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The Top 11 UX Design Challenges to Add to Your Portfolio

ux case study challenges

When you have to build a portfolio without work experience, UX design challenges come to the rescue. They are perfect for filling up your portfolio, especially since you should have at least three projects in there. This article will review the best UX challenges and help you turn them into persuasive UX case studies. Let’s get started!

What is a UX design challenge?

A UX challenge is a task that prompts designers to design a solution to a problem or scenario. UX design challenges are great for practicing UX design skills , design thinking, and whiteboarding.

Can you add challenges to your UX portfolio?

Challenges are a welcome addition to your portfolio if you aim for an internship or junior position. But it’s all about presentation. These projects have to shine twice as much as regular projects for the same recognition.

Participating in UI/UX challenges is a sign of your dedication to and investment in your craft, and your willingness to polish your skills even without a project’s pressure and time restraints.

Quote: Participating in challenges shows that you take this seriously.

It’s true that people will always gravitate toward real-life projects. The reason is that those require collaboration and other soft skills, which companies look for in candidates. But in the end, when they open a case study, their attention is still preoccupied with the deliverables.

It’s all about presentation

So, the secret to showing challenges in your portfolio is that you must go the extra mile to make them look fantastic. If you’re putting half-assed work into your portfolio – let that be a challenge or a real-life project – it’ll reflect on you negatively.

But if you take the time to polish those deliverables, the content, and the presentation, people will overlook the fact that it isn’t an existing product. Stunning visuals mixed with good content have the power to sway people off their feet. So, don’t underestimate them!

Image of a case study template generator

How to showcase UX design challenges in your portfolio?

There are two ways to showcase challenges in your portfolio:

1. Compilation project

This is best for UI design challenges that ask you to design or re-design a few screens with a short prompt. Since these are smaller tasks, they would look weird in separate projects. It would give off the impression that you are trying to bulk up your portfolio.

Instead, you should present them in a compilation project. A compilation project is a case study that includes many smaller projects, each separated into sections with visuals and a short description.

The golden rule of compilation projects is that they have to be extra structured : use plenty of headings, subheadings, and whitespace to indicate where one project ends, and the other begins.

As for content, you should give some basic details for each section. Share the prompt, the time frame, what tools did you use, your constraints, and the biggest challenges.

Once you have that sorted out, two top-priority tasks are left:

  • in UXfolio, on Dribbble, or Behance.
  • The best is to use a variation of the same thumbnail layout for all your projects.
  • That your home page looks visually consistent, and
  • Your bulk project blends in with the rest of your projects.
  • My Best Designs
  • Selection of My Favorite Designs
  • Showcase of My UI/UX Skills

If you present compilation projects with care instead of just throwing some UIs on an empty page, it won’t feel out of place in your portfolio. It’ll be a project that you can be proud of. Also, if you continue doing challenges, you can add your new best work to the top of the page.

2. Individual projects

When using a brief generator or working on a full-fledged UX challenge, you’ll have enough material to create an entire UX case study. Only a few differences exist between a case study about a real-life project and a UX challenge case study:

In both instances, you begin with an overview, present your process and the outcome, and close with learnings. But when it comes to a challenge, you don’t write about the team (unless you participated in a challenge with a team), and the parts about stakeholder feedback are absent.

The overview is where you’ll see the most significant deviation: instead of introducing the project, you’ll introduce the challenge.

  • What was the imaginary product?
  • What was the prompt or problem statement?
  • Where did you get the prompt from?

The rest of the case study’s structure doesn’t change when you’re writing about a UX challenge as an individual case study.

11 Best UX Design Challenges

1. uxdesigncontest – as close as it gets to a real-life project.

ux case study challenges

  • Prompt type: long
  • Status: inactive
  • Complexity: 8/10

Though it has been inactive for a while, UXdesigncontest has the most detailed prompts for UX/UI design out of all challenges. Thankfully, the details of past contests are still available on their site. And if you’re looking to make a detailed case study out of a challenge, you should head over and check them out.

Every contest has the following details: context, problem, challenge, and opportunity. You also get a list of the desired outcomes, and criteria like divergent thinking, UX/Interaction design, data-informed decisions, visual design, and case study. These criteria were added for judging purposes, but even without that part, they’re great to give some focal points to your design.

What’s more, you also get a list of tool suggestions for the stages of the design process:

  • Diagrams & Wireframes,
  • High-Fidelity UI Design, and
  • Prototyping

Currently, there are 16 project briefs available on the UXdesigncontest website . Since each contest has been closed already, you can see the best submissions. So, inspiration is covered as well.

We can’t recommend UXdeisgncontest enough, even in its current, inactive state. Let’s hope that they will make a triumphant comeback!

2. Crowwwn – quick UX design challenges

ux case study challenges

  • Prompt type: short
  • Status: active
  • Complexity: 3/10

Crowwwn releases UX design challenges that are part of a weekly competition. The project was started by brothers Alex and Cameron Barker as an opportunity for designers to practice, get inspired, and improve their skills.

Every week they release a prompt like these:

  • “When I buy gifts for the holidays, I want to be able to select multiple present options, so my friends and family can pick the gift that best fits their needs.”
  • “When I watch the world cup, I want to be able to see where I can watch games and which teams are still in, so I can be informed going into each game.”
  • “When I have vending machines in multiple locations, I want to see which products are running low in each machine, so my machines are always full and making money.”
  • “When I am on my computer, I want to be able to record parts of my desktop, so I can send clips of what I am working on to my team.”
  • “When I have an idea for a startup, I want to allow people to invest in my idea in exchange for equity, so I can get the money that’s needed to start.”

The prompts are usually timely. For example, they’ll release a prompt about gifts around the holidays. Also, their challenges have a nice variety. One week it’s a product for the masses, next it’s for internal use.

Since Crowwwn’s challenge is an actual competition, you can submit your design to compete. Submissions are evaluated by the Barker brothers or a guest judge.

Besides submitting your design, you can also give feedback on other submissions (even if you don’t compete in that week’s challenge. The winner, runner-up, and the best feedback author all receive a price.

However, you don’t have to compete to use Crowwwn. You can just use their prompts to turn out projects for your portfolio. You can also use past prompts and check the winning submissions for inspiration.

3. Sharpen.design – Google’s UX challenges

ux case study challenges

  • Prompt type: very short
  • Status: fixed
  • Complexity: 5/10

Sharpen.design is the design challenge generator of companies like Google, Shopify, and Amazon. Former Google designers founded it in 2017, and today it’s actually licensed by Google for their UX Design Certificate at Coursera.

The tool is straightforward. You choose a category (branding, marketing product/UX) and you hit ‘New challenge’ until you get something that can be turned into a case study. Each prompt has 2 or 3 elements:

  • This can range from a UX flow, a full-fledged product idea, to a title slide for a presentation
  • The can be a very particular group of people (e.g., a gardener in Brussels), a business (e.g., magic shop), or even a brand (e.g., Taco Bell).
  • It can be something like “and try Brutalist styling,” “make it minimalist,” or “and tweet us the results.”

If you’re not happy with an element of a challenge, you can lock the element you like, and re-generate the other one.

Our only complaint is that sometimes the prompt is not product design/UX related even if we select that category. But still, with a few clicks, you can generate some nice ideas for small or bigger-scale projects.

4. UIcoach – UI with more direction

ux case study challenges

  • Complexity: 7/10

Most companies are looking for UI/UX designers, and we all know that the best way to polish UI design skills is through practice. However, the freedom that comes with going with your own idea – choosing the theme, fonts, color palette, and so on – can be numbing for some. That’s when a tool like UIcoach comes in handy.

UIcoach will generate three things:

  • A project idea,
  • a color palette (5 colors), and
  • a font pairing.

That’s a great starting point for a smaller-scale UI design project. We’ve used many of their prompts in the past, and their specificity is very inspiring . Here’s an example:

  • “Design a different social networking app that will help you plan meet-ups with your selected friends or people. It will have an integrated option to find places to meet and/or events to attend. It can even suggest you new plans based on your group’s social preferences.”

If you don’t like a challenge, you can generate a completely new one. But also, let’s say, you like the prompt and can also work with font pairing, but you loathe the color palette. In that case, you have the option to re-generate the palette only.

5. UXtools – practicing UX methods

ux case study challenges

  • Prompt type: mid-length
  • Status: fix

Another great resource for a compilation project is UXtools. Unlike the other challenges, they approach prompts from the UX methods . If you want to build and flex an impressive UX toolbox, these are the challenges for you.

They have 18 challenges in total. Each one is assigned to a UX method like card sorting, user interview, user persona, design system, and more. The challenges have three elements:

The scenarios are pretty detailed and the asks are straightforward. With each challenge, you’ll clearly understand what’s expected of you. The tool suggestions seem to be affiliates of the site, but nevertheless, they are tools that UI/UX designers regularly use, such as Figma, Miro, or Airtable.

If you feel like you lack experience with UX methods and this hinders your chances on the job market, this is the challenge for you. But be prepared to put in the extra work for recruitment.

6. DailyUI – the go-to UI practice

ux case study challenges

“Become a Better Designer in 100 Days” is DailyUI’s tagline. Indeed, if you design a UI every day for 100 days, you’ll become a better designer. This challenge has been around for a while, and it’s been cosigned by brands like Amazon, Airbnb, and Disney.

You’ll receive the day’s challenge in your inbox. Each challenge has a title, a hint, and a free resource. The hints (prompts) are open-ended most of the time. Here’s an example:

  • “Create a sign up page, modal, form, or app screen related to signing up for something. It could be for a volunteer event, contest registration, a giveaway, or anything you can image.”

That’s all you get. This can be very good for exercising your creativity, especially when it comes to UI design. But you can also use this as a starting point for UX design. After all, sign-up pages need good UX to work. This is also a great opportunity to research what pioneering brands do and to build a repository of design inspiration.

All in all, DailyUI is amazing if you’re looking to build up your UI skills. Their challenges are perfect for a compilation project.

7. Drawerrr – one issue at a time

ux case study challenges

  • Complexity: 6/10

Another inactive, yet still topnotch UX challenge collection is provided by Drawerrr. Their challenges are focused on environmental, health, and social inequality issues. All three topics are extremely relevant in 2023, so no complaints about the selection.

You can choose from 6 smaller topics: commuting, diet, groceries, household, shopping, and travel. We’d suggest you go with commuting, household, or maybe travel, as the other topics have been a bit overused in UX education.

The next step is choosing from 5 prompts connected to your general topic. For the commuting topic, you get prompts such as:

  • “Design a search filter for a job seeking app to help people find jobs with green commute routes from their homes.”
  • “Design a gamified competition feature for a smartwatch app to encourage people from one office commute to work on foot or cycle.”
  • “Design a chatbot for a messaging app to help office workers request a remote day.”

Each prompt is broken down into a 7-day challenge. Drawerrr was just generous with time; it doesn’t actually take a day for each step. Here’s how the challenges are broken down:

  • Day 1 – Problem
  • Day 2 – Audience
  • Day 3 – Products
  • Day 4 – Solutions
  • Day 5 – Storyboarding
  • Day 6 – Test
  • (Day 7 – Submit your work)

As you can probably guess, many of these steps can be done in less than a day. For example, audience and competitive research (day 2-3). So, depending on your pace, a challenge would take around 3-4 days to complete.

To help with your quest, Drawerrr has also prepared a few references for you. These are articles from various publications addressing the topic at hand.

8. UXchallenge.co – whiteboard exercise prompts

ux case study challenges

UXchallenge.co offers 15 prompts on topics like fintech and smart homes. The prompts are extremely open-ended , leaving plenty of room for your creativity to shine. If you’re the type of designer who thrives on total freedom, these are the challenges for you.

Most of them are inspired by whiteboard exercises given by companies during the interview process. Here’s an example:

  • “Friends keep us company through the ups and downs of our lives and help us grow. But as we grow older, our fear and social anxiety can keep us from making new friends. How can you help people who has social anxiety step out and make new friends?”

However, based on our research, most designers like more direction in their challenges. When a prompt is extremely vague with no expectations or pointers to guide you, it’s easier to get lost in the details. Still, UXchallenge.co can be a great practice, especially for whiteboard.

9. Designercize – classic prompt generator

ux case study challenges

  • Complexity: 4/10

Designercize has digitalized the UX design prompts of Kate Rutter and Laura Klein. These prompts “help designers improve whiteboarding, interviewing, and design thinking skills”. This retro-fun site will generate easy, medium, or hard prompts based on your preferences.

We’ve tried it many times and are confident that not even the ‘hard’ prompts are too hard (unless the generator goes crazy). Each prompt has three elements:

  • Design (what should you design)
  • For (app/product description)
  • To help (target audience)

The harder you go, the more specific details you’ll get from the generator. Here’s an example from the hard setting:

  • Design: a user profile view
  • For: a habit-tracking app
  • To help: foodies

However, as mentioned, sometimes the generator gives rather weird prompts:

  • Design: an onboarding process
  • For: a music platform that generates new singles by splicing together top 40 hits
  • To help: families of ICU patients

We suggest that you keep generating ideas until you find one that’s viable and you’re interested in.

10. 100 Days of Product Design – the whiteboarding veteran

ux case study challenges

100 Days of Product Design is another long-standing UX design challenge focusing on whiteboard exercises. You probably know that whiteboard exercises are common during UX design interviews , so it’s worth practicing them. But, just like any other design prompt, they can be used for creating complete designs.

100 Day of Product Design has ten challenges, each consisting of two parts:

  • Call to action (what you’ll do)
  • Scenario (company, audience, problem statement, feature request)
  • Considerations (more specificity)

Here’s an example:

  • “Help our employees find their cars in the parking lot.”
  • “We have over 15,000 employees and all of their cars in our main campus. Employees have been “losing” their cars in the lot. They forget which of the 5 giant parking lots they parked in and are wandering around clicking their door alarms in order to find their cars. The noise pollution at the end of the day is terrible. We already have a company app. We want to add a feature that will help employees find their cars.”
  • “Couples often swap cars when driving to work. What if the employee has more than one car s/he drives to work?”
  • “This feature should be prominent on the app–but the home screen is already full. How will you make it fit without removing something?”

As you can see, the considerations are what make the prompt special . All ten challenges are unique and good mind-breakers. They have the potential to be turned into complete UI/UX projects, but they’re also great if you’re just looking to prepare for an interview.

11. UIrecipes

ux case study challenges

Though its title says UI, UIrecipes covers both UX and UI. Every week they publish a recipe for a UI/UX challenge with tons of pointers and inspirations . The challenge contains both UI- and UX-related instructions , but how you approach it is up to you.

All challenges are based on real products. For each, they “collect hundreds of screenshots from the most popular apps, reverse engineer design them to find common patterns, analyze them from a usability standpoint.” Based on this research, they provide the following details:

  • User task (prompt)
  • specifying what elements and patterns you should focus on.
  • how existing applications and websites solved the same task
  • trends that should influence your design
  • a set of features that need to be included in your design

As you can guess from this, UIrecipes prompts are very detailed. You can use them to practice wireframing, create intricate designs, or prepare for whiteboard challenges . You can also subscribe to their newsletter to receive the recipes in your inbox every Wednesday. Our only complaint is that past recipes are not available on the site.

Showcase your challenges in a stunning portfolio

If you’re ready to showcase your challenges, try UXfolio! UXfolio is an intuitive portfolio platform that’s designed for UX professionals. It gives you a stunning template, so all you have to do is drop your deliverables and other content. Special features include text ideas, case study writing prompts & guiding questions, built-in mockups, sleek galleries, fast proto embed, and more. Check out UXfolio in action for free!

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7 Best UX Case Study Generators (and how to use them)

If you're looking for UX case study ideas, topics or challenges, these UX case study generators can help you create portfolio pieces and improve your UX/UI skills. Here are some of the best ones and the pros and cons of using them.

What is a case study generator?

A UX Case Study Generator is a tool that serves up hypothetical UX design project ideas, problems, challenges or exercises that you can complete on your own to practice your UX skills or use to create UX Case studies and projects for UX/UI portfolio.

ux case study challenges

UX Case Study Generators

1. UX Challenge

UX challenge provides prompts and exercises that allows you to practice your problem-solving skills and create one-off projects for your portfolio. The Challenges presented here have been created by UX Designer Yachin and are based on real-world problems.

You can browse through a few different industries or categories on the homepage and then view the details of the project brief.

UX challenge homepage white bg with UX prompt cards

With more than 15 millions prompts available, there are lots of UX/Product Design prompts to choose from. To start, click on 'Product/UX' and then Click ‘New Challenge’. If you like certain elements of the brief you can lock those in place and then click New Challenge again to regenerate the unlocked parts until you find something you like.

Sharpen design homepage, pink with UX prompt sentences

3. Designercize

This fun arcade game-like interface lets you choose the level of difficulty and gives you a timer so that you can test your speed. While this tool doesn’t allow you to select a specific category, you can regenerate exercises until you find one that appeals to you.

Arcade-style interface with UX prompts and timer

4. UX Tools Challenges

If you need practice creating specific UX deliverables or applying certain user research methods this is a great option. You can browse through a number of UX prompt cards and click on a UX challenge to view a hypothetical scenario, instructions and tutorials on how to approach the challenges.

ux case study challenges

5. Uplabs Challenges

Uplabs hosts open design challenges that you can enter for prizes. They have deadlines in place and submissions are reviewed via voting. Check out their active listings to see on-going challenges and see the submission details and requirements. You can also view past challenges and try using them as practice on your for use as UX case study ideas.

Uplabs challenges homepage with active UX challenges

6. 100Daysofproductdesign

100 Days of Product is a series of design challenges that help you learn to tackle specific problems that arise in UX and product design roles (such as running a design sprint) and prompts you to create deliverables around them. There is also a separate set of whiteboarding challenges that you can take in preparation for interviews.

100 days of product design prompts and challenges

7. DesignerUp

Our Product Design course is home to one the best UX and Product Design case study creators you can find...yourself! You get to ideate on original concepts yourself from scratch, is completely unique, perfectly suited to who you are as a designer, shows your process and ensures you stand out from the crowd. You also get free access to our portfolio builder for Notion that has helped our students easily create product design case studies and land their dream roles!

DesignerUp Product Design Course Homepage

UX Case Study Usage

There are 4 main ways we recommend applying these generator prompts and challenges based on your goals:

Option 1: Self-Practice - Use these as practice for yourself to develop your problem-solving skills, thinking on your toes, learning to manage your time and refining your workflow. You don’t need to show it in your portfolio but you can share it on social media and other places to get some feedback and get into the hang of doing projects and getting to know your own timing and process.

Option 2: UX Case Study Creation - Use these for your UX portfolio to create UX case studies . Give yourself a deadline, deliberately choose a project and document the process as you go. Be mindful of the projects you choose and make sure that they align with your own unique positioning as a designer and with the opportunities you want to attract.

Option 3: Whiteboard Challenge - Work on the prompts in 45 min sessions using a whiteboard like Figjam to show and tell your process. Record your screen so that you can replay it and share it with others for critique. This video could even be an incredible addition to your portfolio to showcase how you think and solve problems on the fly.

Option 4: Take-home Exercise - To simulate an interview take-home challenge or test, you can tackle a prompt or brief over the course of 8-10 hours.

Pros and Cons of Using UX Case Study Generators

There a few pros and cons about using case study generators that you should know about:

If you can do them, so can everyone else

Firstly, remember that if you have access to these design challenges and briefs so do all the other designers. That means that there is a good chance your work might end up looking similar to their work if you’re not careful. If you want to stand out, try customizing the prompts and challenges and adding your own unique spin.

Treat them as real UX projects

If you plan to feature these UX case studies in your portfolio, make sure to treat them as real UX projects; not just hypothetical exercises. Conduct actual research, analyze your findings and document your process. This will go a long way in helping you differentiate yourself from those that simply complete the challenge at face value.

Not consider real-world experience

Keep in mind that these generated UX case study projects and prompts are not considered 'real-world or ‘real- work experience’ by employers, but rather self-directed projects. They are a good first step for new UX designers to start practicing their problem solving skills on their own and refining their UX design process, but you'll have to go the extra mile if you want to use them in your portfolio to impress during interviews.  

Choose the right one

If you are looking to use these ideas as UX Case studies in your portfolio, I reccomend reading this article on how to choose which case studies you should do and how to Create a Magnetic UX Case Study that will actually get you noticed and hired.

Move into doing real projects

These projects are also no substitute for doing real-world projects such as things you design and build yourself, freelance jobs, client work or open-source projects. Generated prompts and challenges cannot introduce the ambiguity of business requirements, changing stakeholder needs and team dynamics that are most sought after in a hirable UX designer. So think of these as a stepping to help you jump into the real thing as soon as possible. Here are some examples of stellar UX/UI and Product Design portfolios that we love!

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21 UX case studies to learn from in 2024

ux case study challenges

UX case studies are the heart of your design portfolio. They offer a peek into your design process, showcasing how you tackle challenges, your methods, and your results. For recruiters, these case studies serve as a metric for evaluating your skills, problem-solving abilities, and talent.

UX Case Studies

If you’re considering creating your own UX case study in 2024 but don’t know where to start, you’re in the right place. This article aims to inspire you with 21 carefully hand-picked UX case study examples, each offering valuable lessons.

But before we dive into these examples, let’s address a question that might be lingering: Is a UX case study truly worth the effort?

Is it worth creating a UX case study?

The short answer is yes.

Remember how in math class, showing your workings was even more important than getting the correct answer? UX case studies are like that for designers. They are more than just showcasing the final product (the polished website or app); they detail the steps taken to get there (the research, user testing, and design iterations). By showing your design process, you give potential employers or clients a peek into your thought process and problem-solving skills.

A well-laid-out case study has many benefits, including the following:

Building credibility

As case studies provide evidence of your expertise and past successes, they can build credibility and trust with potential employers or clients.

Educational value

By showing your design process, you provide valuable insights and learnings for other designers and stakeholders.

Differentiation

A compelling case study can leave a lasting impression on potential recruiters and clients, helping you stand out.

Iterative improvement

A case study is like a roadmap of each project, detailing the highs, lows, failures, and successes. This information allows you to identify areas for improvement, learn from mistakes, and refine your approach in subsequent projects.

Now that you know why a stand-out case study is so important, let’s look at 21 examples to help you get creative. The case studies will fall under five categories:

  • Language learning app
  • Learning app
  • Travel agency app
  • Intelly healthcare app
  • Cox Automotive
  • Swiftwash laundry
  • Wayfaro trip planner
  • New York Times app redesign
  • Disney+ app redesign
  • Fitbit redesign
  • Ryanair app redesign
  • Forbes app redesign
  • Enhancing virtual teaching with Google Meet
  • Airbnb’s global check-in tool
  • Spotify home shortcuts
  • AI-powered spatial banking for Apple Vision Pro
  • Sage Express

In this section, we’ll explore case studies that take us through the complete design journey of creating a digital product from scratch.

1. Language learning app

If you’re a designer looking to get your foot in the door, this is one case study you need to check out. It’s so well detailed that it helped this designer land their first role as a UX designer:

Language Learning App

Created by Christina Sa, this case study tackles the all-too-common struggle of learning a new language through a mobile app. It takes us through the process of designing a nontraditional learning app that focuses on building a habit by teaching the Korean language using Korean media such as K-pop, K-drama, and K-webtoon.

ux case study challenges

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Key takeaway

This case study shows how a structured design process, user-centered approach, and effective communication can help you stand out. The creator meticulously laid out their design process from the exploratory research phase to the final prototype, even detailing how the case study changed their view on the importance of a design process.

If you’re searching for a comprehensive case study that details every step of the design process, look no further. This one is for you:

Jambb

This impressive case study by Finna Wang explores the creation of a fan-focused responsive platform for Jambb, an already existing social platform. The creator starts by identifying the problem and then defines the project scope before diving into the design process.

This case study shows us the importance of an iterative problem-solving approach. It identifies a problem (pre-problem statement), creates a solution, tests the solution, and then revises the problem statement based on the new findings.

3. Learning app

If you need a highly visual case study that takes you through every step of the design process in an engaging way, this one is for you:

Learning App

This case study walks us through the design of a platform where users can find experts to explain complex topics to them in a simple and friendly manner. It starts by defining the scope of work, then progresses through research, user journeys, information architecture, user flow, initial design, and user testing, before presenting the final solution.

This case study demonstrates effective ways to keep readers engaged while taking them through the steps of a design process. By incorporating illustrations and data visualization, the designer communicates complex information in an engaging manner, without boring the readers.

If you’re in search of a case study that details the design process but is also visually appealing, you should give this one a look:

GiveHub

This case study by Orbix Studio takes us through the process of designing GiveHub, a fundraising app that helps users set up campaigns for causes they’re passionate about. It starts with an overview of the design process, then moves on to identifying the challenges and proposing solutions, before showing us how the solutions are brought to life.

This case study illustrates how a visually engaging design and clear organization can make your presentation easy to grasp.

5. Travel agency app

This case study is quite popular on Behance, and it’s easy to see why:

Travel Agency App

The case study takes us through the process of creating a travel app that lets users compare travel packages from various travel agencies or groups. The creators set out a clear problem statement, propose a solution, and then show us the step-by-step implementation process. The incorporation of data visualization tools makes this case study easy to digest.

This is another case study that shows the importance of using a clearly defined design process. Going by its popularity on Behance, you can tell that the step-by-step process breakdown was well worth the effort.

6. Intelly healthcare app

If you’re looking for a UX case study that explores the design journey for both mobile and desktop versions of an app, this is one you should check out:

Intelly Healthcare App

This case study explores the process of creating Intelly, an app that transforms patient care with telemedicine, prescription management, and real-time tracking. The case study begins with a clear design goal, followed by a layout of existing problems and design opportunities. The final design is a mobile app for patients and a desktop app for doctors.

This case study highlights the importance of proactive problem-solving and creative thinking in the design process. The creators laid out some key problems, identified design opportunities in them, and effectively leveraged them to create an app.

7. Cox Automotive

If you prefer a results-oriented case study, you’ll love this one:

Cox Automotive

This case study delves into how Cox Automotive’s Manheim division, used LogRocket to optimize their customers’ digital experience for remote car auctions. It starts by highlighting the three key outcomes before giving us an executive summary of the case study. The rest of the case study takes us through the process of achieving the highlighted outcomes.

A key takeaway from this case study is the significance of using user data and feedback to enhance the digital experience continuously. Cox Automotive used LogRocket to identify and address user-reported issues, gain insights into customer behaviors, and make data-driven decisions to optimize their product.

These case studies are more focused on the visual aspects of the design process, teaching us a thing or two about presentation and delivery.

If you love a case study that scores high on aesthetics with vivid colors, cool illustrations, and fun animations, you need to check this one out:

Rebank

This case study takes us on a visual journey of creating Rebank, a digital product aimed at revolutionizing the baking industry. It starts with the research process, moves on to branding and style, and then takes us through the different screens, explaining what each one offers.

This case study illustrates the value of thinking outside the box. Breaking away from the conventional design style of financial products makes it a stand-out case study.

9. Swiftwash Laundry

If you’re looking for a case study that prioritizes aesthetics and visual appeal, you should check this one out:

Swiftwash Laundry

This case study by Orbix Studio gives us a peek into how they created Swiftwash, a laundry service app. It takes us through the steps involved in creating an intuitive, user-friendly, and visually appealing interface.

If there’s one thing to take away from this case study, it’s the value of presenting information in a straightforward manner. Besides being easy on the eye, this case study is also easy to digest. The creators lay out the problem and detail the steps taken to achieve a solution, in an easy-to-follow way, while maintaining a high visual appeal.

10. Wayfaro trip planner

If you’re looking for a concise case study with clean visuals, you should definitely check this one out:

Wayfaro Trip Planner

This Behance case study takes us through the design of Wayfaro, a trip planner app that allows users to plan their itineraries for upcoming journeys. The creators dive straight into the visual design process, showing us aspects such as branding and user flow, and explaining the various features on each screen.

This case study shows us the power of an attractive presentation. Not only is the mobile app design visually appealing, but the design process is presented in a sleek and stylish manner.

App redesign

These case studies delve into the redesign of existing apps, offering valuable insights into presentation techniques and problem-solving approaches.

11. New York Times app redesign

If you’re looking for an app redesign case study that’s impactful yet concise, this one is for you:

New York Times App Redesign

This study details the creation of “Timely,” a design feature to address issues with the NYT app such as irrelevant content, low usage, and undesirable coverage. It takes us through the process of identifying the problem, understanding audience needs, creating wireframes, and prototyping.

This case study shows us that you don’t always need to overhaul the existing app when redesigning. It suggests a solution that fits into the current information setup, adding custom graphics to the mobile app. Starting with a simple problem statement, it proposes a solution to address the app’s issues without changing what customers already enjoy.

12. Disney+ app redesign

If you’re looking for an engaging case study that’s light on information, you should check out this one:

Disney Plus App Redesign

This case study by Andre Carioca dives right into giving the user interface a little facelift to make it more fun and engaging. By employing compelling storytelling and appealing visuals, the creator crafts a narrative that’s a delight to read.

Given how popular this case study is on Behance, you can tell that the designer did something right. It shows how injecting a little playfulness can elevate your case study and make it more delightful.

13. Fitbit redesign

If you want an in-depth case study that doesn’t bore you to sleep, this one is for you:

Fitbit Redesign

This case study by Stacey Wang takes us through the process of redesigning Fitbit, a wearable fitness tracker. The creator starts by understanding personas and what users expect from a fitness tracker.

Next was the development of use cases and personas. Through a series of guerrilla tests, they were able to identify user pain points. The redesign was centered around addressing these pain points.

This case study highlights the importance of clear organization and strong visual communication. The creator goes in-depth into the intricacies of redesigning the Fitbit app, highlighting every step, without boring the readers.

14. Ryanair app redesign

If you’re bored of the usual static case studies and need something more interactive, this app redesign is what you’re looking for:

Ryanair App Redesign

This case study takes us through the process of giving the Ryanair app a fresh look. Besides the clean aesthetics and straightforward presentation, the incorporation of playful language and interactive elements makes this case study captivating.

This case study shows how adding a bit of interactivity to your presentation can elevate your work.

15. Forbes app redesign

Forbes App Redesign

This case study starts by explaining why the redesign was needed and dives deep into analyzing the current app. The creator then takes us through the research and ideation phases and shares their proposed solution. After testing the solution, they made iterations based on the results.

When it comes to redesigning an existing product, it’s a good idea to make a strong case for why the redesign was needed in the first place.

UX research

These case studies are centered around UX research, highlighting key research insights to enhance your design process.

16. Enhancing virtual teaching with Google Meet

This case study by Amanda Rosenburg, Head of User Experience Research, Google Classroom shows us how listening to user feedback can help make our products more useful and inclusive to users.

Enhancing Virtual Teaching with Google Meet

To improve the virtual teaching experience on Google Meet, the team spent a lot of time getting feedback from teachers. They then incorporated this feedback into the product design, resulting in new functionality like attendance taking, hand raising, waiting rooms, and polls. Not only did these new features improve the user experience for teachers and students, but they also created a better user experience for all Google Meet users.

When there isn’t room for extensive user research and you need to make quick improvements to the user experience, it’s best to go straight to your users for feedback.

17. Airbnb’s global check-in tool

This case study by Vibha Bamba, Design Lead on Airbnb’s Host Success team, shows us how observing user behaviors inspired the creation of a global check-in tool:

Airbnb's Global Check-in Tool

By observing interactions between guests and hosts, the Airbnb team discovered a design opportunity. This led to the creation of visual check-in guides for Airbnb guests, which they can access both offline and online.

There’s a lot to be learned from observing user behavior. Don’t limit yourself to insights obtained from periodic research. Instead, observe how people interact with your product in their daily lives. The insights obtained from such observations can help unlock ingenious design opportunities.

18. Spotify Home Shortcuts

This case study by Nhi Ngo, a Senior User Researcher at Spotify shows us the importance of a human perspective in a data-driven world:

Spotify Home Shortcuts

When the Spotify team set out to develop and launch the ML-powered Shortcuts feature on the home tab, they hit a brick wall with the naming. A/B tests came back inconclusive. In the end, they had to go with the product designer’s suggestion of giving the feature a name that would create a more human and personal experience for users.

This led to the creation of a humanistic product feature that evoked joy in Spotify’s users and led to the incorporation of more time-based features in the model, making the content more time-sensitive for users.

Although data-driven research is powerful, it doesn’t hold all the answers. So in your quest to uncover answers through research, never lose sight of the all-important human perspective.

Artificial intelligence

The following case studies are centered around the design of AI-powered products.

19. AI-powered spatial banking for Apple Vision Pro

If you want to be wowed by a futuristic case study that merges artificial intelligence with spatial banking, you should check this out:

AI-powered Spatial Banking with Apple Vision Pro

In this revolutionary case study, UXDA designers offer a sneak peek into the future with a banking experience powered by AI. They unveil their vision of AI-powered spatial banking on the visionOS platform, showcasing its features and their AI use cases.

This case study shows us the importance of pushing boundaries to create innovative experiences that cater to user needs and preferences.

20. Sage Express

If what you need is an AI case study that isn’t information-dense, this one is for you:

Sage Express

This case study by Arounda takes us through the design of Sage Express, an AI-powered data discovery tool that automatically extracts patterns, tendencies, and insights from data. It outlines the challenge, proposes a solution, and details the journey of bringing the proposed solution to life. But it doesn’t stop there: it also shows the actual results of the design using tangible metrics.

This case study underscores the importance of showing your outcomes in tangible form. You’ve worked hard on a project, but what were the actual results?

If you’re looking for a clean and well-structured AI case study, this will be helpful:

Delfi

This case study takes us through the process of creating Delfi, an AI-driven banking financial report system. It details the entire design process from onboarding to prototype creation.

If there’s one thing to learn from this case study, it’s how a well-structured presentation can simplify complex information. Although the case study is heavy on financial data, the organized layout not only enhances visual appeal but also aids comprehension.

This article has shown you 21 powerful case study examples across various niches, each providing valuable insights into the design process. These case studies demonstrate the importance of showcasing the design journey, not just the final polished product.

When creating your own case study, remember to walk your users through the design process, the challenges you faced, and your solutions. This gives potential recruiters and clients a glimpse of your creativity and problem-solving skills.

And finally, don’t forget to add that human touch. Let your personality shine through and don’t be afraid to inject a little playfulness and storytelling where appropriate. By doing so, you can craft a case study that leaves a lasting impression on your audience.

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Top 22 Stunning UX Case Studies You Should Know in 2022

An immersive yet well-structured UX case study helps UX professionals show off their design talents in portfolio websites, and let them communicate better with employers, designers and others easily.

However, as a UX designer , how can you write a perfect UX case study to easily get hired or communicate with others better?

Mockplus has handpicked 22 of the best UX design case study examples in 2022 to help you get inspiration, improve your portfolios and make your own things with ease. A step-by-step guideline about how to create a UX case study is also followed.

What is a UX case study?

A UX case study tells the story of how you create a great website or app and, in particular, what you do to improve the UX of the site. UX designers—newbies and experts alike—will often share a case study on a portfolio website as a great way to get hired. Just like sending a resumé. 

So, it is a lot more than just a copy of everything you've done while designing the project. To really showcase your design talent and the breadth of your abilities, you need to make sure the following are all included:

  • A full description of your role in the project;
  • The biggest challenges you've faced;
  • The solutions you've chosen, how you chose them and why;
  • How you communicate and collaborate with others; and
  • The outcomes and the lessons you’ve learned.  

To this, you should feel free to add any further information that you think would help you stand out from the crowd. 

UX Case Study Example

It is also worth remembering that UX case studies are a good resource for UX design beginners to learn more practical design skills and to gain from the real experience of others in dealing deal with difficult or urgent problems.

22 Best UX case study examp le s you should learn

Whatever stage you’re at and whatever you are writing your case study for, these 22 top examples are bound to inspire you. 

1. Perfect Recipe -UX design for cooking and shopping

Perfect Recipe

Designer s : Marina Yalanska and Vlad Taran

Case Study : Perfect Recipe

This is a mobile application that enables users to search for food recipes and to buy what they need to cook different dishes.

Why d id  we choose this  one?

This case study illustrates the entire UX design process is very simple, plain language. Many aspects of the process are included, along with some really inspirational ideas, such as product personalization, challenges and solutions, animated interactions, and other interface details.

Extra tips :

This example is from the Tubikstudio blog, which is very popular among designers. It regularly shares different branding, UI, and UX case studies. We would strongly recommend that you follow this blog to keep yourself up to date with the latest and most creative case studies.

View details

2. GnO Well Being - Branding, Web Desing & UX

GnO Well Being

Designer : Marina Yalanska and Olga Zakharyan

Case Study : GnO Well Being

This is a creative illustration website that presents and sells a weighted designer blanket that helps you get a good night’s sleep, the first step to good health and a better life.

Why d id  we choose this ?

This example is so much more than a great UX case study. In addition to the UX design , it gives you insight into many more key design issues, such as the logo, custom graphics, website pages, interactions and so on. There are many ideas here that you could copy for your own projects.

3. Splitwiser - UI/UX case redesign

Splitwiser

Designer : Chethan KVS (a Product designer at Unacademy)

Case Study : Splitwise

This is a concept mobile app that enables users to track and split expenses with friends. The designer has also given it another name, "Splitwise." 

Why do we choose this ?

This case study shares the designer's insights into key design decisions, such as why he chose this product, why he decided to redesign the logo, how to improve the onboarding and other pages, how to optimize the user flow, how to balance all pages and functions, how to enhance UX through bottom bars, interactions, gestures, view modes, and more.

Everything is explained using intuitive images, earning it thousands of “likes”. This is a great example that is bound to help you write a stunning case study on redesigning UX.

This comes from a popular media channel called "UX Planet" that regularly posts examples of the best and latest UX case studies from around the world. Another great place to keep you up to speed with the latest UX designs.

4. Deeplyapp.com - UX & visual improvements

Deeplyapp.com

Designer : Sladana Kozar

Case Study : Deeplyapp

This is a health and self-care website app that helps users maintain mental well-being with meditations and exercises. This case study talks you through the design process of creating a user-friendly mobile app.

This case study focuses on improvements to the UX and visual features of this mobile app. Many aspects are included to help you understand it better, such as the design background, what to build, UI flow diagram, discoverability design, visual balance, and much more. A full set of app interfaces are presented for you to study as well.

You can also check out its Part 1 post for more details.

5. Talent Envoy - improving the recruitment process 

Talent Envoy

Designer : Enes Aktaş (Experienced UX designer)

Case Study : Talent Envoy

Talent Envoy is an intelligent job assistant that helps users find their ideal job and get to all the way to signing a contract faster and more easily.

This case study firstly points out the biggest challenges and problems faced by job-seekers—the shortage of US recruitment markets. It then talks to you through the detail of how the designers optimized the recruitment process. You will also find information on the user research process, the UI flowchart design, the related wireframe and Sketch designs, the main page design, and more. 

All the details have clear explanations and they offer a great example of how to use user research to solve problems and improve UI interfaces.

This one comes from another hot media channel called "Muzli" which shares the latest ideas, designs, and interactions about websites or website apps from all over the world. Don’t miss out on this site if you want to stay ahead of the curve. 

6. My Car Parking - UI/UX case study

My Car Parking

Designer : Johny Vino (Experienced UX and interaction designer)

Case Study : My Car Parking

This is a mobile app that can help people get parking slots easily even when they travel beyond their normal routes. 

This is a masterclass in how to write a case study that is simple, well-structured, and easy to understand. Many intuitive lists and images are used to explain the design ideas and processes. 

It has received “claps” from over seven and a half thousand people and   is a perfect example of how to write a well-structured and easy-to-understand case study.

7. Parking Finder App - UI/UX case study

Parking Finder App

Designer : Soumitro Sobuj

Case Study : Parking Finder App

This is another concept mobile app that makes it easy for users to find parking slots even in big or overcrowded cities.

This case study is beautifully presented and gives a good presentation of the whole design process. It covers nearly all the issues that a textbook UX case study should have, such as problems and solutions, user-centered design, design strategy, user flow, information architecture , interface wireframes and visual designs, and much more besides. 

It is one of the best examples we have found of a case study that really teaches you how to write the perfect UX case study.

8. Pasion Del Cielo - coffee ordering experience

Pasióon dDel Cielo

Designer : Jonathan Montalvo (Senior Designer, Branding, UXUI )

Case Study : Pasión del Cielo

This is a concept project about a real local coffee shop in Miami.

This case study demonstrates effective ways to engage users with the Pasión brand and how a site can make it as easy as possible to turn page views into coffee sales. 

There is a lot of analysis included to explain the entire design process, such as analyzing the competition, feature analysis, brand and interface improvements, and much more. Most important of all, many user personas have been created to evaluate and enhance the UX.

This is a good example to check for anyone looking to improve their own UX case study. Above all, it shows what can be done with rich images, bright colors, clear layouts, and well-crafted personas.

9. Workaway App - UX redesign

Workaway App - UX redesign

Designer : Rocket Pix (UXUI, web designer )

Case Study : Workaway App

This is a mobile app that provides international hospitality services; it helps users to contact each other to organize homestays and cultural exchanges.

This UX design case study explains how the designer redesigned the Workaway App to make it easier for users. Many intuitive charts (pie charts, flow charts, line charts), cards, and images are used to illustrate the ideas.

It is simple and easy to follow, and also a good example of how to create an intuitive case study with charts and cards.

10. Receipe App - UI/UX design process

Receipe App

Designer : Dorothea Niederee (UX, UI designer   )

Case Study : Recipe App

This is a food app design offering inspirational recipes for anyone who wants to eat healthier.

This case study gives a clear demonstration of the entire UI/UX design process. Three user personas are defined to present different users' needs. Some colors, typography, and UI elements are also shared.

This is a good example of how to define a detailed user persona in your UX case study.

11. Hobbfyy - a social and discovery app UX design

Hobbfyy

Designer : Mustafa Aljaburi (UX, UI designer   )

Case Study : Hobbfyy

This is a social and discovery app that makes it quick and easy to get everything you need for your hobbies.

This case study aims to show how to develop a site that will provide its users with solutions, in this case to get what they need for their hobbies. Beautiful images, a storytelling style, and special layouts are used to explain everything.

12. Bee Better - habit tracker app UX case study

Bee Better

Designer :   Anastasiia Mysliuk (UX, UI designer   )

Case Study : Bee Better

This is a habit tracker app that makes it easy for you to develop new useful habits.

This case study aims to solve problems associated with how we form and develop habits. It helps users find solutions and make habit formation more interesting; it motivates them to maintain their useful new habits. Many aspects of design, such as problems, solutions, the design process, discovery and research, user journey map, prototypes, and much more are illustrated and explained in simple language.

This would be a good example to follow if you are looking to create an easy-to-understand UX case study.

13.Sit My Pet - pet sitting app UX case study

Sit My Pet

Designer : Aiman Fakia (UX, UI, visual designer )

Case Study : Sit My Pet

This is a pet-setting app that provides pet owners with a digital service that helps them connect with pet sitters.

This UX case study describes a site that aims to make pet sitting more easily accessible for pet owners. It analyzes both its users and its competitors very well. The way solutions are evaluated, the user stories, and other related aspects are followed in detail to give you a better understanding of the project as a whole.

This is a good example of how to develop a UX design based on user needs.

14. Groad - food ordering system UX case study

Groad

Designer : Phap (UI designer )

Case Study : Groad

This is a food ordering app offering food delivery services from stores, restaurants, cafés, fast food bars, and others. 

This UX case study uses beautiful illustrations and colors to explain the entire design process. As well as the usual parts of the design process—UI flow chart, UI showcasing—the related logo and icon designs, typography, and other aspects are included. This is a good example if you are looking to learn how to create an immersive case study with beautiful illustrations and colors.

15. iOS VS Android UI/UX Case Study

IOS VS Android UI/UX Case Study

Designer : Johanna Rüthers

Case Study : Econsy

Here is another concept app that helps people live more sustainably by using a scanning process to give them information about the ecological and social impact of products they are thinking of buying. 

This case study explains the differences in the mobile app’s appearance when it is applied on the Human Interface Guidelines (IOS) and Material Design Guidelines (Android). This will help you to create an app that works well on both Mac and Android devices.

More UI/UX case studies & designs:

16.Timo Bank - UI/UX Case Study

Timo Bank

Timo Bank is a mobile banking app project produced by Leo Nguyen, a freelance designer and creative director. This case study aims to provide more intuitive transfer, payment, and money management solutions for mobile users.

This is a great example to consider if you are hoping to create a better banking app.

17. Endoberry Health App Design

ux case study challenges

Endoberry Health App Design provides useful solutions for women suffering from endometriosis. In turn, this gives doctors a better understanding of individual cases. The design challenges, solutions, and UI details are displayed and explained to illustrate the design project.

18. Job Portal App

Job Portal App

Job Portal App has been specially made for designers and freelancers. This case study uses cute illustrations, simple words, and clear storytelling to explain how the designer worked out the ideal job hunting solutions for users.

19. Cafe Website - UI/UX Case Study

Cafée Website

Café Website gives its users a great experience by making it quick and easy to order a coffee online. Many elegant page details are displayed.

20. Ping - the matchmaker app case study

 Ping

Ping is a dating app that offers users a unique and effective way to find their perfect match. As you can see, its mascot is really cute and this case study will show you how a cute mascot can enhance the UX.

21. Hubba Mobile App - UI/UX Case Study

Hubba Mobile App

Hubba Mobile App is a B2B online marketplace where retailers can find and purchase unique products for their stores or shops. This case study aims to explain the process of creating a special mobile app for this online marketplace. It offers a beautiful and clear presentation of the entire UI/UX design process.

22. Music App - music for children

Music App

Music App shares the fancy UI and colors from a music app made for children. It is a good example that is sure to inspire you to create a distinctive children's app.

How do you create a UX case study?

If you are still not entirely sure how to go about creating a distinctive UX case study, here are a few simple steps to walk you through the entire process from start to finish:

Step  1.  Figure out your purpose

The final outcome will depend on what it is you are trying to achieve. So, before you start writing a UX design case, you should first figure out in detail what its purpose is. Ask yourself some basic questions:

  • Is it for a job interview?
  • Is it for improving your personal portfolio?
  • Is it designed to show off your design talents on social media?
  • Is it just created to practice your design skills?
  • Is it made to share design experiences with other designers?

In short, figuring out your purpose and setting a goal can make the entire design process so much easier.

Step   2.   Plan or outline your case study

Whatever you want to do, it is always a good idea to start with a plan. When it comes to writing a UX case study, you should also outline your entire UX case study and decide on what sections you want to include.

For example, nowadays, a good UX design case study often covers:

  • Overview : Start with a short paragraph that introduces your project.
  • Challenges  and  goals : Explain the project background and point out the biggest challenges or problems you've encountered. Explain the goals you want to achieve and how you will overcome the challenges you have identified. 
  • Roles  and  responsibilities : Tell readers what role you play in the project and the specific features of your role that will help create a better product.
  • Design process : Introduce the entire design process in detail so that readers can see clearly what you have done to make life easier for users. Many employers check this part very carefully to see whether you have the basic skills and abilities they are looking for. So, never underestimate the importance of this section. 
  • Solutions  and  outcomes : No matter what problems you have faced, the solutions and the final outcomes achieved are what really matters. So, always use this section to showcase your skills and achievements. 

You might also want to add further sections:

  • User research :   Some full-stack designers also include this to give a more comprehensive view of their design skills.
  • UI designs : Some experienced designers also display their relevant UIs, and UI flow, along with low- and high-fidelity prototypes to enrich the content.

Of course, if you are a newbie, and you still have questions, why not go online and search for UX case study templates that you can study and follow.

Step 3.  Explain the design process clearly

As we've explained above, the design process is always one of the most important parts of a good UX case study. You should always introduce clearly as many of the relevant parts of the process as possible. For example: show how you and your team communicate and collaborate effectively; demonstrate how you have developed ideas to address user problems; explain how you and your team have dealt with emergencies or mishaps.  

ux case study challenges

You can also introduce the UX design tools that you have chosen to simplify the entire design process. Mockplus, is an online product design platform, enabled us to adapt quickly and effectively to working from home during the recent Coronavirus lockdown. Prototyping our designs, sharing ideas, working together in an effective team, taking the process from design to handoff, it all works smoothly with this single tool.

Step  4. Improve readability and visual appeal

The content should be the main focus of your case study—but not the only focus. To make the case study as good as possible, you also need to think about its readability and visual appeal. Here are some suggestions to follow:

  • Explain everything as clearly as possible.
  • Add images, illustrations, charts, cards, icons, and other visuals.
  • Create a clear storytelling structure or layout.
  • Choose an immersive color scheme.
  • Add eye-catching animations and interactions.
  • Use vivid video, audio, and other multimedia resources.

The final visual effect can be make-or-break for whether your UX case study is going to stand out from the crowd. You should always take it seriously.

Step   5. Summarize

Every UX case study can be a good chance to practice and improve your design skills. So, in your conclusion, don’t forget to analyze the entire process and summarize the outcomes. Always take a minute to figure out what lessons you should take away from the process, what tips should be remembered, what should be improved, and—most important—what your next steps are going to be.

UX case studies are one of the most essential parts of a UX designer's portfolio. The ability to write a well-structured UX case study is also one of the basic skills that a competent UX professional should have. So, UX case studies play a very important role in UX designer's life.

We hope our picks of the best UX design case studies along with our step-by-step guide will help you create a stunning UX case study.

In- house content editor, specialize in SEO content writing. She is a fruit lover and visionary person.

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ux case study challenges

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UX Case Studies

What are ux case studies.

UX case studies are examples of design work which designers include in their portfolio. To give recruiters vital insights, designers tell compelling stories in text and images to show how they handled problems. Such narratives showcase designers’ skills and ways of thinking and maximize their appeal as potential hires.

“ Every great design begins with an even better story.” — Lorinda Mamo, Designer and creative director
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Discover why it’s important to tell a story in your case studies.

How to Approach UX Case Studies

Recruiters want candidates who can communicate through designs and explain themselves clearly and appealingly. While skimming UX portfolios , they’ll typically decide within 5 minutes if you’re a fit. So, you should boost your portfolio with 2–3 case studies of your work process containing your best copywriting and captivating visual aids. You persuade recruiters by showing your skillset, thought processes, choices and actions in context through engaging, image-supported stories .

Before selecting a project for a case study, you should get your employer’s/client’s permission – whether you’ve signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) or not.

Then, consider Greek philosopher Aristotle’s storytelling elements and work with these in mind when you start building your case studies:

Plot – The career-related aspect of yourself you want to highlight. This should be consistent across your case studies for the exact role. So, if you want to land a job as a UX researcher, focus on the skills relevant to that in your case studies.

Character – Your expertise in applying industry standards and working in teams.

Theme – Goals, motivations and obstacles in your project.

Diction – A friendly, professional tone in jargon-free plain English.

Melody – Your passion—for instance, as a designer, where you prove it’s a life interest as opposed to something you just clock on and off at for a job.

Décor – A balance of engaging text and images.

Spectacle – The plot twist/wow factor—e.g., a surprise discovery. Obviously, you can only include this if you had a surprise discovery in your case study.

ux case study challenges

All good stories have a beginning, a middle and an end.

© Interaction Design Foundation. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

How to Build UX Case Studies

You want an active story with a beginning, middle and end – never a flat report . So, you’d write, e.g., “We found…”, not “It was found…”. You should anonymize information to protect your employer’s/client’s confidential data (by changing figures to percentages, removing unnecessary details, etc.).

You can use German novelist-playwright Gustav Freytag’s 5-part pyramid :

Exposition – the introduction (4–5 sentences) . Describe your:

Problem statement – Include your motivations and thoughts/feelings about the problem.

Your solution – Outline your approach. Hint at the outcome by describing your deliverables/final output.

Your role – Explain how your professional identity matched the project.

Stages 2–4 form the middle (more than 5 sentences) . Summarize the process and highlight your decisions:

Rising action – Outline some obstacles/constraints (e.g., budget) to build conflict and explain your design process (e.g., design thinking ). Describe how you used, e.g., qualitative research to progress to 1 or 2 key moments of climax.

Climax – Highlight this, your story’s apex, with an intriguing factor (e.g., unexpected challenges). Choose only the most important bits to tighten narrative and build intrigue.

Falling action – Show how you combined your user insights, ideas and decisions to guide your project’s final iterations. Explain how, e.g., usability testing helped you/your team shape the final product.

Stage 5 is the conclusion:

Resolution – (4–5 sentences) . Showcase your end results as how your work achieved its business-oriented goal and what you learned. Refer to the motivations and problems you described earlier to bring your story to an impressive close.

Overall, you should:

Tell a design story that progresses meaningfully and smoothly .

Tighten/rearrange your account into a linear, straightforward narrative .

Reinforce each “what” you introduce with a “how” and “why” .

Support text with the most appropriate visuals (e.g., screenshots of the final product, wireframing , user personas , flowcharts , customer journey maps , Post-it notes from brainstorming ). Use software (e.g., Canva, Illustrator) to customize good-looking visuals that help tell your story .

Balance “I” with “we” to acknowledge team-members’ contributions and shared victories/setbacks.

Make your case study scannable – E.g., Use headings as signposts.

Remove anything that doesn’t help explain your thought process or advance the story .

In the video, Michal Malewicz, Creative Director and CEO of Hype4, has some tips for writing great case studies.

ux case study challenges

Typical dramatic structure consists of an exposition and resolution with rising action, climax and falling action in between.

Remember, hirers want to quickly spot the value of what you did— e.g., research findings—and feel engaged every step of the way . They’ll evaluate how you might fit their culture. Use the right tone to balance your passion and logic in portraying yourself as a trustworthy team player. Sometimes, you may have to explain why your project didn’t work out ideally. The interaction design process is iterative, so include any follow-up actions you took/would take. Your UX case studies should project the thoughts, feelings and actions that define how you can shape future designs and create value for business.

Learn More about UX Case Studies

Take our UX Portfolio course to see how to craft powerful UX case studies.

UX designer and entrepreneur Sarah Doody offers eye-opening advice about UX case studies .

Learn what can go wrong in UX case studies .

See fine examples of UX case studies .

Questions related to UX Case Studies

A UX case study showcases a designer's process in solving a specific design problem. It includes a problem statement, the designer's role, and the solution approach. The case study details the challenges and methods used to overcome them. It highlights critical decisions and their impact on the project.

The narrative often contains visuals like wireframes or user flowcharts. These elements demonstrate the designer's skills and thought process. The goal is to show potential employers or clients the value the designer can bring to a team or project. This storytelling approach helps the designer stand out in the industry.

To further illustrate this, consider watching this insightful video on the role of UX design in AI projects. It emphasizes the importance of credibility and user trust in technology. 

Consider these three detailed UX/UI case studies:

Travel UX & UI Case Study : This case study examines a travel-related project. It emphasizes user experience and interface design. It also provides insights into the practical application of UX/UI design in the travel industry.

HAVEN — UX/UI Case Study : This explores the design of a fictional safety and emergency assistance app, HAVEN. The study highlights user empowerment, interaction, and interface design. It also talks about the importance of accessibility and inclusivity. 

UX Case Study — Whiskers : This case study discusses a fictional pet care mobile app, Whiskers. It focuses on the unique needs of pet care users. It shows the user journey, visual design, and integration of community and social features.

Writing a UX case study involves several key steps:

Identify a project you have worked on. Describe the problem you addressed.

Detail your role in the project and the specific actions you took.

Explain your design process, including research , ideation , and user testing.

Highlight key challenges and how you overcame them.

Showcase the final design through visuals like screenshots or prototypes . This video discusses why you should include visuals in your UX case study/portfolio.

Reflect on the project's impact and any lessons learned.

Conclude with the outcomes. Showcase the value you provided.

A well-written case study tells a compelling story of your design journey. It shows your skills and thought process.

A case study in UI/UX is a detailed account of a design project. It describes a designer's process to solve a user interface or user experience problem. The case study includes

The project's background and the problem it addresses.

The designer's role and the steps they took.

Methods used for research and testing.

Challenges faced and how the designer overcame them.

The final design solutions with visual examples.

Results and impact of the design on users or the business.

This case study showcases a designer’s skills, decision-making process, and ability to solve real-world problems.

A UX writing case study focuses on the role of language in user experience design. It includes:

The project's background and the specific language-related challenges.

The UX writer's role and the strategies they employed.

How did they create the text for interfaces, like buttons or error messages?

Research and testing methods used to refine the language.

Challenges encountered and solutions developed.

The final text and its impact on user experience and engagement.

Outcomes that show how the right words improved the product's usability.

You can find professionals with diverse backgrounds in this field and their unique approaches to UX writing. Torrey Podmakersky discusses varied paths into UX writing careers through his video. 

Planning a case study for UX involves several steps: 

First, select a meaningful project that showcases your skills and problem-solving abilities. Gather all relevant information, including project goals, user research data, and design processes used. 

Next, outline the structure of your case study. This should include the problem you addressed, your role, the design process, and the outcomes. 

Ensure to detail the challenges faced and how you overcame them. 

To strengthen your narrative, incorporate visuals like wireframes, prototypes, and user feedback . 

Finally, reflect on the project's impact and what you learned. 

This careful planning helps you create a comprehensive and engaging case study.

Presenting a UX research case study involves clear organization and storytelling. 

Here are eight guidelines:

Introduction: Start with a brief overview of the project, including its objectives and the key research question.

Background: Provide context about the company, product, or service. Explain why you did the research. 

Methodology: Detail the research methods, like surveys, interviews, or usability testing. 

Findings: Present the key findings from your research. Use visuals like charts or user quotes to better present the data. 

Challenges and Solutions: Discuss any obstacles encountered during the research and how you addressed them.

Implications: Explain how your findings impacted the design or product strategy.

Conclusion: Summarize the main points and reflect on what you learned from the project.

Appendix (if necessary): Include any additional data or materials that support your case study.

UX case studies for beginners demonstrate the fundamentals of user experience design. They include:

A defined problem statement to clarify the user experience issue.

Descriptions of research methods used for understanding user needs and behaviors.

Steps of the design process, showing solution development. The 5 Stages in the Design Thinking Process illustrate these steps in detail. 

Visual elements, such as sketches, wireframes, or prototypes, illustrate the design stages.

The final design solution emphasizes its impact on user experience.

Reflections on the project's outcomes and lessons learned.

These case studies guide beginners through the essential steps and considerations in UX design projects. Consider watching this video on How to Write Great Case Studies for Your UX Design Portfolio to improve your case studies.

To learn more about UX case studies, two excellent resources are available:

Article on Structuring a UX Case Study : This insightful article explains how to craft a compelling case study. It emphasizes storytelling and the strategic thinking behind UX design, guided by expert opinions and industry insights.

User Experience: The Beginner's Guide Course by the Interaction Design Foundation: This comprehensive course offers a broad introduction to UX design. It covers UX principles, tools, and methods. The course provides practical exercises and industry-recognized certification. This course is valuable for aspiring designers and professionals transitioning to UX.

These resources provide both theoretical knowledge and practical application in UX design.

Literature on UX Case Studies

Here’s the entire UX literature on UX Case Studies by the Interaction Design Foundation, collated in one place:

Learn more about UX Case Studies

Take a deep dive into UX Case Studies with our course How to Create a UX Portfolio .

Did you know the average UX recruiter spends less than 5 minutes skimming through your UX portfolio? If you want to join the growing and well-paid field of UX design, not only do you need a UX portfolio— you’ll need a great UX portfolio that showcases relevant skills and knowledge . Your UX portfolio will help you get your first job interviews and freelance clients, and it will also force you to stay relevant in your UX career. In other words, no matter what point you’re at in your UX career, you’re going to need a UX portfolio that’s in tip-top condition.

So, how do you build an enticing UX portfolio, especially if you’ve got no prior experience in UX design? Well, that’s exactly what you’ll learn in this course! You’ll cover everything so you can start from zero and end up with an incredible UX portfolio . For example, you’ll walk through the various UX job roles, since you can’t begin to create your portfolio without first understanding which job role you want to apply for! You’ll also learn how to create your first case studies for your portfolio even if you have no prior UX design work experience. You’ll even learn how to navigate non-disclosure agreements and create visuals for your UX case studies.

By the end of this practical, how to oriented course, you’ll have the skills needed to create your personal online UX portfolio site and PDF UX portfolio. You’ll receive tips and insights from recruiters and global UX design leads from SAP, Oracle and Google to give you an edge over your fellow candidates. You’ll learn how to craft your UX case studies so they’re compelling and relevant, and you’ll also learn how to engage recruiters through the use of Freytag’s dramatic structure and 8 killer tips to write effectively. What’s more, you’ll get to download and keep more than 10 useful templates and samples that will guide you closely as you craft your UX portfolio. To sum it up, if you want to create a UX portfolio and land your first job in the industry, this is the course for you!

All open-source articles on UX Case Studies

How to write the conclusion of your case study.

ux case study challenges

  • 5 years ago

How to create the perfect structure for a UX case study

ux case study challenges

What Should a UX Design Portfolio Contain?

ux case study challenges

How to write the beginning of your UX case study

ux case study challenges

What is a UX Portfolio?

ux case study challenges

How to write the middle or “process” part of your case study

ux case study challenges

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Download our free ebook The Basics of User Experience Design to learn about core concepts of UX design.

In 9 chapters, we’ll cover: conducting user interviews, design thinking, interaction design, mobile UX design, usability, UX research, and many more!

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

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Inspiration

UX Case Studies: The Ultimate Guide for Product Designers

Learn why UX case studies are essential for designers, discover powerful tools and techniques, and get inspired by remarkable examples

ux case study challenges

Welcome to the exciting world of UX case studies!

In the realm of digital product design, these fascinating narratives take center stage, unlocking valuable insights into the user experience and shaping the future of user-centric design.

In this blog post, we will delve into the essence of UX case studies , explore their significance, discover essential tools to create them, and showcase some remarkable examples.

Let's crack on!

What is a UX Case Study?

UX case studies

A UX case study is a detailed account of a user experience design project, documenting the process, methods, and outcomes.

It allows designers to share their problem-solving approaches, decisions, and the impact of their work.

A well-crafted case study tells a compelling story , presenting the challenges faced, the strategies employed, and the solutions that were implemented.

Why Do We Create UX Case Studies?

UX case studies

1. Reflection and Improvement

UX case studies provide designers with an opportunity to reflect on their work, analyze their decisions, and identify areas for improvement. It's a chance to learn from both successes and failures, fostering growth and professional development.

2. Knowledge Sharing

By sharing UX case studies, designers contribute to the collective knowledge of the design community. These stories inspire and inform others, opening up a world of possibilities and encouraging best practices.

3. Building a Portfolio

UX case studies serve as powerful additions to a designer's portfolio . They showcase the designer's skills, expertise, and problem-solving abilities to potential employers or clients.

Video explainer on UX case studies:

Examples of ux case studies, how airbnb designs for trust case study:.

Joe Gebbia, the co-founder of Airbnb , bet his whole company on the belief that people can trust each other enough to stay in one another's homes. How did he overcome the stranger-danger bias ? Through good design. Check out the above UX case study for the full story.

Uber Eats Stories case study walk through:

A case study walk through video for Uber Eats focusing on a new Stories feature.

Tools to Create UX Case Studies:

UX case studies

Design and Prototyping Tools:

Popular tools like Figma , Sketch, and Adobe XD help designers create visually appealing and interactive case study presentations. These tools enable the seamless integration of design assets, prototypes, and user flows into the narrative.

User Research and Analytics Tools:

Tools such as Google Analytics, Hotjar , and UsabilityHub provide valuable data and insights to back up the decisions made during the design process. They help designers validate their assumptions and make data-driven choices.

Collaboration and Documentation Tools:

Tools like Notion, Trello, and Asana aid in organizing research findings, design iterations, and project timelines. They facilitate collaboration within teams and ensure smooth communication throughout the project lifecycle.

Frequently Asked Questions about Case Studies in UX Design:

UX Case Studies

What is a case study in UX design?

A case study in UX design is a detailed examination and presentation of a specific project or problem that a UX designer has worked on. It provides a comprehensive overview of the design process, methodologies used, challenges faced, and the ultimate outcomes. Case studies help UX designers showcase their skills, problem-solving abilities, and the impact of their work.

Why are case studies important for new UX designers?

Case studies are essential for new UX designers as they offer a platform to demonstrate their abilities and build a strong portfolio. They allow designers to showcase their expertise, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills to potential employers or clients. Additionally, case studies provide valuable learning opportunities by analyzing real-world projects and gaining insights into the UX design process.

What should a case study include?

A comprehensive case study should typically include the following components:

Project overview: Provide a brief introduction to the project, its objectives, and the problem statement.

Research and analysis: Describe the research conducted, including user interviews, surveys, and competitor analysis. Explain how the findings influenced the design process.

Design process: Outline the design methodologies employed, such as wireframing, prototyping, and user testing. Discuss iterations and refinements made based on user feedback.

Challenges and solutions: Highlight any obstacles or constraints encountered during the project and how they were overcome.

Results and impact: Present the outcomes of the project, such as improved user satisfaction, increased conversions , or any measurable metrics.

Reflection and learnings: Share personal reflections on the project, lessons learned, and areas for improvement.

How can I make my case study engaging?

To make your case study engaging, consider the following tips:

Use visual elements: Include images, diagrams, and interactive prototypes to visually represent your design process and outcomes.

Tell a story: Structure your case study like a narrative, starting with a problem and guiding the reader through the journey of solving it.

Use clear language: Write in a concise and accessible manner, avoiding jargon or technical terms that may confuse readers.

Highlight impact: Emphasize the positive impact your design had on users, businesses, or other relevant stakeholders.

Be authentic: Share your thought process, challenges faced, and how you grew as a designer through the project.

How long should a case study be?

There is no strict rule on the length of a case study, but it's important to keep it concise and focused. Aim for a length that effectively communicates your process and findings without overwhelming the reader. A case study between 500 to 1500 words is generally a good range to aim for.

Can I include confidential or proprietary information in my case study?

It's important to respect confidentiality agreements or intellectual property rights you may have with clients or organizations. If you are unsure about what information can be shared, seek permission or consult with your client or employer before including any sensitive or proprietary details.

Remember, case studies are an excellent opportunity to showcase your skills, creativity, and problem-solving abilities as a UX designer. Make the most of them by presenting your work in an engaging and informative manner.

UX case studies serve as windows into the captivating world of digital product design . They allow designers to reflect on their work, share knowledge, and inspire others.

With the right tools and techniques, designers can craft compelling narratives that highlight their problem-solving skills and their dedication to creating outstanding user experiences .

So, go ahead and immerse yourself in the realm of UX case studies, unlock the power of storytelling, and shape the future of user-centric design!

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20+ Outstanding UX/UI Design Case Studies

20+ Outstanding UX/UI Design Case Studies preview

Discover an expertly curated collection of 20+ inspirational UX/UI design case studies that will empower you to create outstanding case studies for your own portfolio.

  • Comprehensive end-to-end case studies covering research, ideation, design, testing, and conclusions.
  • Perfect for designers building portfolios and looking for inspiration to create their own case studies.
  • Learn new methods and techniques, improve your understanding, and apply them to your projects.
  • Gain insights from the successes and challenges of accomplished designers.

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All case studies included in this collection are sourced from real designers' portfolios and are used for the purpose of learning and inspiration. The original authors retain all rights to their work.

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15 excellent ux case studies every creative should read.

  • By Sandra Boicheva
  • October 21st, 2021

In a previous article, we talked about UX portfolios and how they carefully craft a story of how designers work. Interestingly enough, recruiters decide if a UX freelance designer or an agency is a good match within 5 minutes into the portfolio . In order to persuade these recruiters, the portfolio needs to present an appealing story that showcases the skill, the thought process, and the choices taken for key parts of the designs. With this in mind, today we’ll talk about UX case studies and give 15 excellent examples of case studies with compelling stories.

The Storytelling Approach in UX Case Studies

An essential part of the portfolio of a UX designer is the case studies that pack a showcase of the designer’s skills, way of thinking, insights in the form of compelling stories. These case studies are often the selling point as recruiters look for freelancers and agencies who can communicate their ideas through design and explain themselves in a clear and appealing way. So how does this work?

Photography by Alvaro Reyes

Just like with every other story, UX case studies also start with an introduction, have a middle, and end with a conclusion .

  • Introduction: This UX case study example starts with a design brief and presents the main challenges and requirements. In short, the UX designer presents the problem, their solution, and their role.
  • Middle: The actual story of the case study example explains the design process and the techniques used. This usually starts with obstacles, design thinking, research, and unexpected challenges. All these elements lead to the best part of the story: the action part. It is where the story unveils the designer’s insights, ideas, choices, testing, and decisions.
  • Conclusion: The final reveal shows the results and gives space for reflection where the designer explains what they’ve learned, and what they’ve achieved.

Now as we gave you the introduction, let’s get to the main storyline and enjoy 15 UX case studies that tell a compelling story.

1. Car Dealer Website for Mercedes-Benz Ukraine by Fulcrum

This case study is a pure pleasure to read. It’s well-structured, easy to read, and still features all the relevant information one needs to understand the project. As the previous client’s website was based on the official Mercedes Benz template, Fulcrum had to develop an appealing and functional website that would require less time to maintain, be more user-friendly, and increase user trust.

  • Intro: Starts with a summary of the task.
  • Problem: Lists the reasons why the website needs a redesign.
  • Project Goals: Lists the 4 main goals with quick summaries.
  • Project: Showcases different elements of the website with desktop and mobile comparison.
  • Functionality: Explains how the website functionality helps clients to find, and order spare parts within minutes.
  • Admin Panel: Lists how the new admin panel helps the client customize without external help.
  • Elements: Grid, fonts, colors.
  • Tech Stack: Shows the tools used for the backend, mobile, admin panel, and cloud.
  • Client review: The case study ends with a 5-star review by the marketing director of Mercedes Benz Ukraine, Olga Belova.

This case study is an example of a detailed but easy to scan and read story from top to bottom, featuring all relevant information and ending on the highest note: the client’s review.

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2. Galaxy Z Flips 5G Website by DFY

This is a big project that covers every aspect of the website, including the UX strategy. The creative studio aimed to fully illustrate and demonstrate the significant upgrades over previous models and to enable two-way communication with the customers through an interactive experience.

  • Intro: Summary of the project and roles.
  • Interactive Experience: The main project goal.
  • Demonstration: Explains the decision to feature 360-degree views and hands-on videos instead of technical terms.
  • Screens: Includes high-quality screenshots of significant pages and features.
  • Ecosystem: Highlight a page with easy navigation across different products as a marketing decision that makes cross-selling seamless.
  • Essentials: Showcases a slider of all products with key features that provide ample information.
  • Showroom: Interactive experience that helps the user “play around” with the product.
  • Credits: As a conclusion, DFY features the stakeholders involved.

A strong presentation of a very ambitious project. It keeps the case study visual while still providing enough insight into the thought process and the most important decisions.

3. Jambb Social Platform by Finna Wang

Here we have a beautiful case study for a platform that aims to help creators grow their communities by recognizing and rewarding their base of supporters. It tackles a curious problem that 99% of fans who contribute in non-monetary ways don’t get the same content, access, and recognition they deserve. This means the creators need a way to identify their fans across all social platforms to grow their business and give recognition. To get a clear picture of what the design has to accomplish, Finna Wang conducted stakeholder interviews with the majority of the client’s team.

  • Intro: Listing roles, dates, team, and used tools.
  • Project Overview: The main concept and the reasons behind it.
  • Exploration: What problem will the platform solve, preliminary research, and conclusions from the research.  The section includes the project scope and problem statement.
  • Design Process: A thorough explanation of the discoveries and the exact steps.
  • User Flows:  3 user flows based on common tasks that the target user/fan would do on the site.
  • Design Studio: Visualization process with wireframes, sitemap, prototypes.
  • Design Iterations: The designer highlights the iterations they were primary behind.
  • Style Guide: Typography, colors, visual elements breakdown.
  • Usability Testing: Beta site vs Figma prototype; usertesting.com, revised problem statement.
  • Prototype: Features an accessible high fidelity prototype in Figma you can view.
  • Takeaways: Conclusions.

An extremely detailed professionally made and well-structured UX case study. It goes a step further by listing specific conclusions from the conducted research and featuring an accessible Figma prototype.

4. Memento Media by Masha Keyhani

This case study is dedicated to a very interesting project for saving family stories. It aims to help users capture and record memories from their past. To do so, the design team performed user research and competitive analysis. The entire project took a 6-week sprint.

  • Overview: Introducing the client and the purpose of the app.
  • My Role: Explaining the roles of the designer and their team.
  • Design Process: A brief introduction of the design process and the design toolkit
  • Home: The purpose of the Homepage and the thought process behind it.
  • Question Selection: The decision behind this screen.
  • Recording Process: Building the recording feature and the decisions behind it.
  • User research: a thorough guide with the main focuses, strategies, and competitor analysts, including interviews.
  • Research Objectives: The designer gives the intent of their research, the demographics, synthesis, and usability testing insights.
  • Propositions: Challenges and solutions
  • User Flow: Altering the user flow based on testing and feedback.
  • Wireframes: Sketches, Lo-Fi wireframing.
  • Design System: Typography, colors, iconography, design elements.
  • The Prototype: It shows a preview of the final screens.

This UX study case is very valuable for the insights it presents. The design features a detailed explanation of the thinking process, the research phase, analysts, and testing which could help other creatives take some good advice from it for their future research.

5. Perfect Recipes App by Tubik

Here we have a UX case study for designing a simple mobile app for cooking, recipes, and food shopping. It aims to step away from traditional recipe apps by creating something more universal for users who love cooking with extended functionality. The best idea behind it is finding recipes based on what supplies the user currently has at home.

  • Intro: Introducing the concept and the team behind it.
  •  Project: What they wanted to make and what features would make the app different than the competitors.
  • UI design: The decisions behind the design.
  • Personalization: Explaining how the app gives the user room for personalization and customizing the features according to their personal preferences.
  • Recipe Cards and Engaging Photos: The decisions behind the visuals.
  • Cook Now feature: Explaining the feature.
  • Shopping List: Explaining the feature.
  • Pantry feature:  The idea to sync up the app with AmazonGo services. This case study section features a video.
  • Bottom Line: What the team learned.

This UX case study is a good example of how to present your concept if you have your own idea for an app. You could also check the interactive preview of the app here .

6. SAM App by Mike Wilson

The client is the Seattle Art Museum while the challenge is to provide engaging multimedia content for users as well as self-guided tours. Mile Wilson has to create an experience that will encourage repeat visits and increase events and exhibition attendance.

  • Intro: Listing time for the project, team members, and roles.
  • The Client: A brief introduction of Seattle Art Museum
  • The Challenge: What the app needs to accomplish.
  • Research and Planning: Explaining the process for gathering insights, distributing surveys, interviews, and identifying specific ways to streamline the museum experience.
  • Sloane: Creating the primary persona. This includes age, bio, goals, skills, and frustrations.
  • Designing the Solution: Here the case study features the results of their research, information architecture, user flows, early sketching, paper prototypes, and wireframes.
  • Conclusion: Explaining the outcome, what the team would have done differently, what’s next, and the key takeaways.

What we can take as a valuable insight aside from the detailed research analysis, is the structure of the conclusion. Usually, most case studies give the outcome and preview screens. However, here we have a showcase of what the designer has learned from the project, what they would do differently, and how they can improve from the experience.

7. Elmenus Case Study

This is a case study by UX designers Marwa Kamaleldin, Mario Maged, Nehal Nehad, and Abanoub Yacoub for redesigning a platform with over 6K restaurants. It aims to help users on the territory of Egypt to find delivery and dine-out restaurants.

  • Overview: What is the platform, why the platform is getting redesigned, what is the target audience. This section also includes the 6 steps of the team’s design process.
  • User Journey Map: A scheme of user scenarios and expectations with all phases and actions.
  • Heuristic Evaluation: Principles, issues, recommendations, and severity of the issues of the old design.
  • First Usability Testing: Goals, audience, and tasks with new user scenarios and actions based on the heuristic evaluation. It features a smaller section that lists the most severe issues from usability for the old design.
  • Business Strategy: A comprehensive scheme that links problems, objectives, customer segment, measurements of success, and KPIs.
  • Solutions: Ideas to solve all 4 issues.
  • Wireframes: 4 directions of wireframes.
  • Styleguide: Colors, fonts, typeface, components, iconography, spacing method.
  • Design: Screens of the different screens and interactions.
  • Second Usability Testing: Updated personas, scenarios, and goals. The section also features before-and-after screenshots.
  • Outcome: Did the team solve the problem or not.

A highly visual and perfectly structured plan and process for redesigning a website. The case study shows how the team discovers the issues with the old design and what decisions they made to fix these issues.

8. LinkedIn Recruiter Tool by Evelynma

A fresh weekend project exploring the recruiting space of LinkedIn to find a way to help make it easier for recruiters to connect with ideal candidates.

  • Background Info: What made the designer do the project.
  • Problem and Solution: A good analysis of the problem followed by the designer’s solution.
  • Process: This section includes an analysis of interviewing 7 passive candidates, 1 active candidate, 3 recruiters, and 1 hiring manager. The designer also includes their journey map of the recruiting experience, a sketch of creating personas, and the final 3 personas.
  • Storyboard and User Flow Diagrams: The winning scenario for Laura’s persona and user flow diagram.
  • Sketches and Paper Prototypes: Sticky notes for paper prototypes for the mobile experience.
  • Visual Design: Web and mobile final design following the original LinkedIn pattern.
  • Outcome: Explaining the opportunity.

This is an excellent UX case study when it comes to personal UX design projects. creating a solution to a client’s problem aside, personal project concepts is definitely something future recruiters would love to see as it showcases the creativity of the designers even further.

9. Turbofan Engine Diagnostics by Havana Nguyen

The UX designer and their team had to redesign some legacy diagnostics software to modernize the software, facilitate data transfers from new hardware, and improve usability. They built the desktop and mobile app for iOS and Android.

  • Problem: The case study explain the main problem and what the team had to do to solve it.
  • My Role: As a lead UX designer on a complicated 18-month project, Havana Nguyen had a lot of work to do, summarized in a list of 5 main tasks.
  • Unique Challenges: This section includes 4 main challenges that made the project so complex. ( Btw, there’s a photo of sketched wireframes literally written on the wall.)
  • My Process: The section includes a description of the UX design process highlighted into 5 comprehensive points.
  • Final Thoughts: What the designer has learned for 18 months.

The most impressive thing about this case study is that it manages to summarize and explain well an extremely complex project. There are no prototypes and app screens since it’s an exclusive app for the clients to use.

10. Databox by FireArt

A very interesting project for Firearts’s team to solve the real AL & ML challenges across a variety of different industries. The Databox project is about building scalable data pipeline infrastructure & deploy machine learning and artificial intelligence models.

  • Overview: The introduction of the case study narrows down the project goal, the great challenge ahead, and the solution.
  • How We Start: The necessary phases of the design process to get an understanding of a product.
  • User Flow: The entire scheme from the entry point through a set of steps towards the final action of the product.
  • Wireframes: A small selection of wireframe previews after testing different scenarios.
  • Styleguide: Typography, colors, components.
  • Visual Design: Screenshots in light and dark mode.

A short visual case study that summarizes the huge amount of work into a few sections.

11. Travel and Training by Nikitin Team

Here’s another short and sweet case study for an app with a complete and up-to-date directory of fitness organizations in detailed maps of world cities.

  • Overview: Explaining the project.
  • Map Screen : Outlining the search feature by categories.
  • Profiles: Profile customization section.
  • Fitness Clubs: Explaining the feature.
  • Icons: A preview of the icons for the app.
  • App in Action: A video of the user experience.

This case study has fewer sections, however, it’s very easy to read and comprehend.

12. Carna by Ozmo

Ozmo provides a highly visual case study for a mobile application and passing various complexities of courses. The main goal for the UX designer is to develop a design and recognizable visual corporate identity with elaborate illustrations.

  • Intro: A visual project preview with a brief description of the goal and role.
  • Identity: Colors, fonts, and logo.
  • Wireframes: The thinking process.
  • Interactions: Showcase of the main interactions with animated visuals.
  • Conclusion: Preview of the final screens.

The case study is short and highly visual, easy to scan and comprehend. Even without enough insight and text copy, we can clearly understand the thought process behind and what the designer was working to accomplish.

13. An Approach to Digitization in Education by Moritz Oesterlau

This case study is for an online platform for challenge-based learning. The designer’s role was to create an entire product design from research to conception, visualization, and testing. It’s a very in-depth UX case study extremely valuable for creatives in terms of how to structure the works in their portfolio.

  • Intro: Introducing the client, project time, sector, and the designer’s role.
  • Competitive Analysis: the case study starts off with the process of creating competitive profiles. It explains the opportunities and challenges of e-learning that were taken into consideration.
  • Interviews and Surveys: Listing the goals of these surveys as well as the valuable insights they found.
  • Building Empathy: The process and defining the three target profiles and how will the project cater to their needs. This section includes a PDF of the user personas.
  • Structure of the Course Curriculum: Again with the attached PDF files, you can see the schemes of the task model and customer experience map.
  • Information Architecture: The defined and evaluated sitemap for TINIA
  • Wireframing, Prototyping, and Usability Testing :  An exploration of the work process with paper and clickable prototypes.
  • Visual Design: Styleguide preview and detailed PDF.
  • A/B and Click Tests: Reviewing the usability assumptions.
  • Conclusion: A detailed reflection about the importance of the project, what the designer learned, and what the outcome was.

This is a very important case study and there’s a lot to take from it. First, the project was too ambitious and the goal was too big and vague. Although the result is rather an approximation and, above all, at the conceptual level requires further work, the case study is incredibly insightful, informative, and insightful.

14. In-class Review Game by Elizabeth Lin

This project was never realized but the case study remains and it’s worth checking out. Elizabeth Lin takes on how to create an engaging in-class review game with a lot of research, brainstorming, and a well-structured detailed process.

  • Intro: What makes the project special.
  • Research: Explaining how they approached the research and what they’ve learned.
  • Brainstorming: the process and narrowing all How Might We questions to one final question: How might we create an engaging in-class math review game.
  • Game Loop and Storyboarding: Sketch of the core game loop and the general flow of the game.
  • Prototyping: Outlining basic game mechanics and rounds in detail.
  • Future Explorations: The case study goes further with explorations showing how the product could look if we expanded upon the idea even further.
  • What Happened?:  The outcome of the project.

This case study tells the story of the project in detail and expands on it with great ideas for future development.

15. Virtual Makeup Studio by Zara Dei

And for our last example, this is a case study that tells the story of an app-free shippable makeover experience integrated with the Covergirl website. The team has to find a way to improve conversion by supporting customers in their purchase decisions as well as to increase basket size by encouraging them to buy complementary products.

  • Intro: Introducing the project and the main challenges.
  • Discovery and Research: Using existing product information on the website to improve the experience.
  • Onboarding and Perceived Performance: Avoiding compatibility issues and the barrier of a user having to download an app. The section explains the ideas for features that will keep users engaged, such as a camera with face scan animation.
  • Fallback Experience and Error States: Providing clear error messaging along with troubleshooting instructions.
  • Interactions: explaining the main interactions and the decisions behind them.
  • Shared Design Language: Explaining the decision to provide links on each product page so users could be directed to their preferred retailer to place their order. Including recommended products to provide users with alternatives.
  • Outcome and Learning: The good ending.
  • Project Information: Listing all stakeholders, the UX designer’s role in a bullet list, and design tools.

In Conclusion

These were the 15 UX case studies we wanted to share with you as they all tell their story differently. If we can take something valuable about what are the best practices for making an outstanding case study, it will be something like this.

Just like with literature, storytelling isn’t a blueprint: you can write short stories, long in-depth analyses, or create a visual novel to show your story rather than tell. The detailed in-depth UX case studies with lots of insights aren’t superior to the shorter visual ones or vice versa. What’s important is for a case study to give a comprehensive view of the process, challenges, decisions, and design thinking behind the completed project .

In conclusion, a UX case study should always include a summary; the challenges; the personas; roles and responsibilities; the process; as well as the outcomes, and lessons learned.

Video Recap

Take a look at the special video we’ve made to visualize and discuss the most interesting and creative ideas implemented in the case studies.

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3 real-world UX research case studies from Airbnb, Google, and Spotify—and what we can learn from them

All successful products have at least one thing in common: they’re driven by thorough and ongoing UX research. Learn how the biggest brands conduct user research with these real-world case studies from Airbnb, Google, and Spotify.

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User research is the foundation of good design. Any successful product you can think of is driven by user insights. And, while all UX designers tap into the same pool of tools and techniques, you’ll find that every team has their own unique approach to user research.

Are you curious about how some of the biggest brands conduct UX research? Then keep reading. In this post, we take a deep dive into three real-world UX research case studies:

  • Airbnb: The power of observing behaviour to uncover design opportunities
  • Google for Education: The importance of user feedback for rapid product adaptation
  • Spotify: The value of human perspectives in a data-driven world

Each of these case studies teaches us a valuable lesson about UX research—lessons you can apply to your own design projects. So let’s jump in!

[GET CERTIFIED IN USER RESEARCH]

UX research case study #1: Airbnb and the power of observing user behaviour to uncover design opportunities

Oftentimes, user research is planned in advance and conducted within a controlled setting—think user interviews , or analysing how people interact with your website over a specific period of time. 

But sometimes, user research occurs organically—like an accidental light shining on a major design opportunity. That’s exactly what happened at Airbnb, leading to the design and launch of a new global check-in tool. 

Vibha Bamba, Design Lead on Airbnb’s Host Success Team, writes: 

“The decision to design the tool was informed by an intriguing host behaviour. We noticed that about 1.5 million photo messages were being sent from host to guest each week—the majority of them to explain location and entry details. Photos of the home were juxtaposed with maps, lockbox locations were described, and landmarks were called out.” 

Observing these behaviours over time, the Airbnb team realised that there was a huge opportunity to make the exchange between hosts and guests much more seamless and consistent. This kicked off a year-long project to design a global check-in tool for the Airbnb platform. 

The result? An integrated check-in tool that enables hosts to create visual check-in guides for their guests. They can upload photos and instructions which the tool will translate depending on the guests’ preferred language, and the guides can be accessed both on and offline. 

And, after launching the tool, the team continued to observe how hosts used it. They were able to flag issues and further design opportunities, adapting and evolving the check-in tool to better meet hosts’ needs. That’s the power of observing user behaviour! 

The takeaway

User behaviour provides us with incredibly rich insights. Don’t rely solely on planned or periodic user research—continuously observe how people interact with your product in the wild, too. You don’t know what you don’t know, and this approach will help you to uncover design opportunities you may not have even thought to look for otherwise.

Read the full UX research case study here: Leveraging Creative Hacks: How the Airbnb Community Inspired a Global Check-in Tool . 

[GET CERTIFIED IN UX]

UX research case study #2: Google for Education and the importance of user feedback for rapid product adaptation  

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, our lives changed almost overnight. Many of us were suddenly working from home, navigating new challenges of communicating and collaborating remotely. 

Teachers were no exception. They had to quickly adapt to teaching online, relying on tools like Google Meet to conduct lessons virtually. But Google Meet was originally designed as a conferencing tool for businesses, so the user experience for teachers and students wasn’t ideal. 

In the words of one tech admin speaking to the Google Meet team: 

“Students are using the tools in a way that makes it hard for teachers to do their job. Teachers can’t mute students, or put them in groups, they can’t ask questions easily to take the temperature of the class. Students are also jumping on the video without supervision—and that’s an issue. I wish there was more control.” 

The Google Meet team needed to act fast to figure out how the software could better meet teachers’ needs. To do this, they went straight to the source, gathering user feedback directly from teachers.

Based on this feedback, they added a range of new features such as attendance taking, hand raising, waiting rooms, and polls. 

The result? A rapidly improved user experience for teachers and students which ultimately benefited all Google Meet users. 

Sometimes, UX designers must think and act fast; there’s not always time for lengthy user research and cautious feature rollouts. When you need to adapt and evolve a product to quickly improve the user experience, it pays to go straight to your users for their feedback. 

Read the full UX research case study here: Adapting Products to Meet Teachers’ Changing Needs . 

UX research case study #3: Spotify and the value of human perspectives in a data-driven world 

Data is a powerful research tool. It enables you to gather and analyse broad and vast user insights, to make evidence-backed decisions, and to track and measure important UX KPIs . 

But, as Nhi Ngo, Insights Manager, User Research & Data Science at Spotify will tell you, it’s important not to become over-reliant on data when conducting UX research. Sometimes, making the best design decision boils down to a human perspective. 

Nhi Ngo came to this realisation when developing and launching a feature called “Shortcuts” on the Spotify Home tab. Powered by machine learning, Shortcuts is a dedicated space that showcases the user’s current favourites, as deduced by Spotify’s algorithms. 

The feature was developed based on data collected through a variety of research methods, including longitudinal user studies and A/B testing . 

So far, so good. But when it came to deciding on a name for the feature, A/B tests came back inconclusive. 

In the end, the name was decided based on the product designer’s instinct to go with the name that would create the most human and personal experience. Nhi Ngo explains:

“A few candidates that were tested were ‘Listen Now’ (the objective that the model optimizes for), ‘Shortcuts’ (the user-facing functionality), ‘Quick Access’ (a UX goal of this space), and last but not least, a daypart greeting, ‘Good morning’ (that would change with the time of day to ‘Good afternoon’ or ‘Good evening’). We were counting on the AB test to help us make this important decision. The test returned neutral. Our designer recommended we go with the daypart name, much to my reservations. 

Indeed, participants were most often positively surprised in our interview sessions whenever they opened their phone and saw the greetings. Convinced by our designer’s humanistic approach and recognising the intangible benefits of providing users with this joy of being ‘greeted by Spotify’, we decided to go with our perspective-taking as humans to humans, and chose the daypart name.” 

The result? A new product feature that evoked delight in Spotify’s users and led to further improvements, such as incorporating more time-based features in the model so that the recommendations changed depending on the time of day (for example, showing sleep music playlists at night). 

Data-driven research is an extremely powerful tool, but it may not always give you the full picture or a conclusive answer. Whenever you conduct and interpret research data, it’s important not to lose sight of your human perspective. 

In the words of Nhi Ngo: “When data can’t give you a definitive answer, it is OK to be human and make a human decision. Prioritise user joy; treat them as you would any human in your life.” 

Read the full UX research case study here: It’s OK to be Human in a Machine-Learned World . 

Learn more about UX research

All of these ux research case studies emphasise the importance of user research in UX design . If you’d like to learn more about UX research, check out the 9 best UX research tools , read about a day in the life of a UX research manager with Google’s Dr. Stephen Hassard , and master the art of analysing your UX research and pulling out useful insights in this guide .

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2 July 2024

5 Principles of Exceptional Case Studies in UX Portfolios

Taylor Palmer

Working on your portfolio?

Check out our new course Master Your UX Portfolio . We’ll show you what hiring managers are looking for and how to make a strong portfolio.

I’ve reviewed hundreds of UX portfolios over the years as a hiring manager and as someone who enjoys building portfolios .

In one instance, I was hiring and job searching at the same time. While reviewing candidates’ portfolios I was also sharing my case studies with employers to find a new role. It was a very unique opportunity to be on both sides of the hiring process at the same time.

Throughout these experiences, I collected thoughts and ideas about what makes a UX case study exceptional .

An exceptional case study is unique

An exceptional case study keeps the audience in mind, show the end result first, refine your lead, answer big questions early, an exceptional case study tells a story, not a process, an exceptional case study answers “why”, wrapping up.

When I started drafting this article I considered developing a template that would be easy to fill out. But you don’t need one. A case study is your own personal experience. You’re the only one who can tell it from your perspective.

This is your story to tell. It doesn’t have to follow the exact formula of every other UX portfolio. Instead, I’ll offer some ideas that can help you find the right approach for your work.

While interviewing candidates, I have come across portfolios from students or coworkers who worked together on the same projects. Their portfolios were indistinguishable, so I had no way to assess their unique skills, perspectives, or contributions. How can you use your case study to showcase what makes you different from other designers?

While every case study should be different, it still has to meet the expectations of a hiring manager. Expectations change based on the size of the company, the maturity of the design team, your seniority level, and the specific role itself. Like any good writer, you need to write for your audience.

I’m going to repeat what others have said many times before: your portfolio is just another design project. You need to understand your user (or reader) and their needs, then develop the right solution for them.

Here are some ways to keep that audience in mind:

  • Highlight important parts of the case study. What are you proud of? What sets you apart? This content should stand out.
  • Pick the right length for your project. Because this is your own story and perspective, there is no perfect length for a case study. However, it should be long enough to interest the hiring manager in talking further. One paragraph is too short, but a diary of the entire project is too long. Aim for the highlights.
  • Use headings to make your case study scannable. This showcases your understanding of typography and hierarchies and makes it much easier to browse.
  • Write descriptive headings. Each heading should work to your advantage. Headings like “Research” and “Wireframes” tell the hiring manager that you did the same thing any other designer would do. How can you use that valuable real estate to give extra context? Instead of “Research” try something like, “Discovering how much customers care about privacy.”

An exceptional case study sets expectations upfront

The first thing your case study should do is set the stage . Create a scene, give your story a setting, and help the reader know what’s coming next.

Start by showing the end result of your project. What did your final design look like? Your readers should how good this is going to be in the end! Then deconstruct and show how it all came together.

Starting with the end result gives the reader a sense of what the project involved (mobile vs desktop, app vs web, enterprise vs customer, etc). It prevents them from having to look for those details while scanning the case study.

This also helps readers frame what else they’re seeing. As they read about your research, data, or exploration they can picture the solution and the format in context.

What’s the shortest way to describe your project while still catching the reader’s attention?

Don’t couch the lead in the middle of a paragraph somewhere. Highlight it and make it stand out! The right pitch could answer many of the hiring manager’s questions right off the bat. Here are some examples to help you think about how you can describe your own project:

  • “After observing almost 30 people watch videos on our e-learning platform I worked with my team to develop a new note-taking system. Usage of our education videos spiked almost 20% shortly after release.”
  • “My team set out to find the root cause of dropping conversion rates in an enterprise SaaS platform. After 6 months we rolled out an entirely new registration process to better showcase the capabilities of the platform. This resulted in a 5% increase in conversions.”
  • “For a school project, I worked with individuals who experienced vision loss to develop an app idea that would improve their movie theater experience. One individual called the idea ‘magical.’”
  • “While attending a UX bootcamp I explored app ideas for how to help owners find their lost dogs and created a mockup based on research.”

In addition to your lead, answering these questions upfront will make for a much better reading experience. You could present this data as bullet points, a table, a short summary — it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that you clearly communicate the context so the reader can accurately understand the story you’re about to tell.

A hiring manager may have questions such as:

  • What platform or OS was this project designed for?
  • Was this in-house, agency, freelance, student, or exploratory work?
  • Was this ever built?
  • Did you work with a team?
  • What was the timeline?
  • What was your role?
  • Was this ever released to the public?
  • If released, how did you define success?
  • What was the outcome?

Answering these questions early not only provides a better reading experience but always satisfies many of the questions you might hear in an interview, as well.

Your case study isn’t a design textbook . It doesn’t need to explain how the design process works (because everyone reading your portfolio already knows it). Instead, it needs to tell a story of a project and your role in it. Show the wild ride you went on as the design process unfolded. What is the unique and compelling story underlying this project? Why should the viewer care?

Here are a few things to keep in mind to help you stay in story mode and out of textbook mode:

  • Stay connected to the problem . Most design projects start with a problem. A reader can’t evaluate your solution if they don’t understand the problem it solves. Ideally, your final solution should clearly solve the initial problem.
  • Connect the dots. What did you learn about people, and how did that impact your design? Many case studies list research insights immediately followed by wireframes. How are these connected?
  • Tell stories with images. Even product screenshots can tell stories. Spend time on them. Make them interesting. Make it easy to understand how it relates to the work (instead of random isometric grids of app designs). Point to the part that’s different. Compare old and new, or ideas that you threw out and others you kept.
  • Show the mess. Your case study doesn’t need to be messy, but your project might be. Messy or negative experiences are okay. Describe the deadlines, the budget constraints, and the limited resources you had to make the project happen. Teams want designers who are still creative under constraints.
  • Show what you learned. Even if your project was a complete disaster you can show how you grew and how you approach design differently as a result. If a project blew up in your face, how did you fix it? If the project funding, what did you learn for next time? No one should expect a flawless project, but everyone should expect to learn from past experiences.

Designers produce a lot of work. We gather sticky notes, produce endless sketches, and create massive canvases of UI exploration. I get it. We do a lot and we want people to know that! Unfortunately, none of that work matters unless we can communicate why it matters.

Why was this the right project? Why was it the right solution for the business? Why was this the best user experience? Why were you valuable to the project?

Photos of whiteboards and sticky notes show that you did work, but don’t show why that work matters. Instead of a photo of your notebook, show what you learned from that exciting synthesis session and how it changed your project!

Here are some things that can help you tell the story of “why”:

  • Insights from a surprising user interview that changed the direction of a project
  • Qualitative observations from usability testing
  • Data and analysis of flows, funnels, and success rates
  • Business goals and strategies that affected your priorities

Some people, like me, love putting together a portfolio. Others dread it. Either way, it’s the current standard for the UX interview process. Be authentic and honest about your work and you’ll find the right fit for you.

This article is more about principles than rigid requirements. These principles are based on my experience and the shared experience of many other talented design leaders. If you deviate from these ideas and find success, please pay it forward so we can all continue to learn and evolve our craft.

Best of luck in creating a great case study!

If this was helpful, consider giving the Twitter thread some love:

The UX case study format is growing stale. Most portfolios follow the same formula, so no one stands out. I’ve reviewed hundreds of UX portfolios. I've been collecting thoughts and ideas about what makes a UX case study exceptional. 👇 — Taylor Palmer (@_taylorpalmer) February 9, 2022

How To Write a UX Case Study in 5 Steps

Cameron Chapman

The first day I sat down to write a UX case study, I had no idea what I was doing. I remember that I wanted to write about an app that I was using constantly, called MyFitnessPal. I had done a bit of research, but when I sat down, my mind went blank and I ended up writing a 900-word diatribe about the social aspects of the app. 

To this day, I can’t believe I had the audacity to show anyone this case study. When I showed my friend, he just laughed at it. 

“This is a Medium article,” he said, “not a case study.”

When you’re starting out as a UX designer , you know that you need case studies for your portfolio. However, there’s not a lot of concrete information out there on exactly what should be in a case study. People have different expectations for UX case studies, but I’ll give you the 5 basic elements they should all include.

{Resource} 

A quick note—case study styles are like Thanksgiving turkey recipes: everyone has one and they all come out a little different, but in the end it won’t ruin the holiday meal. As long as your case study is all meat and bone with no wasted space, it’ll be fine.

Step 1: Define the Scope

Ideally, the first paragraph should tell the reader what you’re planning to talk about. You may want to highlight a problem, show off a stunning design, or highlight a change.

Step 2: Define the problem

Readers of your case study want to see the problem clearly defined. An issue that new UX designers have often is identifying that there is a problem but not identifying the problem itself. A common bad statement might be something like “this app is frustrating for users and they have a high bounce / uninstall rate.” A better statement is something like “users have trouble accessing and understanding their account overview, and navigation to and away from this page is buried in menus.” This outlines the problem clearly and sets you up to solve it concisely over the next few paragraphs. If you’re designing an app from scratch, this section should talk about what problem you are hoping to solve, and why your solution is the cleanest and most effective one. 

Step 3: Define the Audience

Not every app is for everyone. An easy example is something like Blind, which is a forum app designed for tech professionals, particularly engineers, to discuss work life at their jobs. Being designed for tech professionals means that it doesn’t have to necessarily be awe-inspiringly beautiful with jaw-dropping animations. It can be austere, and even a bit spartan since the people using it are working in a heavily analytical industry. Even the job posting section of their website is just an Airtable. 

Understanding your target audience for a product will make analyzing the success of that product much simpler, as design, copy, and architecture should all work together cohesively. 

Step 4: Solve the problem

There are several ways to do this in a single section, but generally, this should be a paragraph or two outlining A) what your solution for the problem is, and B) how you arrived at the solution to this problem. Both are vital to include. An easy way to start is to write something like “I decided to solve this problem by taking these actions,” before outlining the actions you recommend. 

Step 5: Show your work

I’m an ignoramus, so algebra never came easy to me. I especially hated when I would arrive at the right answer and be asked to show my work. What does it matter how I got there? I got the correct answer, didn’t I? Let me be the Algebra II Top Gun of this school and leave me alone. 

Unfortunately, in design case studies showing your work is necessary, and this is where you get a chance to show your UX design process . How did you arrive at this solution? What steps did you take to ensure that you were being circumspect in your reasoning? You can’t be the Diogenes of UX, hanging out in the middle of the agora shouting dichotomies and hoping someone listens. You have to walk the reader through each step of your thought process. 

This is where you get to show off your screens, your prototyped animations, your Tableau repositories, your Typeform and Google Sheets research, your pivot tables, Miro flowcharts, Hotjar heat maps, and beautifully animated PyViz scatter charts. This is where you get to blow your reader’s mind. 

Take a look at the case study example in Derrick's profile , one of the Verified Designers on Uxcel.

A quick tip: Head over to Coolors or Adobe Color and pick out a nice cohesive palette to put all your research in. This is an easy way to ensure that it doesn’t confuse the reader (wait, red is good now?) and looks clean and consistent. 

‍ Writing a UX case study is incredibly important to your career path, especially when first starting out. However, by ensuring that you have every necessary step in your case studies, you can create beautiful qualitative and quantitative research and design that blows your readers’ minds and lands you your dream job. Happy hunting!

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A Study on the Application of Generative AI Tools in Assisting the User Experience Design Process

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  • Hsiu-Ling Hsiao   ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0001-1685-5682 26 &
  • Hsien-Hui Tang   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3987-5598 26  

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 14735))

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Despite its emergent stage, Generative AI has already started to significantly influence the various aspects of user experience (UX) design, introducing both challenges and opportunities for designers. This study employs the case of a mobile banking application by a Taiwanese bank to understand the design process of UX facilitated by Generative AI, aiming to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of incorporating Generative AI into UX design processes. To achieve this research goal, three objectives are proposed: (1) Analyze the benefits and limitations of Generative AI assistance in the UX design process; (2) Provide recommendations for designers to incorporate Generative AI into the design process; (3) Suggest improvements for Generative AI tools to better meet the needs of designers. The research results show that Generative AI tools significantly reduce the time spent by designers on context analysis and the integration of inspiration in the early stages of their projects, allowing for a greater emphasis on creative and strategic tasks. However, the specialized skills of designers remain crucial for improving AI-generated solutions. UX designers adept in strategic questioning and critical thinking demonstrate a significant advantage in working with Generative AI tools.

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    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.

  10. Case Study Club

    Case Study Club is the biggest curated gallery of the best UI/UX design case studies. Get inspired by industry-leading designers, openly sharing their UX process. ... In this case study they openly share their reasoning behind it, how they went about it (including challenges), and their experience from the entire switch.

  11. UX Case Studies: The Ultimate Guide for Product Designers

    A UX case study is a detailed account of a user experience design project, documenting the process, methods, and outcomes. It allows designers to share their problem-solving approaches, decisions, and the impact of their work. A well-crafted case study tells a compelling story, presenting the challenges faced, the strategies employed, and the ...

  12. 20+ Outstanding UX/UI Design Case Studies

    Discover an expertly curated collection of 20+ inspirational UX/UI design case studies that will empower you to create outstanding case studies for your own portfolio. Comprehensive end-to-end case studies covering research, ideation, design, testing, and conclusions. ... Gain insights from the successes and challenges of accomplished designers.

  13. 15 Excellent UX Case Studies Every Creative Should Read

    Just like with every other story, UX case studies also start with an introduction, have a middle, and end with a conclusion. Introduction: This UX case study example starts with a design brief and presents the main challenges and requirements. In short, the UX designer presents the problem, their solution, and their role.

  14. UX Case Studies

    Redesigning the New York Times app — a UX case study. Brief: Timely provide to quick read articles from 2-5 mins. Articles are catered to specific users based on their schedule and habits. ... Exploring the unique challenges of making changes within an open-source, volunteer-led environment. Plus: the importance of prototyping. Alex Hollender.

  15. Lululemon App Redesign: A UX Design Challenge Case Study

    The Start of the Story. A design challenge is a very common task that designers may receive during a UX interview. In my final interview for a product designer position, I got a design challenge ...

  16. 100 example UX problems

    100 Example UX Problems. Find your way around a new city. Fill small amounts of "bored" time in your day with something interesting. Split a check at a restaurant. Split a check at a restaurant between vegetarians and meat-eaters. Split a check at a restaurant between drinkers and nondrinkers. Organize your wardrobe.

  17. 3 real-world UX research case studies from Airbnb, Google, and Spotify

    UX research case study #2: Google for Education and the importance of user feedback for rapid product adaptation When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, our lives changed almost overnight. Many of us were suddenly working from home, navigating new challenges of communicating and collaborating remotely. Teachers were no exception.

  18. UX Challenge

    Work on the challenges in a 45-min session, simulating a whiteboard challenge or an 8-hour session, simulating a take home design exercise. After you're finished, put the case studies in your portfolio. Tell a story of your design process and who you are as a designer, a product thinker and a problem solver.

  19. 5 Principles of Exceptional Case Studies in UX Portfolios

    An exceptional case study is unique. An exceptional case study keeps the audience in mind. An exceptional case study sets expectations upfront. Show the end result first. Refine your lead. Answer big questions early. An exceptional case study tells a story, not a process. An exceptional case study answers "why". Wrapping up.

  20. 10 Tips for Writing a Better UX Case Study (Updated for 2022)

    In the dynamic world of UX design, a case study serves as a showcase of your skills, telling the story of a project from inception to… 3 min read · Feb 17, 2024 1

  21. How To Write a UX Case Study in 5 Steps

    Step 2: Define the problem. Readers of your case study want to see the problem clearly defined. An issue that new UX designers have often is identifying that there is a problem but not identifying the problem itself. A common bad statement might be something like "this app is frustrating for users and they have a high bounce / uninstall rate.".

  22. Sharpen

    Sharpen is a simple, elegant way to create these types of design challenges that are fairly considered for the candidate. Mike ... UX Community & Culture @ Google. Custom generators for hiring & more Use a custom Sharpen design prompt generator in your hiring process, and make hiring designers easier, more ethical, and more efficient. ...

  23. 10 UX/UI challenges for the uninspired (and the unemployed)

    Dribbble Weekly Warmup: 30 Day UX Challenge: Put together by the team of 3 brilliant women of UX Boot Camp, this is a month-long comprehensive challenge that keeps you engaged and knowledgeable about the UX design process. It brushes you up on topics like UX strategy, the importance of persona creation, wireframing, and overall best practices.

  24. Flight price alert: UX Research case study

    Interview 10 users who created price alerts on company and competitors' websites. Price alerts allow users to find cheaper opportunities, monitor variations, and reduce search time. Receiving alerts provides users peace of mind. Different needs due to different travel motivators for traveling (work, leisure, etc.),

  25. Case Study: Tamara. E-commerce mobile app

    The task was to "Introduce a new feature in Tamara that engages Tamara's users in a loyalty program. The program was to allow users get rewarded for referrals, cashback, and writing reviews taking into account how the gamification aspect would work, as well as how the user might apply their rewards". The design deliverables was to provide ...

  26. A Study on the Application of Generative AI Tools in ...

    To explore the pros and cons of Generative AI applications in the UX design process, this study utilized a case study of CUBE App, a mobile banking application in Taiwan's financial sector, following the Three Diamond Design Process (Wang et al., 2022).The design process of the CUBE App was be divided into three stages: Problem distillation, prototype design, and design validation ...

  27. Case Study: UniFees

    Identify the obstacles faced by students in managing their finances during their studies. — Research Methods. The research method used in this case study is an online survey using Google Forms. The survey was distributed to respondents through social media Instagram and WhatsApp. A total of 46 people responded to this survey.

  28. Personalised app-based information for patients with breast cancer: A

    Background: While most Irish oncology patients (pts) report searching for information online, they encounter challenges finding accurate, illness-specific information and understanding the content. Irish oncology pts typically use international online resources due to limited dedicated Irish sources. Information from the clinic is often poorly retained, with up to 40-80% immediately forgotten.

  29. Partners make the urgent case for investing in the health and well

    The events marked the release of, Adolescents in a changing world - The case for urgent investment, a landmark report which finds that failure by stakeholders to increase investments in programmes targeted at improving adolescent well-being would result in staggering social and economic costs.The report, commissioned by PMNCH, working with Victoria Institute of Strategic Economic Studies ...