality
23:28 UXfolio demo: custom cursors and animated backgrounds
26:16 Portfolio 2 (Ben): the restrained, senior approach
28:32 Red flag: walls of text (the 70/30 rule)
33:09 Under NDA? What you can still show
36:07 Portfolio 3 (Simay): titles that are just app names
38:59 Label personal projects honestly
41:05 Embedded prototypes and a "read more" footer
43:11 Hide your email behind a button
45:43 Portfolio 4 (Kim): illustrated hero and an AI tool stack
48:48 Move your live prototype higher
49:55 Q&A: Should you build your portfolio with AI?
53:05 Q&A: Do vibe-coded side projects belong?
54:23 Q&A: Which projects to include
57:15 Q&A: Showing your thinking without a long case study
1:01:03 Wrap-up and UXfolio discount codes
Build your portfolio with UXfolio: 30% off with code GETHIRED-YEARLY (yearly plan) or GETHIRED-MONTHLY (monthly plan) at https://uxfol.io. Start free and redeem the code when you're ready to go live.
State of UX Portfolios 2026, UXfolio's research with 100+ hiring decision-makers. Join the waitlist: https://uxfol.io/state-of-ux-portfolios-2026
Watch next: The Case Study Gap, our first session with Réka → https://youtube.com/live/iQ7Uxx-hoS8
Where to find the speakers:
Réka Nagy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reka-nagy-ui-ux/
UXfolio: https://uxfolio.com
Gene Kamenez: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gene-kamenez/
Portfolios reviewed (thank you for sharing your work):
Maya Allister: https://mayaallister.com/
Ben Ullman: https://ben-ullman-product-design.vercel.app/
Simay Mazmanoğlu Viara: https://uxfol.io/simaymazmanogluviara
Kim Jiang: https://uxfol.io/kimjiangdesigns
This session was brought to you by Uxcel. Learn cross-functional UX, product, and AI skills through short, gamified courses and real-world project briefs. Start at uxcel.com. Ranked Top 50 Educational Product worldwide by G2 in 2024 and 2025.
#uxportfolio #uxdesign #productdesign
Réka Nagy is a Product Designer at UXfolio, the portfolio builder for UX designers and researchers. Talking to recruiters and hiring managers is part of her job, and she has reviewed thousands of portfolios. With Gene Kamenez, CEO and co-founder of Uxcel, she walks through four portfolios from our community using the same three filters she applies on the hiring side: first impressions and relevance, design skills and thinking, and personality and team fit.
"Your portfolio is as strong as your weakest case study." — Réka
What you'll learn:
• The three filters every portfolio goes through, and why nobody judges your designs in the first one
• How to write case study titles and labels a recruiter can scan in seconds
• Why walls of text sink good work, and the 70/30 visual-to-text rule
• What you can still show when your work is under NDA
• How to use AI on your portfolio without looking like everyone else
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:52 How we review a portfolio: 3 filters
5:46 What 100+ hiring managers told UXfolio
7:13 Portfolio 1 (Maya): a hero that makes a claim
8:54 Green flag: titles and labels that say what you did
11:18 Red flag: a cover image that fights the headline
13:35 Inside the case study: results up front
16:49 Easy to scan: headings, contents, custom visuals
18:48 Red flag: too long, with the best outcome buried
21:30 Initiatives and an About page with personality
23:28 UXfolio demo: custom cursors and animated backgrounds
26:16 Portfolio 2 (Ben): the restrained, senior approach
28:32 Red flag: walls of text (the 70/30 rule)
33:09 Under NDA? What you can still show
36:07 Portfolio 3 (Simay): titles that are just app names
38:59 Label personal projects honestly
41:05 Embedded prototypes and a "read more" footer
43:11 Hide your email behind a button
45:43 Portfolio 4 (Kim): illustrated hero and an AI tool stack
48:48 Move your live prototype higher
49:55 Q&A: Should you build your portfolio with AI?
53:05 Q&A: Do vibe-coded side projects belong?
54:23 Q&A: Which projects to include
57:15 Q&A: Showing your thinking without a long case study
1:01:03 Wrap-up and UXfolio discount codes
Build your portfolio with UXfolio: 30% off with code GETHIRED-YEARLY (yearly plan) or GETHIRED-MONTHLY (monthly plan) at https://uxfol.io. Start free and redeem the code when you're ready to go live.
State of UX Portfolios 2026, UXfolio's research with 100+ hiring decision-makers. Join the waitlist: https://uxfol.io/state-of-ux-portfolios-2026
Watch next: The Case Study Gap, our first session with Réka → https://youtube.com/live/iQ7Uxx-hoS8
Where to find the speakers:
Réka Nagy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reka-nagy-ui-ux/
UXfolio: https://uxfolio.com
Gene Kamenez: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gene-kamenez/
Portfolios reviewed (thank you for sharing your work):
Maya Allister: https://mayaallister.com/
Ben Ullman: https://ben-ullman-product-design.vercel.app/
Simay Mazmanoğlu Viara: https://uxfol.io/simaymazmanogluviara
Kim Jiang: https://uxfol.io/kimjiangdesigns
This session was brought to you by Uxcel. Learn cross-functional UX, product, and AI skills through short, gamified courses and real-world project briefs. Start at uxcel.com. Ranked Top 50 Educational Product worldwide by G2 in 2024 and 2025.
#uxportfolio #uxdesign #productdesign