You’ll probably look at a lot of case studies while learning how to create your own. I recommend that you concentrate on student case studies. Industry case studies may focus more on outcome and less on process, and as a new designer, showing process and growth is key. Also, some case studies by experienced designers might seem a bit overwhelming. Don’t be intimidated by them – you’ll get there!
Here is an outline for a typical UX Case Study:
Let’s take a look at these in more detail. Once again, a good way to learn this skill is to immerse yourself in excellent student case studies and find your groove.
Overview and Problem Statement
The overview of a case study should be short and to the point. It defines the basics of the project you’ve worked on. A brief sentence or two should suffice, such as a summary of the project’s aims.
For example:
“Silver Cart helps senior people buy things in a smooth and easy way.” Dora Yang
“Tackling tough conversations with remote caregivers.” Andy Wilbourn
“Helping women improve their negotiation skills through interactive methods.” Ije Okafor
“The idea behind this application is to create a dating app that utilizes the user’s music taste and interests as a large factor for compatibility between people. People have such a strong connection to music, where you can discover a lot about them based on the music they listen to; so, I decided to turn that into a main feature of a dating app.” John Lattanzi
At some point early on you might include a problem statement. This can be included here or in the Quick Context section. We learned about problem statements when we studied the Define Stage, but to recap: a problem statement defines the problem to be solved thoroughly and effectively. It should be thorough, yet brief and to the point, and not suggest the solution. A good rule is that it specifies the background of a problem, the people affected by the problem and the impact of the problem on the organization.
“Users have a difficult time caring for their plants” Annie Pak
“Research shows that women negotiate less often than men across a variety of situations. This tendency perpetuates many inequalities, such as the leadership and wage gap between men and women. We conducted background research to develop a better understanding of our target audience (women) and why this disparity occurs.” Ije Okafor
Show A Glimpse of the Solution
Show an image or two of your final solution and perhaps some of the research findings that led you to it. This is a courtesy for the people who are reviewing your case study, as they will want to get some quick insight into your final design. Case studies can get long and they will appreciate not having to scroll to the end for a glimpse at the solution. This is also a great spot to include a link to your working project or prototype.
An image or two will usually suffice, but you might include a summary or a significant finding:
We developed Fig as a product concept to address the desire to maintain their autonomy we heard from older participants, while empowering both them and their remote caregiving children to be informed and in control of health decisions.
During a usability testing session, we discovered that a significant number of participants were struggling to post a photo. This was a problem as the majority (5 out of 7) had earlier expressed an interest in this but couldn’t discover how to do it.
Quick Context: Users and Audience, Roles and Responsibilities, Scope and Constraints
Very briefly, list your roles and responsibilities, the skills you used, perhaps the scope or timeframe of the project and any constraints you were under. You might offer a quick glance at your users and audience as well.
Here’s how Andy Wilbourn addressed this in Fig:
Lucia Hua called this ‘project context’ and used ‘the challenge’ for her problem statement.
Project Context
My client was a local one-woman pottery studio whose business was on Instagram only with limited sales channels and online presence. The client hoped to launch an online pottery business in small batch format.
I had two weeks to run a longer form Design Sprint and conduct user research, produce an MVP, and run initial usability tests. During this sprint I was influenced by Google Ventures’ five-day Design Sprint to structure my process.
The Challenge
The challenge was to create a low-fidelity prototype for a website design — from scratch — within a two-week sprint, and then revisit to create a higher-fidelity, branded prototype.
Okay everybody. That was pretty straightforward. Now it’s time for the hard part: What You Did!
The Body: What You Did
This is the heart of the case study. You are showcasing your mastery of process, identifying key insights, and presenting your design and how it developed. Don’t just show the final product – show at least one early attempt.
Take the viewer step-by-step through your UX design process – research, post-research and pre-design artifacts, design, testing, and visual design. If you had a client, include anything important that took place during the kickoff phase.
This will take a while to get right. Some people make this very long, while some people will keep it brief by showing only those research efforts, artifacts, and design techniques that proved insightful and useful. Include only what you need to show the important parts of your process without overwhelming the viewer. We recommend:
If your project had a client, other participants, or other direction, include a brief summary of this in the Quick Context portion.
Showcase your research. For this first project it will be user interviews and competitive research. Remember to adhere to the 4 W’s:
The most important artifacts from the define stage may be Personas, User Flows and User Stories. Site Maps and Journey Maps and Empathy Maps are also good choices.
In your design phase show some early sketches and briefly explain your concept. Progress to wireframes and show a few key screens from an early version of your design. Then provide a clickable version of your prototype or a movie that leads the viewer through it.
You’ll also conduct and report on usability testing (you’ll learn this next week). I recommend showcasing the main findings from testing (use the 4 W’s) and pick about three screens that show how you improved the design based on feedback and test results. You can do more, but showing the before/after of a few screens is a great way to demonstrate your learning.
You would normally also show some of the work that went towards your visual design choices – color and typography choices, perhaps a mood board and style guide. You’ll learn about this in upcoming classes.
For a brief and to the point case study, let’s go phase by phase through Lucia Hua’s Studio Sooj:
User and Competitive Research
Lucia wrote:
For this project I conducted three interviews and created a primary persona, journey map, and empathy map. I also conducted competitive analysis for website inspiration and understanding of technical requirements.
My key interview takeaways were:
Lucia also included a SWOT competitive analysis:
In her Define Phase, Lucia showed several types of post-research and pre-design artifacts, including a persona. You can review these here.
Mapping it Out
By using divergent thinking (essentially brainstorming/ideating) early on in the process, I identified over a dozen “How Might We?” questions to address the issue at hand. With convergent thinking I narrowed down and prioritized the most important goals/business requirements for the sprint.
Target Audience
Design Stage
Lucia’s presentation (linked to from the top of the case study) displayed her design process with examples of early sketches, wireframes, a movie of the prototype in action (the movie is no longer available).
Outcomes and Lessons Learned
After sharing your solutions, summarize your final thoughts on the project. I look at this as the place to describe what you learned. You might include thoughts on what worked and what didn’t, how you might work differently next time, and how any doubts were resolved as you worked through your solution.
If there are any outcomes from the project – like a happy client or a great user satisfaction survey, show them here.
Some students use this space to show what they would have added to the project if they’d had more time. This is understandable – they’ve just been through a few weeks of focusing on a single project and are still very involved. But I think most reviewers will want you to take a step back from the process and reflect on what you’ve accomplished and learned.
Here’s what Lucia wrote:
What I Learned:
Trying not to be a perfectionist. In UX it’s all about failing fast, failing often. We practice iteration for a reason, because our work is never complete. Time was sometimes wasted from trying to make things look better than they needed to be in this iteration (cough, nav bar hover states.) It’s important to be realistic about what can be accomplished in such a short amount of time.
Tips for Creating a Great Case Study
When you build your case studies and prepare for interviews, remember to show you can work with others:
• Emphasize how others influenced your decisions.
• How did you present your designs to your stakeholders or clients?
• How did you interact with your bosses and co-workers in previous jobs?
• Think about how you might go about establishing consensus when planning a design. Showing your research – or previously existing research—is helpful, but not every client is receptive.
One More Tip:
Now that you’ve learned the basics of case studies, here’s one more resource to improve them. In this article for Medium, Amy Rogers cautions designers not to follow the exact mold that everyone teaches, but to add a narrative arc to your case study. In case you can’t read the Medium article, I’ll summarize. She explains the principles of Kishotenketsu, a four-stage narrative structure that suits stories like ours. It’s taught in Japanese schools and has its roots in classical Chinese poetry. The film My Neighbour Totoro is a perfect example of a story that follows the Kishotenketsu structure:
• Introduction (ki): introducing the basic details of the world.
• Development (sho): building on the information you gave before.
• Twist (ten): a change in the narrative, the crux of the story.
• Conclusion (ketsu): the resolution and how the world is now different.
Ok, so how does that help us? Amy describes a case study (no longer available) where she followed this process:
Her introduction describes the most important pieces of the problem:
Over the 2020 pandemic, pet ownership amongst young people in the UK has grown to almost 35%. Petsy is an app that helps new pet owners find toys and treats for their new furry companions.
And her role:
As the sole designer on the team, my role was to help improve their new social feed. This feature helps pet owners to share their recent purchases with other Petsy members.
She recommends approaching one issue at a time when describing the development of your case study. For instance:
During a usability testing session, we discovered that a significant number of participants were struggling to post a photo. This was a problem as the majority (5 out of 7) had earlier expressed an interest in this but couldn’t discover how to do it.
And she advises that you use actual user testimony and perhaps screenshots to document this. (Remember the 4 W’s)
In her twist, she recommends you focus on the purpose in your process rather than just going through the motions.
For each step you go through, it’s important to get across these things:
In her case study she used her survey results to set up her design phase:
And then she showed the process behind the improvement of a single screen – starting with the first iteration and cycling through its intermediate steps. This may not be suitable for every project, but it is one way to show your learning.
And finally, in her conclusion, she made these suggestions:
There’s a variety of ways you can end a case study’s story, and it’s up to you to decide on what that looks like. Here are a couple of options you could try:
Additional Resource:
Read Sarah Doody’s article on case studies, which includes an informative video. She makes some great points and will add to your understanding.