Sshhh! It’s an NDA project
Many UX designers in their career go through a phase where they work on a project for which they sign a non-disclosure agreement aka NDA which prevents them to showcase their work on a public platform.
These NDAs become a roadblock for designers when they wish to switch jobs or put their work online. Ever been in such a scenario? When I worked in Infosys Digital, I too had to work on a few projects that required me to work on secured networks and sign up the NDAs. As a designer, while I feel that this is slightly disappointing, I yet believe that when it comes to clients that work in niche domains and in B2B domains like banking, finance, insurance, it makes total sense to get those clauses in the agreement…
Now, what’s in there for us? Do we always lose when we work on an NDA project? Is it bad that we can’t show our problem-solving and designing skills to friends and potential hiring managers?
Well, I believe that in most of the cases when we work on an NDA project, the project is highly complex and involves a great level of thinking and problem-solving. Such opportunities are always a big win for us in terms of learning and improving. You don’t work on projects with the thinking that someday, you will put this on your LinkedIn or Behance and boast about it to your friends, do you? If that’s your first thought, then there’s something wrong.
We should design products because we like solving problems.
So, whenever an NDA project comes, take that as a learning opportunity. It’s okay to get a little disheartened but in the end, it’s you who’s gaining and growing from that experience…
Now, tell me what to do about it!
Yes, enough of the lessons but are there any workarounds for NDA projects? Can I cheat? Any tricks? Here are some DOs and DONTs:
DON’T publish the projects on a public platform.
When you sign an NDA you and your employer are legally bound to follow that. Please don’t publish your design works or findings on any portfolio websites or social media platforms as they are. If you do, it’s only going to come back to you like a boomerang!
DO use a secured and non-public platform to showcase your work.
Use a website or a WordPress blog that allows you to protect your work with a password. You could also use any cloud drive you like — OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. Or use a password protected PDF.
DO hide/blur the client name and logos in the project
I am sure that you are already aware of it. But, hiding the client’s name and logo is very important.
Even better idea: Change the logo and name. Use a fictitious brand name to put as a logo.
DO change the original designs while composing your case study.
Not just the logo, the entire project is the intellectual property of the client that includes visual design, guidelines, text/copy/terminologies.
Therefore, always change the colours, design style, terminologies that are not universal. I know that is an extra effort but it’s only to protect you from all legal clauses. And, don’t put any form of data or numbers as well.
DON’T put just the project title in portfolio.
I have evaluated portfolios of designers in which they simply write the name of the project with a slide following that says ‘Details can’t be shared due to NDA.’ This is a bad experience for hiring managers. You should rather not put the project if you can’t share anything but the title.
DON’T share designs from work email to personal email.
This sounds like a shortcut when you work on a secured network and are not allowed to open a personal email or cloud drive but be mindful that your emails with attachments get monitored by moderators and such action could cost you your job.
DO read the agreement properly.
Lastly, the onus of being truthful lies with you. Please read all the documents and clauses of the agreement properly. While some of the agreements could be vague and simple, some might be strict and even have hidden conditions. So, always be aware of what you are signing.
What did I do?
Like I wrote above, when I worked in Infosys, I had worked on a few projects that required me to sign an NDA. While I didn’t work in an ODC (a more secured area in the office campus with stricter rules), there were a lot of restrictions on what I or any Infosys employee could access and share via the workstations. For example, we couldn’t access Google Drive, OneDrive, couldn’t upload attachments in any personal emails, and had our work emails also monitored. All rules for obvious reasons!
So, with all the limitations what I really did was:
- I followed the above DOs and DONTs.
- When I started making my portfolio, I redid the entire project on my personal laptop, created the wireframes, workflows, and visual designs from scratch.
- I didn’t create all the workflows. I changed some workflows as well.
- I used a fictitious name for the logo, created my own style guide, changed client-specific terminologies, and elements and voila!
- I didn’t use any number, chart, or data. For data, there is no need to fake the numbers. One should rather completely avoid it.
- I used OneDrive to share the UX case study.
- I didn’t share this particular project with any hiring manager or on a job site. For reference portfolio, I always had personal projects and assignments to showcase my skills. And, I presented this project only during the 1–1 call.
I could have taken small risks but I didn’t. In a way, I did not break any rule yet showed the kind of problem that I solved. In the end, all that really matters is the approach that one takes to solve problems and design the solutions.
That’s little added effort, correct? Are there better ways? Of course! When you apply to companies, some of them might give you assignments, do those assignments really well, and make them good enough to qualify as a part of your portfolio. Find a UX problem on your own; design for a problem that you discover. Redesign a product that you find lacking in some way or the other…
