How To Create Your UX Case Study

Most UX case studies follow this similar formula, with a walkthrough of your design process, and can be broken down into 5 sections…

3 min readJul 30, 2024

Bring your “UX work to life” with case studies

Have you ever been told that your UX portfolio lacks depth or experience, even though you know you do?

This might indicate that you need to rework your UX case studies.

Great UX case studies have one thing in common: they tell engaging design stories. And when you take a deeper look at them, you’ll find that these case studies are built on a similar structure.

A structure that reinforces each building block that helps you communicate your ideas, concepts, design decisions, or finished products in one whole story.

A UX case study is a long-form portfolio piece of your best and most relevant UX design projects for the role you’re applying for — it retells the design process of a product in written form, using relevant visual elements such as sketches, wireframes, prototypes, and screens.

Through case studies, recruiters will try to gain insights into your design process and thinking, the methods you use, and your presentation skills (I know… 🥲).

🔸 In general, you’d want your case study to have these main points:

What the project is doing
Who it is for
How do you want to make people feel

Most UX professionals spend too much time learning how to make deliverables but not enough on articulating their design decisions.

Make sure your case studies are all meat and bone with no wasted space.

Pack a showcase of your skills, design thinking, and insights — and use your storytelling power to make them compelling.

UX case study basics

Most UX case studies follow this similar formula, with a walkthrough of your design process, and can be broken down into 5 sections:

Overview

Define the scope. Give your audience a high-level project overview and context of the project. The first paragraph should tell the reader what you’re planning to talk about. Don’t ramble.

Discovery

Show an understanding of the problem, the users (pain points & goals), the proposed next steps, and most importantly, how you got there.

Solution

This is where you get to blow your reader’s mind. Walk the reader through your ideation and initial concepts to solve the problem. Sketches, user flowers, features, prototypes, whatever you choose to show.

Iteration

Arguably the most important part of the UX process. Show the reader how your proposed solution performed with users. The aim here is to show that you’re unattached, can rigorously examine, and how you adapted the solution to fit the user.

Conclusion

Always end your case studies with learnings or takeaways to show an eagerness to learn and grow as a designer.

Key takeaways

Remember folks, only providing visuals is no longer enough. The number one thing that makes recruiters and hiring managers decide to pass on a portfolio is a lack of explanation or context.

The UX case studies you write serve many purposes. Yes, they will be the foundation of your portfolio, but they also can feed into your resume, LinkedIn, cover letters, and what you say in an interview.

Good luck! 🍀

Let’s Connect

📥 Email hello@uxplaybook.org if you have any questions, feedback, or suggestions.

Hey 👋 I’m Chris, the Founder of UX Playbook.

Here’s more about me:

👨‍🏫 I’m a Ex-Head of Design, with 10 years of experience in tech, building products & teams

🦄 I worked with Fortune 100s like Google, Nike, Coca Cola, 21st Century Fox, and startup unicorns

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 I’ve built a community of over 62,000 designers

🤝 I’ve supported over 11,000 designers with my free UX resources, blog posts, and mentorship

🚀 I’ve been the founding designer for 8 startups

💸 I previously grew my own freelance one-person UX consultancy to $26,000/month then burnt out

Want more from me? Follow me on LinkedIn.