UX Design Fundamentals · 45 min · 160 XP

Capstone: a case study that shows your thinking

Write a portfolio case study that shows the decisions you made and why, so a hiring manager can see how you think in three minutes.

A hiring manager reviewing portfolios gives each one a few minutes, and they're not looking for pretty screens: everyone has those. They're looking for evidence that you can take a vague problem, find out what's really going on, make trade-offs under constraints, and tell whether it worked. A case study is an argument that you can, built from one project.

A structure that survives a three-minute skim

Summary      One paragraph: the problem, what you did, what changed.
             (Many readers stop here. Make it count.)
Context      The product, the users, the business problem.
Your role    What YOU did, distinct from the team. Team size, length.
Constraints  Deadline, tech limits, no research budget, legal rules.
Process      2–4 key decisions. For each: the options, the evidence,
             what you chose, and what you gave up.
Outcome      What changed, measured if possible. Honest if not.
Reflection   What you'd do differently, and why.

Show decisions, not deliverables. A wall of personas, journey maps and wireframes says you know the methods. What shows judgement is the moment you chose: “We had two weeks and no research budget, so instead of interviews I read 200 support tickets. That showed the problem wasn't the form; it was the confirmation email.” A rejected option and the reason you rejected it is worth more than three polished screens.

Be precise about your role. “We redesigned checkout” hides whether you led it or attended the meetings. Say what you did yourself, and credit what others did. Interviewers will ask, and the case study and your answers need to match.

Outcomes, honestly. A measured result (“completed checkouts rose from 61% to 68% over the following month”) is strong. If you don't have numbers, because the project shipped after you left or was never measured, say so and show the evidence you do have: usability test results, qualitative feedback, what the team did next. Invented or inflated numbers are easy for experienced interviewers to spot, and they undo everything else on the page. If the work is under NDA, change names and details and say that you have.

Choose depth over breadth. Two or three detailed case studies beat eight thin ones. Pick projects that show different strengths, such as one research-led and one systems-led, and put your strongest first.

Your capstone: write one case study to the structure above, about a project of your own or the research, flows and wireframes you produced in this course. Keep the summary to one paragraph and the process to three decisions, each with the option you didn't take. Then ask someone outside design to read it for three minutes and tell you what you did. If they can't, rewrite the summary.

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