How to write a UX Case Study that get yo ...

How to write a UX Case Study that get you hired

Mar 20, 2022

How to write a UX Case Study that get you hired

A step by step walk-through of how to turn your project into an informative, well-documented UX Case Study

How to write a UX Case Study that get you hired

How to write a UX Case Study that get you hired

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter

Earlier on, I was thinking of what kind of content I can create and share with the UX & Product Design community and decided to post a tweet asking what people want to learn.

One of the designers in the community replied and said she wants to learn how to write a standard case study.

I had the same struggle when I first started, I thought it would be good to share my experience and what I have learned along the way to help out designers who want to join the UX World. Let’s get started!

Why do you need a Case Study?

It’s ok to show pretty final deliverables if you are showing the project to yourself. But if you want to show the project to future employers or clients, you may wanna share the process you followed to get you to the final result. That’s why you need a Case Study to communicate your process.

The story behind is what makes the design valuable, everyone can draw the Apple Logo but only the mastermind, Rob Janoff, knows the story behind it.

1. Hero Image — Catch the eyeballs

People judge a book by its cover, select 2–3 key screens from your project that represent your project the best and put together a visually harmonize hero image.

💡 Tip

Never let the decorative visual dictates your hero image

2. Additional Information — Anything else they need to know?

After the Title and Short Description, you should give additional information to the readers such as the Timeline, Your team, Your Role in the Project, Platform, Tool Used, Industry etc. (anything that helps your readers understand more about your project before they start reading)‍

Example

  • Timeline: 8 Weeks (Mid Feb 2022 — Mid March 2022)

  • Team: 1x PM, 2 x FE Developer, 1x BE Developer, 1x QA, UX Designer (Me)

  • Platform: Mobile

  • Tool Used: Confluence, Miro, FigJam, Figma

  • Industry: FinTech

3. Intro — What’s your project about?

Start your case study with a short paragraph to talk about the product/company so that your reader will have more context and know what/who you are designing for.

💡 Tip

- Make your case study straight to the point and cut the unnecessary, people don’t want to read an essay and would likely to quit if it is too wordy

- Put your disclaimer upfront to avoid unnecessary confusion

4. Problem Statement — What problems are you trying to solve?

You should never start a project just to make it look nicer, especially in the real world working environment. You only do it when you find out there is a problem that could potentially affect the UX, Revenue, Security Risk, etc.

Share the process of how you discovered and identify the problem, walk people through how you testified your hypothesis, the data you obtained or the Test/Survey/User Interview you have conducted and the final result.

If the result is different from your original hypothesis, share how it helped you to reframe the problem.

With the problem uncovered, you can now write down your How Might We statement to turn the insights into an opportunity to kick start your ideation process.

Examples

  1. Users are having difficulties on how to make their first Reels on Instagram

  2. Most users who successfully passed the KYC aren’t topping up their account

  3. Customers are sending a lot of CS Enquiries due to unclear of how to refund their item

💡 Tip

If it is a personal project, you have no access to the data and the resources to do any form of test/survey/user interview, you can use the online resources such as user comments from the App Store/Play Store or Comments from credible forums. What matter most is your problem discovery skill.

5. Goals — What are you trying to achieve?

Share the goals of your project, what are you trying to achieve. You can be even more specific but adding your objectives and success metrics.

Examples

  1. Convert users to upload their first reels — Convert 20% of Monthly Active Users who had uploaded at least one post/story in the past 3 months to upload their first reels

  2. Drive more first top-up action — Drive 50% of users who passed the KYC but never topped up their account to make their first top-up by Q3 2022

  3. Reduct the no. of CS Enquiries — Reduce 70% of CS Enquiries related to refund after adding a How to Refund an Item FAQ to the CS Chatbot

6. Design

Talk about your proposed solution based on the research you have done. Show early ideation, iterations and usability test that helps you get to your final design. Explain what you have learned and improved from every iteration.

You should include any sketches, wireframes, user flow, journey mapping, Hi-Fidelity Design and Prototype you have created during the design phase.

It would be nice to do a before and after comparison to showcase what you have improved and summarised the improvements in bullet points.

💡Tip

- If it is a medium to big project, share the design principles you have set to keep the design decisions consistent.

- Double-check to make sure your prototype link works

6. Conclusion

In the end, share what impact your design has brought if it is a launched project. If it is a personal project, share your learnings in the project and what you could have done better in the future.

Like this story? Don’t forget to clap and follow my Twitter account for more! Comment below if there is anything you want to learn about UX Design.‍

Buy me a coffee if you find this story useful 🙏

Jeffrey Lee
I am a UX/Product Designer based in Hong Kong sharing my knowledge in the UX/Product Design Community. Let's grow…www.buymeacoffee.com

Enjoy this post?

Buy Jeffrey Lee a coffee

More from Jeffrey Lee