What is a UX Case Study?
Case studies are a marketing essential. Businesses use them to show how they help overcome problems to create a successful product. Candidates can use case studies as their portfolio to show their experience and expertise.
Apart from winning over new contracts and getting hired, case studies can be used to generate new ideas and illustrate theories.
Does a UX designer need a case study?
Of course, they need it. Adding case studies to your portfolios is a reflection of your thought process, adaption, aesthetics, and above all, problem-solving approach. In other words, they let us share our ideas, the issues we resolved and are a window of expertise.
But it doesn’t mean “just writing” a ux case study can work. A lacklustre case study lined with superficial details and confusing points won’t sound convincing.
Keep in mind that a UX case study should touch all essential points in a clear and organized way. Here’s how...
Define Target Audience:
A target audience refers to people whom your products and services are aimed at. In your case study, you have to tell about your target audience as well as their concerns and how your product helps them.
Sometimes there might be a lot of things to cover to tell someone about your target audience. That’s acceptable. However, be precise, convincing, and clear through the explanation.
Talk About Problems and Solutions:
Problems are a key character in the plot of your case study. Make sure to explain the problems precisely.
Explaining the issues shouldn’t be challenging.
For example, your case study is based on a website for a supplement for the elderly. So, you present the following issues—
- Aged adults were not able to locate the buttons. The website was too slow to load.
- The website’s fonts weren’t easy to read.
- The images were blurred.
- The forms were not easy to find.
Once you are done with stating issues, present the solutions most convincingly and engagingly. You have to write about how you go through the website to find the issues and what solutions you have chosen and why.
For example, based on the above problems, you can present the solutions as given below—
- The buttons were so tiny and located out of eyesight.
- The website’s contained heavy imagery that affected its load-time.
- The fonts were small and placed inappropriately.
- The images were not of high quality.
- The forms were not placed correctly.
So these are the issues you have found with the website. Now you can talk about how you fixed those problems.
For example, show that you replaced the color scheme to the one that can go well with the elderly. You increased the size of buttons so that they can be easily located by aged adults.
Define Outcome and Deliverables for your UX Case Study:
This is the most important part of your case study. A client or employer is likely to be more curious to know if your solution worked. Of course, you are likely to make the case study of your successful projects.
If you designed a website, you can add some screenshots of previous appearance and the new appearance of the site.
Don’t forget to mention the following things...
- Did you meet the objective?
- What were the results of this project?
- Did it solve problems?
Read Also: Top 7 Techniques for Effective UX Research
What Did You Learn?
Tell prospective employers or clients how this project added to your learning. If something didn’t go according to the plan, explain how you dealt with it. You can talk about new insights gained along the way as well as figuring out a better way to conduct user testing.
Don’t Hesitate to Talk About Your Mistakes:
Everyone makes mistakes. And mistakes are quite common in a complicated process like UX design. Talk about any wrong misconception or a weak hypothesis you made during the process. It will make your UX case study look more authentic and convincing.
Work Over its Presentation:
What is the right tone to present your UX Case study? Well, there is no right tone or style to present your case study. Some people show their case study in plain and technical language. Some present it using flowery language and colorful details. The point is here that you can write your case study in your style you are comfortable with. Make sure to keep it clear, focused, and detailed.
Check your UX Case Study For Errors:
You must have checked your final design before launching it. The same thing goes with your UX case study.
Make sure to check it for spelling and grammar. Determine if the word meant to be “their”, “there” or “they’re”. Don’t struggle with “your and you’re”. Such silly mistakes can ruin a copy of your UX case study, no matter how efficiently you solved the problem. Online tools like Grammarly can help you. Or you can hire a professional proofreader.
Read Also: How to Perform Usability Testing in 5 Steps
Bottom Line:
Writing an effective UX case study is not easy, but it’s worth it. A great case study shows the level of your abilities as a designer; showcase how you thing; talk about your problem-solving approach, and give potential employers or clients an idea of what it might be like to get your services. Above all, you will help your peers solve similar issues, and this ultimately leads to the creation of better designs.
