Today: Xiaoyang Hu

Xiaoyang Hu is a graduate student at the University of Washington, graduating this year, with experience spanning both early-stage and enterprise environments. She’s interned at AKOOL, an AI video generation platform, at Siemens, and worked with the Museum of Flight, which already signals an unusually broad exposure to different problem spaces.

What stands out immediately is how much confidence and care went into crafting this portfolio. Before you even open a case study, the site itself communicates taste, intention, and a strong sense of design authorship. This is one of those portfolios where the surface work alone sets a high bar — and importantly, the substance underneath actually holds up.

As always, I’ll go through two things that work exceptionally well, followed by two potential improvements that could make an already strong portfolio even sharper.

The Good

Interaction design as a first-class signal

The interaction work across Xiaoyang’s portfolio is genuinely excellent.

Project cards don’t just sit there — they respond. Hover states zoom thoughtfully, layered icons and “sticker-like” elements animate in with purpose, and everything shares a cohesive visual language. Whether these 3D-style assets were custom-made or carefully curated, the result feels deliberate and unified, not decorative for decoration’s sake.

Scrolling through the page reinforces this further: elements ease into place, subtle floating motion adds depth, and nothing feels gratuitous or distracting. Even in the “Play” section, hovering reveals contextual notes rendered as little paper fragments, which is both charming and functional.

The finishing touches really seal it. The Instax-style camera at the end — pressing the shutter and watching a photo of her print out — is a delightful, memorable moment. It’s playful, technically sound, and perfectly on-theme with the rest of the site. Combined with smaller touches inside the case studies (like interactive checklists or draggable notes), it’s clear she’s thought deeply about how motion supports storytelling rather than competing with it.

This level of interaction design shows:

• Strong motion fundamentals

• Restraint and taste

• A willingness to explore Framer beyond defaults

• And, crucially, an understanding of why these interactions exist

It’s rare to see this many interactions executed so consistently well in a student portfolio.

Early, confident adoption of modern design workflows

One of the most important strengths of this portfolio — especially heading into 2026 — is Xiaoyang’s visible engagement with vibe coding and modern AI-assisted building workflows.

Instead of burying these experiments or treating them as side notes, she gives them a clear place in the portfolio. The “Vibe Coding in Place” section is smartly named, current, and signals awareness of where the industry is moving. The projects themselves — built with tools like Google AI Studio and Lovable — are small, creative, and purposeful.

These aren’t random demos. They show:

• Curiosity

• Comfort with emerging tools

• A designer’s eye guiding the output

• And an understanding that building is now part of modern design literacy

What’s especially strong here is that these projects don’t replace design fundamentals — they sit on top of them. The layouts, interactions, and ideas still rely on solid taste and judgment. That’s exactly the point of these tools: they amplify good designers, not replace them.

Many junior designers still avoid this space entirely. Many senior designers haven’t had time to explore it deeply. Xiaoyang sits right in the sweet spot — early enough to experiment, skilled enough to do it well, and confident enough to show it.

That’s a powerful signal.

The Potential

Clarifying positioning across B2B and B2C

The main area where the portfolio could benefit from refinement is positioning.

At the top of the site, Xiaoyang describes herself as designing Gen AI and cross-platform products across B2B and B2C. Further down, in the About section, the focus narrows significantly to transforming complex enterprise data and AI workflows into scalable B2B solutions.

Neither of these statements is wrong — but together, they create mild friction.

The portfolio itself leans visually and experientially toward B2C and consumer-grade craft: playful interactions, expressive motion, and strong aesthetic decisions. The Siemens project proves she can handle enterprise constraints, but it sits somewhat alone among otherwise consumer-leaning work.

This can create uncertainty:

• B2B hiring managers may wonder if her heart is really in enterprise work

• B2C teams may hesitate because she emphasizes B2B so strongly in her copy

The solution isn’t removing projects or toning down playfulness — that would be a mistake. Instead, this is about aligning language with reality.

She has a rare dual strength: enterprise complexity and high-craft interaction design. Tightening the top-level messaging so it intentionally bridges those worlds — rather than oscillating between them — would make the portfolio easier to place and easier to advocate for internally.

Letting impact lead the story

The second improvement is simpler — and very high leverage.

Right now, many project pages lead with fairly generic role-based headings, while the most impressive information sits just underneath. For example:

• “Driving +60% creations on a 7M-user Gen AI platform”

• “Turning SME data challenges into a zero-to-one MVP in eight weeks”

These lines are excellent. They communicate scale, speed, and impact immediately. They’re exactly what hiring managers care about.

The opportunity here is to swap the hierarchy.

Lead with the outcome. Let the impact be the title. Reduce cognitive load. Merge descriptions where possible. This doesn’t just make the portfolio stronger — it helps ensure the right projects get clicked by the right people.

The same applies to smaller details like overly technical labels (e.g., specific ETL terminology) in preview text. Unless she’s targeting highly specialized data-platform roles, broader framing will travel further and land better with mixed audiences.

This isn’t about exaggeration — she already has the substance. It’s about letting the strongest signal speak first.

The Verdict

This is an outstanding portfolio.

Xiaoyang Hu demonstrates a rare combination of:

• High-level interaction craft

• Comfort with emerging AI and build tools

• Strong visual taste

• And credible experience across both startup and enterprise environments

The suggested improvements are about clarity, not correction. Even without changing anything, this portfolio will open doors. With slightly sharper positioning and impact-led storytelling, it becomes even harder to ignore.

There’s real momentum here — and this portfolio already feels like it belongs to someone who will move quickly and confidently into the next stage of their career.

Xiaoyang did all of this with Framer — which you can get for free as a student!

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.

How I can help YOU

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