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The Ultimate Guide to Writing a UX Case Study That Converts
Writing a UX case study can be hard. There are so many ways to do it, and even more hiring managers and designers have an opinion on how to do it. How do you know which is the way to go?
- Updated on May 8, 2024
That’s where this post comes in. I’ve been in UX for almost ten years now, and during that time, I’ve been on the job hunt myself multiple times while also helping companies hire the right designer.
It means I know a thing or two about the importance of UX case studies as a part of your UX portfolio and how to write one that converts into a job interview.
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Writing a first quick draft
To make writing a UX case study less overwhelming, I suggest starting with a one-paragraph summary first. It helps you pinpoint what’s actually important within your case study.
Here’s an example.
“As an entry-level UX designer at the Dutch Bank, I designed a new version of their mortgage calculation tool. Since then, the bank has seen an 8% increase in mortgage requests.”
This example consists of three parts.
- Situation
- What you did
- The result
We’ll discuss how to turn this paragraph into the full UX case study text later, but first, write down the one-paragraph summaries for all case studies you want to create.
If you’re an entry-level designer, one case study is enough. There’s no real set number of case studies you need. I’d rather read one strong case study than three ‘okay’ case studies.
Did you write your one-paragraph summaries? Great! Up next, it is time to turn those summaries into complete UX case studies. You can read about it on our website or watch how we approach this step in one of our 5-Minute Figjam Fixes below.
Sharing your case study
Now that you’ve written your case study, it is time to share it with your network. There’s one super important thing to keep in mind.
Writing and sharing your UX case studies is like a UX project where your case study is the product, and the people who can hire you are your users.
That means you have to design something (your case studies) in a way that helps your users (recruiters and hiring managers). You can do this by talking to your users.
You can do this in many different ways. Here’s a list of examples.
- Share your first full case study draft with five (senior) designers and ask them for UX-related feedback.
- Share your case study with five business owners and ask them if they understand what the case study is about.
- Share your case study with recruiters and ask if they know companies that would benefit from similar work.
Doing the above will get you real-life feedback from different user types. Do this early on and often.
In a perfect world, you’d start with this when you only have the text for your case study. That’s because you can change text much quicker before it makes its way to Webflow, Framer, or another portfolio builder.
This way of improving your case studies based on feedback is never done. Even after working in UX for almost ten years, I still finetune my case studies often. However, you should see an increase in engagement (and possibly leads) after two or three case study iterations.
Presenting your UX case study
If everything is going to plan, you could have received an invite for a job interview by now. Congratulations, first of all! But how do you ace your case study presentation?
Here’s a list of tips and tricks to help you.
- Arrive on time and test your audio, video, and internet before.
- Position yourself in the middle of the frame.
- Focus on the ‘jobs to be done’ of your case study.
- Don’t tell everything right away. Start with a summary and allow your audience to ask questions first.
The final item on the list is especially important. If you tell too much right away, your audience might doze off. Also, if you tell too much right away, you take away your ‘easy questions.’
There’s more you can do to help you present your UX case studies, but the list above should cover most of it.
Resources
That’s everything you need to know about creating super-strong UX case studies. If you follow along from start to finish, you should be alright.
But if you need some extra help, please consider our additional resources below.
UX Case Study (Course + Template)
I’ll walk you through the steps of creating a case study based on my 10 years of experience in UX.
- Video course and template.
- Includes real-world examples.
- Get personal feedback.
Do you have feedback on this article? Missing something? Or just a question? Reach out to me and I’ll get back to you!
About the author
Hi! I'm Nick Groeneveld, a senior designer from the Netherlands with experience in UX, visual design, and research. I'm a UX coach that supports other designers and have completed design projects in finance, tech, and the public sector.
Through The Designer's Toolbox, I'm an Educational Partner for Interaction Design Foundation.
☎️ Book a 1:1 mentor meeting with me or let's connect on LinkedIn, Twitter and Medium.
