Creating Eye-Catching Case Studies

Design portfolios allow User Experience (UX) Designers to showcase their work and abilities, and case studies are at the heart of a portfolio. Case studies tell the story of your work on a particular project and reflect how you think as a Designer. Choose your best work when creating case studies to be sure to make the best impression.

What Are Case Studies?

Case studies are stories about your design work and experience. They are presented as part of your portfolio and are the main evidence recruiters and hiring managers use to determine if you would be a good fit for a job. Case studies need to capture the attention of human resources professionals quickly in order for you to land an interview.

What is a UX Design Portfolio?

A UX design portfolio is a digital collection of your work. You can share your portfolio with employers when you are looking for work or with fellow designers when you are networking. A portfolio should include a brief bio or personal introduction, examples of your design work, and contact information. Some people include a resume or CV on a separate page.

The UX Design Hiring Process

When you apply to a job advertisement, your portfolio will be viewed by three different audiences: hiring managers, recruiters, and other designers. This can make assembling a portfolio tricky because each of these groups is looking for something slightly different. 

Recruiters

Recruiters are tasked with finding applicants to interview for positions. They need to get through many applications quickly, so being able to catch their attention is important. Target your portfolio toward the job you are applying for. If you are applying for a job where you will be expected to perform many tasks along the design process, try to find examples of those tasks you have done in the past. Also, match the language of your portfolio with the language of the advertisement. Many companies use keyword matching to screen applications, and if you include many of the keywords from the advertisement in your portfolio, you stand a better chance of getting an interview.

Hiring Managers

Hiring managers do the actual hiring, so they will look at portfolios more closely than recruiters. HR people are looking for evidence of your design process and how you think as a UX Designer. The point of the portfolio is to showcase your best work, so don’t try to include everything you have ever done. Choose projects that show how you work, not just the final product. Your portfolio should also reflect your personality because the hiring manager needs to choose someone who will fit well with the company culture.

UX Professionals

Toward the end of the hiring process, your portfolio may be passed around to senior designers for their assessment of your skills. These are designers who will be looking at not only the case studies you have chosen but also the design of the portfolio itself. They will look at the consistency of your layout, images, color palette, and fonts. They will look at the quality of your images, and how well you tell your story.

Why Are Case Studies Important?

Case studies are important because they are how you tell your story as a Designer. They describe design projects that you were a part of and show the hiring team that you are a strong communicator. A case study should tell the story of a design project following a narrative arc with a beginning, middle, and end, leading readers through a collection of carefully chosen images that describe the project according to the steps of the design process. Because they contain pictures, case studies can provide much more information than a resume and are structured to be quickly scanned, so use headings and bulleted lists where you can. 

The Structure of a Case Study

While design portfolios can be unique and creative, case studies tend to follow a familiar structure. They are built around images with one or two brief paragraphs of description. Pictures allow busy recruiters to get the gist of the story even if they don’t read the entire text, so it is important to use the highest quality images available. 

Case studies tend to follow the format below:

• Summary or overview—Briefly describe the project and your role in it. Some companies require designers to sign non-disclosure agreements, so you might need to get permission from clients to use information for case studies or make them anonymous.
• Background—Identify the client and product. Give some context such as why you chose this example for your portfolio. Describe what you did and what tools and methods you used.
• Definition—Define the problem and the goals of design, as well as the main insights and impacts. You can include research data, analytics, and market research here.
• Audience—Give a brief description of the user with personas, journey maps, or mental models.
• Ideation process—Show evidence of your thinking during the design process with screenshots of diagrams, pen and paper sketches, site maps, or wireframes.
• Limitations—This section describes any budget or time constraints on the project.
• Solution—Describe the final outcome if you can, but focus on what you did. Be clear about your part in the process and what you learned.

Above all, be sure that your case studies reflect your best work. Use the highest quality images you can get and make sure there are no spelling or punctuation errors in the text. Your portfolio is your chance to make a good first impression, so make it count.

It’s a good idea to put your portfolio on a personal website, even if you have to pay a bit for it. Creating a personal website is a further example of what you can do. However, if you choose not to go that route, there are many portfolio hosting sites to choose from such as Behance and Dribbble. 

What If You Are New to UX Design?

When you are an experienced Designer, choosing only three of your best projects for case studies can be a challenge, but what if you are applying for your first UX design job? How can you create case studies if you haven’t worked as a Designer yet? The three most common ways to build up a portfolio are volunteer work, hackathons, and taking classes.

Volunteer Work

In order to gain experience and collect examples for your portfolio, you can volunteer to do design work for charities and non-profits. You can also create designs for friends.

Hackathons

Hackathons are weekend gatherings of students and beginners interested in design and web development. The goal is to create and code a design in a weekend, and this can help you beef up your portfolio. Remember, showing the process and how you think is more important than the final product. Plus, there is usually free food!

Take a UX Design Class

If you are new to UX design and thinking of switching careers, one of the best ways to collect material for a portfolio is to sign up for classes. Bootcamps and certificate programs are intensive training courses that run from a few weeks to a few months. Not only will you learn about all aspects of UX/UI design, but you will also leave class with a professional-quality design portfolio that you can show to prospective employers. You can choose classes that meet in-person or online to learn design software and other applications. Some people prefer to attend brick-and-mortar sessions when learning new information, but that isn’t always available. Live online classes have a similar set-up with a real-time, remote instructor who can answer questions and take control of your monitor—with permission—to show you how to do things. Training is part or full-time and available weekdays, weeknights, or weekends to meet anyone’s scheduling needs.

Conclusion

It’s easy to learn UX design and start a new career. Check out Noble Desktop’s UX design classes. Choose between in-person sessions in NYC at Noble’s location or sign up for live online UX design courses and attend from anywhere. Use Noble Desktop’s Classes Near Me to find other UX design bootcamps in your area.