Content over impact
The portfolio led with polished visuals and project quantity, but gave hiring decision makers little evidence of business thinking or measurable outcomes.
Redesigning my portfolio for interview conversion
Design Portfolio
My previous portfolio was getting traffic but visitors were leaving without reaching out. That told me the work wasn't doing its job. I redesigned it with one clear goal: turn visitors into conversations.
Role: UX/UI Designer and Owner
Duration: 3 months
Status: Live
Results: In progress - (tracked via Google Analytics, with success measured by interview conversions and inquiries post-launch)
Problem
Between January and February 2026, the portfolio recorded 102 active users, 169 page views, and 423 events — but an average engagement time of 0s and a 55.6% bounce rate. Traffic existed but engagement and action didn't.
The portfolio wasn't communicating what hiring decision makers needed to make a confident hiring decision.
Discovery
I reviewed qualitative data from Reddit, X, and LinkedIn alongside industry articles and multimedia content.
By synthesizing candid feedback from senior practitioners and hiring managers, I mapped the most common portfolio pain points shown below. (weighted by frequency across the sources - x% of insights)
Limited demonstration of business acumen (35%)
Insufficient evidence of real working behavior (29%)
Quality over quantity emphasis (18%)
Unclear individual contribution (18%)
Applying these insights to my previous portfolio revealed similar friction points.
Content over impact
The portfolio led with polished visuals and project quantity, but gave hiring decision makers little evidence of business thinking or measurable outcomes.
Buried story
How Cathy worked, thought, and contributed was hidden behind expandable sections and thin project descriptions making it hard to assess fit quickly.
Press play to view the previous design↓
Design solution
By making business acumen, individual impact, and real-world performance immediately visible, the goal was to give hiring decision-makers what they need to evaluate professional credibility fast.
The new portfolio design is grounded on these 3 principles;
Curation
Quality case studies over a long list of content. Fewer choices make evaluation faster and impact easier to see.
Clarity
Key results, business objective, performance, and impact are visible before the hiring decision maker even clicks - and reinforced through an executive summary at the top of every case study.
Business name
CATHY NJOKI
ABOUT
Redesigning my portfolio to drive higher
conversions (+X%)
Background and business objective:
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sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod
tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
My Role vs others:
(Collab breakdown)
Duration
:
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Result
:
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image of redesigned product
Status:
Live
Consistency
Every case study follows a defined structure - problem, research, decisions, testing, and results - so hiring decision makers can navigate predictably and assess real-world impact without getting lost.
Testing and constraints
To validate the design solutions before committing to a full build, I created an MVP site as a low-risk testing ground and made an unmoderated Maze test. However, two constraints got in the way;
- Accessing quality testers through Maze was expensive.
- Recruiting through communities was too time-consuming given the pace I needed to move at.
I pivoted by building the site and reaching out directly to hiring decision makers and senior practitioners for feedback.
This kept iteration lean and fast and if gaps surfaced post-launch, they could be addressed with the site already live.
Results
The redesigned portfolio is in its early stages of going live. Success will be tracked through two lenses;
- Google Analytics for quantitative data like bounce rate, sessions and engagement time.
- Direct inquiries and interview conversions for qualitative signal.
This is it ! you're currently experiencing the redesign ;)
Thanks for reading. Check out more of my work
Design Portfolio
Design system
