Today: Airla Fan

Airla Fan’s portfolio is a confident display of motion-driven product design with a strong grasp of end-to-end thinking.

Currently an HCI and Architecture student at Carnegie Mellon — and a Figma Campus Leader — Airla stands out for her range. Her portfolio feels modern, cohesive, and deeply intentional, blending strong visual craft with a clear understanding of process, systems, and storytelling. You can tell she’s not just experimenting with tools, but mastering how design, motion, and storytelling fit together.

Her work demonstrates a level of polish and confidence that’s rare among students, but it also reflects something deeper — a designer who’s curious about the full arc of creation: from strategy and research to interaction and animation. For anyone wondering what an “end-to-end” product designer looks like in 2025, Airla’s portfolio comes close to the textbook example.

Let’s take a closer look at what she does exceptionally well — and where there’s still room to refine and sharpen an already high-level presentation.

The Good

Storytelling that works — visual, focused, and deeply engaging

Airla’s storytelling is outstanding. Her case studies strike the perfect balance between text and visuals — there’s enough written context to explain the thinking, but never so much that it overwhelms. Each section feels intentional, guiding the reader through her process while staying easy to scan and genuinely enjoyable to read.

In her LinkedIn Workboard case study, for instance, she summarizes the outcome of 20+ user interviews not through walls of text or unreadable FigJam boards, but through three well-designed cards that highlight the key insights and how they shaped the direction of the project. This is exactly the kind of storytelling that signals maturity — not because it hides process, but because it distills it.

She applies the same restraint elsewhere, like in her competitive analysis sections, where she focuses on what she learned instead of how she got there. Every element feels guided by the reader’s perspective — what’s worth showing, what’s worth skipping — which is a level of awareness that even mid-career designers sometimes lack.

If you ever feel your portfolio has too much text or too little rhythm, Airla’s case studies are a fantastic reference for how to make design work readable, scannable, and alive.

A high-quality visual presentation that feels alive

Airla’s motion work sets her portfolio apart. From animated previews to in-case-study transitions, her projects feel dynamic without being distracting. The animations are meaningful — tied to the work — rather than ornamental. When you land on her homepage, these subtle movements immediately draw you in and give the sense that this designer builds things that move.

Throughout her case studies, she uses motion and annotation effectively to explain flows and decisions. Where many designers rely on static screens or generic mock-ups, Airla uses small animations, lightweight interactions, and annotated highlights to bring context to life. The result is a presentation style that feels professional, consistent, and deliberate — not overproduced.

It’s also impressive how she uses variety to maintain engagement: no endless screen dumps, no redundant visuals, just well-paced moments of motion and detail. In short, she’s already mastered one of the hardest things to pull off — keeping the viewer curious and moving.

The Potential

Polishing the polish — ensuring consistency across visuals

Airla’s sense for visual craft is clearly well above average, but even so, a few inconsistencies hold the presentation back from feeling uniformly top-tier. The best example is the LinkedIn Workboard preview animation, where some elements appear slightly out of sync or pre-placed before transitions occur. Compared to the motion quality in her Gratitude, Connect, or PixelPal projects, this feels a touch unfinished even.

Similarly, a few slideshows — like the one in Gratitude — have mock-ups that feel a little squeezed or misaligned, small issues that interrupt otherwise excellent visual rhythm. None of this detracts from the overall quality, but when a portfolio is already this strong, these micro-details start to matter.

Cleaning up those few inconsistencies and bringing every case study to the level of her strongest pieces would easily elevate her entire portfolio from great student work to junior-professional ready. The good news: she’s already doing 95% of it right.

Clarifying her positioning and leading with strength

Airla’s hero section says she’s a “product designer driven by visually crafted motion.” It’s true — and that part of her identity comes through naturally in her work — but it doesn’t quite capture the full scope of what she brings.

She’s not just a motion-savvy designer. Her projects show depth in research, strategy, and end-to-end design thinking. And yet, none of that comes across in her introduction. The conversational animation on the homepage is charming, but it competes with rather than complements her positioning — it’s a fun detail, not a strong opener.

A sharper approach would be to combine her technical breadth with her creative focus:

This would better signal the kind of designer she is — someone ready for consumer-facing, visually rich products, but equally grounded in process and reasoning. At her stage, clarity like that can make a huge difference.

Airla’s portfolio is a brilliant example of what “modern product design” looks like — visual, refined, and full of motion without losing depth. The storytelling and structure are already exceptional, and the visuals are consistently high-impact. With a touch more polish on small details and a more deliberate positioning statement, she’d be operating at a level that rivals many already-working professionals.

No surprise there but Airla built her portfolio with Framer.

Still struggling to get your portfolio off the ground?

Don’t want to spend weeks learning yet another tool? Framer is my top recommendation for building your portfolio — fast, clean, and without the usual headaches.

Airla’s portfolio is simple in structure but rich in detail and aftercare. Framer enables you to get started with such a foundation super quickly and let’s you add that polish just as easily.

If you’re just starting out (or even if you’re not), I think Framer is a perfect fit. Here’s why:

• Flat learning curve: The interface feels familiar if you’ve used Figma — plus, there’s a plugin to bring your designs straight in.

• Plenty of learning support: Framer Academy is packed with free tutorials, videos, and guides to help you go from zero to published.

• A huge template library: Tons of high-quality (often free) templates in the marketplace to help you launch quickly without starting from scratch.

And that’s just scratching the surface. I wrote more about why I recommend Framer here—but honestly, the best way is to try it for yourself.

Affiliate disclaimer: I only recommend tools I personally believe in. Some links in this post are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you choose to purchase — at no extra cost to you.

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