The best UX/UI portfolios are themselves a UX test. The visitor is a hiring manager or a client, the task is "understand this designer in under two minutes," and the site either passes or it does not.
The designers who land the interview rarely have the flashiest site. They have the clearest one: role stated in a line, two or three case studies that run problem to outcome, and a layout that stays out of the work's way.
Below are eight UX and UI portfolios built by working designers on Pixpa, grouped by focus and drawn from a wider gallery of UI/UX portfolio examples.
Each comes with the design, colour, and type choices worth studying, and the one decision worth borrowing.
What Makes a Strong UX/UI Portfolio
A strong UI/UX portfolio says what kind of designer you are in one line, and shows two or three case studies that move from the problem to the result.
It keeps the interface quiet so the work carries the page. It loads fast and reads on a phone.
Each site below earned its place on four things: how well the design serves the work, how clearly the case studies are structured, whether the site does its real job of landing a role or a client, and how it holds up on mobile.
UI/UX Designer Portfolios
These four are individual-contributor UX/UI portfolios: one designer, a handful of case studies, and a layout tuned to get a hiring manager into the work fast.
Elizabeth Lodvikov
UI/UX design. New York.
Elizabeth Lodvikov opens on a warm cream background, with her role stated in one charcoal-grey line and an arch-cropped portrait to the right.
The palette is deliberately soft: cream, charcoal text, and a single muted terracotta accent on the "Say Hello" button.
That warmth reads far more human than the dark-mode default, and the clean geometric sans keeps the focus on what a visitor came for.
Gaelle Monin
UX/UI design. London.
Gaelle Monin makes the homepage the work. Under a thin, airy wordmark and a "UX/UI Design" tag underlined with a hand-drawn peach highlighter stroke, the page drops straight into a project grid, with no bio to scroll past.
The palette stays near-white so the colour comes from the work itself: a finance dashboard with a spending donut, a recipe app with an import flow, mobile screens inside device mockups. One warm highlight accent keeps the grid from feeling clinical.
Sasank Anipeddi
UX/UI design. Maryland.
Sasank Anipeddi runs a dark, editorial site built in a serif face, which is rare in a field that defaults to sans.
The near-black background, white text, and a green highlight on his name give it a calm, confident tone, closer to a magazine than a template.
The navigation splits Case Studies, Blog, and GitHub into separate destinations, and each case study carries method tags (User Research, Competitive Analysis, Usability Testing) so the shape of the work shows before you open it.
Matthew Park
UX design and concept art. Sunnyvale.
Matthew Park turns the homepage into a colour-blocked gallery. Every project sits in its own full-bleed tile in a different saturated colour, blue, teal, magenta, indigo, tan, each carrying a laptop or phone mockup of the product.
It is loud in the right way, because the colour is the wayfinding and the work behind it is real SaaS: Lacework, Endgame, Xona. The wordmark is a quiet uppercase sans that lets the tiles do the shouting.
Product Designers and Design Leaders
Product and strategy roles sell judgment as much as craft, so these two lead with named work and a point of view.
Marcin Spiewak
Product design. Berlin.
Marcin Spiewak opens with a heavy bold hero on a dark charcoal background that lists every hat he has worn, Graphic, Web, UI, UX, then strikes each one through to land on "Product Designer," with "Berlin" picked out in green. It is a one-line career story told in type.
A full-width candid photo of him in the field warms up the dark palette, and project tiles link out to Figma for anyone who wants the full depth.
Michael Collins
Product design and strategy.
Michael Collins runs a centered, minimalist site in a clean sans on an off-white background, with a dark-red wordmark as the only colour note. The restraint is strategic.
The project grid is full-bleed photography with recognisable client names overlaid, Silvertree, ExxonMobil, lululemon, so the credibility comes from the logos, not the layout. A small lock icon marks the case studies that are gated, a quiet signal of enterprise NDA work.
Multidisciplinary Designers
When a practice spans several disciplines, the risk is a site that reads as several portfolios stapled together. This one keeps it coherent.
Forest
Multimedia and UI design.
Forest commits to an oversized, type-forward hero, "Hi I'm Forest!" set enormous in bold black on light grey, with a horizontal ticker scrolling his disciplines past: UI Design, Motion Graphics, Graphic Design, Video Editing.
The monochrome palette keeps a wide-ranging practice from feeling scattered, and the ticker signals range without a cluttered skills grid. UI sits alongside motion and graphic work rather than claiming a pure-UX focus, and the site is honest about that.
Isabella Zelasko
UX/UI and media-arts design. Phoenix.
Isabella Zelasko works across UX/UI, UX research, game design, and interactive media, and the site sets all of it on a deep plum canvas with cream serif display type that reads more gallery than template.
Projects are shown one at a time, each tagged with the disciplines and tools behind it (Game Design + UI Design, or Web Design, HTML, and CSS), and a six-card Skills grid turns a broad practice into scannable capability areas.
The work is early-career, a game UI mockup and an undergrad web project, but it is framed with a clarity most junior portfolios miss.
What the Best UX/UI Portfolios Have in Common
Look across all eight and the same handful of decisions keep showing up. None are about taste. They are about getting a visitor into the work fast.
- The role is stated in one line. Lodvikov and Sasank Anipeddi both name what they do in the first sentence, so no one has to guess whether they are the right kind of designer.
- The homepage leads with work, not a bio. Gaelle Monin drops straight into a project grid and Matthew Park colour-blocks his, so the work is the first thing you see.
- Case studies show method, not just screens. Sasank Anipeddi's method tags and Marcin Spiewak's linked Figma files prove there was thinking behind the pixels, which is what a hiring manager is buying.
- Named work does the persuading. Michael Collins leads with ExxonMobil and lululemon, and Matthew Park with real SaaS products, because recognisable work earns trust faster than any layout.
- One visual idea, held. Every strong site here commits to a single palette and type system, rather than mixing three aesthetics and reading as indecisive.
- Speed and mobile are not optional. Most first reviews happen on a phone between meetings, so a wall of desktop screenshots is unreadable where it matters most.
How to Structure Your Portfolio by Goal
A portfolio built to land a full-time role is structured differently from one chasing freelance clients. Decide what the site is for, then build around it.
Pixpa's UI/UX portfolio templates are built around case studies and project grids, so the row you pick above is mostly a matter of which sections you turn on.
Common UX/UI Portfolio Mistakes to Avoid
Five mistakes that are easy to miss and quick to fix once you spot them.
- Password-gating every case study. NDAs are real, but a portfolio where nothing is viewable without emailing you first loses the visitor who had thirty seconds. Keep at least one project fully public.
- Writing the case study as a diary. "First I did discovery, then personas, then wireframes" is a task list. Lead with the problem and the outcome, and let the process sit underneath as evidence.
- Leading with process artifacts. Opening on a wall of sticky notes and journey maps buries the point. Show the result first; the research is proof, not the headline.
- Forgetting the portfolio is itself a UX test. Slow load, tiny tap targets, a hamburger hiding the only two pages that matter. Audit the UX of your own portfolio the way you would a client's.
- One aesthetic for the homepage, another for the case studies. Inconsistent type and colour between the shell and the work reads as a site assembled from templates rather than designed.
How to Build Your Own UX/UI Portfolio
You do not need to code or hire a developer. The process is short.
- Start a free trial, no credit card needed.
- Pick a template made for UI/UX designers.
- Add two or three case studies, each written problem first. If you are not sure what to show, start from these UX/UI project ideas.
- Set a single accent colour and one type system, and keep the navigation to what matters.
- Connect your domain, check it on your phone, and publish.
The Bottom Line
A UX/UI portfolio is judged the way you would judge any interface: does it help the visitor do their job quickly.
State your role in a line, show two or three case studies problem first, keep the work visible, and let the design get out of the way. Every site above solves one piece of that well. Borrow the decision, not the look.
Give your work the portfolio it deserves, free for 15 days.
UX/UI Portfolio FAQs
How many projects should a UX/UI portfolio have?
Two to four. Depth beats breadth: one thorough end-to-end case study that shows your thinking is worth more than six shallow project galleries.
Reviewers are deciding whether you can reason about problems, not counting entries.
Should UX case studies be password-protected?
Only when an NDA requires it, and even then keep at least one project fully public. A portfolio where nothing is viewable without contacting you first loses the visitor who had a few seconds.
If most of your work is under NDA, build one self-initiated project you can show openly.
What should a UX portfolio homepage include?
One line on who you are and what you focus on, one credibility signal, links to two or three case studies, and one clear contact action.
Skip the mission statement. There is a fuller list of elements to include in your portfolio if you want it, but the homepage's job is to route a visitor to the work fast.
Do I need to know how to code to have a UX portfolio?
No. Most strong UX/UI portfolios run on a website builder, and it makes no difference to a hiring manager.
Your time is better spent writing tight case studies than debugging CSS.
What is the difference between a UX portfolio and a UI portfolio?
A UX portfolio emphasises process and outcomes: the problem, research, decisions, and measurable result. A UI portfolio leans on visual craft: layout, type, colour, and interface polish.
Most working designers show both, weighted toward whichever their role centres on.
How much does a portfolio website cost?
Pixpa's plans start at $5.40 a month on an annual Basic plan, and every plan comes with a 15-day free trial with no credit card and a 30-day money-back guarantee. The latest plan pricing is broken down by tier.
What is the best platform for a UX/UI portfolio?
There is no single best platform. Pixpa fits designers who want a portfolio, a built-in blog, and a clean template system in one place with live human support.
If you want to weigh the options, this breakdown of the best website builders for UI/UX designers compares them side by side.
Should I show unsolicited or concept projects?
Yes, especially early in your career or when switching in. A well-structured self-initiated redesign proves you can think through a problem when you do not yet have shipped, credited work to point to.
Label it clearly as a concept.