UX/UI Designer CV: Portfolio, Case Studies and an ATS-Friendly Layout That Gets Interviews
How to write a UX or product designer CV: how the CV and portfolio divide the work, a sample profile, achievements with product metrics, research and design skills, tools, ATS-safe formatting for a designer, keywords and country notes.
A UX designer's CV has one job: get the recruiter to open the portfolio and get the hiring manager to believe the outcomes in it. The portfolio shows the work; the CV proves it moved a metric. That means the CV should be plain, parseable and full of numbers, and should resist the urge to be a design showcase itself. Designers lose interviews to ATS parsing problems more often than any other profession.
Structure of a UX designer CV
- Header: name, city, phone, email, portfolio URL (short, no password or with the password in the email), LinkedIn, Dribbble or Behance only if current.
- Profile: 3 lines on product type (B2B SaaS, mobile consumer, e-commerce, fintech), years, methods you lead and the role you want.
- Experience: most recent first, each role with product, team, your scope and 3–5 outcome bullets.
- Selected case studies: 2–3 one-line summaries with a metric each, linking to the portfolio.
- Skills: research, design, prototyping, tools, front-end basics, accessibility.
- Education and courses: degree, UX certificates, accessibility training.
Sample profile
Product designer with 6 years in B2B SaaS and fintech, leading end-to-end design for an onboarding flow used by 40,000 users a month. Redesign raised activation from 31 % to 47 % and cut support tickets about setup by 35 %. Runs research (interviews, usability tests, surveys), ships in Figma with a design system, and pairs with engineers on accessibility. Seeking a senior product designer role.
Achievements with product metrics
- Redesigned onboarding for a 40k-MAU product, raising activation from 31 % to 47 % and reducing time-to-first-value from 3 days to 40 minutes.
- Led 24 user interviews and 6 usability rounds that reshaped the checkout; conversion rose 12 % and cart abandonment fell 9 points.
- Built a design system of 80 components with tokens that cut design-to-dev handoff time by 40 % across three product teams.
- Brought the app to WCAG 2.2 AA; accessibility defects found in audit fell from 60 to 4.
- Mentored 2 junior designers and introduced a weekly critique that reduced late-stage design changes by a third.
Skills to list
- Research: user interviews, usability testing (moderated, unmoderated), surveys, card sorting, journey mapping, analytics review, A/B test design.
- Design: information architecture, wireframing, interaction design, visual design, prototyping, design systems, motion basics, copy for UI.
- Tools: Figma (components, variables, auto layout), FigJam, Sketch, Adobe XD, Protopie, Maze, UserTesting, Hotjar, Mixpanel or Amplitude, Jira, Notion.
- Technical: HTML/CSS basics, accessibility (WCAG 2.2), responsive and native patterns (iOS HIG, Material), handoff with tokens, working in agile squads.
Keep the CV parseable
- One column, real text, standard headings. Save the creativity for the portfolio.
- No text in images, no icons for section headers, no skill bars (a bar is not a number).
- PDF exported from a document tool, not an image export from Figma; test it with copy-and-paste.
- Portfolio link on the first line and in the email; make sure it opens on mobile.
ATS keywords
UX designer, product designer, UI designer, user research, usability testing, wireframes, prototyping, Figma, design system, interaction design, information architecture, accessibility, WCAG, user-centred design, A/B testing, mobile app, SaaS, agile, cross-functional. Mirror the title the advert uses (UX vs product vs UI/UX).
Country notes
UK and Ireland: no photo, portfolio link essential, day rate stated separately for contracts. Germany: «UX Designer (m/w/d)» ads often expect German for research roles; a short, factual CV with certificates is appreciated. Gulf: Arabic-language and RTL design experience is a differentiator; state visa status. US: product designer is the common title, and compensation is often discussed early. Japan: UI/UXデザイナー roles value portfolio plus a formal 職務経歴書; China: list experience with WeChat mini-programs and domestic platforms.
The portfolio is the product. The CV is the release note: what shipped, for whom, and what the metric did.
Check what the parser sees
CV Analyz reads your CV the way an ATS does, flags layout that loses text or links, and rewrites your roles around product outcomes, using only your real work.
Improve your UX designer CV now.
Improve your CV nowFrequently asked questions
What should a UX designer CV include?
A portfolio link on the first line, a profile naming product type and methods, roles with 3–5 outcome bullets and metrics, 2–3 one-line case studies, grouped skills and tools, and accessibility experience.
Should a UX designer's CV be designed?
Keep it clean and parseable: one column, real text, standard headings. The portfolio is where the design shows; the CV must survive the ATS.
How do I show impact if I don't have metrics?
Use research outputs (interviews run, usability issues found and fixed), delivery scope (screens, components, platforms) and qualitative outcomes from stakeholders, and ask product managers for post-launch numbers.