Can I Use Unofficial UI/UX Concepts for Spotify or Facebook in My Portfolio?

As an agency founder and design director, I get asked this question all the time by junior designers, mentees, and freelance colleagues.

Provided you don't have NDA-free client work to showcase yet, or you want to demonstrate a specific problem-solving framework by documenting real UX improvements on an existing digital product: YES! You absolutely should.

What Kind of Redesign Concept Should You Build?

A cosmetic redesign based solely on your personal aesthetic taste is boring to hiring managers and high-ticket clients. However, if you have zero client case studies, a personal redesign concept is still infinitely better than an empty portfolio. It all comes down to what skills you're trying to prove. If you're applying for a UX Designer role, your case study must showcase how you identified a real user pain point in the live app and systematically solved it.

If you're applying for a UI Designer or Visual Web Designer role, aesthetic style exercises and conceptual redesigns are totally fine. But if you're showcasing pure visual polish, your mockups must be pixel-perfect. More importantly: respect the brand's design system guidelines and constraints. I've reviewed design portfolios where candidates casually mixed Flat Design, Material Design, and Neumorphism in the same project. Sloppy details like that instantly tell a hiring manager: "This person has no idea what design systems are, or they're too lazy to read UI specs."

For a hybrid UX/UI role, I want to see a documented case study featuring user journeys, low-fi wireframes, and information architecture diagrams. Every step should clearly articulate what you changed, why you changed it, and what problem it solves. Finally, demonstrate how your structural UX wireframes translated into accessible, production-ready UI components. For hybrid roles, pixel-perfection is always secondary to solid user-centered design logic.