How to format UX portfolio case studies
A case study is a good story.

A compelling narrative that allows the viewer to step through what you were after, what you did, how you did it, and what the result was. But there is a definite structure and approach to doing this in a way that allows people to get through it — and that ensures they bother to read it in the first place. Because if they go to your page, and it’s just a ton of text and one image, people will tune out. They’ll say to themselves, “I’m not reading all that.”

So the ability to tell that story, to tell that narrative in chunks — where you can show the work that you’re talking about as you talk about it — is tremendously important. But what’s even more important is the order in which you narrate.

I believe in the inverted triangle model of content for the web, for software, for apps.

Forget what you learned in school about writing.

When you learn writing in school, you’re taught to first set up a premise. Then you walk through the story. Then you have a conclusion at the end: “Here’s what happened. Here’s what all that means.” With portfolios, with websites, with apps, with software, you have to do the opposite.

You need to lead with the conclusion, the outcome.

In other words, you need to start with “here’s what the work I did achieve; here’s the result.” Then “here’s the client, here’s what we were trying to do, here’s what happened,” really, really quickly. Once you’ve done that, then you can go into the story of how you got there, how you achieved it, what work you did.

But you have to start with something important enough to the viewer that it’s going to keep them looking. Your goal with your portfolio, with every single screen, is to keep people from leaving. So you’ve got to give them something immediately as to why they should read this case study, especially if it happens to be lengthy.

No one sticks around for pretty pictures.

When I check out a portfolio, in about three seconds I can tell whether that person’s UI design chops are solid. But the only reason I care, the only reason I’ll stick around longer than three seconds, is if you tell me you accomplished something meaningful. Some significant outcomes for users or for the client. Something that sets off a light bulb in my head that says, “WOW, that’s pretty impressive.”

For example, if you lead with a “200% increase in checkout through the e-commerce process,” well now you’ve got my attention. I’m going to invest the next sixty seconds reading some of what you wrote. You’ve given me an indication that doing so will be time well spent.

That’s your job. That’s what you’re trying to prove at every moment of interaction: that they will be well served by sticking around and reading more. You have to lead with a strategic outcome — or at least a desired outcome, if you don’t know the end result — that says you were laser-focused on helping this business do something that mattered to them.

That’s the only way you’ll be seen as a strategic asset, and it’s often the only way you’ll be asked to interview.

GIVE A GOOD PORTFOLIO!
['Deepak Chauhan']
['Ui Ux Design', 'User Experience', 'UX']