Behance – Creative Portfolios

What it does

Behance is a platform and online community where creatives can showcase their portfolios, discover work from others, and connect with potential clients or employers. The app allows users to follow artists, appreciate their work, organize inspiration into moodboards, and even publish their own projects directly from their mobile device. It also serves as a marketplace, enabling users to hire creatives for freelance or full-time roles.

Where it shines

Behance excels in its powerful yet accessible filtering system. At 01:28, the user effortlessly navigates from the main feed to a comprehensive filter menu, allowing them to drill down by creative field, tool, color, and location. This turns a potentially overwhelming sea of content into a targeted discovery tool. Another highlight is the seamless integration of professional services. The flow for sending a hiring inquiry, shown at 04:30, is built directly into the messaging feature, structuring the conversation for both client and creative from the start.

UX highlights

Contextual Onboarding: A small pop-up at 01:25 gently guides new users to the filter feature, a much less intrusive method than a forced tutorial.
Granular Filtering: The multi-layered filter menu (01:29) provides extensive control, allowing users to find highly specific content, such as calligraphy projects made with Adobe Photoshop in the United States.
Action-Oriented Profiles: Creator profiles are not just static galleries. Prominent 'Follow' and 'Hire' buttons encourage immediate action and connection.
Ephemeral Sharing: The 'Work in Progress' feature (12:40) lets users share temporary updates that expire in 24 hours, lowering the barrier for casual content sharing.
Moodboard Functionality: Users can easily save inspiring work to organized moodboards (02:23), making the app a practical tool for creative research.
Direct Messaging with Purpose: The app differentiates between general messages and hiring inquiries, adding a layer of professionalism to communication (04:30).

Monetization & growth

Monetization is not directly visible in the form of a user-facing paywall or subscription in this recording. The app's business model appears to be centered on connecting creatives with opportunities. The 'Hire Creatives' section (07:55) and integrated inquiry forms suggest that Behance may generate revenue by facilitating these professional connections, potentially through fees on successful hires or premium listings, although this is not explicitly shown.

Who it’s for

This app is built for a wide range of creative professionals: graphic designers, illustrators, photographers, UI/UX designers, and more. It serves two main user groups. First, creatives looking to build a professional portfolio, gain exposure, and find work. Second, individuals, agencies, and companies seeking to discover and hire creative talent for specific projects.

Notes & opportunities

While generally polished, the experience could see minor improvements. When a user blocks another user (04:12), the button immediately changes to 'Unblock'. However, attempting to re-block immediately after unblocking results in an error message (07:12). This 24-hour cooldown is a reasonable policy, but the UI could preemptively disable the 'Block' button in the menu for that period to avoid user confusion. Additionally, the process of creating a new moodboard while saving an image (02:25) is simple but could benefit from an option to add a description to the moodboard at the time of creation.