Unique Web & Mobile Project Portfolio Ideas

I am currently mentoring two female developers in the ongoing Microsoft LEAP program and I recently advised them to go the extra mile and work on some extra projects for their portfolio together.

When starting out as a programmer or trying to get that first job, it’s important to a lot of employers that you have a portfolio where they can see that you can actually build something. After promising my mentees that I’d share a list of projects they can work on, I decided to make some projects on that list public by writing this article so that a lot of people can benefit from this as well.

When building, one thing I like to do is work on something that is currently related to a season or a trending hashtag so that a lot of people can relate to whatever you build and give you feedback that can improve the way you think about an application experience because when you get that job or build that startup, you’re building for customers. Right?

This list just shows the basic application ideas. You could always expand on the features, be creative with your UI and do a bunch of additional things to make it your own.

So let’s see the list.

1. Request a present app

Web or Mobile

When I thought about this, I was thinking about Christmas. However, you can always relate this to valentines day, birthdays, graduation or any other thing.

Basically, this involves giving the user the ability to create a list of gifts they want and send a letter (in the form of an email) to the person they want to get the gift from.

2. Track yearly goals app

Web or Mobile

As we all know, the year is coming to an end and in a few weeks, we would be in a new year. A lot of people will be reflecting on the year and they’d want to set goals for themselves and their careers in the new year. You can build a basic application where people can add their monthly goals and can set periodic reminders, deadlines, and milestones. You could add compliments for goals met and motivational quotes for goals that were not met.

3. Detty December planning app

Web or Mobile

I know I want to have fun this December, and I’m guessing you do too. However, you could picture using this app beyond December and just call it a holiday planning app.

Features:

• Email / Social media Authentication.
• Users should be able to create holiday cards and add events to those holidays.
• Events should have dates and notes.
• If it’s an event a user is planning, they can set reminders to do important things before the day of the event.
• Users can also share events with their friends that have the app and they have the ability to accept or decline.
• If friends accept, everyone can plan the event together.

4. Realtime football-themed chat app

Mobile

It’s also currently Premier League & La Liga Szn! One idea for a portfolio project would be to build a chat app that is solely football themed. You can structure this app however you like, add as many leagues as you like, but the main idea is to be able to see football leagues and join a conversation with your friends. Users should also be able to see groups on football topics in their location and choose to join the conversation.

5. Themed charades app

Mobile

There are a lot of charades apps that already exist. You could build a charades app clone, but create a theme around Christmas, Football, Music or anything you like. You could add sound, animations and other cool things that could make your app amazing.

6. Online Christmas card maker

Web & Mobile

Imagine waking up to an email from your close friend with Christmas wishes and a nice card attached to the body of the email. You’d like that, right? So I suggest you build that app.

Features:

• Authentication.
• Users should be able to choose a card template from a collection of templates.
• Users should be able to customize messages that go on the card and on the body of the email.
• Users should be able to send messages & cards to their loved ones via email.

Feel free to be creative with the design. You can also add anything else you think would make your app really nice.

7. Corny story app

Web & Mobile

The idea of this app is to let users answer a few questions about themselves and based on that, you can tell them a funny story on what your quiz results say their behavior is like.

The general idea:

• User visits your app and sees different quizzes to choose from.
• The user answers the questions in the multiple-choice (or yes/no) quiz.
• In the end, the user sees the quiz results in the form of a story (preferably animated) and can share this on social media if they like.

If you’re building this on the web, you could decide to use libraries like Babylon.js or Three.js to make the story more interesting. If you’re building on Android, you could leverage Motion Layout to add animations to the app. You could also decide to make this a PWA if you’re doing this on the web. It’s your call.

Depending on what you decide to use, you should be creative enough to try and build experiences that would engage your users.

8. Power trivia app

Web & Mobile

This is similar to the Corny story app described above. If you’re a Power fan, you’re probably wondering #WhoShotGhost. I know I am. Like I pointed out at the beginning of this article, I’d always advise building things that have to do with a particular season or trending topic because these things are relatable.

The general idea:

• User visits your app and starts the (Power series) quiz.
• The user answers the questions in the multiple-choice (or yes/no) quiz.
• In the end, the user sees who they think shot Ghost based on how they answered the questions.
• The user should also be able to share this result on social media.

9. Food ordering app

Web & Mobile

This is not unique, but I wanted to add this because it would be nice to have a project where you integrate payments in your portfolio. The general idea behind this app is to have a platform where people can order food from your (hypothetical) restaurant. They order their meals and pay on the app.

Features:

• Authentication.
• Users should be able to edit their profile details.
• When a user logs in, they should see a list of meals available for the day.
• Users can add as many meals they want in one order session.
• Users should be able to pay for their orders online.
• Users should be able to see order history and track orders that are in progress (You can simulate in-progress orders since you’re actually not in business).

Conclusion

These are just nine projects and a lot more exist. I hope you found these useful and I look forward to seeing what you were able to build and I hope it adds to your list of projects and helps you get that coding job you want. If you want to talk about some of these projects in detail, I’m available on Twitter.