Portfolio - example briefs

Question

My question is: Are there any resources for fake briefs to build an digital product (web or mobile app) upon it? Of course there is an option to write it by yourself, but I think it is more objective if someone did it for you. Creating rock solid boundries and constrains.

Requirements: It should appear realistic, that a real product could be build upon it. It doesn't need to have header with authority, deadline, number of meetings etc, but it should give you good idea what the client wants from you. Then I will use design thinking and document the journey how I worked out on a solution. From initial research to interactive prototype.

My shallow search on google wasn't succesful so maybe anyone knows any resources on this topic?

Answer 1

I recommend IDEO's OpenIDEO Challenges (https://challenges.openideo.com/challenge) because the challenges are posed as problems rather than briefs so you can demonstrate your problem-solving and design thinking skills. The challenges don't specify the form of the end product, it could be a new process or guidelines but you could always propose and design a digital app as part of the solution.

I like the nature of these challenges because they address a broader social and environmental issues beyond designing for corporate needs. The challenges are drawn from real-life situations and they are fun and interesting to research and work on!

And the solution will likely stand out from the usual portfolio work (banking app etc).

Answer 2

I don't know of any resources but if i would want to do something like this i would ask friends to write a briefing.

That is better in my opinion since friends most likely aren't working in the UX field and can write/speak like customers. To make it more fun for them you could ask them what they would do if they would have the resources and could create a product etc.

If you write it for yourself its far away from a realistic briefing, it will most likely be a "best case"-scenario and not really authentic at the end.

You could also check for websites that offer people the chance to look for freelancers because they usually provide a good briefing which is available to the public, for example: 99designs.com.

Answer 3

I dont know of any resources out there.

But if you need one, ask a working professional for a mock brief. They may give you something from an old project or even a current one.

I recently researched into the creative technology area and people where more than happy to answer questions and give examples of projects, I messaged people on Linkedin and 99% of the time I got a response.

If anything this will build a relationship with people in the industry, if they are local you could even meet them and talk it over. More often than not they will or find a way, UX'ers/designers are a friendly bunch.

Another place is to look on portfolio sites for the descriptions, sometimes they have briefs on to give context to the project.