Junior Designer Portfolio Review

[sullen nimbus]

I recently changed my portfolio. Would love to get your thoughts on the visual design/case study structure. This is not yet optimized for mobile.

Thanks!!!

Link: https://www.jnthndesigns.com/

[nocturne forge]

Your homepage looks very attractive and love the deep blue gradient with the streaks of purple and light blue. Nice work 😊

[sullen nimbus]

Thank you 🙂

[nocturne forge]

You are most welcome 😊

[shrewd gull]

Listens to Intro by the xx

[sullen nimbus]

lol i love the xx. my goal though was to make the porftolio look like what Chihiro by Billie Eilish sounds like

[shrewd gull]

I like where you're going so far with the visual design branding, but I also feel like the song player is competing with your headline, which is most important IMO

You should push the headline further to highlight the skills/expertise you can bring to the next company you wanna work for

I like the hover interaction on your projects, I'm more interested in seeing an overview of the impact you made like "Overseeing Design System implementation and establishing a new workflow" for example

Solid headline for case study example: https://www.billytseng.com/

Try ensure that your work has a solid design process where your design decisions tie back to the user needs, business goals with a outcome, whether it's measurable metrics or some other form of impact that your work/contributions made

[sullen nimbus]

Thank you so much for the feedback! Would you say this is missing?

[shrewd gull]

It's not missing necessarily, but there's definitely room to refine it and make it more evident

[sullen nimbus]

Got you! Is there anything specific I could change to make it more evident?

[fleet brook]

Looks good. But it looks minimal, and congested.
Example: add to playlist and play button are not aligned. Make alignment and add some space between things. Music players looks too close with one another. Other than that, looks fantastic😁

[sullen nimbus]

Hey, thanks for the feedback! Do you mean the music player? since that is just an embed from Spotify, only thing I could do is make it a bit bigger. I can't really control the alignment

[fleet brook]

oh ok then its not your problem. But the thing is people or recruiter who dont know its embed will think that you might have made mistake.

[brazen birch]

there is a horizontal scroll. u should probably fix that

these pills need better padding (more on the sides for better balance). also the hierarchy is weird here. u have the logo, then the name, then the role type. try something simpler like internship @ Shure. too many elements

seems like QR menu is a 3 yr old project. would be better if you had more recent work

I would also suggest tryig out a different typeface

poppins is uhhh.... not good

also its more of a headings typeface. not the best option for a body typeface cuz its so bulky.

your hover interaction feels a kinda sloww to me. idk if that was intentional. snappier hover interactions feel more natural. this is more of an opinion though

try to have your headings be a summary of your entire para. most recruiters dont sit and reads walls of text. they scan headings and scroll ahead. just reading "outdated components" doesnt tell me much. try something like "Outdated components caused X leading to Y"

not sure what the intention behind the music player here is. also, if this is your design folio, id remove the & musician tag, n keep that for the about page. maybe incorporate your passion for music in your copy. "A product designer with a rhythm for crafting seamless experiences" or something. that was terrible but should give you an idea

Just keep it focused on your design profile is my point cuz thats what u wann get hired for

I wouldnt hide this context on hover.

your case study cards are farther apart from each other than they are from the hero. when it should be the opposite cuz cards are more related to each other. id swap the spacings you have for the 2.

[sullen nimbus]

this is super helpful thank you so much for the feedback!!!!

[brazen birch]

welcome

[shrewd gull]

Like juztux mentioned about the headings, I think they could better describe your process more clearly rather than generally, which will help readers understand why you made certain design decisions (ultimately because of a user problem and business goal)

[tidal coral]

everything looks so good! I really like how you structured your case studies!

[sullen nimbus]

Thank you so much 🙂

[dusky sandal]

Hey Jonathan!

In terms of feedback regarding the visual design of your portfolio - I love the consistent branding (the motion in your header backdrop + in your logo), it creates a sense of consistency that doesn’t feel overwhelming.

As per the structure of the case studies, I would suggest maybe trying a different approach and work on the storytelling. Currently, the case studies (esp. QR Menu) feels like a checklist of deliverables. I think a good strategy/tip is to write the full case study down on a Google Docs - think about how one step informed the next instead of approaching it as a mechanical process. Might even be valuable to add challenges/learning points along the way. This is more interesting to employers than “I did wireframes….”.

I also think it’s important to articulate your design decisions. Less of “I did xyz” and more of “WHY I did xyz” It felt like some of your solutions didn’t address the “why”. Also maybe spending more time explaining your ideation solution process.

Last note - try to connect your solutions back to the problem or pain points. For example, your QR Menu case study has some interesting solutions and a lot of pain points. It’ll be valuable to connect back to the problem when explaining the solution since people might forget all the various problems by the time they reach the solution (recognition over recall)

That being said, I think overall your portfolio branding and visual design skills are solid 🙂 Lmk if you have any questions about the feedback

[sullen nimbus]

Thank you for the great feedback! I completely agree, but at the same time I am having a bit of a hard time implementing these changes and finding a balance between conciseness and storytelling. Do you have any examples of case studies you believe to be doing a good job at that?

Thank you so much!!!