Matej Latin has rejected the vast majority of portfolios he’s seen in his career for one reason, a “linear design process”:
By “linear design process” I mean cookie-cutter case studies that always read the same. The designer learned about a problem, conducted user interviews, created user personas, proceeded to sketches, then mockups and wireframes, made everything beautiful through visual design, created a prototype, and tested it with five users. Everything was perfect so they also created a design system which is not a design system but a style guide. But they call it a “design system” because it’s trendy and a keyword for the recruiters.
🌶️. I take the point: it feels fake and easy to see through. A real project is never this clean. The process is more like a squiggle.