how to present ux case study in interview

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Tips on presenting your UX case study

Imagine this. You’ve made it through the first job interview. You’re now asked for a second round interview to show your work. But how do you prepare? And what do you need to keep in mind? Here’s how to present a UX case study during a job interview.

• Updated on August 26, 2024

This article will teach you how to present your UX case study during a job interview. If you follow along, you’ll increase your chances of getting invited to the next round.

We’ll talk about the basics, such as attending the meeting on time, and more advanced tactics, like how you structure your presentation.

I’ve based the following tips on presenting my  UX portfolio  to multiple potential clients for almost a decade and the  UX mentorships I’ve hosted for aspiring designers. In other words, these tips are based on real-world experience.

Table of Contents

How to present a ux case study.

The most important part of an excellent  UX case study  presentation is showing you can solve a business challenge. To be more specific, you have to be able to solve your potential employer’s business challenge.

Even though your primary goal as a UX designer is to be there for the user, you must remember you’re going to work somewhere to help a business make money.

If you only talk about users during your case study presentation and forget to mention how you can help your potential employer grow a business, you’re likely to miss out.

Then, there are several  basic job interview rules  to consider. Let’s discuss those first.

Presentation basics

These basics are essential. People expect you to follow them. Because of that, doing so will not get you any bonus points. However, failing to follow the basics will leave a bad taste during your interview. Make sure you check the following basics off of your list.

• Arrive on time.
• Dress appropriately (mostly in person).
• Stable internet connection (remote only).
• Position yourself in the middle of your frame (remote only).
• Make sure you’re able to focus without disturbance (remote only).
• Make sure your camera and mic are working correctly (remote only).

Picking the right case study

At some point during your interview, the interviewer will ask you to present your work. This means you have control over the case study you decide to present. And that’s a good thing.

In my experience, there’s always a case study you prefer over your other case studies. Creating that one  UX case study  has been easier, more recent, or more fun than your other projects.

So make sure you’re ready to pick one of your case studies on the spot if asked to. Pick the one you’re most comfortable with, but also one that aligns with the things your future employer is looking for.

Start with a case study summary

Once you’re asked to present your UX portfolio, most people start to explain their case study from start to finish. Try to stay away from doing that. 

First of all, you’ll likely lose your audience’s attention because an ‘and then I did this…’ story isn’t nice to listen to. You’ll also put yourself in a position to receive challenging questions because you gave away all the easy answers during your presentation.

Instead, give a summary first. Here’s what to include.

• The business challenge, your role, and what you were asked to do.
• What your main deliverable was. 
• The results of your project and deliverables.

Here’s an example of what your UX case study summary might look like.

The example from the image above is a very specific summary. Presenting this case study summary first allows your audience to ask questions. Because you keep a lot of information to yourself, you’re likely to get questions about that same information. You can answer these questions with ease.

If you had presented every detail of your case study, you’re more likely to get questions you can’t answer.

Answering case study questions

After presenting your UX case study summary, it is time to answer questions. As I said, you leave room for questions on purpose to have more control over the questions you get.

My main advice is to be honest when you don’t have an answer to one of the questions. I’ve seen many designers desperately try to answer every question. However, the people listening to your presentation will notice this.

Instead, be honest when you’re not sure. Let your audience know you’re willing to learn or redirect the question by asking what they think or what the company expects you to do.

That way, you show you know what you can improve and that you’re willing to have a good talk about it. That’s way more valuable than being someone who pretends to know everything.

Frequently asked questions

With the above structure, presenting your UX case study during a job interview should go much better. However, there are still some questions to answer. I’ve collected several in the list below.

How long should a UX case study presentation be?

The length of your case study presentation depends on the structure of the interview. In almost all cases, that’s up to the hiring company. It is common for an interview to take between 30 and 60 minutes.

However, your UX case study presentation can be shorter than that. Those 30 or 60 minutes will likely include the introduction, asking questions, and discussing the next steps. That leaves between 15 and 30 minutes for the actual case study presentation.

How many slides are in a UX case study presentation?

The number of slides in your UX case study can vary between 5 and 15. Less than that would mean you don’t include the basics like the cover page, challenge, things you’ve done during the project, and your results.

However, when you go over 15 slides, you risk losing your audience’s attention. Be strict in the number of slides you include!

What should a UX presentation include?

Your presentation should include at least the main building blocks of your project. These include the business problem you’re solving, what the client has asked you to do, what you actually did, and the impact of your work.

Make your case study presentation very visual with mockups, photos of you working on the project, and a user testimonial from your tests. Before and after images also help you tell a better story.

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Case studies are what make up most of your UX portfolio. Therefore, being able to present them is a crucial skill you need to have when you want to  get hired in UX .

These crucial steps will increase your chances of reaching the next round.

• Get the basics right. Make sure you’re on time, in a place where you can focus, and with a stable internet connection.
• Start with a summary of your case study to leave room for questions you can answer.
• Accept the fact that you can’t answer everything. It is better to acknowledge that than to try and desperately answer every question you get.

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.

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5 tips for presenting UX case studies

Principal UX/Product Designer, UiPath

Getting ready for a design interview isn't always easy. Packaging months of work into a few slides or sentences can be challenging. However, there are a few things you can do to ease your workload.

When preparing to present a case study, it's important to think about the following:

1. Make sure your challenge is clear

A UX case study is the perfect tool to demonstrate how a design problem was solved. The challenge description can be used to set up the context of the case study.  Write your challenge in a way that engages the readers and gets them interested right away. It should include necessary information, such as what you were trying to solve, who you were solving it for, and why you chose this particular solution.

Talk with your audience as if they were 5 years old. You are the expert; you know your project the best. Sometimes, you might get ghost guests within an interview which can review your work.

Your audience will go through a presentation of an entire design project, so the scope and the challenge need to be presented from the beginning and be clear. If it’s necessary and you want to make sure it’s easy to understand, try presenting it to some friends and iterate as you go.

2. Don’t present too many personas and flows

Case studies should be easy to follow  —  which means they shouldn't have too many personas and flows that are different from each other.  It's  important for the reader to be able to understand the process without being overwhelmed by too much information.

You can still mention that your product is used by different types of people, so various personas. but don't include everything and all variants for this presentation, because it will be difficult to follow. 

Narrow your case study after you have presented the problem and opportunities. Make sure you present one persona and you focus on the main flow. Toward the end, select some key screens that are connected to the initial challenge.

3. Show us progress, drafts and discarded ideas

The design process for a case study is never linear. It takes time and effort to go through different drafts and discard ideas. However, this is what makes the final product so good.  We'd like to know how your project evolved. Early ideas and drafts are more than welcome.

Most of the time, designers will go through many drafts before they finalize their idea for a project and that's perfectly fine. We're all going through the same process.

Show us how a research insight evolved into an idea, as well as how a sketch evolved into a high-fidelity mockup. Don't be afraid to share with the audience what items didn't go as expected and what ideas you’ve discarded along the design process. 

4. Results, metrics,  and learnings

Case studies are a very useful way to learn from other people's mistakes and successes.  They provide a detailed overview of what works and what doesn't work in different scenarios so designers can avoid making similar mistakes while designing their own products.  It is a good way to get inspiration for your own designs as well. 

Having metrics can really make a difference in your presentation.  Design metrics and results are some of the most important factors in evaluating the success of a design. Anyone should use these as a tool to measure their work and improve themselves.

I f you have the data, put it upfront. Tell us about the initial success rate, likes and dislikes, or why the challenge was a challenge. Compare the results with your initial state and give us some metrics. 

And.. learnings? These are the best! And as we know, not all projects finish as planned. Tell us what could have been done better or what would you have done more if you had more time.

5.  Remind them why they should hire you

Last but not least, add a slide in your case study where you present yourself. Your audience might change, so make sure your message gets across and everyone knows what makes you a good designer and different than the other candidates.

It isn't just about your skills, but also about how you present them.  In order to stand out from the crowd, it is important to have a clear understanding of what you want and what you can do for the company. The best way to achieve this is by presenting yourself in the best possible way.

Take out the good stuff and don’t be shy!

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Your ultimate UX portfolio presentation guide: How to present your UX design portfolio in a job interview

If you’re applying for UX design jobs, you can expect to give a UX portfolio presentation as part of the interview process. This is your chance to talk through some of your favourite portfolio projects—and to show the hiring panel what you’re capable of. It’s a nerve-wracking task, but it’s a crucial step towards landing a UX job. 

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If you’re applying for UX design jobs, you can expect to give a UX portfolio presentation as part of the interview process. 

This is your chance to talk through some of your favourite portfolio projects—and to show the hiring panel what you’re capable of. It’s a nerve-wracking task, but it’s a crucial step towards landing a UX job. 

New to UX interviews and portfolio presentations? Then keep reading. 

This is your ultimate UX portfolio presentation guide . We’ll show you not only how to structure your UX portfolio presentation, but how to deliver it successfully on the day.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

What is a UX portfolio presentation?

What should a ux portfolio presentation include, how long should your ux portfolio presentation be.

• How to structure your UX portfolio presentation: A framework 
• How to prepare for (and ace) your UX portfolio presentation: 5 steps

Ready to become a UX portfolio presentation pro? Let’s begin. 

[GET CERTIFIED IN UX]

A UX portfolio presentation is a key step in the UX hiring process . Whenever you apply for a UX or product design role, you’ll likely be required to present your portfolio to a panel—either in person or via Zoom. Typically, the UX portfolio presentation takes place once you’ve passed the initial phone screen(s) and have moved to the interview stage. 

What’s the purpose of a UX portfolio presentation?

Your UX portfolio presentation is your opportunity to show the hiring manager, and the wider team, what you’re capable of. You’ll talk them through 1 or 2 portfolio projects, giving insight into your UX design process and your approach to problem-solving. 

It’s also a chance for the hiring manager to assess your communication and presentation skills. Most UX roles will require you to present to stakeholders, so employers want to make sure that you can effectively communicate your work. 

Your UX portfolio presentation should include the following:

• A brief yet powerful introduction: Tell the hiring panel who you are and what you’re all about before you jump into the presentation itself.
• 1 or 2 case studies: These are the crux of your UX portfolio presentation, demonstrating your skills, process, and problem-solving approach in action.
• Outcomes and learnings: For each case study you present, you’ll show the panel not only what you achieved but also what you learned.
• Supporting visuals: Just like your portfolio itself, your UX portfolio presentation should contain plenty of interesting visuals to illustrate the story of each project and ensure the presentation is engaging.
• Q&A: At the end of the presentation, be prepared to answer questions (usually about 10-15 minutes). 

Hiring managers will usually allocate between 45 minutes and 1 hour for your UX portfolio presentation. The recruiter should be able to provide you with the timeframe. But, if not, plan to present for around 40 minutes and leave enough time for questions at the end. As with any kind of presentation, practise a few times beforehand to make sure you’ve got plenty of time to cover everything at a comfortable speed. 

[GET CERTIFIED IN UI DESIGN]

How to structure your UX portfolio presentation

There is no universally approved template for a UX portfolio presentation. However, there are certain key components that all portfolio presentations should include, as well as a broad structure that will help you tell a logical story.

Here’s an outline you can use to structure your UX portfolio presentation. And remember: it’s just a template—adapt it to make it work for you. 

• Opening slide
• Introduction (a bit about you)
• UX portfolio case studies
• Closing slide

With that framework in mind, here’s how to structure your UX portfolio presentation .

1. Opening slide

Every good presentation begins with an opening slide. It doesn’t need to be fancy—it’s just nice to have it up on the screen while the audience settles in and you make any final preparations. 

This slide can be as simple as your name, your professional title, and the presentation title, or you can jazz it up with some fun visuals. 

2. Introduction (a bit about you)

First things first: introduce yourself. 

There may be people on the panel who haven’t met you yet, so take a moment to share who you are, what you do, and why you’re passionate about UX design (or your niche area if you’re going for a specialist role such as UX researcher or UX writer ). If you have time, you might also share a fun fact about yourself. This can be a good icebreaker!

This is just a quick overview of what you’ll cover throughout your UX portfolio presentation. It gives the audience an idea of what’s to come, and in what order. As you introduce the projects you’ll present, it’s also worth explaining why you’ve chosen to highlight these particular projects. Take this moment to convey your passion for what you do. 

4. UX case studies

Your case studies will span several slides. Begin with a title slide introducing the name of the project and, if you haven’t done so already, explain why you’ve chosen to include this project in your UX portfolio presentation. 

Is it based on a topic you’re passionate about? Did it present a particularly valuable learning curve? Was it one of your most successful projects? Explain why you’re excited to share this project—and get the hiring panel excited, too. 

Next, you’ll want to cover the following points for each case study. Each point can span 1 or 2 slides as necessary, and you can combine several points into one. All that matters is that you tell a clear, cohesive story which the hiring panel can follow. 

• Project overview: What is the project about? Set the scene and provide important context. Here you can talk about when/in what context you completed the project—for example, as part of your UX design course or bootcamp or at a previous job.
• Your role: Who were you collaborating with and what was your contribution? Explain who was involved in the project and where you fit into the team. What were your main responsibilities and areas of expertise? Who did you collaborate with along the way? This is a great opportunity to demonstrate teamwork while clearly defining your individual role.
• The challenge: What problem were you trying to solve and who were you solving it for? Clearly state the challenge and provide some background. For example, what led to the problem and/or to the discovery of the problem? What pain-points were you seeking to address—and, most importantly, who for? At this point, you can also allude to the final solution. This might not seem logical, but it will actually help the audience to follow and understand your process.

• Your approach: How did you go about solving the problem? Provide a high-level overview of the process you followed to address the design challenge. For example, your approach might have looked something like: User research, ideation, prototyping, testing and iterating, development.
• A closer look at your process and specific methods: Zoom in on specific aspects of the process—outlining the methods you used, why you used them, what value or purpose they served, and how they shaped your design decisions. For example, if one aspect of your approach was user research , explain which research methods you used and why, as well as what insights they helped you to uncover.
• The solution: Where did your chosen process and methods lead to? How did you arrive at the final solution? Refer back to the original problem and explain how you reached your final solution. It’s worth sharing the different solutions you considered before making a decision—outlining the pros and cons of each and explaining why the chosen solution made the most sense.
• The end results: What did or does your solution look like? You’ve explained how you came up with a solution to the problem. Now share how that solution looks (or looked) in action. Did you design new features for an app or come up with user personas ? What was the impact of the solution? Are there any measurable results you can share, either for the business or the end user?
• Learnings and reflections: What did you learn from the project? What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them? What would you do differently next time? Even if you’re highlighting this as your most successful project, it’s unlikely that everything went completely smoothly. Impress the hiring panel with your ability to reflect and learn by sharing what you’d do differently next time, or how you course-corrected along the way.
• Questions: You’ll usually have a longer Q&A session at the end of your portfolio presentation, but it’s worth carving out some additional time at the end of each case study. This encourages the panel to engage and gives you the chance to elaborate on points of interest. 

5. Q&A session

Once you’ve talked the panel through your UX projects, wrap up your portfolio presentation with a Q&A. Thank your audience for listening and say you’d be happy to answer any questions they have. 

6. Closing slide

Just like your opening slide, this is a nice bookend to your presentation. A simple “Thank you for listening!” is perfect—but, as always, feel free to get creative with visuals if you want to inject some extra personality. 

Compiling your presentation is just one part of the process. To close our guide, we’ll outline 5 key steps you can follow to prepare for—and ace—your UX portfolio presentation .

How to prepare for (and ace) your UX portfolio presentation 

We’ve shown you how to structure your UX portfolio presentation. But what other preparation is involved?

Follow these steps to ensure your UX portfolio presentation is a success:

• Choose the projects you want to showcase
• Write an outline for each project case study
• Prepare your UX portfolio presentation slides
• Practice with a timer (and with an audience)
• Anticipate possible questions from the hiring panel

1. Choose the projects you want to showcase

The purpose of your UX portfolio presentation is to show the hiring team what you’re capable of. Before you start putting your presentation together, spend some time going through your UX portfolio and choosing which projects to showcase. 

You might simply go for your favourite projects or the ones you’re most proud of—and that’s not a bad approach. You want to be able to talk passionately and enthusiastically about your work. However, make sure you’re also choosing projects that highlight the skills and qualities the employer is looking for.

For example: if you’re going for a UX research role, you’ll want to present a project where you were responsible for user research. If you’re interviewing with a healthcare company and you’ve worked on a healthcare app in the past, that would be a good case study to highlight.

In short: Choose the projects which best demonstrate your suitability for the job.

2. Write an outline for each project case study

You’ve chosen your projects; now you need to plan how you’ll present them. Before you start putting your presentation deck together, draft an outline of how you’ll talk about each project and the main points you’ll cover. 

Hopefully, you’ve already been through the process of creating your UX portfolio and have several projects written up in the form of detailed case studies—which you can use as the basis for your presentation. You can refer back to our UX portfolio presentation framework (in the previous section) for an overview of the kind of detail to include, and here are the main points at a glance: 

• Project overview
• The problem you were solving
• Your approach, process, and methods
• The solution and end results

At this stage, your project outlines don’t need to be word perfect. The main goal is to have a clear idea of what each project should demonstrate—and how you’ll get the most important points across. 

In short: Pick out the most important points you want to cover for each portfolio project and draft an outline. 

3. Prepare your UX portfolio presentation slides

With your portfolio projects chosen and your outlines drafted, you’re ready to compile your UX portfolio presentation. For this step, follow the presentation framework we outlined earlier on in this guide. 

Here’s a recap of how to structure your UX portfolio presentation:

• Title slide
• Case studies
• Closing slide (thanks for listening!)

Now you might be wondering which format your presentation should take. Always read the recruiter’s instructions carefully to see if they’ve specified any exact requirements. If not, use your tool of choice to create a presentation deck (e.g. Google Slides) and be sure to download it in PDF format, too. You never know what the WiFi situation will be on the day, so make sure you can access your presentation offline if you need to. 

When it comes to designing your presentation deck, follow all the usual design rules and principles —clear, legible text, plenty of contrast, and a good image-to-text ratio. Beyond that, you have all the creative freedom you could ask for. 

In short: Use a tool like Google Slides to design and compile your UX portfolio presentation deck. Download it as a PDF, too, in case the Internet fails you on the day.

4. Practice with a timer (and with an audience)

One of the trickiest parts of a UX portfolio presentation is getting the timing right. You want to provide enough detail without going on for too long—and you want to present at a comfortable pace. 

Once you’ve put your presentation deck together, practice going through it with a timer. Most UX portfolio presentations last between 45 minutes and an hour (the recruiter should let you know how long you’ve got), so make sure you can get through the whole thing without rushing. 

Based on your practice runs, make cuts (or additions) to get your presentation to the ideal length. 

Then, if you can, practise in front of an audience. This will help you to make sure you’re telling a cohesive and logical story about each project. If your practice audience can easily follow along and finds your presentation engaging, you’re onto a winner. If they have feedback, iterate and adapt til you get it right. 

In short: Practise your presentation in front of an audience and with a timer. This will ensure you’ve got the length just right, and that you’re communicating clearly and effectively. 

5. Anticipate possible questions from the hiring panel

Most UX portfolio presentations will end with questions from the hiring panel, so it’s a good idea to anticipate what these questions might be. 

They might ask about specific aspects of your UX projects, or about your design process in general. Brainstorm some possible questions (you can ask your practice audience to come up with some, too) and think about how you’ll answer them.

While it’s impossible to anticipate exactly what will come up, having some answers prepared will help you to enter your UX portfolio presentation feeling confident and ready.

In short: Brainstorm possible questions the hiring panel might ask you and think about how to answer them. 

Wrapping up

We’ve covered everything you need to know about structuring and delivering an effective UX portfolio presentation. Hopefully, with the help of this guide, you can tackle your UX job search with confidence. For more helpful career advice and resources, check out these guides:

• Are you just starting out in UX? Here’s how to reframe your previous work experience (and use it to your advantage)
• How to recognise UX maturity while job hunting (and why it matters)
• What kind of salary can you expect as a UX designer?

The following video has some great portfolio tips too:

• UX Portfolios

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8 October 2024

How to create a successful UX case study in 2023 to ace your first interview (Real FAANG Examples)

Now you have gotten a few UX projects under your belt, do you feel stressed because you have no idea just exactly how you should structure your case study?

Someone might have told you your case studies just don't seem like “real” work experience. Maybe you applied to a few jobs but were rejected because “your UX portfolio isn’t clear or lacks depth”.

Perhaps you even landed an interview, but you know it didn’t go well because you stumbled at the very first step of presenting and answering questions on your project.

If I coached you a few years ago, I may have thought these were just problems of bad UX writing, uninspiring projects, a lack of solid UX storytelling.

No, now I know, those are not the root cause of your problem. Your real struggle is no one has systematically taught you the right way to prepare and structure a UX case study. If I have coached you for a portfolio presentation, you know exactly what I mean.

Think of yourself as an aspiring chef amongst hundreds if not thousands of chefs trying to win a cooking competition. How likely do you think you are to win, if you have never ever read a single cooking recipe.

The answer is winning will be near impossible. Even if you managed to create a tasty dish through countless trials and errors with some movie protagonist plot armor, you are still likely to lose the offer to someone else because the time and energy you wasted will be immeasurable.

Doing UX design in 2022 is that competition, people recognize the value of UX which means there are more opportunities, but the number of applicants is way higher than ever.

Therefore for aspiring UX designers, and design students I coach, I always emphasize the importance of mastering the recipe first before cooking your own UX case study dish. That is the secret of how I was able to help so many students find success at FAANG interviews. (You can read more about that here)

So take my advice as a recipe, feel free to add your own flavor and tweaks to it, but truly understand the ins and outs first before experimenting. The below advice is generated from over 100 hours of my own research talking to UX candidates one-on-one, reviewing the portfolios of students I coached, and hearing feedback from surveying design managers and recruiters working with FAANG. (Happy to share more on my sources and data with you)

Here is what this article will cover:

What is the real purpose of creating a UX case study

What a successful case study needs to cover, the right level of detail in your case studies, the real purpose of creating a ux case study no one has told you about….

UX design boot camps, both American and ones targeting International(Chinese) have taught you wrong. They emphasize industry-sponsored portfolio-ready case studies as their main marketing, but that is not how you want to approach a case study.

A case study should reflect a meaningful, learning or growth design experience where you worked with real stakeholders and created something of value for the customers.

If you are creating case studies solely for the purpose of populating your portfolio, I guarantee those won't be competitive enough. So please don't think of a case study as content for your portfolio, think of it as content for your interview. At UXGO, we always teach our students to create interview-ready case studies where you show not only the design process but how you worked with real FAANG stakeholders. Reach out to me or any of our other coaches on LinkedIn if you want to know more about our case study courses, or past student examples. Once your case study is interview-ready, putting it back on your portfolio should always be a walk in the park. What a successful case study needs to cover…

Case studies should be customized for each inidvidual problem and challenge, using a one size fit all solution is only recomended for begginers. However, like I said, learn the rules before breaking them. The below structure is the correct way to formulate a case study to be both interview and portfolio ready…

A competitive case study must have these below sections clearly highlighted and structured in a similar order:

• Your roles and responsibilities
• Your partners and stakeholders
• Problem statement
• Users and audience, how you defined or clarify those
• Your Scope and constraints how you defined or clarified those
• Your chosen design process, and why you chose to design this way
• Your testing process, and why you tested this way
• Outcomes and results, how you measured success, and why it is meaningful
• Reflection, lessons, or next steps

Notice the key difference of why students I coach create way more successful case studies than their peers? I put the emphasis on clarifying and justifying.

The key to success isn't following this cookie-cutter recipe, anyone can follow a template. What I try to help my students learn is how to set up your case study in a way that helps explain why you did what you did.

As a UX designer, your main job is to offer the why behind the designs and the product. That is why a successful case study always leverages good research, good logic, and tight-nit design reasoning. This applies to existing case studies you have done as well.

Take a look at this example…

This is for a student I just coached who just landed a New Grad Role. She has a strong visual design background graduating from one of the top art schools in Beijing China.

However, when she came to me for interview prep, she was very stressed. She wanted to know if we could use one of her past “industrial design” case studies in the interview.

She told me many other UX designers told her using an industrial case study for a UX interview is not allowed, which I told her was not exactly true.

Take a look below. The importance was justifying her logic through following a good UX structure. I taught her how to show the design process, how she identified the customer, how she solved her customer needs, how she used good data to make design arguments, and how she created an impactful design solution. The content was all there, the key to success was crafting the UX structure and UX logic.

The fact that it's a physical product? That does not make it a bad UX case study. There are tons of physical interaction products in our world. What mattered was explaining to her audience why a physical product here is the right choice, not a digital screen.

A final note here, see how we anticipated questions when crafting a case study? If you don't anticipate questions when creating your case study and don't offer those insights into why what you did was the best design approach, I guarantee any good recruiter or design manager will easily pick your case study apart when you present.

Finding the right level of detail…

Balance in all things… No, but seriously, a good case study it's all about balance. When I was applying for my first design internship 5 -6 years ago, I understood the importance of documenting my design process, but I shared absolutely every little detail to try to justify my decision-making.

One of the first-ever client projects I did for Nio back in 2018 was so long, every case study project was around 70–90 pages long of a pdf. This obviously was bad. Using our cooking example, this is overkill, your chicken is burnt.

However, from my experience, most students I have coached, more commonly suffer from undercooking and serving the dish raw. Meaning they are not putting enough detail in their case studies. Which just like serving a raw dish is always a worse offense than serving an overcooked dish. The first is a health risk, the second is just not good flavor-wise.

Crafting a good case study, really demonstrates your skills as a UX designer, because it shows how well you understand what information needs to be surfaced to your audience first, and which details should be digested upon with further inspection.

Just like cooking, there should be layers and levels to it. There should be an appetizer, a soup, a main course, and a dessert to go with at least. Meaning at every step of the case study, you should offer enough context to lead into your justifications, but save all the finer details for later as dessert.

Don't serve everything at once.

Here is an example of a case study I crafted for Google 3-4 years ago. Take a look below, should I show every individual lofi screen on a separate slide?

No, because a lot of these interfaces are throw-away screens and not hero images of my core flow. Showing everything zoomed in will be a distraction for my viewer. However, if you see below, when I am talking about specific feedback from user tests, now I want to zoom in and show my viewer concrete findings relating to detailed features.

Thanks for reading!

My name is Leon, and I’m always happy to chat! Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or check out our UXGO platform for more free resources and 1:1 coaching sessions. .

I spent 20+ hours writing this article with real student examples to give you the most in-depth insights into the UX industry.

So, please give it a share on LinkedIn if you found it helpful, and tag friends who might be interested!

It’s a small UX world, so I hope our paths cross soon. Cheers!

Written by UXGO

Free articles, free resources, all for supercharging your UX career – no strings attached!

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How to Write and Present a Winning UXR Case Study [+Outline Template]

Learn how to tell your project's story—all while showing off your own skills.  

Ah, the dreaded user research case study presentation. It’s a standard part of the interview process where you are meant to show off your wonderful skills in an aesthetically pleasing, concrete, concise, and well-rounded manner—and with a smile on your face, no less!

The first time I presented a case study was after my user research internship . I committed some of the most common mistakes:

• Not talking through my thought process
• Too many photos with no explanation
• Too many words crammed into the page
• No reflections or next steps
• Not reporting on the impact the research had

Since then, I have created (and practiced with) many different case studies. But I also became a hiring manager who has observed many case study presentations. With this experience, I learned the best practices of presenting case studies in a compelling and thought-provoking manner.

What is a user research case study?

• What to include in a case study

If you'd like an easy-to-follow jumping off point, check out my case study outline template here .

Great question! A user research case study is a walk-through or reflection of the work you have completed in the past. It is your way to demonstrate the value you provide to an organization. It’s a story about a project you have accomplished and gives your audience a step-by-step understanding of how you approached it.

Case studies are at the heart of an interview and an integral piece to making it through to the next step during the interview process. If you tell a compelling and clear story of projects, you're more likely to get more interviews and further the interview process. Additionally, you'll feel more confident during the interview process and with the next steps.

What to include in a user research case study

When you write a user research case study, there are areas you should include. However, always use your judgment. If a particular project did not cover one of these topics, you don't have to make something up or force information into it. Use these topics as guidelines.

As a hiring manager, I always look for the following in user research case studies:

Give a small introduction to yourself of something outside of your resume (e.g. what has changed about you in the past five years, your favorite hobbies). Also, give a short introduction and context to the organization. Finally, briefly introduce the project topic. Keep in mind to not use any jargon from the industry that others may not understand.

✔ Your role

What was your role in the research project? Who else did you work with, and how did you work with them? Were you a leader of the project? How did you prioritize this project?

What was the overall timeline of the project? Consider breaking down the different parts of the timeline (e.g. recruitment X weeks, research Y weeks, analysis Z weeks).

✔ Research statement and goals

What is the research problem/question that you were trying to answer? Where did this problem/question come from (e.g. previous research, management)? Did you need to get buy-in for this research? If so, how? What were the goals of the research project?

✔ Research methodology

What methodologies did you use for the project? Why did you choose these methods? How did you conclude on these methods? Think about combining qualitative and quantitative research methods and how they worked together. Were other stakeholders a part of the research? How long did the interviews last? How many were there?

✔ Recruitment criteria and process

Who did you recruit for the study? Why did you recruit these particular people? How did you recruit them (e.g. tools)? Did you incentivize them? Why or why not? What are some examples of screener questions?

✔ Sample questions asked or usability tasks

Show some examples of your questions from a moderation guide or tasks you asked during the usability test . If possible, you can link to the actual moderator's guide.

✔ Analysis and synthesis process

How did you analyze and synthesize all of the data? What types of techniques and processes did you use? Did you debrief after each of the sessions? Why/why not? Who else was a part of the synthesis process? Include examples and screenshots, even if that means you have to blur out sensitive information!

✔ Outputs/deliverables

What were the outputs of the research? What were the deliverables, and why did you choose those? How did you share the research (e.g. reports with videos)? Include examples and screenshots, even if that means you have to blur out sensitive information!

What was the impact of your research on the team, the organization, and the business? Who used the insights , and how did they use them? What changed because of your research? What were the business implications of your research (e.g. impacting business metrics/KPIs)?

✔ Next steps and recommendations

What are the next steps after the research? What is the follow-up? What recommendations did you make to the team and organization? How did the research insights tie to any design or product changes?

✔ Reflections

Reflect on the research project. What went well? What didn't go as well? What challenges did you face? What would you change/improve for next time?

I always recommend outlining before designing your case study . You can spend hours playing around with fonts, colors, templates, and layouts, but don't let those dictate your project. First, get all of the information down, then you can start putting it into a presentation format.

How to present your case study

Before the presentation.

There is some work to do before you even head into the case study interview. Here are a few steps you can take to ensure the best possible outcome:

✔ Read (and reread) the job profile

It is crucial to be familiar with the job role and the expectations before choosing your case study. In this way, your case study is a little like a cover letter. The projects and skills you choose to highlight during the presentation should be aligned with what would be expected from you in the role you're applying for.

✔ Research the company

Keep in mind the goals and context of the company. For instance, if you are interviewing for a B2B position, choose to present B2B case studies or case studies that showcase the most relevant skills. Knowing the company's purpose and vision can help you talk about how you have strategically tackled similar concepts in the past.

✔ Research the team

Like above, and ask much as possible, try to find out information about the team you will be joining. They may have a page where you can see what type of research they do or their vision as a team. If not, this is a great question to ask after your presentation !

✔ Choose your projects based on the job profile

Choose two projects that match most closely with the job profile. Typically, you can get through two projects within a 90-minute case study interview. Always choose case studies that show off different skills—for instance, one generative or strategic study and one evaluative study. If you are starting out and only have one case study, that is okay! Put as much detail into your case study as possible.

During the presentation

There are some best practices to keep in mind for the actual case study presentation. I typically look for the following during these interviews:

✔ Explain your process

Likely you will not have written thought or explanation in your case study. With this in mind, please use the case study presentation to explain your process to me. I see many researchers who skip from interviewing to insights, with no explanation of how they arrived at the insights . As a hiring manager, I need to know how you approach problems to project how you might tackle similar issues at the organization you're interviewing for.

✔ Report on impact

As much as possible, always return to your research's impact on a team or organizational level. Whenever talking through a research project's success, tie it back to the team or organization's vision or purpose—what were some long-lasting benefits of the research? What did it tell people?

✔ Talk about collaboration and alone time

Researchers are meant to work with others, either on a research team or with stakeholders. However, the truth may be that a lot of work we do is in a vacuum. Ensure to demonstrate both sides of being an independent researcher, but also a collaborator. You want to clarify that you can connect research to other areas of the organization, but you can also work autonomously when necessary.

✔ Include reflections and challenges/improvements

Like all professions, user researchers aren't perfect. I always find it important when candidates can reflect on the lessons they learned and talk about how they have already made improvements. Have some concrete examples ready for struggles and what you did to overcome them.

✔ Include activities outside of your day-to-day

Maybe you love democratizing research, or you're an excellent workshop facilitator, or you have tips for managing tough stakeholders; regardless, talk about the activities you do or love that could help benefit the team you'd be joining.

✔ Make your introduction about yourself

I find this part so important! Talk about yourself and your life outside of work briefly during your introduction. For instance, talk about a hobby you love or a hobby you just started. I always talk about my love for Pokemon and animals. I also chat about writing fiction novels. This portion shows a bit more about your personality outside of work.

After the presentation

I can't stress this enough but have a list of questions you are ready to ask your interviewer. This list will help if you freeze on the spot and cannot come up with any questions. I tend to get wary when interviewees have no questions for me after a presentation.

Some great topics to ask about are:

• Struggles the hiring manager has had
• The best part of working at the company
• The hardest part of working at the company
• What the team is like (team culture)
• What the team does to bond outside of work
• Who the hiring manager works with on a daily/weekly basis

Finally, consider sending a follow-up thank you email. You may not have the email of the people you spoke with, but you can send an email to the recruiter you have spoken to with a quick thank you message. Getting a thank you email from a candidate honestly brightens my day, so I highly recommend this!

Nikki Anderson-Stanier is the founder of User Research Academy and a qualitative researcher with 9 years in the field. She loves solving human problems and petting all the dogs. 

To get even more UXR nuggets, check out her user research membership ,  follow her on LinkedIn , or subscribe to her Substack .

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The Complete Guide to UX Case Studies

Updated: July 18, 2024

Published: August 21, 2023

Writing a UX case study can be overwhelming with the proper guidance. Designing for the user experience and writing about it in a case study is much more than writing content for a webpage. You may ask, “If my design speaks for itself, should I include a UX case study in my portfolio?”

Yes, you should include UX case studies in your portfolio. And here’s why.

You need to make your portfolio stand out among the crowd. A UX case study is a great way to do that. Let’s take a minute to define what a UX case study is and look at some examples.

Table of Contents

What is a UX case study?

The benefits of ux case studies, examples of ux case studies, tips for creating a ux case study.

UX portfolios are essential to showcasing UX designer skills and abilities. Every UX designer knows better designs bring better results. Sometimes, it’s easy to let the design speak for itself — after all, it is meant to engage the audience.

But, in doing that, you, as the designer, leave many things unsaid. For example, the initial problem, the need for the design in the first place, and your process for arriving at the design you created.

This is why you need to include UX case studies in your portfolio.

UX case studies tell a curated story or journey of your design. It explains the “who, what, when, where, and how” of your design. The text should be short and sweet but also walk the reader through the thinking behind the design and the outcome of it.

[Video: Creating a UX Case Study: Right and Wrong Way to Approach It]

There are many benefits to including UX case studies in your portfolio. Think of your UX portfolio as a well-decorated cake. The designs are the cake, and UX case studies are the icing on the cake— they will catch your audience's eye and seal the deal.

Take a look at the benefits of adding UX case studies to your portfolio.

Don't forget to share this post!

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UX Portfolio Presentation: How to Structure and Present Your UX Portfolio on a Job Interview

Anett Illés

During the job application process, you will have to present your work twice. First , remotely, when you submit your portfolio. Second , in person, when you get invited for an interview. Both are important and also correlated: Your portfolio will get you to the interview, where your UX portfolio presentation will land you the job.

Since your portfolio is involved in all stages, you can save lots of time and energy if you prepare it right at the beginning of your job or internship-seeking efforts . If you have a great portfolio, you can send it out with applications and use it to present during interviews .

A UX portfolio presentation is about showing your future employer and team that you can articulate your ideas, process, and concepts in a clear and concise style. You will give similar presentations to stakeholders when you get hired, so this is a crucial part of the hiring process.

The thought of presenting in a high-pressure situation could be scary. But remember that you have been preparing for this since you started working on your UX portfolio. With a little practice, you will nail the presentation and land the job!

UX leads and recruiters want to hear about your

• Role : What were your responsibilities in the project?
• Team : How and who you worked with? (stakeholders, developers, designers, product managers, etc.)
• Design story : What ideas lay behind your design?
• Design decisions : How you translated business or user needs into your design?
• Way of thinking : Why you did what you did during the project?

A case study is the best format to present your work, as it provides wholesome answers to all these questions. Fortunately, a good UX portfolio is made up of case studies.

How to prepare for the presentation?

Forget about printed-out slides! Why would you waste paper when you can bring your computer or tablet to the interview? You can ask any HR manager or team lead: They prefer digital presentations. After arriving at the venue, just ask for the wi-fi password at the reception and you are set.

Case studies

Putting together a case study is the best preparation for a portfolio presentation. By the time you are finished, all threads will connect in your mind and you will know the conclusion they lead to. Also, when your thoughts are collected, your interviewers will find it easier to follow along.

For a start, create an outline from the stages listed in your case study. Just remember that you might not have time to present every little detail, so consider the following questions:

• Which parts are necessary for comprehension?
• Which part is the most powerful?
• Which part can help you get the job at hand?

If you spend enough time on your case study, you will know which parts best represent your skills.

Once you know what you want to say, you just have to practice saying it aloud. Do not underestimate the effects of a rehearsal! The more you rehearse the more relaxed and confident you’ll feel. The goal is for you to present a project from beginning to end without having to look at your notes or reading from your case study. In a few attempts, you will be there!

How to structure a UX portfolio presentation in an interview?

Storytelling is at the heart of an outstanding UX portfolio presentation. We collected ten steps with examples to help you present the story of your design in a compelling way. Keep in mind that these examples come from different projects. (You can also see more UX portfolio examples and UX case study examples at UXfolio .)

1. Introduce yourself and give an overview

Start the presentation by introducing yourself, your role, and your specialization. Tell your interviewers what excites you the most about your job and what are your areas of expertise. Then prepare the interviewers for the presentation by breaking down how you’ll structure it.

Finish the introduction by talking about the projects in your portfolio. Share some information about the field (e.g., healthcare, sports) and the project type (e.g., redesign, purchase flow), but do not go into detail yet!

2. Tell which project is your favorite and why

UX leads and recruiters want to hire passionate problem-solvers who can handle the entire design process. So, it is likely that they will ask you to give a walkthrough of your favorite project. You should choose one that excites you and highlights most of your skills.

Before you get into the gist of it, set up the stage by answering the following questions:

• Why is this your favorite project?
• What is the project about?
• Who is it intended for?

3. Talk about the team setup, your role, and activity in a project

Talk about your role and place in the team. Many candidates forget that for most positions they must be effective team workers. There is no better way to prove that than talking about your role as part of a whole.

4. Explain the main challenge

With the background information covered, it is time to reveal the challenge that will tie your design story together. It could be anything from a business issue to a user pain. Just explain it in detail!

5. Describe your process

Start with a brief outline then describe your design process step-by-step without going into too much detail. You don’t have to over-explain every technical detail. Your interviewers are aware of the basics. Instead focus on your why-s, to reveal your thought processes and reasons.

6. Mention UX methods and user insights

Listing UX methods without context is the biggest mistake applicants make. For each method, you must share how it influenced your design, otherwise, it is pointless to mention them. Another colossal mistake is forgetting about users after the intro. It is User Experience for a reason, so share what you learned about them and how!

7. Show your solution

When talking about your solution, reflect back to the challenge that you have introduced at the beginning of your presentation. Talk about the pros and cons of all the potential solutions that you have considered and explain why you chose the one you did.

8. Elaborate on one major design decision

This is your moment to shine! You can prove your potential by explaining an impactful or unexpected design decision you took. Underpin your decision with the user needs or pains that necessitated it.

9. Showcase the results

After hyping up the solution in the previous section, it is time to reveal it: Show final screens, feature statistics, and quote the stakeholders. Statistics are particularly important since they prove that your work contributes to shared goals.

10. Share your learnings

Finish the UX portfolio presentation with learnings to show your willingness to grow as a designer. Take an assumption you had when the project started and tell your interviewers how it changed by the end. Even better, tell how these learnings have influenced your process: “Since this project, I always do [this thing in that way] for this reason.”

Considerations during a UX portfolio presentation

An enormous part of your success depends on the structure of your UX portfolio presentation. However, we cannot deny the importance of the way you are presenting it. Always consider the following things:

• Time. Consider time as early as the planning phase. It makes a major difference if you have 10 minutes or 30 to showcase your work. Have a plan ‘A’ and ‘B’.
• Complexity. Present your work in an easy-to-understand way.  You can also give a layout to your interviewers. If the project is in a field with lots of jargon and complex concepts, keep their use to a minimum or explain them in brief.
• Show excitement. Design leads want to work with passionate people who love and care about what they do.
• Come prepared and open to common UX designer interview questions. If they ask you about the details, they want to know more about you and your way of thinking – a good sign! They won’t judge you on your design decisions, as they don’t have enough information to do so. They just want to see you have made conscious, well-thought-out decisions.
• Open the floor for questions. Your interviewers will have questions regardless, so this is more of an act of courtesy.
• Ask for feedback. Show your openness and your desire to improve. If you can, take some notes as well! And don’t forget to thank them for their time.

Remote UX portfolio presentation tips

More and more companies are open to remote interviews, which some find a blessing, others a curse. The problem is that it is much harder to make a lasting impression remotely than in person. But it is possible! Start by sorting out the basics:

Clean up your act and your room

Though you will be logged in from home, dress up and groom yourself as you would for a regular interview. Tidy up your room too, or at least the part that they will see. The goal is to appear composed.

Close your tabs, bookmarks, and windows

Let’s be honest: when someone shares their screen, our eyes get drawn to their open tabs and open windows. It’s human nature. So, before your presentation starts, close your tabs and sort out bookmarks! They slow down your computer, and you can get lost in them in front of your potential employer. Such a situation can be very frustrating, and it can lead to you losing momentum. Don’t forget about your windows and notifications either!

Test your equipment

Before the interview begins, give a restart to your computer to make sure it’s not overworked. Presenting while your screen is lagging can ruin the entire experience. So, make sure that your camera and microphone are working. Clean your screen and the lens of your camera so you can see and be seen. Finally, find a comfortable angle and good lighting.

Look into the camera and nod

From time to time, look into the lenses of your camera. This the digital equivalent of keeping eye contact with your interviewers. Also, when they are talking to you, nod lightly, so they can see that you hear what they are saying. The rest of your interview should go just as an in-person interview would.

Start building your portfolio today!

UXfolio is the easiest way to build a sleek UX portfolio and case studies. It will help you tell your design story with guiding questions and writing prompts. What’s more, UXfolio provides plenty of stunning solutions for you to showcase your wireframes, prototypes, and UIs. Try UXfolio free today!

How to Craft an Outstanding Case Study for Your UX Portfolio

Writing case studies for your UX portfolio can feel opaque and overwhelming. There are so many examples out there, and often the ones that make the rounds are the stunning portfolios of top visual designers. It can be inspiring to see the most beautiful work, but don’t let that distract you from the straightforward format of a good UX case study. 

At the core, a UX case study relies on excellent storytelling with a clear, understandable structure . This article breaks down the anatomy of a UX case study to help you tell a simple and effective story that shows off your skills. We’ll start with some general guidelines and structure, then break it down one piece at a time:

UX portfolio overview

What is a ux case study, general guidelines, how to structure a case study, how to fill in the details, defining the problem, understanding your users, early or alternate ideation, final design solution, next steps and learnings.

• Final thoughts

1. Before we get started

Before we dive into all the art and science of the case study, here’s a quick refresher on what a job-winning UX portfolio looks like. In this video, pro designer Dee analyses various design portfolios to pick out what works—and what doesn’t:

Simply put, a case study is the story of a design project you’ve worked on. The goal, of course, is to showcase the skills you used on the project and help potential employers envision how you’d use those skills if you worked for them.

A case study is typically written like a highly visual article, with text walking readers through a curated set of images. Curated is an important word here, because it should be short and sweet. It’s a chance to share what you want potential employers to know about your work on this project.

With that in mind, case studies are really a UX designer’s secret weapon in two ways. First, they get you in the door by showing more about your work than a resume and a top UX cover letter ever could. Another benefit is that they’re really handy in job interviews. If someone asks about a past project, you can walk them through the case study you’ve already created (this is sometimes a requirement anyway).

I mentioned that UX case studies are about storytelling. I’d actually say they’re about stories-telling, since they need to tell two intertwined stories .

The first is the story of your project. This answers questions like what problem you solved, who your users were, what solutions you explored, and what impact they had.

The second story is about you as a designer and your process. This is more about which methods you chose to use and why, how you worked within constraints, and how you worked as a member of a team (or without one).

So what are the steps for an effective case study? Well, like most things in design (and life), it depends. Every case study will be different, depending on what stories you’re telling. The six-part outline below, though, should guide you through an effective format for any UX project story. Here’s the outline (we’ll dive into each component in just a minute):

• Defining the Problem
• Understanding your Users
• Final solution

It’s worth it to add a few general notes before we dive into each of the list items above. For each section, include 1-2 short paragraphs and an image of a deliverable that visually tells the story your paragraphs explain. A reader should be able to either just read or just look at the images and roughly get what this moment in the story is communicating.

When choosing images to include, focus on quality over quantity.  Choose your best deliverables for each stage and briefly relate them back to the larger narrative. It can be tempting to overload the page with everything you created along the way, but these extra details should stay in your back pocket for interviews.

Lastly, make sure your case study is scannable . In the best of circumstances, people don’t read word for word on the web. Make sure your text is reasonably concise, use headers and strong visual hierarchy, and use bullet points and lists when possible. If you need a refresher on how to achieve this, check out our guide to the principles of visual hierarchy .

Ok, let’s take a look at each step in a bit more detail.

2. Anatomy of a UX case study

Like any story, the introduction sets the stage and gives much of the necessary context readers will need to understand your project. This is one section where people actually might take some extra time to read carefully as they try to discern what this case study is about. Make sure they have all the details they need.

Some key questions to answer are:

• What is your company and/or product?
• What user problem did you try to solve?
• What was your role?
• What tools and methods did you use?
• What are the major insights, impacts, or metrics related to the project

After introducing the project, dive more deeply into the problem you tackled. You touched upon this in the introduction, but this section is an opportunity to make a strong case for why this project exists. Did a competitor analysis or market research demand a new product? Was there past user research in your company that suggests a needed redesign of the product?

Remember that you’ll want to create a through line in the narrative, so try to lay out the problem in a way that frames your design work as a solution.

Deliverables that work really well for this section would be:

• Analytics or usage data
• Market research of internal business metrics
• Survey results or interview highlights

After explaining the problem, show how it impacts your users and their interaction with your product. If you did original user research or you’re seeking user research-oriented jobs, sharing interview scripts, affinity maps , and spreadsheets can be useful in showing your process.

However, this section shouldn’t be only about your process. A key goal of this section is articulating who your users are and what their needs are. These findings should set up your design work that follows, so try to set up that connection.

A few types of the deliverables you might share here are:

• User personas
• Mental models
• Journey maps or customer experience maps

Keep in mind you want to communicate users’ key motivations and challenges, as well as any more specific user groups you identified.

This section can really scale up or down depending on what you have to show. Research shows that hiring managers  don’t just want the final product , so it’s clear that showing some of your process is helpful. Especially for students or designers without a fully built product to show, this can be a moment for you to shine.

Don’t worry about the low fidelity of these documents, but the rougher they are, the more you’ll need to guide readers through them. Everything you show here should teach the reader something new about your process and/or your users.

Artifacts you might include are:

• Pen and paper or low fidelity digital wireframes

If you did early testing or faced constraints that determined your future design work, be sure to include them here, too.

This section should include the most final work you did on the project (e.g. wireframe flows or color mockups) and any final product it led to (if you have it). Be clear, though, about which work is yours and which isn’t.

Explain any key decisions or constraints that changed the design from the earlier stages. If you incorporated findings from usability testing, that’s great. If not, try to call out some best practices to help you explain your decisions. Referring to Material Design, WCAG, or Human Interface Guidelines can show the why behind your design.

If you’re able to show the impact of your work, this can take a good case study and make it outstanding. If your project has already been built and made available to users, have a look at any analytics, satisfaction data, or other metrics. See what you could highlight  in your case study to show how your design improved the user experience or achieved business goals. Ideally, you can refer back to your original problem statement and business goals from the introduction.

If you don’t have any way of showing the impact of your project, lay out how you would measure the impact. Showing you know how to measure success demonstrates you could do this on future projects.

Lastly, conclude your case study by sharing either your next design steps and/or some key insights you learned from the project. This isn’t just fluff! No project is perfect or final. Showing next steps is a great way to demonstrate your thinking iterative approach (without having to do the work!).

Also, many companies do (or should do) retrospectives after each project to identify challenges and improve future processes. Use this process and the insights you gain from it to inform your case study. Letting employers know you’re capable of reflection shows humility, self-awareness, and the value you can bring to a team.

3. Final thoughts

Since each case study is a unique story you’re telling about your project, it’s a little art and a little science. But starting with the structure laid out in this article will show who you are as a designer and how you solved a problem. And those are two stories companies want to hear!

If you’d like to learn more about how to craft a great UX portfolio, check out these articles:

• 5 Golden rules to build a job-winning UX portfolio
• The best UX design portfolio examples from around the web
• The best free UX/UI portfolio websites to use
• Salary negotiation for UX designers

Hi, I’m Sarah Doody, founder of Career Strategy Lab.

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How to Write a UX Case Study to Showcase Your Skills, Experience, & Process

14 min read

By: Sarah Doody on May 22, 2023

UX case studies are the foundation of an excellent UX portfolio and have a direct impact on how well you’ll do in job interviews. 

To demonstrate your skills to recruiters and hiring managers, user experience (UX) professionals of all types – whether UX writers, content strategists, product strategists, product managers, UX researchers, or any other roles in product development – should create case studies for various projects they’ve worked on. The purpose of UX case studies is to articulate what you did, how you did it (your process and thinking), and what happened (the results and impact).

A well-written UX case study tells the story of each project and represents how well you can communicate not just what you did, but why you did it.

How would your UX career change if you could write UX case studies you’re actually proud of? What would happen if you had a clear and powerful story to tell about each project in your UX portfolio? You’d likely … 

• Apply for more roles.
• Get more interviews.
• Make it further in the interview process.
• Be far more confident presenting your projects.
• Stand out as an effective communicator.
• Get more offers.
• Reach your next role faster

But, how exactly do you write more effective UX case studies? Even if you don’t think you’re a good writer, it is possible. You just have to know what questions the recruiters and hiring managers need you to answer in the UX case studies. UX recruiters and hiring managers want your case studies and portfolio to share the details and your process for each project, but not have it be an essay or read like a white paper.

In this article, you will learn:

How to structure a UX case study

• The 5 steps to write a UX case study
• How to actually tell a story of your process

At the end of the article, you’ll find some examples of effective UX case studies. A wordf of caution though, I know you’re tempted to go look at example case studies and copy them. But don’t forget, copying other people’s UX case studies won’t do you any good. You’ll get enamored with the “design” of these case studies and not actually consider the content and the story that each case study tells. Do yourself a huge favor and read the steps below to structure and write your UX case studies. Let’s go! And by the way, this free resource will be tremendously helpful for you: 

Featured Resource

Get a UX case study template. It’s a Google Doc so you’ll be able to make a copy and then start writing your own case studies.

Why UX case studies matter

According to Center Centre , the job growth of UX designers is expected to rise 22% over the next 10 years. UX is a hot field, and there’s a lot of competition. 

This is why your UX portfolio can’t simply be a curation of sexy-looking deliverables. Recruiters and hiring managers need to see your process. It’s your job to articulate not just what you did, but why you did it.  

Communication is a crucial skill for UX professionals. In most UX roles, you’ll find yourself not just doing the actual work, but explaining it over and over as stakeholders challenge your decisions and colleagues who may not be versed in design need a bit of help understanding the process. So ask yourself this … 

If you don’t have well-written UX case studies, then how can recruiters and hiring managers trust that you’ll be able to communicate what you did and why you did it if they hire you? Your UX case studies are a reflection of how you think and communication and they’re a preview of how you’ll think and communicate in a role once you are hired.

There are two parts to being an effective communicator, your writing skills and ability to verbally discuss what you did. If you struggle with verbally presenting your projects, chances are it’s because you did not invest time in writing about your projects first. 

By literally writing out your UX case studies in a Google Doc first, you’ll become much clearer on what you might say as you get further down the UX job interview process. How you perform in the interviews is what will likely get you hired, but to get in the door for an interview, you need a solid portfolio. The quality of the writing for your case studies is one of the most important variables in the success of your portfolio.

When approaching your UX portfolio and case studies, my advice is: think like a lawyer. Because how do lawyers win legal cases? With strong communication, and even stronger evidence. The projects inside your portfolio are like evidence in a legal case. That’s why you must choose the projects for your portfolio very carefully. 

When you write a UX case study, there are 7 main sections that you should cover. It’s important to note this structure does not mean that you will literally have a page in your PDF or section on your website for each of these. Furthermore, not all of these sections will apply for each project. For example, if a project didn’t have many constraints, don’t feel like you must invent or stretch some constraints, just to include it. Use your best judgment, this structure for your UX case study is a guideline, not the gospel. 

Here is the high level structure of an effective UX case study:

• Problem statement
• Users and audience
• Roles and responsibilities
• Scope and constraints
• Process and what you did
• Outcomes and lessons

Get this UX case study template. It’s a Google Doc so you’ll be able to make a copy and then start writing your own case studies.

5 steps to write a UX case study for your portfolio

A UX case study is not just about having something for your UX portfolio, but it also equips you for interviews and provides you with content you can also use on your resume and LinkedIn profile.

As you write your case studies, don’t worry about length. If your case study ends up being 2,000 words in a Google Doc, it’s not as though you are going to take all that text and cram it into your portfolio. That would be insane.

There will be a process of editing as you decide which bits of the story in the Google Doc are what hiring managers and recruiters want to hear about. As you take the content in your Google Doc and move it into a more visual format, you’ll pair down what you wrote and come up with a more compact version of the story that you want to share in your UX portfolio.

1: Outline your UX case study

An outline’s purpose is to help you understand the big picture of your project, so you can decide how to structure your case study. It may also help you realize that the project already feels like it’s too big, in which case you should consider breaking it up into multiple smaller projects so that you don’t overwhelm the user of your UX portfolio.

Start your outline with the seven sections listed above ( use this Google Doc template ), and start filling in bullet points under each section. Don’t worry about sentence structure; just write and get it out of your head. If you’ve been documenting your projects as you work on them , then you may have some of this already written.

2: Write the details of your process

Now that you have an outline and you see the big-picture story of the project, you can start filling in details. The bulk of what you write will be for the “Process and what you did” section. This is where you’ll document the steps you took during the project, just like documenting science experiments in high school.

The Process section of your UX case study should address these questions:

• What did you do? For example, what research method did you use?
• Why did you do it? For example, why did you choose that research method?
• What was the result?   For example, did you achieve your research goals?
• What did you learn? Anything unique happen? What would you do differently next time?

To continue learning by example, let’s refer back to our fictional example of the Home Depot project that focused on user research for the mobile app checkout. Below are examples of content that could be for the Process section of the project. Imagine this part of the case study is meant to address the research step of the process.

• Poor explanation of the research step: “We did usability testing on the checkout of the Home Depot mobile app.”

Why is this weak? Because it only tells the reader what you did. It doesn’t address why you did it, what happened, and what you learned. It’s too vague and provides no insight into what actually happened. Instead, consider this more descriptive explanation of the user research step of the process:

• Good explanation of the research step: “To evaluate the new checkout on the Home Depot mobile app, we relied on usage metrics in conjunction with 8 usability tests. This allowed us to gain a deeper understanding by combining both qualitative and quantitative information. Although users were able to get through the checkout more quickly, they continued to struggle with the shipping section. Discussions with users discussion revealed that oftentimes , products in one order have different shipping addresses, which was possible, but difficult in the current checkout.”

Why is this good? This version is much stronger because it goes beyond just talking about what was done. Providing this depth is what will set you apart; articulating your design decisions and the process will help position you as a more mature and thoughtful professional.

3: Write headlines to summarize

At this point, you’re likely freaking out and worried your UX case study is too long. You’re right, it probably is. But remember, what you wrote in your Google Doc is not going to all make its way to your actual UX portfolio

Imagine that your Google Doc is a movie and now it’s time to make the 60-second trailer! This next step will help you start to distill everything down so that you are focusing on the key highlights of the story in your case study.

The best way to do this is to pretend that you have to write your case study only in tweets. It sounds crazy, but it works. For each section of the case study outline, write a single headline or sentence, except for the Process section. For the Process section, you’ll want to have a headline for each step. Continuing with our Home Depot user research example, some of the headlines for the Process section might be:

• Step: What type of research you did and why you did it Headline: “Analytics revealed customers struggled and sometimes abandoned, checkout at the shipping section. To understand why we conducted eight usability tests.”
• Step: Findings from the research Headline : “Usability tests revealed that business customers, versus residential, had different shipping needs, which were not being addressed in the current checkout experience.” 
• Step: Impact of research on product development Headline: “We prototyped two new versions of the checkout, allowing customers to choose shipping address on a per-product basis.”

By sticking to a tweet-length character limit, you’ll force yourself to identify the most important points of the case study—which will then become headlines when you create your actual portfolio.

A good way to test whether or not you have strong headlines is to ask yourself if someone would understand the main points of your project by skimming the headlines. If not, then re-write your headlines—because if you want the users of your UX portfolio to quickly understand your project, those are the most important points.

4. Create a compelling title

The big mistake that people make is not giving the project title enough detail when a strong title can give context for the project. As an example, imagine you worked on a user research project related to the checkout process on Home Depot’s mobile app. Consider each of these project titles:

• Poor Title: Home Depot
• So-so Title: Home Depot user research
• Good Title: Home Depot user research for mobile app checkout

Let’s break this down … a title with just the company name, such as “Home Depot” tells the reader absolutely nothing about what you did. It could have been visual design or app development. But the user of your UX portfolio has no idea because the project title was not clear.

A title such as “Home Depot User Research” is a bit better. But it still is vague. Yes, it tells the reader that the project was about user research. But it doesn’t reveal the specific area of focus within the product.  Something more specific provides a lot more clarity of your experience such as, “ Home Depot User Research For Mobile App Checkout” .

This is the purpose and strategy of an effective case study project title. It’s much clearer, can you see the difference?

5: Edit & move into portfolio slides

Regardless of the format you choose for your portfolio, your writing needs to be clear and succinct. It won’t happen in one edit! Let’s say you’re making your UX portfolio in Keynote or PowerPoint. Your process will look like this:

• Take the headlines you wrote and place one headline per slide in Keynote.
• Consider that you might merge some bits of information into one slide. For example, you might combine your overview and problem statement.  It’s subjective, so you decide!
• Now, you need to go back and start to pull the most important and relevant details from your case study and put them on each slide, as supporting details or evidence.

Examples of UX case studies

To help you see what makes a good UX case study, let’s break down a few good ones. Simon Pan’s Uber case study definitely has reached “viral” status … have you read it? A quick word of caution, yes, it looks good. Simon’s a visual designer. But the reason it went viral goes way beyond the visuals. So don’t let that spin you into Imposter Syndrome.

Simon understands how to write a solid story about the problem, people, product, process, and solution. Here’s what Simon’s Uber case study does well:

• Simon’s case study clearly states the problem and frames the project. Even if I’d never heard of Uber before, I’d have enough context to understand the project.
• Next, Simon explains his process. And he does so as a story. It does not read like a white paper. It’s easy to read and keeps my attention.
• At the end, Simon concludes the case study with some results, reflections, and insights. People don’t just want to know what you did, they want to know the impact of what you did.
• Simon creates a scannable and skimmable experience for the user of his case study. Obviously, Simon is a visual designer and was able to nail the visual presentation of this. 

In the video below, I do a quick 5-minute teardown of Simon’s Uber case study. 

A well-written case study can serve you for years to come in your UX career

If you follow all these steps, you will have a long-form case study and you’ll have edited it down into something that’s more readable and scannable for the user of your UX portfolio. And remember, the UX case studies you write serve many purposes. Of course, they are the foundation of your portfolio, but they also can feed into:

• Bullet points for your  resume and LinkedIn problem
• What you include in cover letters
• How you present a project in a UX job interview
• Articles you publish in the future
• Talks you may give at local UX meetups

Learning to write effective UX case studies will also equip you with crucial written communication skills. This will help you in your day-to-day role as a UX professional as you not only do the work but also educate others and advocate for UX.

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How to Write Great Case Studies for Your UX Design Portfolio

Well, the answer is really simple: write your UX case studies like stories. You see, when you present your case study as a story, you’ll find it far easier to give it a satisfying structure and captivate your reader. What’s more, you’ll make it easy for recruiters to imagine what it’s like to work with you, as they get to understand how you work. This makes your case study powerful and increases your chances of getting your first interview. Let’s take a closer look at what makes story-based case studies so impactful.

Since your case studies first and foremost serve to help you get an interview in your job application, they should answer the following questions (grouped into three categories, based on you as a person, your skill set and the way you do things):

Who are you? What drives you and what’s your background?

What UX skills do you possess?

How do you approach and solve a problem? How do you work with others?

As it turns out, when you tell a narrative through your case studies, you answer these questions effectively. Here are the 3 main reasons why you should write your UX case studies like stories and how this helps you stand out from other applicants.

Because Stories Allow Recruiters to Imagine What it’s Like to Work with You

“Narrative imagining—story—is the fundamental instrument of thought. Rational capacities depend upon it. It is our chief means of looking into the future, of predicting, of planning, and of explaining.” —Mark Turner, cognitive scientist and author

When a recruiter reads your case study, they want to find out if you’ll be a great addition to their team. They want to know not only if you have the right skills and attitude, but also whether they’d enjoy working with you.

When you tell a story, you make it intuitive for a recruiter to imagine what it’s like to work with you . That’s because we use stories to learn and imagine all the time—in fact, people have since the dawn of human history. Therefore, recruiters will find it easier to look into the future and predict if they’d like to work with you when they read a story-based case study. They’ll find it easier to understand who you are and how you solve a problem.

Since the dawn of human history, we have used stories to imagine and learn about our world. Help recruiters understand you by telling a story about your design process .

© Mike Erskine, Fair Use

This sentiment is echoed by Sarah Bellrichard, Senior Vice President of Wholesale Internet Solutions & UX at the American bank Wells Fargo. She shared her tip on case studies and interviews:

“My tip would be, tell stories. When designers present a flat portfolio it doesn’t tell me about how they approach the work they do and how they deal with the ebbs and flows of design. Tell me how you navigate from start to end of a project.” —Sarah Bellrichard, SVP of Wholesale Internet Solutions & UX, Wells Fargo

Because Stories Give Your Case Studies Structure

“Sometimes reality is too complex. Stories give it form.” —Jean Luc Godard, French-Swiss film director

If you’ve worked on a design project before, then you’re painfully aware of just how messy life can be. Deadlines change, project goals shift, and new findings can fundamentally alter design specifications .

Stories will give your past experiences form and make your case studies better organized . You can re-arrange your experience into a meaningful sequence of events—i.e., progress—towards your results. Otherwise, your case study will likely seem chaotic.

The arc of a story—introduction, middle, conclusion—is the perfect order to tell your messy progress towards a project’s final results. Let’s illustrate:

In the introduction :

You set up the context of your project, for instance through a design brief .

You introduce your team’s main goals and some of the main obstacles you faced

In a classic story, this is where we meet the heroes and learn about the venture/goal they’re reaching for and why they’re not satisfied with their current lives.

In the middle :

You illustrate your approach to solving the problem.

You bring your reader through your journey of how you used industry standard practices to tackle the problem. It’s important that you describe what you did and what your team members did, so the recruiter knows what skills and knowledge you possess.

In a classic story, this is where we follow our heroes struggling to conquer the beasts, villains and problems as they strive to reach their goals.

Finally, in the conclusion :

You showcase the final product and the results you and your team achieved.

You reflect upon what you’ve learnt and recount any follow-up tweaks you’ve made to the product.

In a classic story, this is where the heroes reach their goals―they experience personal growth , reap the rewards of their hard work and live happily ever after.

See how nicely it all fits into a story arc?

When you arrange your case study in a story arc, your journey becomes more ordered and meaningful.

© Teo Yu Siang and the Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

There’s more! You’ll also find it easier to write your case study when you arrange it like a story. You see, the introduction-middle-conclusion structure of a story forms a skeleton for you to fill in the “meat” of your journey. On top of that, recruiters who read your case study will also find the familiar arc of a story satisfying. Talk about a win-win situation!

Because Stories Captivate

“Tell me the facts and I’ll learn. Tell me the truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever.” —Native American proverb

Okay, your case study will most likely not live in your recruiter’s heart forever, but your story-based case study will definitely stand out from other purely fact-based case studies, as your story will engage and captivate your recruiter. You see, a narrative is more engaging and provides a better reading experience than a dry, factual account ever could. It naturally makes the reader feel involved in the story and weaves a common thread throughout the case study.

UX recruiters are incredibly busy. They’ll typically spend only 5 minutes scanning your case studies because they have so many applicants to process. Given that, you have a much better chance if you can capture your reader’s attention for the whole 5 minutes.

And there’s no better way to captivate someone than through a story.

Let’s demonstrate that in an ultra-brief case study―yours should be more detailed and in-depth. Below, you’ll find the same journey told in two ways: first in a factual manner, then in a narrative fashion. See which version you find more engaging.

Factual : User interviews were conducted with 12 people to evaluate the effectiveness of the prototype . The main finding was that the assumption that users shopped based on their weekly nutritional needs was invalid. This finding was used to create a new iteration of the product, which was tested and found to be 50% more successful than the previous version.

Narrative : We conducted interviews with 12 people to evaluate if our prototype was effective. Our finding threw a giant spanner in the works. We realized our assumption—that users shopped based on their weekly nutritional needs—was dead wrong. Undefeated, we scrambled to create a new iteration, and ran another round of tests. This time, it worked—the success rate shot up by a whopping 50%!

You probably find the narrative version way more interesting—and so will your recruiters.

Notice in the factual version how flat and lifeless the account is? Sure, the figures are there, but it looks as if you’re reporting on what someone else did. This tells a recruiter that you’re distant and non-engaged—that you didn’t take ownership in what you’re talking about.

So, embrace the liberating and captivating format of a story. Go ahead and describe how your finding proved you dead wrong and how you scrambled upon meeting a temporary setback.

Best practice:

Convey your emotions and write in an active, engaging tone of voice .

Include the team’s frustrations, problems you faced and new insights you learnt.

Include people: write “we”, “I” and “our team”.

This way, you’ll give your case studies flavor . Furthermore, you’ll reveal who you are and how you work―and your recruiters will come back for more.

Stories naturally captivate us—use that power to captivate your recruiters, too.

© Prasanna Kumar, Fair Use

Turn Your Case Studies into Stories

Of course, we’re not saying that you should write a novel to explain what happened in your project. Your case studies should still be short and sweet, but they also should be punchy and engaging.

In fact, when we sat down with Stephen Gay, Design Lead at Google’s AdWords, to ask him about the importance of a portfolio, he explained that he sees UX case studies as stories about the applicants.

• Transcript loading…

To a recruiter like Stephen Gay, case studies are stories that tell him about the applicants. Author / copyright holder: The Interaction Design Foundation. Copyright terms and license: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

As Stephen astutely pointed out, we UX designers regularly use the power of stories in our work. So, use this same storytelling approach in your case studies, too!

The Take Away

The best way to write a case study is to tell it like a story. This way, your case studies become a vessel through which recruiters can imagine a future working with you, since they get to experience and understand exactly how you solve a design problem. Your recruiters will also enjoy the familiarity and structure of a story arc, and they’ll find the reading experience much more engaging. So, go ahead—inject humanity, color and passion into your case studies. Be a storyteller.

References and Where to Learn More

You can find Sarah Bellrichard’s tip on case studies in this article by Justinmind, which gathers tips and insights on how to do well in interviews.

Hero image: © Rawpixel, Fair Use.

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Unpacking User Interviews: Turning Conversations into Insights

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User interview analysis: How to turn data into decisions

It’s the moment your UX team has been waiting for. You’ve conducted a series of user interviews that dove into the problems and priorities of your users—now it’s time to dissect the qualitative data and turn it into decision-driving insights.

Keep reading for our chapter on all-things user interviews analysis, where we’ll cover key steps to analyze your user interviews, best practices to center your process around, and what’s next after you extract these insights.

How to analyze user interviews: Step-by-step

When we talk about analyzing user interviews, more often than not we’re talking about some form of thematic analysis . This method of qualitative research analysis helps you identify themes and patterns in user interview data that you can then use to inform product decisions and build user-centered features, products, and experiences.

Thematic analysis can be as complex as you want it to be. You can closely follow all six of these steps, or loosely convert your data to themes and insights.

At its least intensive level, thematic analysis looks like skim-reading your data and taking note of recurring themes and thoughts. On a deeper scale, you focus in and meticulously assign codes to each relevant piece of feedback—this enables you to truly understand the themes across your data and their relevance to the overall research study.

Thematic analysis can be done manually, as we explain below, or can be done with the assistance of a user interview analysis tool. Both are productive in terms of gleaning valuable insights, but one’s a lot quicker than the other (no prizes for guessing which).

Speed up user interview analysis

Simplify your interview workflow. Transcribe interviews in a flash, get speedy summaries, and playback suggested clips with Interview Studies.

1. Revisit your user research goals

Effective analysis requires you to never lose sight of your original user research plan and goals. By touching base with what you set out to achieve by conducting user interviews, you’re priming yourself to look for relevant patterns, themes, and insights.

These research objectives should act as your north star throughout the interview process, and analysis is no different. Once you’re clear on what you’re aiming for, you’re ready to dive into your dataset.

2. Transcribe your interviews and organize the scripts

To analyze your data, you need to convert it to written word. After your user interviews, you’ll likely have hours of audio and/or video recordings.

You can transcribe this manually, by listening to the recording and typing out the responses, or automatically, by using a transcription tool like Maze Interview Studies or a transcription-only tool.

You’ll be using this transcription to look for common themes and patterns between respondents, so don’t leave anything out— even if you think it’s not useful in the moment !

You’ll want to organize your scripts for easy access, helping you cross-reference participants and their answers. There are two ways to do this:

• Create a script or document for each interviewee: This method makes it easy to cross-reference your answers between individuals
• Make a separate document for each question: This method makes it easier to identify patterns and themes

Once you have your user interview scripts, it’s time to perform the actual interview analysis.

3. Read through your data and assign relevant codes

Begin thematic analysis of user interviews by familiarizing yourself with the data and reading through participant responses multiple times.

Thematic grouping is the best, but it takes time. You have to read everything closely, seeing through the responses and parsing them for deep meaning.

Scott Hurff , CPO and Co-Founder at Churnkey

Note any responses with terms or phrases relevant to your UX research goals . You’ll want to return to these notes later, so mark them down by assigning a code.

A code should summarize your point of interest in a few words. Let’s say you run into the following response:

“I have trouble navigating my profile . There are too many options . The worst part is going through them all, I can’t find a search bar anywhere .”

A good code for the first bolded phrase would be: ‘navigation issues’, while the second code could be ‘overwhelming profile features’. The third code could read: ‘search function findability’.

Your assigned codes will be the basis for further organizing your data into themes, and usable insights.

When looking through your user interview scripts, also consider any notes you or a colleague took during the interview, as this can help get deeper insights. Scott Hurff , CPO and Co-Founder at Churnkey , suggests asking yourself:

• “How did users speak?
• “What words did they use?
• “Did certain phrases keep appearing?
• “Were they frustrated, happy, content, timid?”

User interview notes can support your analysis, so keep them close to hand throughout the process.

4. Sort codes into overarching themes

While reading through your data and assigning codes, you’ll notice relevant patterns, sentiments, and themes starting to emerge. Once you’ve sifted through all your responses, note down your codes on a different document and group them into overarching themes.

Scott explains his approach to this step:

“Once common themes begin to emerge, I like to group them in a spreadsheet and chart them to get a sense of volume. What themes emerge the most? Which type of customer is experiencing this (for example, small businesses vs. indie hackers vs. mid-market businesses)?”

Your chosen theme names should label each code’s subject matter, making it easy to find relevant insights and points of interest. Theme examples could include:

• Profile features
• Navigation issues
• Billing and payment
• Search function findability

If you’re conducting thematic analysis manually, try sorting codes into temporarily flexible themes using a whiteboard or sticky notes. This makes it easy to move themes and codes around until you find a place that fits each best. Expect to move things around as you assign codes and more themes emerge.

Once your data is distilled into broad, overarching themes, your insights are ready for the taking.

5. Identify recurring ideas and highlight crucial information

At this stage in the thematic analysis process, you’ll start to uncover customer insights directly connected to your user research goals. Look over the reocurring codes that appear across a single theme to find out what’s most pressing for users.

If many users are stating they “can’t find the search bar” under the ‘search function findability’ theme, and your UX research goal is to improve navigation—you’ve just found an actionable insight.

Highlight responses from recurring codes, and keep on combing the rest of your themes for similar ideas or codes to uncover relevant pain points, usability issues , or particular product impressions and sentiments.

This is also when you might find it beneficial to restructure the themes that have emerged. Don’t be afraid to regroup and divide your themes into a new order—it’s easy to miss connections when first identifying themes, or to identify better structuring and theming opportunities for codes as your analysis evolves. Take another look over your themes to find the best way to organize them.

Once you’ve defined your high-level themes, you can use them to inform the next stage of the UX design and development process. The specifics depend on your goal, but use the themes you’ve identified alongside other forms of UX research to outline a path toward your desired outcome.

💡 Looking for a tool to simplify the process of identifying themes in user interview data? We’re covering the best user interview tools in the next chapter, including Maze Interview Studies —purpose-built for getting insights from interview data.

6. Create a report and prioritize insights based on UX research goals

The final step in analyzing user interview data is to share your findings. You’ll want to create a UX research report for key stakeholders—such as your team, other departments, and higher-ups—to aid alignment for actioning your insight-informed plan.

A report will do two things:

• Clearly communicate what you’ve accomplished to stakeholders, grab their attention, and get them on board with proposed solutions.
• Ensure everyone in your organization is on the same page. When it’s time to start making design changes, your team will know exactly what to do.

Some of the key components to include in your UX report are:

• The summary: Your summary should briefly explain your research goals, methodology, and key themes. Doing so makes it easy for stakeholders to understand the purpose of your projects and how your findings are relevant. Your summary should be an overview to set the scene before diving into specifics.
• The methodology: This is where you go into the details of how you approached your UX research. This section of the report should also serve as reference if other members of your team need to conduct user interviews again.
• The next steps: With your newly-found insights, you’re in a position to describe effective solutions. Note down recommendations connected to your goals ranging from new product updates, features, and information architecture reworks.

How to present user interview analysis to stakeholders

A key part of the UX research process is sharing insights with your team. It’s critical that stakeholders know the outcome of your research if you want to evangelize research and improve stakeholder buy-in .

Begin by laying out your research goals and demonstrating the connections to wider business objectives. Just like in your report, you should be speaking straight to stakeholders' pain points, hinting at how your user experience research will solve business problems. Tell them what you did and why you did it.

The next step of your presentation is to follow-up with key findings and atomic research nuggets. Created by Tomer Sharon and Daniel Pidcock, these digestible conclusions succinctly communicate exactly what you’ve done and the results you’ve reached while aligning them with product development. Sprinkling in atomic research nuggets also ensures that important results stay at the forefront of stakeholder’s minds.

Make sure to walk stakeholders through each step of your research process in a way that highlights how you got from start to finish. For example:

• Experiments: “We did this…”
• Facts: “…and we found out this…”
• Insights: “…which makes us think this…”
• Conclusions: “…so we’ll do this.”

Consider creating a UX research case study with strong storytelling tactics and a memorable narrative. This provides ample context for stakeholders, making it easy to thoroughly digest what challenge you faced, how you dug deeper with UX research, and the insights you uncovered.

Hillary Omitogun , UX Research Consultant and Founder of HerSynergy Tribe , emphasizes how she personalizes reports based on the stakeholders she’s presenting to:

“I’ve noticed no one really reads long reports, so when sharing insights with the technical team (e.g. engineers) I focus on facts and hard data. While presenting to the marketing team, I include qualitative data.

For C-level executives and when I want a decision to be made, I go straight to the point in my report, adding direct & easily skimmable recommendations with hard data as support. For leaders or execs, I atie in recommendations to the business KPIs or goals.

Regardless of the stakeholder I’m sharing the insights with, I add an Appendix section with detailed insights.”

Conducting effective user interviews only gets you so far—you need buy-in to action your findings. A strong report is how you get them on board with your plans.

UX interviews analysis best practices: Tips from UX research professionals

If you follow the steps above, you’ll be sure to transform a digital data pile into rich, descriptive insights, serving as the basis for actionable product development solutions.

To support you along on the way, we’ve spoken to UX leaders to collect their best practices for the analysis process. Here we go.

1. Avoid confirmation bias

Confirmation bias is a cognitive bias that occurs when we have preconceived notions of what users think about a topic. Instead of objectively reading data, researchers are prone to projecting expectations on the responses, leading to an opinionated interpretation of results.

What does confirmation bias look like in action? Let’s say you personally worked for weeks on implementing a new dashboard for the user’s homepage, and you conducted interviews to check if users are finding the dashboard easy to navigate.

You might then be subconsciously inclined to read into ambiguous comments—playing up positive comments while disregarding negative experiences regarding the feature—due to your close involvement in its design and development.

To avoid cognitive biases in UX, the first step is being aware of them. If at all possible, ask someone from your UX research team to help as well—a second pair of eyes from a neutral party is invaluable.

Hillary shares her approach to mitigating bias when analyzing user interviews:

“With any type of bias, being aware of it is the first step. When we know such bias exists, we note it down and ensure that we remain open to being wrong.

“When I worked with team members on a project, I had everyone write down their hypotheses about the project, product, and/or users, as well as what informed said hypotheses or why they think so.

“This helps make sure we’re relying on the data and not what the Head of Product thinks should be done based on their own biases.”

2. Consider a tool to streamline your interview analysis

Like anything, interview analysis is more efficient when you’re using the proper tool for the job. We’re not just talking about saving time and effort, either; while this is definitely one benefit, it’s only the tip of the iceberg.

Not only is manual analysis tough on time—it’s prone to human error. It’s easy to miss whole sentences while transcribing interviews, accidentally use one word over its synonym, or gloss over points of interests when assigning codes.

A strong user interview tool can help you avoid these issues. There are ample options to choose from, all boasting different features and functionalities. Some even support other UX research methods, such as running UX research surveys , conducting card sorting , and carrying out usability tests . The best tools do it all.

For example, Maze is a comprehensive user research platform that offers an Interview Studies solution. This user interviews research tool supports your user interview analysis with a stack of AI-powered features, including automated transcription, thematic analysis, interview summarization, and reporting.

Haley Stracher , Design Director and CEO of Iris Design Collaborative , shares her tool stack for running user research, including user interviews:

“I use a lot of systems like Hotjar and others that track user interactions post-launch. For user interviews during development, you can use products like Maze to not only conduct the interview, but also track the data afterward.”

3. Consider demographic information

Not all user segments will think the same thing. What may seem like an efficient and time-saving interface change to one user segment may appear confusing to another. It’s important to collect and consider demographically-diverse feedback from the get-go.

When analyzing certain codes, themes, and insights, always check the demographics and psychographic details of the users they came from. User personas are beneficial here, if you already have them. For example, you may find that it’s support and entry-level users that find a certain feature unnecessary while executives tasked with decision-making think it’s invaluable.

Make sure to look at your demographic information in correlation with answers—if one demographic picked a certain answer, that could tell you something important about the way they approach and interact with your platform!

Haley Stracher , Design Director and CEO at Iris Design Collaborative

4. Follow-up for additional feedback and insights

While user interviews can deliver a wealth of insights, they’re not always a one-fell-swoop solution to your UX research, design, and development needs. If you find your insights are lacking, schedule a follow-up session with willing participants. You can ask them follow-up questions to expand on certain answers for more context.

Hillary notes the importance of asking your users at the end of sessions if they’re open to help with follow-ups or future studies:

“Depending on the project or product, I often ask users if they’d like to be contacted for future studies. In a few cases, I’ve had to reach out to users to confirm that they said a certain thing if the recording wasn’t clear or I didn’t hear them properly.”

What comes after user interview analysis?

By this point, you’ve taken the insights from your research and presented user interview findings to stakeholders. They’ve listened to or read through your report and are fully on board.

Put simply, you’ve got the green light; it’s time to move forward with your next steps.

So, what is next?

• Develop a plan for making design changes: For each insight and proposed solution, you’ll need to make a plan of action for carrying out product development and design changes
• Use affinity maps to organize ideas and priorities: If you’re dealing with large amounts of research data, your team can use affinity diagramming to prioritize ideas and solutions
• Run follow-up research: Your plan should include further user research throughout the development process, whether that’s more user interviews or another UX research method
• Store your findings in a research repository: Any user research initiative should be documented in a research repository —this helps improve your research operations and workflow by building an archive of all your research and findings

User interviews are a starting point, not a finish line. The insights you uncover should inform further research, and act as a driving force behind your UX design and development initiatives.

You want to keep checking in with users throughout all stages of the product development process—from problem discovery, all the way through to post-launch. A UX researcher’s job is never really done—great UX research is a continuous process of speaking to users, listening, and helping iterate the product.

From conversations to insights in an instant

Maze automates user interview analysis by transforming transcripts into key takeaways, highlight clips, and customizable reports you can share directly with stakeholders.

Frequently asked questions about user interview analysis

How do you analyze qualitative data?

You analyze qualitative data by assigning codes to points of interest, and then organizing those codes into overarching themes. You then interpret themes, codes, and responses that are most relevant to your UX research goals, and build an action plan to fit.

What is the best way to analyze user interviews?

The best way to analyze user interviews is with thematic analysis. By identifying recurring themes and patterns, you can quickly and efficiently pinpoint insights. You’ll then be able to use these insights to work out potential solutions.

How do you collect data from a user interview?

Collecting data from an interview includes using a transcription tool or recording the interview and then typing out responses word from word. You can either collect and keep your data in a document or in a repository that comes with most transcription and interview tools.

Recruiting for user interviews

InVisionApp, Inc.

Inside Design

How to write a UX case study

Sarah doody,   •   jul 19, 2019.

H ave you ever been told your UX portfolio lacks depth, or what you did is unclear, or that it doesn’t seem like you have enough experience, even though you know you do?

Or maybe you landed an in-person interview, it didn’t go very well because you stumbled through presenting and answering questions about your projects. 

These are all symptoms of an underlying problem: your UX case studies are not written well enough. 

After doing at least 100 hours of my own research through talking to UX candidates one-on-one, reviewing portfolios, and analyzing survey data, one thing became clear: UX professionals put too much emphasis on learning how to make deliverables, and not enough on articulating their design decisions. 

When you can’t articulate your design decisions, it will make your day to day role harder, because you won’t know how to deal with pushback. And it will also limit your career options because your ability to write a strong case study is the foundation for creating a strong portfolio and doing well in interviews.

We’re going to go into:

• The role of case studies in your portfolio
• The anatomy of a case study
• The steps to writing a thorough, readable case study

Case studies are the UX application differentiator

It’s no longer enough to just show your work. According to the  Center Centre , the job growth of UX designers is expected to rise 22% over the next 10 years. UX is a hot field, and there’s a lot of competition. 

Your portfolio, therefore, can’t simply be a curation of sexy-looking deliverables. Recruiters and hiring managers need you to articulate your process and design decisions. A key skill for UX professionals is the ability to communicate; in any UX role, you’ll find yourself not just doing UX, but explaining it over and over. 

If you don’t have well-written UX case studies, then how can recruiters and hiring managers trust that you’ll be able to communicate what you did and why you did it if they hire you? 

Writing is a skill that we know is important, but as designers rarely practice or study enough. When it comes to UX case studies, though, the quality of your writing is one of the most important variables in the success of your portfolio.

Let’s be real, writing about your UX projects is not an easy task. However, the good news is that by following the steps that follow, you will clearly understand how to write more clearly.

Anatomy of a UX case study

When approaching your UX portfolio and case studies, my advice is to think like a lawyer. Because how do lawyers win legal cases? With strong communication, and even stronger evidence. 

The projects inside your portfolio are like evidence in a legal case. And that’s why you must choose the projects for your portfolio very carefully. 

Here’s what I recommend including in your UX case study:

• Problem statement
• Users and audience
• Roles and responsibilities
• Scope and constraints
• Process and what you did
• Outcomes and lessons

Want to download a copy of this template? Sign up for Sarah Doody’s newletter and get a free download.

How to write your ux case study.

As you write your case studies, don’t worry about length. Once you get it all on paper you can decide what to put into your portfolio. As you transition your written case studies to something more visual, you will edit them down and also consider how some of the text can be communicated visually.

Step 1. Give your project a title

The big mistake that people make is not giving the project title enough detail when a strong title can give context for the project.

Good: Home Depot user research for mobile app checkout

So-so: Home Depot user research

Bad: Home Depot

Step 2. Write an outline

Lay out your thoughts before you start giving up the details. An outline’s purpose is to help you understand the “big picture” of your project, so you can decide how to structure your case study or if the project is big enough to merit more than one case study.

Start your outline with the seven sections listed above, and start filling in bullet points under each section. Don’t worry about sentence structure; just write and get it out of your head. If you’ve been  documenting your projects as you work on them , then you may have some of this already written.

Step 3. Fill in the details

Now that you have an outline and you see the big picture, you can start filling in details. 

Give the “Process and what you did” section the bulk of your effort. This is where you’ll document the steps you took, just like documenting science experiments in high school. 

You should be answering these questions:

• What did you do? For example, what research method did you use?
• Why did you do it?  For example, why did you choose that research method?
• What was the result?  For example, did you achieve your research goals?
• What did you learn? For example, what would you do differently next time?

Continuing with our (completely fictional) Home Depot example:

BAD: “ We did usability testing on the checkout of the Home Depot mobile app.”

Why is this weak? Because it only tells the reader what you did. It doesn’t address why you did it, what happened, and what you learned.

GOOD: To evaluate the new checkout on the Home Depot mobile app, we relied on usage metrics in conjunction with 8 usability tests. This allowed us to gain deeper understanding through combining both qualitative and quantitative information. Although users were able to get through the checkout more quickly, they continued to struggle with the shipping section. Discussions with users discussion revealed that often times, products in one order have different shipping addresses, which was possible, but difficult in the current checkout.

This version is much stronger because it goes beyond just talking about what was done. Providing this depth is what will set you apart; articulating your design decisions and process will help position you as a more mature and thoughtful professional.

Step 4. Write headlines

At this point, you’re probably thinking something like “Who would ever read this novel?” Which is a good point. That’s why the next step will help you start to distill everything down so that you are focusing on the key highlights of the story.

The best way to do this is to pretend that you have to write your case study only in tweets. It sounds crazy, but it works.

For each section of the outline we’re working with, write a single headline or sentence—except for the Process section, where you’ll be focusing your energies. For the Process section, you’ll want to have a headline for each step. Using our previous fictitious Home Depot user research example, some of the headlines for the Process section might be:

• Step: What type of research you did and why you did it. Example: Analytics revealed customers struggled, and sometimes abandoned, checkout at the shipping section. To understand why, we conducted eight usability tests.
• Step: Findings from the research. Usability tests revealed that business customers, versus residential, had different shipping needs, which were not being addressed in the current checkout experience.
• Step: Impact of research on product development. We prototyped two new versions of the checkout, allowing customers to choose shipping address on a per-product basis.

By sticking to a 140 character limit, you’ll force yourself to identify the most important points of the case study—which will then become headlines when you create your actual portfolio. 

A good way to test whether or not you have strong headlines is to ask yourself if someone would understand the main points of your project by skimming the headlines. If not, then re-write your headlines—because if you want the users of your UX portfolio to quickly understand your project, those are the most important points.

Step 5. Distill the text from your case study into your actual portfolio

Regardless of the format you choose for your portfolio , your writing needs to be clear and succinct. 

It won’t happen in one edit! Let’s say you’re working in Keynote with slides, your process will look like this:

• Take the headlines you wrote and place one headline per slide in Keynote. 
• Consider that you might merge some bits of information into one slide. For example, you might combine your overview and problem statement. It’s subjective, so you decide! 
• Now, you need to go back and start to pull the most important and relevant details from your case study and put them on each slide, as supporting details or evidence. 

Examples in action

Simon Pan’s UX portfolio website went viral because he had awesome case studies. Yes, he’s also a visual designer so it looks beautiful. But what you need to focus on is the content. His Uber case study is an excellent example, let’s take a look at why it works:

• Clear problem and framing of the project. Simon’s case study clearly states the problem and frames the project. So even if I’d never heard of Uber before, I’d have enough context to understand the project.
• Explanation of the process. Simon does this with a story. It’s easy to read and keeps my attention. It feels like a cool article that’s well thought out … not to mention the visual design helps draw key points out. In the screenshot below, he is explaining part of the Discovery process. It sounds like I’m reading an article, therefore it keeps my attention. And the use of a user research quote helps bring the story to life even more.
• Thoughtful conclusions and reflection. At the end, Simon concludes the case study with some results, reflections, and insights. People don’t just want to know what you did, they want to know the impact of what you did.

What comes next?

If you follow all these steps, you will have a longform case study edited down into something that’s more readable and scannable for the user of your UX portfolio. 

And remember, the UX case studies you write serve many purposes. Of course, they are the foundation of your portfolio, but they also can feed into your resume, LinkedIn, cover letters, and what you say in an interview. 

Want to read more by Sarah Doody?

• Seriously, you need to start documenting your UX work
• 4 steps for choosing the right projects for your UX portfolio
• How to create a UX portfolio without UX experience

by Sarah Doody

Sarah Doody is a User Experience Designer, Entrepreneur, and Educator. She is the founder of The UX Portfolio Formula, a UX career accelerator that helps UX professionals learn how to articulate their work so they can create an awesome portfolio. In 2011, she created the curriculum for and taught General Assembly’s first 12-week UX immersive, the genesis of their popular UX programs which are now taught worldwide.

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