The craft is not the problem. Every case study ends at the final screen and never says what happened next.
Forty applications, two replies. The work looks good and nobody will say what is wrong with it.
Read this as a sample. A junior product designer's portfolio is an invented product and every finding below was written for it. We publish no real client work until a client allows it — this page exists so you can judge the quality of the thinking before you pay for any.
A junior product designer's portfolio
Job-seeking designerReworking the onboarding
A study in colour, type and motion for a fintech onboarding flow.
Sign-up, v3
Sign-up, v3
The final direction simplified the flow into three steps and introduced a progress indicator, which tested well internally with the team.
Case study — “Reworking the onboarding”
- Tier
- Portfolio review
- Turnaround
- 1 working day
- Scope
- Three case studies, reviewed as a hiring designer would read them
BriefForty applications, two replies. The work looks good and nobody will say what is wrong with it.
No case study says what happened after launch
All three end on a final-design shot. A hiring designer reads that as work that was never shipped, or shipped and never measured — and cannot tell which.
FixOne honest closing line per study. “Shipped in March; support tickets about step 2 dropped by roughly half” beats a hero shot. If it never shipped, say so and say why.
The first screenful is a mood board
Colour swatches and type specimens occupy the opening viewport. The problem statement is below the fold in every study.
FixOpen with the problem, who had it, and your role, in three lines. Move the visual exploration to the middle, where it supports rather than delays.
The process diagram is the same in all three studies
Discover → Define → Ideate → Design → Test, unchanged, with no evidence any of it happened. It reads as coursework rather than as an account of the project.
FixDelete the diagram. Replace it with the one decision you got wrong first and what changed your mind — that is what interviewers actually probe.
Eleven screens shown, two explained
The screen grid is doing the work of a portfolio, but nine of the eleven carry no caption, so the reader cannot tell which decisions were yours.
FixCut to four screens. Caption each with the decision it represents.
Body copy is 14px at 45% opacity
The writing is the strongest part of the portfolio and it is the hardest part to read.
Fix16px, full-strength ink, 65–75 characters a line.
Tally
- ■ 4 high
- ■ 8 med
- ■ 5 low
9 of 17 were raised independently by both reviewers.
Where they disagreed
The mood board opening
AScored Med — thought it read as visual confidence.
BScored High — argued a hiring designer gives a case study six seconds and this spends all six.
Reconciled to High. A agreed after re-reading the portfolio on the six-second budget rather than in full.
The craft is not the problem. Every case study ends at the final screen and never says what happened next.
You are being read for six seconds and those six seconds are spent on a mood board. Lead with the problem and close with the outcome, and the same work starts landing interviews.