What should the interaction designer's portfolio look like?
There are related discussions in forums such as Zhihu, Quora and ux.stackexchange.com. This paper summarizes these viewpoints, and discusses how to design interaction designer's portfolio with my own job-hunting experience, in order to help colleagues engaged in interaction design. Since it is a work of interactive design, it is different from GUI or graphic design, and it is not the conclusion display of user research. Instead, we should face the problem directly, consider it comprehensively, put forward the best solution and implement it. Therefore, the focus of the interaction designer's portfolio should be a series of processes to face problems and propose solutions in actual projects, as well as the final effect. 1. The design case should be the actual project. Interaction designers do not redesign themselves, but will encounter various problems in their actual work, and the needs they face may be varied. They need to communicate with many colleagues at different jobs. Faced with these limitations and problems, it is very important to find the most essential requirements and optimal solutions in various proposed schemes, which will only be encountered in real projects, but the redesigned schemes they have made can not meet these problems. Therefore, the portfolio should try to show these practical projects. Try to choose the actual project. 2. Explain that the process and effect of problem-solving interaction design is the best solution to solve the needs and problems. A single solution can not well reflect its professionalism. The design case should describe the content of the project or demand, the existing problems, the designer's suggestions and corresponding analysis, and the superiority of the final solution. It is best to show the final actual effect of the solution, such as how much traffic and registration it brings. It is suggested to show these contents in the form of story version, flow chart and so on. Show the whole thinking process of solving problems. 2. Using wireframes without visual effects and design drafts with visual effects can easily make people pay more attention to non-interactive parts, so interactive design cases should show wireframes and flowcharts as much as possible, and have certain text descriptions. Wireframe can take many forms, including hand-drawn, wireframe made by Visio or Axure, and try to show their professionalism by using various design tools. Use wireframe 3. Try to use simple screenshots with interactive effects, which can't well show the various modes, interactive processes and effects of design elements, especially the design of mobile products. Therefore, animation effects are used to express the scheme, but too many complicated operations should not be used to increase the cost of readers. Interactive display 4. Pay attention to the screen size and show the design details. Each design picture should highlight one or two key points to illustrate the superiority of the scheme. Too large a picture will increase the loading speed of the page. Simple pictures can't explain the reasons for the establishment of the scheme well, so some words need to be added. 5. Pay attention to the taste and aesthetic quality of the whole combination. Although interaction designers pay more attention to the information architecture and operation process of products, they should also pay attention to the integrity and aesthetics of the portfolio and the experience it brings to users, which can also show the professionalism of designers more convincingly. Pay attention to the taste of the collection. 6. Provide works that best reflect their own level. Readers usually think that this is the designer's best work when browsing the collection of works, so they should carefully polish every case in the collection and try their best to show the design that best reflects their professionalism. I think the design sketches they made should be deleted. Provide the best works. Avoid copyright issues in design cases. The design scheme in actual projects often involves copyright issues. Designers should also pay attention when choosing cases. For projects that are not online or have signed confidentiality agreements, we should pay more attention to such problems.