Squarespace offers all the designing tools that help you to create a professional UX portfolio. As a designer, your portfolio serves as a first impression to recruiters and hiring managers.

Your portfolio not only showcases your work experience but also shows your design skill set and project highlights.

In this article, you will be guided on how to build UX portfolio on Squarespace.

Why is building a UX portfolio important?

Having a professional portfolio website is important, especially for freelancers and permanent job seekers.

If you didn’t mention the details properly in the portfolio, it might be possible that your application can be moved forward or ignored based on a quick glance.

Whenever you try to submit a job application online, there is an option provided to request a link to your UX portfolios. 

So that means your potential clients want to see your portfolio before hiring you for a job. Follow this step-by-step guide on how to build UX portfolio on Squarespace.

Step 1: Sign Up and Choose Your Plan

• Sign Up: First, go to Squarespace and sign up for an account. If you are new, you will be offered a free trial to get a feel for the platform.

• Choose Your Plan: When your free trial ends, a plan has to be selected that suits your needs. If you are looking for a portfolio website, then “Personal” or “Business” plans are very suitable.

Step 2: Choose a Squarespace UX Portfolio Template

• Browse Templates: Look for the template that you want to use for your portfolio; you will be offered different types of templates by Squarespace.

• Preview and Select: The templates can be checked by doing a preview to see which ones match your requirements.

Step 3: Add Your Portfolio Work

• Organize your portfolio: Your work should be arranged so that it is easy to understand. Based on your skills, you can group the projects that have been used.
• Highlight 3-5 key works with case studies: You have to choose your best projects to highlight in your portfolio. It needs to be explained how you worked on those projects.
• Add client testimonials: If you have any client testimonials, you can put that feedback on your portfolio to build trust with potential clients.

Step 4: Add Pages

Go to the main menu and navigate to the “Pages” section in Squarespace. These pages have to be added.

Use the “+” button to add new pages and choose a type of page (for example, “Blank Page” or “Gallery”).

• Home: Your professional image and brief introduction.
• About: Work background and career experience can be mentioned.
• Portfolio: Your previous project work information can be added.
• Blog: If you want to share something about your work insights or case studies, then you can add it.
• Contact: To add your personal work mailing, add contact details.

Step 5: Customize Your Portfolio

You can easily customize your UX portfolio with Squarespace templates. There is drag-and-drop functionality provided, which means you can edit your template without any coding knowledge.

Here’s how you can customize each key section.

Add High-Quality Images: To customize a UX portfolio, high-quality images of your work have to be added. 

Choose your high-resolution images, wireframes, and screenshots of projects.

To add single images, click on the section where you want to add an image and select the image block. 

You can use an image block, which is great if you want to highlight individual images.

You can directly upload images from your computer or cloud services like Dropbox or Google Drive.

Home Page: Add a hero image, which can represent your work. A short tagline has to be added to look more attractive. 

About Page: Go to add sections to choose a layout like Text,” “Image,” and “About Me.”

Use the drag-and-drop feature to add text and images, and arrange them to look clean so anyone can easily read your about page.

Portfolio Page: Create a grid or list layout for project entries. You can show them as thumbnails or detailed images.

For every type of project, add images and a project description, and showcase your process and the tool that has been used by you.

Contact Page: Squarespace provides built-in contact forms where your clients can directly reach out to you.

Add social media links to the contact page. If you have a physical office location, you can embed a map.

To create a contact form, use the form block and add location, email address, and phone number.

Step 6: Optimize for User Experience

Optimize for SEO: Use keywords in your project titles and descriptions. This helps people find your portfolio when they search online.

Keywords are useful for project titles and descriptions. They help people find your portfolio online.

Navigation: When a client visits your site and tries to see some projects that they want to know about.

But if clients cannot find a project because of having many projects, add a “Search Bar.” This helps clients find what they’re looking for.

Mobile Optimization: Preview, test, and run the Squarespace template to ensure it looks good on mobile.

Step 7: Review and Publish Your Site: Before publishing your portfolio, it must be reviewed. 

• Test functionality: Test pages that are added, all links, and forms to ensure they are working or not.
• Proofreading: There may possibly be some grammatical errors in the portfolio when you mention in the page section about yourself, so do proofreading.
• Publish Your Site: Once your portfolio looks good, click the “Publish” button so the site will be live. 

Best Squarespace Templates for UX Portfolio 

1. Kristin Jones

Kristin Jones is the perfect template for showcasing your portfolio or personal brand. Whether you are a photographer, designer, or artist, this template offers a smooth experience for users.

You will get a fully responsive design, which means your site will look just amazing on mobile devices.

The fonts, button styles, and heading sizes can easily be customized to suit your brand.

2. Elisabeth Grace 

Elisabeth Grace is a chic, sophisticated, and bold template designed for photographers, designers, artists, and creatives. 

If you are looking for a sophisticated and bold template, then this template is the perfect way to showcase your services and portfolio.

Squarespace offers built-in eCommerce functionality; you can sell guides, presets, stock photos, or anything else you want.

Here are Some Tips on How to Build a UX portfolio on Squarespace

Ensure Your Portfolio Is Mobile-Friendly:  Squarespace templates are responsive, but always test your portfolio on mobile to ensure that your design looks great.

Show Your Skills and Tools: When you create your portfolio, make sure to highlight the tools and skills you use. Add a section dedicated to your skill set that showcases tools that you worked on, like Figma, Sketch, or Adobe XD. This helps potential clients to see what tools you have experience with.

Highlight Your Best Case Studies: Recruiters and clients go through your best case studies so they can know about your problem-solving skills. It explains how you approach a project from start to finish.

Conclusion

We hope this article has helped you understand how to build UX portfolio on Squarespace, so make your portfolio by following these steps.

If you’re still wondering, building a UX portfolio on Squarespace is the right move. Well, it’s safe and easy to make.

Every step is crucial, from choosing the right template to publishing your portfolio so it stands out.