For years, I watched designers obsess over their portfolios. More projects. Better screenshots. Prettier case studies. It became a performance—a dog-and-pony show designed to impress recruiters and hiring managers.
But here’s the truth most won’t admit: A portfolio proves skill. It doesn’t prove impact.
You can show me 50 beautiful screens, but if you can’t tell me what changed because you built them, what did you really create?
I’ve worked in this industry for almost 20 years. I’ve seen countless portfolios. And if I’m being honest, 99% of them answer the wrong question.
They answer: “What did you make?”
They don’t answer: “What impact did you create?”, or “Who has been impacted by your design ideas?”
Here’s the question that trips up most designers:
“So, what happened after you shipped it? How would you describe the impact of what you built?”
Most can’t answer that. Because they were already onto the next project, chasing the next portfolio piece, building the next thing to showcase.
Portfolio thinking is about quantity. Legacy thinking is about impact.
I don’t have a traditional portfolio anymore. Most of my past work disappeared back in 2018. But you know what I do have?
Visual indicators. Breadcrumb navigation. Step indicators. Accordions. Form wizards.
Those weren’t portfolio pieces. They were solutions to real problems. And today, they generate billions of interactions every single day across the web and mobile screens worldwide.
Even more important, those early works helped to spark the creation of more visual indicators that we see on every single screen and device.
That’s legacy.
Right now, I’m building my next legacy piece—what I’m calling my “Visual Indicators 2.0” moment. It won’t be ready for a few more years. But when it is, I won’t be adding it to a portfolio.
I’ll be releasing it into the world to create infrastructure-level impact that other platforms will build upon.
Stop performing. Start building things that matter.
Danny's 
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