Hey Joel,

Really good point, thanks for bringing it out! :)

What I didn’t mention here in this article, is that I first actually conducted a survey where I validated what are the most important things that design leads and recruiters are looking for in a portfolio. From that research, I concluded that one of the requirements is in fact the pleasing pixel-perfect visual side. This is why I decided to spend a bit more time to polish the designs. But even then I actually got some pixel-perfection-related feedback from the tests like “Hmm I wonder why this white space here is bigger than here..” or “This here isn’t aligned perfectly.. it’s bugging me a bit”.

But yeah, I think you actually might be correct — I probably would have gotten similar results with less effort. Just since the stakes were high for me (this being a thesis and all), I decided to put in more time to make sure that I produce something I’m happy to test and present.