Hot take: ditch the Behance slider format for your UX case studies

I reviewed 12 portfolios last week for a friend's agency in Austin, and 10 of them used that same horizontal Behance scroll thing. It hides your actual thinking process behind pretty screenshots. I want to see your messy whiteboard sketches from 3 years ago on that hotel app redesign, not just the final polished icons.

2 comments

2 Comments

brown.susan2d ago

Three years ago I was reviewing portfolios for a startup incubator in Denver and I counted the same thing, 8 out of 10 all using that same slider format. The problem is it makes your problem solving invisible, like you just snapped your fingers and the final design appeared. I tell people to include at least one photo of their actual notes or a whiteboard drawing, even if it's blurry or messy, because that's where the real decisions happened. If you're worried about it looking unprofessional, just put it in a small section labeled "initial exploration" with a sentence or two about what you were thinking. That little bit of honesty goes a long way and makes your work stand out way more than another polished mockup.

morgan.cameron2d ago

Totally agree with this. That slider format is the worst because it makes every case study look the same, like a template with a different color scheme. It buries the actual story behind what you were trying to solve and how you got there. When I'm looking at someone's work, I don't need to see 12 different angled shots of the same login screen. I want to see the part where you realized the user flow was broken and how you fixed it, not just the pretty end result. Why does everyone think hiding the messy parts makes them look better?