Today: Dashan (Shawn) Ji

Shawn’s portfolio is a masterclass in visual storytelling and bringing real personality to your work.

From the first interaction to the last scroll, Shawn’s site feels crafted, polished, and memorable — exactly what you want as a junior (or honestly even mid-level) designer trying to stand out.

Let’s dive into what Shawn nailed — and where there’s a little room to tighten things up even more.

The Good

Visual Presentation That Leaves a Lasting Impression

Shawn’s portfolio is not something you look at and forget. Especially at a junior level, that’s a massive win.

His site is filled with thoughtful details: subtle motion, crisp typography, clean color choices — all tied together with a level of craft that’s obvious without being showy.

The homepage experience alone, with its simple but lively interactions (like the playful Bento-style grid intro), immediately gives you a sense of who Shawn is.

And that’s key: good portfolios don’t just show your work — they show you.

Even inside case studies, the visual layout is strong without feeling overwhelming. Moving elements (like subtle case study preview animations) stay tasteful and slow enough to avoid distraction. It’s just a joy to move through.

Honestly, this is a visual benchmark a lot of more senior designers could learn from.

Visual Storytelling That Makes the Process Click

Especially in his Jump Math case study, Shawn shows a real knack for visual storytelling.

Instead of dropping walls of text about research findings (a trap many juniors fall into), he distills insights into clear, easily scannable visuals:

• Speech bubbles representing real user pain points.

• Simple visual breakdowns for key teacher needs.

• Clean, focused highlights of research findings instead of giant sticky-note collages no one will read.

This pattern carries through his whole portfolio: instead of assuming you’ll slog through dozens of paragraphs, Shawn builds momentum by letting you see the most important takeaways at a glance.

It’s smart, user-centered, and makes his work genuinely fun to explore.

The Potential

Tighten Up Some Case Studies to Keep Focus

While Shawn’s visuals are strong, a few case studies could definitely be more concise.

For example, in the Apple Music Redesign case study, there’s a huge visual showcasing Apple’s iOS Design System — something Shawn didn’t create, but used as part of his project.

Showing tools you worked with is fine — but giving them this much visual weight can feel confusing. Focus the space on your work, your adaptations, your design decisions.

Similarly, in Jump Math, there are areas that could be trimmed:

• Full-page user flows: Good to show you can do them, but hard for a viewer to digest.

• Lo-fi sketches and 70+ screen overviews: Great that they exist — but they’re better mentioned than displayed at full size unless they reveal something critical about your thinking.

In general: if a visual doesn’t directly support the story you’re telling, consider cutting or shrinking it.

It keeps the viewer engaged — and prevents important parts of your process from getting lost in the scroll.

Show More of Your Impact (Or How You’d Measure It)

One thing that’s slightly missing from Shawn’s portfolio is a clear sense of impact.

For the real-world projects (like his internship app), there’s definitely an opportunity to call out measurable outcomes:

• Did the app ship?

• Was it adopted successfully?

• What kinds of feedback or results came in?

And even for fictional projects, you can (and should) talk about how you would measure success if it were real:

• What KPIs would you set?

• What would define a successful outcome?

You don’t need a mountain of hard metrics to show impact — even a thoughtful paragraph about goals and potential measures can massively strengthen a project.

Final Thoughts

Shawn’s portfolio is a fantastic showcase of how to build a site that feels polished, personal, and engaging — especially visually.

His attention to detail, playful presentation style, and ability to visually guide readers through his process are all real standouts.

If he trims back a bit of the extra content and gets more intentional about highlighting impact, he’ll have one of the strongest junior portfolios out there.

Whether you’re a junior designer wondering what good looks like — or a senior who needs a reminder that great storytelling matters — Shawn’s portfolio is absolutely worth checking out.

This portfolio was made 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.

Shawn used Framer for his portfolio and as you can see it’s visually sprawling with nice interactions. Framer makes it easy to achieve those with tons of learning resources out there.

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.

How I can help YOU

Do you want your own portfolio reviewed in-depth with a 30-minute advice-packed video review? Or do you require mentoring to figure out a proper strategy for your job search?

I got you!

• Book an in-depth portfolio or resume review with me

• Book a mentoring session with me

• Book a quick 15 min chat to ask a question and see if we vibe