Dear Senior UXer, how do I best present my case studies with the right level of detail?

How to present a case study or a project, to be sure that you’ll have a look at? Meaning, what to prioritize, how long, how deep can we go on an online portfolio? Thank you!

– Mário ( Portuguese living in Poland )

Hey Mário,
At a high level, a case study is about telling a story to the folks you’re trying to get hired by.

How the project came to be, what assumptions you made along the way, what the outcomes were, what the next steps might be, and most of all what your involvement was.

Or in short, if you and I were sitting in a room together (or a zoom call) how would you narrate the project if you had 10 minutes to walk us through it?

While there is no one-size-fits-all solution for a great case study that I know of, at a high level these are the key points I’m always looking for either when reviewing a case study on my own, or in conversation with a candidate.

The Challenge

• Is it clear what problem is being solved by this case study, and why it would be built at all?

The Users/Audience

• Is it clear who the users of this product would be?
• What are their motivations/goals/pain points being addressed?

Research methods/discovery

• What did the upfront research/discovery stage of this project look like?

Assumptions made

• What assumptions did the designer/team make as part of this project?

Constraints

• Were they dealing with any technical/organizational constraints such as legacy software? Or was it just blue sky?

Concepts/Solution

• How were the solutions developed? (wireframes, prototypes, etc)

Usability Testing/Concept Validation

• What testing was done as part of the project?
• How did the test outcomes affect the final deliverables?

Outcome/Deliverables:

• What were the final deliverables?
• Assuming it’s a shipped product, what was the impact on the business?
• If you were going to continue with this project, what would the next stage look like?
• If you were to start this project again from scratch, what would you do differently this time?

While all of the above points outline some of the individual components hiring managers may be looking for in a case study, it’s also important to balance each against what your intended audience is, and how you’re trying to present yourself as a practitioner.

For instance, if you’re applying for research roles, the hiring managers are likely to be slightly more interested in your upfront research plans, and methods are chosen over the final deliverables. Whereas a design manager may be slightly more interested in the ideation process along with the final deliverables.

Got a question you’d like answered by a Senior User Experience professional? Hit me up on LinkedIn and submit your questions there.