Best UX Writer Portfolio Examples 2024
Creating a good UX writer portfolio is quite challenging since there is a lot to consider. For example, communicating the complex work you do, representing your projects in an interesting way, and discovering how to showcase your work samples, whether you have a lot or few. Working your way through all this can cause stress. But, by good fortune, there are many examples of great UX portfolios that can give you ideas.
This post covers the eight best UX writer portfolios 2024 that will help you get started in this field. But before that, we will shed light on the importance of a UX writing portfolio and its key components. So, let’s have a look:
What is a UX Writing Portfolio?
A UX writing portfolio is an overview of you and your work, showcasing your skills and process through work samples and case studies. UX writers use UX writing portfolios for demonstrating their work alongside an explanation of their work methods. Most of the time, a UX portfolio is published online as a collection of web pages or as a part of a larger site. In the main, UX portfolios lets you stay current in your career and helps potential clients or recruiters interested in hiring you through your UX writing case studies, etc.
Where a cover letter can give the hiring manager the first impression in most cases, your portfolio also can. It is where you provide concrete proof to show yourself as a strong and eligible candidate. Within a few minutes, they will decide to interview you. In brief, UX writing portfolios explain your achievements and showcase what you can do. It is where clients/recruiters can get in touch with you after learning about you and your skills.
Why Do You Need a UX Writing Portfolio?
You will need a UX writing portfolio, whether you are looking for a freelance gig or a full-time position. While a resume gives hiring managers a checklist – years of experience, relevant degrees, and keywords of proficiencies, the portfolio gives them a brief look at how you work and find solutions to problems. You need a portfolio to put yourself forward for interesting UX writing projects. It offers potential employers concrete proof that you can do the work or that at least you know the basics and are ready for mentorship.
Sometimes, job adverts mention the requirement for portfolios. It is also great to have if you get in touch with the companies you want to work for using the direct approach. A portfolio shows that you are serious about your profession. For that reason, many successful UX writers maintain a digital portfolio.
While there are many UX writing opportunities, they come up just once in a while for teams. Companies receive several applications, but most of them either fail to cut the mustard or use a bulk-application method. So, a hiring manager needs a way to filter out those who are serious about the position. This is where a UX writing portfolio comes into play.
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What to Include in Your UX Portfolio?
Before diving into the major components of a UX writing portfolio, we should first understand if UX writing is different from other types of writing. UX designers focus on prototypes, wireframes, and making screen designs, so their portfolio features the visual process and final result of their work. With the research and usability testing, their work can still become further visual. Instead of making a design, they use UI words. In contrast, UX writing uses written solutions you create to solve design problems instead of focusing on UI, prototypes, or customer journey maps.
Key Components of a UX Writing Portfolio
A good UX writer is a good problem-solver, and a portfolio is a UX problem. The way you create your UX writing portfolio is a great challenge and a chance for you to shine at interviews. You should take creative approaches to solve the problem of How do I present my work samples? For that, you need to build your portfolio on a simple structure that introduces you, reveals your process, and inspires action. Following are the basic components you should include in the portfolio:
Personal Statement
Above all, your work in the UX writing portfolio should speak for itself. However, it is helpful to add some information about you. A short biography can give some valuable insights into your work style and personality. Remember that employers show interest in finding someone who will fit in their team. So, you can add a summary of your skills to tell the readers who you are and what you can do for them. Try to highlight every possible thing that might set you apart from other UX writers. For UX writers with technical skills, that is an asset also.
Note that there is no need to go overboard, but show your personality enough as your readers are looking for the best candidate for the role, together with the best resume. Write a couple of paragraphs and tell your potential clients or employers who you are, what you are good at, and how you will use your skills in a work environment. A brief yet good introduction lets your client picture what is unique about you and how you can help their cause.
Contact Information
If you want people and opportunities to find you, make it easy for potential employers or clients to contact you. Include your basic contact information – as much as it feels comfortable based on how you plan to publish your UX writing portfolio. Besides adding your phone number and email, add your social media links also. Display all your contact information and links to your LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook accounts in strategic places.
Work Samples and Case Studies
Your work samples are the most important asset of your UX writing portfolio. So, collect everything you wrote to date – screen titles, buttons, menus, labels, placeholder texts, warnings, error messages, notifications, forms, sign-up pages, descriptions, confirmation modals – and include the best of all in your portfolio. Provide the best UX writing samples unless they are under NDA (non-disclosure agreement).
Note that you can also share your writing samples of other types, other than UX-related. They have to show relevancy to the objective of your current job search and demonstrate the depth and extent of your writing skills. All work samples should prove that you are adaptable and know every step to take for figuring out any challenge you may have.
You can also demonstrate your work with case studies. A case study is a comprehensive description of the project and offers insight into your creative process and the before-and-after visual representation of the product by you. Case studies cover what the problem client had and how and what solution you offered to the client. Instead of adding screenshots of your work, it is ideal to include case studies to show recruiters what you can do.
Testimonials
If you have previous work experience as a UX writer, include testimonials from your employers or clients. Add written testimonials in your portfolio from people whom you have worked for. Make sure it is clear who the quotes are coming from – their name, role, and company.
What to Do if You Have No Relevant Experience?
It may seem impossible to create a portfolio for those who are new to the UX writing industry and have no experience, but it is doable. If you are one of them, you can create your own before-and-after examples. Yvonne Gando, the Senior UX Writer at Google, says For designers, writers, and researchers, showing before-and-after examples in their portfolio is quite strong. You can just pretend to work for an existing site to improve its UX copy. Take screenshots and explain what you would change, why you would change it, and how you would do it.
Also, note if your previous experience may have relevancy after all. You may have no experience as a UX writer, but perhaps you have had a customer-facing job. You can also see other types of writing assignments from a UX point of view. There are many UX experts who also include articles or any information they have written about user experience, like what user experience is and its importance. They do all this to show what they have to say about UX. You can also check what kind of writing samples do you have. Whether you have blog posts or magazine articles, you can work with that as it is all about how you frame it.
Or, you can follow some ways to get UX writing experience without working as a full-timer in the field. Ask somebody, who runs a business like a local eating spot with a simple website, if you could create a microcopy for them. Document the whole process, and you have your first case study. It is ideal for your words to speak for themselves when somebody views them, but they must show your approach and decision-making when somebody sees you.
Top 8 UX Writer Portfolio Examples 2024
There are several examples of great UX writing portfolios that should give content designers or UX writers some ideas. Check out the following UX writing portfolio examples 2024 from successful professionals for inspiration:
Ian Bamford
Ian Bamford, UX Writer at Google, has over eight years of experience writing for renowned brands, design studios, and innovative companies, specializing in UX writing. He got his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from Swansea University, Wales. Ian is known for his writing passion and love for design.
Open his site, and you see a minimal design. His portfolio includes samples such as chatbot scripts, app pages, articles, and blogs from different projects to optimize content for UX. Every project explains his role and approach, tools and products used, and screenshots of his work. He shows his projects in a readable and informative manner, balancing text and images and providing just the right amount of information. There are About and Contact pages also where viewers can find Ian’s short introduction and contact details.
Dan Adams
Dan Adams is a London-based UX writer and copywriter at New Bank (TBA). He boasts over 15 years of experience working for some of the biggest brands in the world, including Skyscanner, Babylon Health, Barclays, Virgin Media, Base One, Vodafone, PayPal, and HSBC. His portfolio has everything to draw in the viewers. From case studies and before-and-after examples, you can find everything on Dan’s portfolio that demonstrates his skills to write clear and concise copy for optimized user journeys.
You can view his portfolio here.
Marina Posniak
Marina Posniak is a prominent UX writer with previous working experience as a content strategist and information architect. At present, she works as a Principal UX Writer at Spotify in Gothenburg, Sweden. In her UX portfolio, she presents everything in a simple, clean, and stylish way, with a short summary, detailed study, and many visual examples. There are before-and-after screenshots and writing samples that show the process Marina follows to solve a challenge and help the clients achieve their goals.
You can view her portfolio here.
Andrew Schmidt
Andrew Schmidt, a UX Writer at Figma, knows there is so much to writing a user interface than just button labels and error messages. He is known for giving life and voice to a product. Andrew also worked as a Senior Product Writer at Slack, where he added words to buttons and made everyone feel the human element in the software. He has spoken at the Design Matters conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, on the connection between designing and writing. Andrew’s portfolio includes his quick introduction with descriptions and screenshots of all his projects. It is a great example of voice and how much you can achieve with brief text and simple design.
You can view his portfolio here.
Lisa Collins
Another prominent UX writer, Lisa Collins, is known for her impressive work done for Apple, Google, Dell, and other companies. Nowadays, she calls Denver home but has traveled to many other places to help companies create outstanding user experiences. With a nice balance between text and images, the portfolio shows her writing samples, which helps potential clients and hiring managers find stories telling the problems and the reasoning behind their solutions.
The Contact page contains social media accounts’ links, a form, and an email for recruiters and clients to get in touch with Lisa. It is a stellar portfolio example and a useful model of how to approach a project.
You can view her portfolio here.
Nikki St-Cyr
Nikki is a seasoned UX writer with over nine years of experience in the content industry. She lives in Seattle and works as a Content Designer at Facebook. Nikki has also worked at Amazon, Getty Images, and Expedia in multiple roles. All these years, she has been responsible for driving solutions to the contributors and artists who create inspiring content. Her portfolio features many detailed case studies and skills and tools she used in each project to help future recruiters see what she is capable of doing. Nikki uses the UX Writing Samples card in her portfolio so that people can see her work without extra clicks.
You can view her portfolio here.
Shilpi Khanna Dewan
Shilpi Khanna Dewan is a renowned UX Content Strategist with a great passion for passing on complex ideas to us in a simple way and improving our everyday lives. The portfolio begins with her quick introduction and then goes deep into each stage of her project. In her UX portfolio, she showcases the diversity of work she did at many leading tech firms and TV networks, such as Google, Apple, Disney, Sony Pictures, and Zee TV, for over two decades.
There is also a Me section on the site, which covers everything from her resume and education and awards to hobbies. In addition, there are testimonials in her portfolio, which is an impressive touch, yet without them, the work quality speaks for itself.
You can view her portfolio here.
Suzanne O. Richards
Suzanne O. Richards is a UX writer who has been writing excellent copy for users and readers since 2015. She has some of the fantastic UX writing examples in her portfolio. The simple and clear design and easy navigation, together with a demonstration of the projects, make her proposal up to par. Her portfolio is comprehensive and begins with her quick yet impressive introduction. Suzanne has covered each of her projects in a detailed manner: project scope, stakeholders, her role, basic process, and final results. In addition, her portfolio has separate pages containing links to her blogs, resume, and contact details.
You can view her portfolio here.
Final Thoughts
Great UX portfolios show how companies can benefit from working with an expert, driven, and team-oriented UX writer such as you. Follow these portfolios and complement your best text with the right visuals at all times and view your copy every now and then. Include a tailored email or cover letter and resume to support your portfolio, not to mention links to your social media accounts. Request feedback at interviews to perfect what future clients will see. Once you tick all boxes and understand the concepts, create your own copy and share your online UX writing portfolio with the world.
If you are new to UX writing and are looking to break-in, we recommend taking our UX Writing Certification Course, where you will learn the fundamentals of being a UX writer, how to dominate UX writer interviews, and how to stand out as a UX writing candidate.
