The design portfolio bug in 2026
Nobody reads a portfolio, they scan it. The most common mistake isn't a lack of work, it's the order: process before the result.
Whoever opens my portfolio decides in two minutes whether it's worth a conversation. They don't read the whole case, they glance for one thing: does this solve my problem? The average portfolio answers it badly, because it's still written like a diary. Everything the designer did, in chronological order, with the result way down at the end, exhausted, after fifteen discovery screens.
The result comes first
I rewrote my cases backwards. Start with the result, then work back and fill in only the moments that mattered for it to exist. About 80% of the discovery gets left out. Not because it didn't happen, but because the reader doesn't need it to understand what changed.
PAR+I instead of "challenge → solution"
The mold I use in every case now:
- P: point of view and problem. What the thesis was.
- A: the actions I took. Not what the team did, and not all of it.
- R: result. A number, before and after, what changed that's measurable.
- +I: impact beyond the number, on the process, the team, the way of working.
Seniority isn't a screen count
The signal isn't how many flows I designed. It's the complexity of the decision. The trade-off I considered and dropped, why I picked one path and not the other. Any tool spits out pretty screens today. What stays expensive, and what the reader is actually measuring, is the judgment behind them.
// Takeaway A case is a trailer, not a diary. Start with the result and work back, filling in only the moments it took to get there.