Baby’s Fourth Redesign

Author’s Note: I wrote this while I was still in the midst of building out my portfolio in Github pages because it was free and I felt like I was capable of doing that. Turns out, I neither have the patience nor the brain space to learn enough Git and R Studio, where my template was built (thanks to my husband, an R Studio virtuoso). So, we’re back here on Squarespace and much of the actual process of building this portfolio site was, how can I transition my content from my old template to this one without having to rewrite it all? And, maybe more importantly, how can I do it all in the fourteen days I have this trial?

It might not be every designer's worst nightmare, but the thought of redesigning my portfolio for, I don't know, the fourth time, is giving me agita. I'm sitting here right now thinking, how am I going to go about doing this? Start with an outline? Audit all of my old portfolio's content? Just burn it all down and start from scratch?

Maybe I should withdraw entirely and leave the old thing up forever, forking over lots of money to Squarespace for a website that I hopefully won't have to send people for a long, long time?

Big sigh. On the infamous Design Squiggle, I'm not even squiggling yet.

The Process of Design Squiggle by Damien Newman, thedesignsquiggle.com

A designer's guide on how to redesign a portfolio

If I were to take the designerly approach and redesign it the way I'd redesign any experience for work, I'd probably start with a content audit - what exists, what is it saying, in what format is it written? What is the tone? What is the structure? What is the goal?

From there, I might sit down and think if that content, its format, and its goals serve that content well and are extensible for any current work I need to slot into the portfolio. When I last updated my portfolio in 2022, most of my work was from a job I left in 2021, where I served as a principal level designer overseeing platform-level projects for two native mobile apps, plus managing a design system for each app that I created and was continually refining. The "other" section of my portfolio for my more recent role as a product design consultant at a small agency had only two projects that shipped.

My work now is even more "other" than the "other" from my past portfolio. I write white papers, document my learnings, spend hours synthesizing workshop content from collaborative sessions I help facilitate. I design and conduct qualitative and quantitative research studies, do some ugly wireframes, but more often than not, I think a lot and help others think as well. We think and talk and figure things out and then document our thoughts in a way that helps others make decisions.

What kind of story do I need to tell to make that work consumable for someone who might be perusing my portfolio and wondering if I'm a good fit for their team? Does it fit the same narrative as much of my past UX work? Do I need to completely redesign the template I use to structure my case studies?

I think I'll start where I normally start - learning. Learning and thinking, and then documenting.

Thanks for joining me on this journey.