The 3rd wave of portfolios: what is it and how to create one

Overview of changes in the industry, approaches to reviewing and building portfolios, and recipes for creating one

What do coffee and your portfolio have in common? Let’s think of a portfolio as a cup of this aromatic beverage. Just like coffee, a portfolio should strike the perfect balance between bold and subtle!

The beans (your projects) should be carefully selected and roasted to perfection to represent the best of what you have to offer. Each bean is unique, with its own distinct flavor profile. The aroma (your visual design) attracts and entices, soaking up the eyes of potential clients or employers with its cleanliness…

Well, okay! I just couldn’t resist that parallel when it comes to the “3rd wave” 😁 But let’s get down to business!

Today we are going to talk about changing approaches to portfolio creation, why this has happened, and what a design portfolio should look like today.

1. Why the 3rd wave?

All kidding aside, the 3rd wave is indeed distinguishable. Of course, it’s not just about portfolio design, but about the concept of a “digital product designer” in general, which changes over time and under the influence of various events.

And changes in self-presentation, especially in the portfolio, are already a certain consequence of all these large-scale transformations.

1.1 The first wave—Craftsmanship

In the days when everyone was a “web designer,” a portfolio had to demonstrate the technical skills of a specialist — the ability to create an attractive design.

Image by Midjourney

And it was cool when the viewer’s natural reaction came out: “Oh, wow!” accompanied by drops of saliva from the mouth.

1.2 The second wave—Design Process

Next, UX design gained momentum. We began to talk about usability. The grandfathers of design started writing books and formalizing the theory. Designers brought into practice user research and user problems, data analyze, and adopted design thinking and an iterative approach.

Image by Midjourney

The design process became dominant. Along with the problem statement, research findings, hypotheses, and solutions, the description of the design process had to be demonstrated in the portfolio. Otherwise, it was not comme il faut. Question: “Describe your design process” was definitely asked during the first interview. And probably a few more times after.

1.3 The third wave — Impact

And then the pandemic struck. A full-scale of russian invasion of Ukraine began. The war added momentum to an already raging global economic crisis that hit the digital industry hard. And let’s add the popularization of AI and mass layoffs to that sauce.

Image by Midjourney

The oversaturation of the market with talented designers, along with all of the above, has led to further changes in what designers are expected to do, the scope of their responsibilities, their skills, and the hiring process.

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2. How do employers now look for designers, and how are decisions made?

Even a lean startup that popped up yesterday after the rain will get a hundred resumes for a UX/UI designer position (instead of a few, as it used to be). And design managers, executives, and CEOs face a problem: all the great designer portfolios are full of double diamonds, plenty of context of a project, wireframes, and some “final” screens.