Today: Rita Wang

Rita Wang’s portfolio is one of those that immediately signals something different. Not louder, not flashier for the sake of it — but more considered, more curious, and more intentional than what you’d typically expect from a student designer.

Currently a product design and communication design student at WashU, and interning at Ascension, Rita

presents a body of work that feels unusually broad for her career stage — yet never careless. While much of the work is fictional or self-initiated, it rarely feels academic. Instead, it reads as exploratory, thoughtful, and grounded in a genuine interest in how digital experiences can feel, behave, and resonate.

What’s particularly compelling is that this isn’t a portfolio built around one safe narrative. Rita is clearly experimenting — with mediums, with tools, with levels of abstraction — and doing so with enough skill that those experiments hold real weight. That comes with trade-offs, which we’ll get to. But first, it’s worth unpacking what makes this portfolio so strong in the first place.

The Good

A standout conceptual project that proves real design thinking

The Night Bus Station project is, quite simply, exceptional — especially at this career stage.

On the surface, it’s not a “product” in the traditional sense. It’s closer to an interactive digital artifact, inspired by the idea of web design as architecture. The experience invites users to externalize what’s keeping them awake at night, framed through the metaphor of a nighttime bus station where worries are written down, ticketed, and sent away.

What makes this project so strong is not just the craft — though the craft is excellent — but the clarity of intent. The interactions, animations, pacing, and time-based states aren’t decorative. They serve the concept. Rita clearly understands how to use motion, rhythm, and restraint to support emotional tone rather than overwhelm it.

Even more impressive is the way the project is explained. Conceptual work is notoriously hard to articulate, yet Rita doe

s a better job narrating this intangible idea than many designers do explaining real business features. The case study is engaging, memorable, and emotionally coherent — which is rare.

For consumer-facing teams, early-stage startups, or product orgs that value craft and experimentation, this project alone would spark serious interest. It demonstrates not only execution skill, but judgment: knowing why something should feel the way it does.

The one frustration — and it’s said with admiration — is that the project isn’t live. This is the kind of work that deserves to exist in the world, even imperfectly.

A portfolio that shows remarkable range without losing identity

Zooming out, the breadth of Rita’s work is genuinely impressive.

She moves confidently between:

• Conceptual, experimental web experiences

• A real-world internship project at Bloomberg Industry Group

• A mobile app from a hackathon context

• A speculative but well-judged Notion feature

• Brand and visual design work

• Additional explorations and vibe-coded experiments in her play section

Despite this range, the portfolio never feels fragmented. There’s a consistent sensibility throughout — a care for interaction, atmosphere, and detail — that ties everything together.

What’s especially smart is how Rita separates core work from play. Everything that isn’t essential to her product design narrative still has a place, but it doesn’t clutter the main story. The play section, in particular, is strong enough to stand on its own and reinforces her taste, curiosity, and creative drive.

This is a portfolio that sticks in your head. Even if Rita weren’t right for a specific role, she’s the kind of designer you’d remember — and that alone is a meaningful achievement.

The Potential

Sharpening focus through tighter curation

Five projects in the main work section is the absolute upper limit — and while Rita largely pulls it off, one project slightly dilutes the focus.

The brand-focused project, while well executed, stretches the narrative away from product design more than necessary. For most product roles, this work won’t meaningfully increase her chances — and analytics would likely confirm that it’s clicked less than the others.

This isn’t an argument for removing the work entirely. It’s strong. But it may be better positioned in the play section, where it reinforces her range without competing with her core product story.

A similar opportunity exists in her introduction. The line about approaching work and play with equal curiosity is accurate — the portfolio proves it — but it could be sharpened slightly to speak more directly to the kinds of teams she wants to join. This isn’t about narrowing too early, but about helping the right people recognize her fit faster.

Bringing business awareness into otherwise strong case studies

The most significant missing piece is explicit business thinking.

This isn’t unusual at Rita’s stage — but she’s clearly ready for it.

Projects like Notion Studio and the Bloomberg Industry Group work are perfect opportunities to articulate:

• Why this work would matter to the business

• What success would look like

• What signals or metrics a team might track

This doesn’t require inflated claims or fabricated numbers. It simply requires awareness. For speculative projects, the framing can be retrospective. For internship work, the answers often already exist — they just need to be asked for.

What’s important here isn’t precision; it’s intent. Showing that she understands her work doesn’t exist in a vacuum will immediately elevate how her portfolio is perceived, especially as she moves toward mid-level roles.

The craft is already there. The systems thinking is close. This is the final puzzle piece.

The Verdict

Rita Wang’s portfolio is deeply impressive for an early-career designer.

It’s thoughtful, memorable, and rich with signals that go far beyond surface-level polish. She shows rare conceptual confidence, strong interaction instincts, and a willingness to explore ideas that many designers wouldn’t attempt — let alone execute this well.

With slightly tighter curation and a clearer articulation of business impact in a couple of key projects, this portfolio could comfortably compete with designers a level or two ahead of her.

As it stands, it’s already opening doors. With those refinements, it won’t just open them — it’ll define which ones are worth walking through.

Portfolios like Rita’s can be easily crafted with Framer — which is even free for students!

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.

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.

• Free if you are a student: Although Framer already offers a generous free plan for everyone, if you are an enrolled student you can get Framer Pro completely for free!

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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