Your portfolio contains the evidence — the journey maps, the usability studies, the design systems built from scratch. But the ATS reviewing your application cannot visit Figma, cannot watch prototype demos, and cannot see any file hosted outside the resume text. Every skill and tool that lives only in your portfolio is invisible to the first filter.
UX job postings have become highly specific about design tools, research methodologies, and accessibility credentials. The same design capability described using the wrong tool name or the wrong research vocabulary can score below threshold at companies that are actively hiring for that exact skill.
Design tools are hard filters: Figma, FigJam, Sketch, Adobe XD, InVision, Framer, Principle, Zeplin, Storybook, Miro, Mural. Figma is now the dominant ATS filter at most product companies — write it by name. "Design tool proficiency" scores zero.
Research and testing tool vocabulary: Maze, UserTesting, Hotjar, FullStory, Optimal Workshop, Lookback, Dovetail. Analytics tools increasingly appear in UX postings: Amplitude, Mixpanel, Google Analytics, Heap. Name every platform in your research and analytics stack.
Are Figma and your research tools named individually in your resume?
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Research methodology vocabulary is a separate keyword cluster: user research, usability testing, user interviews, contextual inquiry, card sorting, tree testing, heuristic evaluation, A/B testing, jobs-to-be-done (JTBD), affinity mapping. Name the specific methods — "user research experience" covers none of them specifically.
Accessibility vocabulary is now a hard filter at regulated industries and large employers: WCAG 2.1, WCAG 2.2, accessibility audit, screen reader testing, ARIA, inclusive design, Section 508 (US). Design process terms: information architecture (IA), design systems, component library, atomic design.
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A UX designer who names every tool, every research method, and every accessibility standard will consistently pass the ATS filters that other designers — with equivalent portfolio quality — fail. The portfolio proves capability; the resume gets you to the point where anyone sees it.
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The most common cause is design tool category language and missing portfolio link. "Design software proficiency" scores zero against Figma — the tool name must appear. Your portfolio URL must also be present as plain text, even though ATS cannot follow the link.
ATS cannot visit your portfolio URL. The URL should appear as plain text on the resume, but every skill and tool shown in the portfolio must also appear as keywords in the resume body — ATS only reads text.
Yes, if you have used both. They are separate ATS keyword searches, and different employers filter for each. Also list any other tools you use regularly — Framer, InVision, Zeplin, Miro.
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