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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. 

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

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

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

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

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 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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

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 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

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 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 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 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.  

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.

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11 Inspiring UX Case Studies That Every Designer Should Study

A UX case study is a sort of detailed overview of a designer's work. They are often part of a UX designer's portfolio and showcase the designer's skill in managing tasks and problems. From a recruiter's perspective, such a UX portfolio shows the skill, insights, knowledge, and talent of the designer.

Therefore, UX case studies play an important role in the recruitment and demand for designers.

What Makes a Powerful Case Study

Building a UX case study includes showing the design process through compelling stories. They will use plain language to demonstrate how they handled key design issues, offering a comprehensive view of their process. Well done case studies often include:

• A  problem statement and solutions with real applications.
• Relevant numbers, data, or testimonials to demonstrate the work and efforts.
• A story that directly connects the problem to the solution.

Any competent UX professional will know that creating a stunning UX case study is about the little details.

11 Best UX Case Studies for Designers

The best way to understand what a good case study looks like is to go over other examples. Each of these UX case study examples shows a designer's insights, basic skills, and other designers' lessons learned through their experience.

1. Promo.com web editor

For this video-creation platform , UX designer Sascha was brought on to revamp v2.0, adding new features that could work alongside the existing UX design. The point was to work on interface details that would help create a user friendly platform, and that users could find simple enough to use.

User personas mapped by the UX designer revealed the most common confusion to be the process of inserting particular features into the video, such as subtitles. The designer's goal, therefore, was to create a platform with improved editor controls.

The designer then used a common text-editor layout to include top and side navigation bars that made it easy to access and implement text editing.

Key Learnings from Promo.com

This case study focuses on addressing a particular problem that customers were currently facing. Its main theme is to show a problem, and how the product designer addressed this problem. Its strength points include:

• clearly highlighting the problem (i.e. inaccessible and limited video-text editor options)
• conduction research to understand the nature of the problem and the kind of solutions customers want
• implementing research insights into the redesign to create a platform that actively served customer needs

2. Productivity tracker app

The main concept behind this UX case study is to address a pre-existing problem through the design of the app. Immediately from the start, the study highlights a common pain point among users: that of a lack of productivity due to device usage.

This UX case study example addressed some of the main problems within existing productivity apps included:a poor UI and UX that made navigation difficult

• a poorly-built information architecture
• limited functions on the mobile application

Key Learnings from the Productivity app case study

The case study highlights the simple design process that was then used to build the app. Wireframes were created, a moldboard developed, and finally, individual pages of the app were designed in line with the initial goals.

3. Postmates Unlimited

This case study clearly identifies the improvements made to the Postmates app in a simple overview before jumping into greater detail. The redesign goal, which it achieved, was to improve the experience and other interface details of the app.

The problems identified included:

• usability that led to high support ticket volume.
• technical app infrastructure issues that prevented scalability.
• lack of efficient product management, such as batching orders.

A UX research course can help understand the kind of research needed for a case study. The app redesign involved bringing couriers in and running usability testing on improvements. The final model, therefore, had input from real users on what worked and what caused issues.

Key Learnings from Postmates

The Postmates redesign works as a great UX case study for the simple way it approaches problem-solving. Following an overview of the work, it addresses the problems faced by users of the app. It then establishes research processes and highlights how changes were made to reduce these issues.

4. TV Guide

Addressing the fragmentation of content across channels, this case study sought to redesign how people consume media. The key problems identified included:

• the overabundance of content across various TV and streaming platforms
• the difficulty in discovering and managing content across all platforms

To deliver on the key goals of content personalization, smart recommendations, and offering cross-platform content search, the design process included conducting interviews, surveys, and checking customer reviews.

The design of TV Guide enables users to get custom recommendations sourced from friends' and family's watchlists.

Key Learnings from TV Guide

Like previous UX design case studies, this one tackled the issue head-on. Describing the research process, it goes into detail regarding the approach used by the UX designers to create the app. It takes readers on a journey, from identifying pain points, to testing solutions, and implementing the final version.

5. The FlexBox Inspector

Designer Victoria discusses how she developed the investigator tool for the Mozilla Firefox browser. Surveys into understanding the problems with the existing CSS Flexbox tool revealed a need for a user-friendly design. Interviews with a senior designer and other designers helped developers understand the features design-focused tools ought to have. A feature analysis revealed what most users look for in such tools.

The final result of the development process was a design that incorporated several new features, including:

• a new layout
• color-coded design
• multiple entry points to make workflow management efficient

Key Learnings from the Flexbox

This UX design case study starts with a clear goal, then addresses multiple user needs. It clearly defines the design process behind each feature developed by the time, and the reasoning for including that feature. To give a complete picture, it also discusses why certain features or processes were excluded.

6. The Current State of Checkouts

This Baymard UX design case study looks into the checkout process in over 70 e-commerce websites. Through competitive analysis, it isolates problem points in the UX design, which, if addressed, could improve the customer's checkout process.

The study found at least 31 common issues that were easily preventable. The study was designed and conducted on a large scale, over 12 years, to incorporate changing design patterns into the review.

Recommendations based on findings include:

• prominent guest checkout option
• simple password requirements
• specific delivery period
• price comparison tool for shipping vs store pickup

Key Learnings from Checkout Case Study

Each identified issue is backed up by data and research to highlight its importance. Further research backs up each recommendation made within the case study, with usability testing to support the idea. As far as UX case studies go, this one provides practical insight into an existing, widely used e-commerce feature, and offers practical solutions.

7. New York Times App

Using a creative illustration website, the designers proposed a landing page feature "Timely" that could counter the problems faced by the NYT app . Its major issues included too much irrelevant content, low usage, and undesirable coverage of content.

The goal behind Timely was to improve user incentives, build long-term loyalty, and encourage reading. Design mapping for the app covered:

• identifying the problem
• understanding audience needs
• creating wireframes
• designing and prototyping

The end result was an app that could help readers get notifications regarding news of interest at convenient moments (at breakfast, before bed). This encouraged interaction and improved readability with short-form articles.

Key Learnings from NYT App

The UX case study proposes a problem solution that works with an existing information architecture, instead adding custom graphics to the mobile app. It leads from a simple problem statement to discuss the project that could address these issues without changing was customers already loved.

UX case studies focused on redesign include the FitBit redesign, which started off by understanding personas and what users expect from a fitness tracker. Developing use cases and personas, Guerilla usability testing was employed to assess pain points.

These pain points were then ranked based on their importance to users and to app performance. They were addressed through:

• Highlighting essential parts and features of the app
• Changing easily missed icons to more recognizable icons
• relabelling tracking options to guide users better to its usage

Key Learnings from Fitbit

While the case study maps user experiences and offers solutions, it does not begin with an intensive research-based approach. The prototype is successful in testing, but problem factors are not identified with research-based statistics, meaning key factors could have been ignored.

9. Rating System UX

The designer behind the rating system UX redesign sought to solve issues with the 5-star rating system. Highlighted issues included:

• the lack of subjective accuracy of a 5-point rating system
• the issue of calculating the average of a zero-star rating
• average ratings are misleading

Better alternatives include:

• 5-star emoticon rating that relates the user experience
• Like/dislike buttons that make approval/disapproval simple

The final design incorporated both these styles to make full use of the rating system.

Key Learnings from Rating System UX

The UX case study stemmed from insight into the limitations of the existing rating system. The new design addressed old issues and incorporated better efficiencies.

The Intuit redesign was focused on making content readable, more engaging, and accessible. Looking into product personalization, the content was found to be lacking aesthetic value, as well as being hard to find. The goal was to create content that was easy to find, clear, and consistent.

The implemented solutions included:

• increased readability with increased body text and header spacing
• table of contents on the sidebar for easier navigation
• visible and prominent search bar
• illustrations and designs for pretty visuals

Key Learnings from Intuit

The Intuit case study approaches the problem from a practical point of view. It begins with isolating problems with the interface, in particular with the content. This is an example of a case study that breaks down problems into broader categories, and solves each problem with a practical solution.

This UX case study about a social platform tackles a commonly-faced problem from existing platforms. It addresses the issue of recognizing non-monetary user engagement, to help creators identify their user base.

The case study addresses the problem statement and establishes the design process (building wireframes and prototypes) as well as conducting user testing. The final result is to develop "Discover" pages, engaging layouts, and animated interactions to increase usability.

Key Learnings from Jambb

The study goes into detail regarding problem identification, then moves on to propose solutions that take into account the perspective of all stakeholders involved. It then explains why each design decision was made, and proves its efficacy through testing and prototyping.

Key Takeaways

Developing good UX case studies examples is as much about the details you include as the ones you leave out. Going over UX courses can give you a better understanding of what your case study should look like. A good case study should provide an overview of the problem, include numbers and statistics, and offer practical solutions that directly address the problem. The above-discussed UX case studies provide a good example of the dos and don'ts of a well-structured UX design case study that should be part of every UX portfolio .

Additional Resources

Check out these resources to learn more about UX case studies:

8 UX Case Studies to Read

UX Design Case Study

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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.

In the meantime, why not browse through some more related insights on web development and web design?

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20+ Outstanding UX/UI Design Case Studies

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• 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.
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• 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.

The Complete Guide to UX Case Studies

Updated: October 23, 2023

Published: August 21, 2023

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

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

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

Table of Contents

What is a UX case study?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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11 Amazing UX design examples to learn from

Good UX design can make or break the relationship you have with customer. Here are 11 brilliant UX design examples to learn from.

Ray Slater Berry

Adriano Trenahi

Product Design Manager at Eventbrite

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Good UX design can make or break your business’s product and customer relationships. Because of this, products are more people-focused than they’ve ever been. Today, best practices include answering JTBD (jobs-to-be-done) or customer needs, accommodating diverse people, offering easy-to-use interfaces, and delighting users at every step of the journey.

In this article, we’ll take our hat off for some of the most delightful user experience examples we’ve seen in recent years, whether it’s new tech, innovative visuals, or smart—JTBD-focused—experiences. Here are the products that leave users coming back for more, and can inspire best practices to apply in your own UX design strategy.

Grab a cup of something hot, sit back, and enjoy some of the top UX examples at the moment.

Top B2B & B2C UX design examples

UX matters. A PwC survey of 15,000 consumers found that one in three consumers will leave a brand they love after one bad experience. That same survey study found that almost 80% of American consumers say convenience and speed are among the most important factors to a good customer experience.

There’s no denying the wonders good UX design can do for your brand, so let’s take a look at what it looks like in this article.

Airbnb's booking experience

Source: Airbnb

A UX design example most are familiar with, Airbnb is leading the charge when it comes to creating a booking experience that gets the job done for websites. Airbnb has clearly done their research. The homepage design addresses typical pain points travelers have when trying to find accommodation.

The homepage also inspires travelers who are unsure where to go by offering popular destinations nearby. It gives a mix of what people love: entire homes, pet-friendly homes, or unique stays. The action of booking is simple and at the top of the fold. Quick, clear, and user-friendly.

Lesson learned? Research users’ needs and problems in your design process and use the data to determine what matters most to them. Once you know, offer it up on a plate.

Netflix’s autoplay features

Source: Netflix

The autoplay features from Netflix are quite possibly some of the most intrusive and heavily debated UX features to grace the planet.

There are two autoplay features that people have a love/hate relationship with.

• The Netflix ‘play next episode’ feature has made our minds up for us on more than one occasion. It’s a fantastic example of doing a job the user wants to do without even needing to ask.
• Netflix also introduced an autoplay trailer feature as you scroll through their media library—giving users quick insights into the movies and series they hover over. This particular autoplay feature was met with a great deal of controversy and debate.

The second feature forces engagement at the cost of the annoyance of the users and is generally referred to as a Dark UX pattern.

After a general uproar, the time came for Netflix to enable users to switch off this autoplay feature.

You win some; you lose some. Lesson learned ? Test new features with your users before you mass-release. Stay customer-centric, not product-centric, and integrate data-driven user experiences.

Miro’s user onboarding

Source: Miro

Miro does a fantastic job of nudging their user base towards an Aha! moment by focusing on a user’s job to be done.

Miro enables users to build the board they need and learn as they go with modal popups as they navigate their way through building a board. The popups are unobtrusive and tailored to the user’s in-app actions.

Lesson learned ? Helping a user get value from your app and reach their Aha! Moment faster is a key principle of a great user experience. Find small ways to support your users by providing them the information they need upfront to complete their tasks. You can do this in-app, or with email and visit a user’s inbox with product tips, and onboarding bumpers.

Headspace’s inspiring UX retention strategy

With a 4.8 star rating on the app store and over 13k reviews, Headspace is a leader in the online meditation market. Dealing with users looking to overcome stress and anxiety, sleep better, and live a mentally healthier life, it’s critical that the app experience is as smooth as any meditation they practice.

We particularly love the Headspace app’s focus on gamification to build user retention. Much like Duolingo, Headspace manages to bring a competitive edge to the educational world. It offers goals and keeps users active daily on the app with an ongoing streak—pushing people to meditate every day and keep a regular practice.

Lesson learned ? Good UX can help toward critical product success metrics. 90% of users have stopped using an app due to poor performance. A great experience can not only deter someone from leaving, but it can encourage them to use your app even more.

Todoist’s recurring tasks feature

Source: Todoist

Todoist have a wealth of features to help people manage their personal or team tasks. The app is easy to navigate, drag and drop-friendly and gives you that ingrained sense of gratification when you cross a task off a to-do list.

However, the UX design example we particularly want to call out is Todoist’s recurring due dates. It’s a simple feature that showcases Todoist has really done their user research and identified one of their users’ key tasks.

Lesson learned ? Identify your users’ needs by researching their recurring tasks. If there’s a way to simplify or automate a key task, design accordingly.

Mailchimp’s password guidance

Source: Mailchimp

Mailchimp is often championed when it comes to its brand. They sit at the top of the food chain and for good reason. However, it’s not their branding alone that’s doing them favors; it’s the way they deliver it—through innovative UX design and copy.

Their password guidance in their welcome form is a fantastic example of this. No one likes to be told they need their go-to password to be stronger and fulfil criteria it’s never had to before. However, Mailchimp guides users in a friendly way to generate a stronger password. Plus, at the end of it, you get this gratifying checkbox popup. You’re all set!

Lesson learned ? Good UX design can make routine tasks that people typically don’t enjoy more pleasant. Sign-up forms or profile creation can become a great experience with the right UX guidance and design principles.

Revolut’s customizable app

Source: Revolut

Who said we couldn’t enjoy banking? Revolut is leading the charge with its user-friendly banking app that allows users to customize their own experience as they like. For this, they get pride of place in this UX design examples list. Customers can switch out backgrounds, icons, and chop and change the home screen as they see fit.

Lesson learned ? Empower users to make a product theirs by allowing them to tweak the design to fit their preferences.

Duolingo’s gamified experience

Source: Duolingo

We briefly mentioned Duolingo earlier and likened its gamification to that of Headspace, however, Duolingo takes gamification to a whole new level in their UX design.

The platform is fun and friendly while challenging users to keep learning. They manage to make the experience of learning a new language more interesting by combining animations, a light-hearted tone of voice, and gamified UX such as levels, streaks, and more.

Lesson learned ? Gamification still works wonders and it’s expected to be a $30.7 billion market by 2025. Think about ways you can gamify your brand experience. Badges, levels, unlocking new content—all of these features will encourage users to stick around.

Take it a step further and gamify brand communications via email, chat responses, or other communication channels.

Medium’s “clap” feature

Source: Medium

This one’s an oldie but a goldie. Medium’s clap your appreciation feature was fantastically innovative when it first aired, and it still is. It’s a simple yet unique way of showing appreciation as opposed to hitting a like button. We’ve seen it tweaked and adapted over the years—most recently by TikTok.

Lesson learned ? If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. Good UX design doesn’t need to be about reinventing the wheel. If you like a UX design idea and think it will work well with your product or website and audience—then make it your own and try it out.

If it’s simple, joyful, and serves its purpose, you’re on to a winner.

Spotify’s Year Wrapped

Source: Spotify

You’re most likely familiar with Spotify’s end-of-year wrapped stories that flood your social feeds. Spotify makes the list as a top UX design example for the power of data and what it can do for your content.

They share this piece of content in a story format, one that most are familiar with thanks to Instagram and give users one-click options to share their story with friends.

Lesson learned ? Leverage user data stories in your designs and deliver users content that’s entirely unique to them. Spotify gets pride of place on this list of UX design examples for their innovative use of data, sticking to formats people know, and creating an experience that has the potential and ease to go viral.

Glovo’s navigation

Last but not least on our UX design list is Glovo. The app has a tricky job. There’s a high chance people are coming to it hungry, which means they want their need to be met in the quickest way possible.

Glovo not only set up great navigation to find a food source but the UX of their app makes each button clear, and perfectly pairs visuals with copy.

As you click through to find your restaurant, you’re given fewer options and eventually, a list of restaurants broken down by user needs: something fast, something cheap, something rated well.

The entire experience is rapid, done in a few clicks, and fills bellies as quickly as possible. Keeping everyone happy.

Lesson learned ? Remember what your users are here for, and get them to it as quickly as possible.

UX Design FAQs

To help us answer these UX design FAQs, we spoke to Adriano Trenahi , Product Design Manager at Eventbrite (previously eDreams & Mango).

• What is considered good UX design? What is considered bad UX?

“There are standard ways of evaluating UX. The most famous is Jakob Nielsen's 10 general principles for interaction design , also known as usability heuristics—although this does not necessarily apply only to usability.

Personally, I say good UX is when a user can achieve a certain objective in the easiest, fastest, and most pleasurable way possible; considering the situation, environment, and UX tools available .

For example, imagine a person that wants to share a photo on their phone with friends. There are plenty of ways in which you could do that, good UX designers would aim to reduce effort and avoid unnecessary taps by predicting and prompting suggestions on the phone interface. It would also consider more aspects such as voice commands or proximity sensors.

Good UX is unnoticeable most of the time, although a feeling of relief and easiness when completing a task or using a service are positive indicators.

Adriano Trenahi , Product Design Manager at Eventbrite

That feeling of relief and easiness when completing a task or using a service are also indicators of good UX.

Bad UX, on the other hand, is very noticeable as it generates frustration, annoyance, and anxiety, whether in a user’s app or inbox. It can make a user feel stupid when that’s not the case.

An excellent example of that? Norman Doors. A Norman door is a door whose design tells the person to do the opposite of what they're supposed to do. Watch this video from VOX , and to better understand how bad UX is embedded in our world.”— Adriano Trenahi, Product Design Manager at Eventbrite

• Is it possible to have good UX with bad UI?

“In my opinion, no. They go hand in hand. UX is only good when its aesthetics follows. Imagine creating a great product or service but displaying them with hard-to-read typography, a small or super big button, a color palette that is perceived as untrustful, or images that are disrespectful to a particular culture. Those are essential aspects that you need to consider, and your product or service won't thrive if you don’t nail them all.” — Adriano Trenahi, Product Design Manager at Eventbrite

• What does a UX designer do?

A UX designer (user experience designer) focuses on building a positive experience for someone and a business’s product. UX designers are typically responsible for user research, creating design solutions, and user testing. UX designers are the in-house voice of the customer.

20 of the Best UX Portfolio Examples

So, you’re looking for some UX portfolio inspiration?

Making sure you’ve got an impressive portfolio to your name is important for both fresh-faced UX designers and seasoned industry veterans.

In this article, we’ll try to inspire you with awesome UX portfolio examples and UX design portfolio best practices.

The 20 Best UX Portfolios

Without further ado, here are our picks of the best UX design portfolio examples.

1. Gloria Lo nails the high-impact introduction

Who is gloria lo.

Gloria Lo is a self-taught product designer based in Sydney, Australia. In her own words, she is passionate about improving the lives of others through design and is constantly looking to learn new things every day.

What makes Gloria’s UX design portfolio so great?

One of the first things your UX portfolio should do is introduce you as a designer. Employers and potential clients want to know who you are and what you’re all about—and they should be able to find this out within seconds of landing on your portfolio website.

Gloria has nailed her designer introduction with a three-tiered approach. First, she treats us to a bold, eye-catching headline that describes her in terms of her favorite activities.

In just four simple verbs, we know that Gloria is a creative, multi-talented soul with quite a few hobbies in her repertoire. Oh, and these verbs “light up” in different colors when you hover over them—a nice additional dash of personality!

After such an enticing headline, we’re inevitably curious to know more about Gloria—and sure enough, her portfolio delivers. Directly beneath that unmissable heading, Gloria tells us exactly what she does and what she’s passionate about in just two sentences.

Gloria has mastered the delicate art of brevity while still managing to convey the most important information—not an easy feat!

By now, Gloria has well and truly piqued the viewer’s interest. Luckily, her portfolio also features a comprehensive “About” page, complete with a video, a section detailing her values (with the help of emojis), a very thorough testimonial from a former employer, and links to her music and artwork.

What can we learn from Gloria Lo?

When it comes to your own UX design portfolio, make like Gloria and be sure to include a meaningful introduction. Keep it compact yet high-impact on the home page, and then provide more detail in a dedicated “About” section.

Besides crafting a gripping “about me” statement, try to inject a bit of personality into the visual design, too—just like Gloria’s colorful hover effect.

Key takeaway

The viewer should know exactly who you are and what you do within seconds of landing on your UX design portfolio. Craft a compelling headline that provides all the most important information at a glance.

View Gloria Lo’s full portfolio website

2. Moritz Oesterlau masters the art of storytelling through case studies

Who is moritz oesterlau.

Moritz Oesterlau is a multi-skilled product/UX designer based in Germany. He also dabbles in interface design and frontend development.

Moritz studied UX design with CareerFoundry and is now part of the Global Goals Curriculum 2030 team, helping to shape a democratic, just, and sustainable society through the power of education.

What makes Moritz’s UX design portfolio so great?

Moritz’s portfolio really gets to the heart of what UX design is all about: going through a process to solve a user problem. Moritz doesn’t just show the finished product; he shares, in detail, all the methods and processes that got him there.

Each project is presented as a case study, which immediately tells us we’re in for a lot more than just eye candy.

Click on any one of these case studies and you almost feel like you’re in the room with Moritz himself—a fly-on-the-wall as he works through his UX design process.

Take the Approach to Digitization in Education case study , for example. Moritz leaves no stone unturned, documenting the project from start to finish.

He takes us on a logical journey, putting the design challenge into context before going through competitor analysis , interviews and surveys, building empathy and creating user personas , defining the information architecture , wireframing , prototyping, and usability testing .

For each step, he explains what he did, why he did it, and what he learned as a result.

What can we learn from Moritz Oesterlau?

When showcasing your UX design work, follow Moritz’s example and place your process front and center. You’ll notice that Moritz doesn’t show the finished product until the very end of each case study, and that’s because he’s telling a logical story.

With each case study, start from the beginning and guide the viewer through the main steps that led you to the final solution. It’s okay to include screenshots of a beautiful end product, but make sure you’ve documented your process in detail first.

Showcase your process, not just the finished product. Write about the methods you used, what you learned along the way, the challenges you came up against, and how you solved certain problems. Each case study should tell a complete, logical story.

View Moritz Oesterlau’s full portfolio website

3. Elizabeth Lin reigns supreme with visual storytelling

Who is elizabeth lin.

Elizabeth Lin is a San Francisco-based product designer and self-proclaimed fashion, teaching, and classical saxophone enthusiast.

What makes Elizabeth’s UX design portfolio so great?

Elizabeth Lin’s portfolio provides another excellent example of storytelling. Just like Moritz, she presents her design work in the form of case studies, documenting her process from start to finish.

What really stands out in Elizabeth’s portfolio, though, is her use of visuals to support the narrative she’s weaving.

Each point in her case study is illustrated with some kind of visual element—be it a virtual wall of Post-it notes, a survey form that was sent to research participants, or early-stage prototypes.

Another effective storytelling technique that Elizabeth uses is to include little bitesized notes and reflections down the right-hand side.

Set in a different font and color to the main body text, these snippets catch your eye as you scroll.

They provide further, more personal insights into the project—such as “It was cool seeing how differently teachers would use this dashboard” or “We didn’t move forward with this exploration because we wanted to validate the base solution first.”

Supporting your case studies with visual artifacts really brings the project to life. Elizabeth’s portfolio illustrates perfectly how visual and textual storytelling should work together to demonstrate your UX design process.

What can we learn from Elizabeth Lin?

The aim of your UX portfolio is to both show and tell. Just like Elizabeth, support each case study with meaningful visuals—that is, real artifacts from your project, not just illustrations.

Every time you work on a new design project, document your process: take screenshots of user research surveys you send out, snap photos of your wall covered in sticky notes after a heavy brainstorming session, and keep hold of your wireframes as they progress from low to high fidelity.

When it comes to adding a new case study to your portfolio, these artifacts will help you tell a logical story.

Don’t just tell the story of each project; bring it to life with visual artifacts. For each step you go through in your case study, include a photo or screenshot of how it looked in action.

View Elizabeth Lin’s full portfolio website

4. Olivia Truong showcases her approach to problem-solving

Who is olivia truong.

Olivia Truong is a product designer based in Boston, Massachusetts. In her own words, Olivia likes to go out into the world and capture its beauty and weirdness.

What makes Olivia’s UX design portfolio so great?

Above all else, UX designers are problem-solvers. Your UX design portfolio should therefore demonstrate how you identify and tackle a variety of user problems. Olivia’s portfolio does a great job of this, as you’ll see in her Routr case study .

Olivia kicks off her case study by framing the problem in a personal, relatable way. She doesn’t just talk about the “user” problem—she frames it as “our” problem, inviting the reader to step into the user’s shoes, just as she has done.

Next, Olivia explains, in detail, how she set about trying to solve this problem—in a section aptly named “There Must Be Something Out There”. We learn how she scoured the internet and App Store for a solution, only to find that none of the existing solutions fit the bill.

In the section that follows, “Taking The Dive”, Olivia shares the next steps in her problem-solving journey: brainstorming the elements of a successful date.

After thoroughly framing the problem and describing her approach to solving it, Olivia moves onto “The Making Of Routr.” Notice how, even when talking about her solution, Olivia consistently refers back to the original user problem.

Olivia’s portfolio portrays her as a thoughtful problem-solver—granting her huge bonus points in the eyes of any recruiter or potential client. This focus on problem-solving also conveys another essential UX trait: empathy for the user.

When reading Olivia’s case study, you don’t get the feeling that she’s just going through the motions; she’s genuinely engaged in the problem and how she can solve it for the user. That’s the sign of a passionate UX designer!

What can we learn from Olivia Truong?

UX designers are problem-solvers, so make sure your portfolio reflects that. There are two key lessons we can learn from Olivia’s portfolio: first, start each case study by framing the problem in detail, and second, frame the problem in a way that conveys empathy.

Above all, think about the language you use. Don’t just state the problem; relate to it and put some emotion behind it! Olivia describes how planning dates was a “headache” because “coming up with ideas was not the easiest thing to do in our busy lives.”

This is much more personal and empathy-driven than if she’d said “Users struggle to come up with date ideas because they’re so busy.” Last but not least, refer back to the original problem throughout—even when you progress to the solution.

Your UX design portfolio should demonstrate your approach to problem-solving. Kick off each case study by framing the problem in detail, using emotive language to convey empathy. Refer back to the problem throughout.

View Olivia Truong’s full portfolio website

5. Priyanka Gupta is the queen of the unsolicited redesign

Who is priyanka gupta.

Priyanka Gupta is a product designer and tech enthusiast based in San Francisco. Aside from creating awesome user experiences, Priyanka is also pretty active on Medium .

What makes Priyanka’s UX design portfolio so great?

Early on in your UX career, you might struggle to fill your portfolio with real projects. As your career progresses, you might look for ways to make your portfolio stand out. So what can you do?

Cue the unsolicited redesign à la Priyanka Gupta.

When Priyanka runs into bad UX, she can’t help but do something about it. Where most of us might just abandon ship and find an alternative product, Priyanka goes above and beyond: she redesigns the entire experience!

So, in addition to real client projects, Priyanka’s UX portfolio also showcases some rather impressive unsolicited redesigns.

One can’t help but be impressed by Priyanka’s initiative and drive. She’s gone out of her way to redesign an entire digital experience, just because she’s passionate about good UX—how cool is that?!

What’s also interesting is how Priyanka chooses to showcase these redesigns. She could just stick to the standard case study format, but as we know, she’s the kind of designer who likes to go above and beyond.

Click on one of her unsolicited portfolio pieces and you’ll be taken to a full-on, published blog post. Nice!

Despite the fact that these unsolicited redesigns are pure “passion projects”, Priyanka lends them the credibility they deserve by documenting her process in detail.

In her redesign of the Sephora iOS app , she starts by framing the problem: “Despite using the app religiously, I had trouble navigating through it. After observing that other people also experienced issues with the app, I pursued this redesign as an opportunity to improve the experience in any way I could.”

What follows is a detailed breakdown of every step she took to redesign the app, from brand analysis, user research, and affinity mapping , right through to persona creation, prototyping, and implementation—not forgetting those all-important visual artifacts that are absolutely crucial to UX storytelling!

What can we learn from Priyanka Gupta?

Priyanka is an experienced UX designer who presumably has plenty of real projects for her portfolio. This doesn’t stop her from conducting unsolicited redesigns when she comes across intolerably bad UX—as she puts it, it’s like an itch she just needs to scratch!

If you’re a new UX designer trying to build up your portfolio, take a leaf out of Priyanka’s book and complete some unsolicited redesigns of your own. This is a great way to demonstrate initiative and show that you’re a proactive designer who is willing to go the extra mile.

Just as Priyanka does, be transparent about the fact that these are unsolicited projects—a simple disclaimer is all you need.

Another valuable takeaway from Priyanka’s portfolio is the power of blogging. Priyanka doesn’t just limit herself to her portfolio website; she also shares her case studies and tips via Medium (where she’s accrued over a thousand followers!).

There are many different ways to share your process, so don’t be afraid to try a multichannel approach.

Unsolicited redesigns are an excellent way to build up your UX portfolio and demonstrate your initiative as a designer. As always, frame the problem, document your process, and tell a good story—and don’t forget to include a disclaimer.

View Priyanka Gupta’s full portfolio website

6. Lola Jiang delivers measurable outcomes and metrics

Who is lola jiang.

Lola Jiang is a California-based UX designer currently working at Google. Lola’s impressive resume includes having worked at YouTube as an interaction designer.

What makes Lola’s UX design portfolio so great?

One of the biggest challenges you’ll face as a UX designer is measuring and demonstrating the impact of your work. You know you’ve improved the user experience, but how do you substantiate that?

Look no further than Lola Jiang’s portfolio. Lola does an extremely important (yet scarce) thing: she puts the measurable impact of her UX design in the context of business needs.

Take her AI Training Platform case study, for example. Following a brief introduction to the project (literally one sentence), Lola offers the project’s outcomes: “The new design reduced task times by 68% and improved users’ subjective satisfaction by 139%.”

It’s immediate and impactful. Lola then takes us through the flow of the project, outlining the scale and scope of the work. She details the challenges, different iterations, and design, and clearly demonstrates the motivations behind decisions.

Lola rounds off her case study with a post-relaunch analysis, using concrete data to validate the final redesign: “With the original design, the set of tasks took 19 minutes. With the new design, the set of tasks took 6 minutes. Nearly 68%. Users’ subjective satisfaction with the new design (4.3/5) was 139% higher than the original design (1.8/5).”

What can we learn from Lola Jiang?

Lola does a great job of showing how she works in a business setting. This is crucial if you want to practice UX for a living, but it’s a trick that many designers tend to miss. While it’s true that you’re there to advocate for the user, it’s also important to recognize that companies have their own goals to meet—and you need to show how UX contributes to that.

If, like Lola, you can demonstrate how your work brings value, you’ll set yourself up for some serious bonus points. If you have data related to the project, this will be easy—but what if there aren’t any concrete metrics to showcase?

Even without data, you can frame your work in a business context. Set a business or product goal at the start of the case study. What do you hope your work will achieve? This is separate from the user goal, but the two should go hand in hand.

For example, creating a more pleasant app experience for the user should help to boost customer retention.

Likewise, establish a few success metrics before you begin. How will you measure the impact of your work? What tell-tale signs will you look out for after you’ve launched or relaunched the product? The best UX designers are those who can advocate for the user while meeting the needs of the business, so try to convey this throughout your portfolio.

Use your portfolio to demonstrate how you add value to the business. Set business goals and success metrics for each case study, and, where possible, include data and tangible outcomes.

View Lola Jiang’s full portfolio website.

7. Daniel Autry features “just the right amount” of portfolio projects

Who is daniel autry.

Daniel Autry is a designer, developer, and behavioural researcher based in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is fascinated by the social product space and is currently researching the intersection between technology and mental illness.

What makes Daniel’s UX design portfolio so great?

Daniel Autry’s portfolio features some remarkable work in the mental health space, but that’s not the only reason he’s made it onto this list. Daniel’s portfolio also helps to answer that all-too-common conundrum: What’s the “right” amount of projects to showcase in your UX design portfolio?

Before we go any further, let’s be clear on one thing: There’s no “magic number” when it comes to portfolio projects. Some people will tell you five, others will say three—you might even hear that one is enough!

Daniel has opted to showcase four projects in his UX portfolio, and while we’re not saying that he’s found THE magic number, it is a magic number of sorts.

In other words, Daniel has found the number that works for him: He features just enough projects to showcase his range as a designer while still keeping it limited enough so as not to overwhelm the user—smart UX design in action!

In the space of just four featured case studies, we see that Daniel is a versatile designer who has worked on a variety of projects across a range of sectors—from mental health to financial trading to e-learning. So, it’s not just about how many projects you showcase; it’s just as important to pick a good variety.

Besides his four featured projects, Daniel’s portfolio also includes a section dedicated to “Other Works”. Here, he links to articles he’s written on Medium, additional projects he’s worked on, as well as upcoming endeavors.

This is a great way to divide your portfolio, especially if you’re struggling to decide which of your best work should feature!

What can we learn from Daniel Autry?

Daniel’s portfolio teaches us an important lesson about the “right” number of portfolio projects: There isn’t one! Every UX designer is unique, and your portfolio should reflect that.

Don’t get too hung up on whether you should include three projects or five; focus instead on selecting a handful of projects that best showcase who you are as a designer.

If you want to brand yourself as a versatile, adaptable designer, feature as diverse a variety of projects as possible.

If you see yourself as a specialist in a certain industry, highlight the projects that demonstrate this. At the same time, don’t overwhelm the viewer: a hiring manager looking through your portfolio probably won’t browse through ten UX case studies, so choose wisely!

There is no hard-and-fast rule when it comes to how many projects you should feature in your portfolio. Choose a good enough variety to showcase your skillset, while keeping it minimal enough so as not to overwhelm the user. If you’ve got lots more work you want to showcase, add a separate section.

View Daniel Autry’s full portfolio website

8. Vera Chen highlights the importance of context

Who is vera chen.

Vera Chen is a product designer and former Facebook intern. She has a Master’s degree in Human-Centered Design and Engineering, and has also dabbled in singing and acting.

What makes Vera’s UX design portfolio so great?

Not only is Vera’s portfolio a beautiful thing to behold (just look at those illustrations!); it also highlights the importance of context when presenting your UX work.

Vera doesn’t just outline the problem statement for each case study—she steeps it in a solid back story, describing the events that led her there. She also clearly explains her role on each project, who she worked with, and what design and prototyping tools and methods they used.

Just by including these few extra details, Vera paints a clear picture of what the project entailed and how she contributed. Another excellent example of UX storytelling!

Let’s take Vera’s Wedding Library case study , for example. See how she dedicates two whole sections to setting the scene? First, there’s the project background which lays out the scope of the project. Then there’s the context section, a detailed story about newlyweds Murphy and Diana and the frustrations they faced when planning two weddings.

Vera doesn’t just tell us what the problem is. She shows us exactly how it came to light, and in what capacity she was employed to help solve it. By the time we scroll down to Vera’s process, it’s easy to see where each step fits into the overall project.

It’s a bit like reading a novel: you need a little bit of background before you can start relating to the characters and the plot.

What can we learn from Vera Chen?

There are two very simple yet effective takeaways to be had from Vera’s portfolio. First and foremost, provide plenty of background context—this works wonders when telling the story of each case study.

Vera doesn’t start with the problem statement; she sets the scene, describing the people, events, and circumstances that surround and lead up to this particular design challenge. Aim to precede your problem statement with a small paragraph dedicated to “setting the scene”.

Secondly, state your role on each project. What were you commissioned to do? Where did you fit into the overall team? At the same time, listing your teammates is a nice touch; UX design is a highly collaborative field, so it’s important to demonstrate individual value while acknowledging that the end result was a team effort!

For each case study in your UX portfolio, provide as much context as you can. Set the scene with a brief backstory before launching into your problem statement. This includes stating your role on the project and, if necessary, who you worked with.

View Vera Chen’s full portfolio website

9. Zara Drei bedazzles with awesome UX and UI

Who is zara drei.

Zara Drei is a London-based UX designer. When she’s not solving problems with beautiful, user-centric web products, you can find her playing around with electronics, making video loops, building ceramic and metal sculptures, or producing electronic music.

What makes Zara’s UX design portfolio so great?

We’ve talked a lot about the importance of showcasing your UX design process. Now it’s time to contemplate the power of beautiful UI! This brings us to Zara Drei’s portfolio—the epitome of digital elegance.

Zara specializes in creating digital products and experiences for luxury, fashion, and beauty brands, and this is reflected in every detail of her portfolio.

In fact, scrolling through Zara’s portfolio is like wandering through the beauty department of a high-end store, or flipping through the pages of a glossy magazine—and that’s no accident.

She has given as much thought to her color palette , typography , and imagery as she has to writing up her case studies and sharing her process. The result? A flawless portfolio that truly makes its mark.

What can we learn from Zara Drei?

Your UX design portfolio is not just a website—it’s part of your personal brand. Like your case studies, the overall aesthetic of your portfolio should tell a story about who you are as a designer. Consider how Zara uses color and imagery to evoke a sense of luxury throughout her portfolio; how can you create a similar effect?

Spend some time figuring out your personal brand. Are you fun and quirky? Artsy and edgy? Corporate and serious? Perhaps you’re all about eco-friendly design.

Once you’ve got a theme in mind, you can start to think about the kinds of colors and imagery that will help to convey this. Just because you’re a UX designer doesn’t mean you can neglect the visual design of your portfolio.

Your portfolio should embody your personal brand, so treat it like any other UX project and give it the high-shine finish it deserves!

Your portfolio website should reflect your personal brand, and visual design plays a crucial role. The best portfolios offer the full package—detailed case studies wrapped in stunning UI design and flawless UX—so aim to tick all the boxes!

View Zara Drei’s full portfolio website

10. Minimalism from Victoria Kazakova

Who is victoria kazakova.

Victoria Kazakova is a Polish UX designer, web developer, and photographer. 

What makes Victoria’s UX design portfolio so great?

In the enormous and sometimes confusing online world we trawl through daily, Victoria Kazakova’s UX portfolio wins the prize for clarity and ease of understanding. 

Throughout Victoria’s portfolio, she sticks to a minimalist design palette and clear signage, a simplicity that makes for a delightfully smooth read. 

Better still, words that spring up on command stroll through the portfolio, leading the reader from section to section. 

Charts and graphics displaying her skills and experience are so simple they appear iconic. There’s no chance the reader could feel lost or confused.  

What can we learn from Victoria Kazakova?

When it comes to graphic design, sometimes simplicity is best. The last thing you want to happen when someone reads over your portfolio is for them to feel overwhelmed with data.

Victoria’s portfolio is a great example of how responsive screens can ease the user’s journey through pages of information. 

Don’t be tempted to overload. Stick to two classy fonts and an inoffensive colorway. These simple building blocks can lead the user’s eye as they navigate your work. 

View Victoria Kazakova’s full UX portfolio

11. Yu-Hsuan offers zero-gravity UX

Who is yu-hsuan.

Yu-Hsuan is a UX designer, currently working for Google as an interaction designer. 

What makes Yu-Hsuan’s UX design portfolio so great?

Yu-Hsuan’s impressive role at Google means that many of her current projects are “locked” due to non-disclosure agreements. This is a common problem in the UX design community and a hurdle many designers face when putting together their portfolios. 

Yu-Hsuan’s deft solution is to focus on the illustrative side of her UX portfolio, which showcases her passion and side projects as a graphic designer and game designer. 

She also uses her illustrations to depict the otherwise locked aspects of the projects she’s describing. This gives a lovely cohesion with the rest of the content in her portfolio and reduces the jarring effect locked projects can sometimes have. 

The floating designer illustration that seems to hover over the portfolio is very cool and points at a sense of fun and creativity necessary to succeed in illustration and gaming. 

What can we learn from Yu-Hsuan?

Through her illustrations, Yu-Hsuan has subtly displayed her UX skills in her portfolio itself. 

This visual approach means the separate parts of the portfolio hang together perfectly, even when some of the projects are locked off. 

Another tip from Yu-Hsuan is to be approachable in your portfolio. Dropping in the line “Please contact me if you want to go through the case study” gives a real sense of openness, collaboration, and sharing. 

If you can’t show direct evidence of a project, don’t hesitate to get creative. A strong visual style not only shows off your design chops but helps a large portfolio hang together nicely. Also, be approachable!

View Yu-Hsuan’s full UX portfolio

12. A holistic introduction to Cristina Gafitescu

Who is cristina gafitescu.

Romania-based Cristina Gafitescu is a junior UX designer with a playful approach to visual design.

What makes Cristina Gafitescu’s UX design portfolio so great?

Cristina’s UX portfolio makes a great first impression as it tells her story in an interesting-to-follow, visually engaging way. 

Her playful page layouts and graphics show Cristina’s panache as an illustrator and designer. They also provide a great backdrop as she offers a holistic introduction to herself. 

Through a post-it note, almost diaristic approach, the reader really gets a feel for what kind of person Cristina is, her education and experience, and what attracted her to UX in the first place. 

That’s not to say this portfolio is totally informal. Cristina also does a great job of showing her processes, identifying problems (with a focus on UX research), solutions, and testing. 

When the temptation may be to opt for oblique, abstract graphics that display your design chops in the coolest terms, save a thought for a more intimate approach. 

Cristina’s portfolio is emotionally honest, charming, and informative. The effect on recruiters—especially those suffering from portfolio fatigue—is likely persuasive. 

View Cristina Gafitescu’s full UX portfolio

13. The spatial awareness of Rucha Moghe

Who is rucha moghe.

Rucha Moghe is a UX designer with a background in architecture based in India. 

What makes Rucha Moghe’s UX design portfolio so great?

From start to finish, Rucha’s UX portfolio ticks all the right boxes. It’s visually strong and easy to digest. Her user journey map is smart and in context, and the user flows, wireframes, and usability study are all useful.    

Tehni: A Plant App is an especially great case study and easy to follow. On the whole, Rucha’s portfolio is incredibly strong on user personas. 

As Rucha suggests, her background as an architect provides her portfolio with a great sense of user-centered design principles, spatial awareness, and problem-solving skills transferable to digital spaces. 

No space feels wasted, nothing is jumbled, and the reader never feels lost or confused. This is architectural elegance in portfolio form. 

Reinventing the wheel in your portfolio isn’t necessarily a good idea. Rucha’s portfolio nails the basics: it’s logical with an easy-to-follow narrative that shows how user problems were solved. It’s bold and eye-catching and features great user personas.

View Rucha Moghe’s full UX portfolio  

14. Nguyen Duc Thang’s deep case studies

Who is nguyen duc thang.

Nguyen Duc Thang is a UX designer based in Hanoi, Vietnam. Although just starting in his career, Nguyen Duc Thang knows how to put together a really strong portfolio. 

What makes Nguyen Duc Thang’s UX design portfolio so great?

Much like Rucha Moghe, Nguyen Duc Thang’s UX portfolio gets the basics right despite the difference in experience. 

Nguyen Duc Thang’s branding is particularly strong, with eye-catching graphics consistently holding the content together throughout the document. 

After introducing himself, Nguyen Duc Thang covers his skills and qualifications before launching into extensive case studies. No stone is left unturned in these exhaustive examples, which detail wireframing, prototyping, testing, user personas, visual design, and information architecture. Bravo! 

Don’t scrimp on your case studies. Tell the world how you nailed that project, from top to tail.

View Nguyen Duc Thang’s full UX portfolio

15. Precocious design from Gilbert Christian

Who is gilbert christian.

Gilbert Christian is an Indonesian UX design student in the early stages of his career. As Gilbert mentions in his portfolio, he’s open to all manner of part-time, voluntary work, or UX internship programs. 

What makes Gilbert Christian’s UX design portfolio so great?

Despite his relative inexperience, Gilbert’s UX portfolio is extremely easy on the eye, with strong data visualization and imagery leading you from one page to the next.   

Gilbert’s case studies show a maturity beyond his experience, with thorough documentation giving us insight into his work processes. 

Gilbert’s portfolio is stunning and applies the same key UX design principles present in his work. 

If in doubt, build a logical narrative showing how a problem was understood, defined, and solved. 

View Gilbert Christian’s full UX portfolio

16. Valentina Gigli’s bold branding

Who is valentina gigli.

Valentina Gigli is a junior UX designer based in Argentina.  

What makes Valentina Gigli’s UX design portfolio so great?

Aside from the bold color scheme and font choice, Valentina keeps things simple with her portfolio. 

After introducing herself, Valentina discusses her “aptitude palette”, before moving on to her design examples. 

Whether you’re a fan of purplish magenta or not, the bold titles and lurid colors certainly make for clear signposting and remain in the mind’s eye for some time after looking away, a key sign of successful branding. 

When it comes to color schemes and fonts, it’s tempting to play it safe. Taking some risks may mean your portfolio pops out from the crowd.

View Valentina Gigli’s full UX portfolio

17. Aleyna Aykanat raises a smile

Who is aleyna aykanat.

Akeyna Aykanat is a Turkish UX designer with skills in public speaking, 3D product modeling, and graphic design.

What makes Aleyna Aykanat’s UX design portfolio so great?

Aleyna’s work is in monochrome black and white, with grainy charcoal textures offering depth to each slide. 

The result feels mature and assured—and Aleyna has the content to match it, too. 

After what feels like a serious offering, Aleyna offers something of a UX visual joke at the end of her portfolio, including a fake loading page, before bidding us farewell. 

Overall, it leaves one with the impression of Aleyna as a fun-loving lateral thinker—just the kind of person we’d like on our team. 

Many UX design portfolios are made using guidelines shared amongst tens of thousands of junior designers at bootcamps and other learning establishments. 

These cookie-cutter portfolios can feel a little soulless and may result in recruiters developing a kind of portfolio fatigue. 

As Aleyna shows so elegantly, including a curveball element—in this case, the joke towards the end of her portfolio—shows the portfolio has been assembled with care and craft, not painted by numbers.  

View Aleyna Aykanat’s full UX portfolio

18. Sharon Kravanja’s scrapbook stylings

Who is sharon kravanja.

Sharon Kravanja is a Parisian UX designer at the beginning of her career.

What makes Sharon Kravanja’s UX design portfolio so great?

From the outset, Sharon makes no bones about her very junior status as a UX designer. This is reflected in her opening statement and the primitive doodles that annotate and decorate each portfolio page. 

Despite this seemingly youthful approach, Sharon’s visual scrapbook style demonstrates impressive self-branding. Scribbles and sweeps bring cohesion to all the moving parts of the portfolio while playfully communicating Sharon’s self-awareness as an inexperienced but sincere and brave designer. 

Be yourself. A recruiter will sooner remember Sharon’s somewhat youthfully exuberant portfolio over safer designs.

View Sharon Kravanja ’ s full UX portfolio

19. Sophisticated graphics from Anna Hlushko

Who is anna hlushko.

Anna Hlushko is a Ukrainian UX designer with a self-professed focus on minimalism. 

What makes Anna Hlushko’s UX design portfolio so great?

Anna Hlushko’s portfolio speaks of a detail-oriented UX designer with serious design chops. 

Modernist typography and dark, grainy hues glue the elements of this portfolio in place. Anna’s graphic design skills are at the higher end of the spectrum, and these pages wouldn’t look out of place in a MoMA brochure.

Beyond the slick exterior, Anna also touches on her approach to tackling stages of work, including research, and details some case studies. 

Play to your strengths. If visual design is your thing, make sure your portfolio pops. This may be the one chance you have to show off your chops. 

View Anna Hlushko’s full UX portfolio

20. Thorough research by Hoàng Kỳ Phong

Who is hoàng kỳ phong.

Hoàng Kỳ Phong is a Hanoi-based UX designer passionate about art and design. 

What makes Hoàng Kỳ Phong’s UX design portfolio so great?

With black and white images projected onto a backdrop of cartridge paper, Hoàng Kỳ Phong’s portfolio has a classic feel. 

Structurally, it is a masterclass in logical layout and digestible design. Extra marks are awarded for detailed market research and survey information. 

Consider the user at every step by demonstrating the process and results.

View Hoàng Kỳ Phong’s UX portfolio

Why do you need a UX design portfolio?

When creating an impressive UX portfolio, it’s important to understand exactly what your portfolio should achieve. What information should your portfolio present? What do you want people to learn about you and your work when they land on your portfolio?

Your UX design portfolio is not just a virtual gallery of all your most beautiful work. It’s a carefully crafted story that offers a behind-the-scenes look at your methods and processes.

How do you tackle different UX design challenges? What’s your approach to solving problems? Are you user-centric?

It should introduce you as a designer and give the viewer an understanding of your work. And, of course, all of these insights should come gift-wrapped in a visually engaging, user-friendly package.

How to build an amazing UX portfolio

Since a portfolio is all about showcasing your work as a designer, it’s obvious that you need to get some experience so that you have work to spotlight in the first place.

But what if you don’t have any industry experience (yet)? Not to worry.

It’s entirely possibly to build a strong portfolio, break into the industry, and succeed without previous UX design experience . One great place to start is by taking a free UX design short course to make sure you’re cut out for this area of the design field.

Next, you can then to enroll in a UX design certification program —preferably one that provides personalized UX mentorship and portfolio reviews.

To see a live portfolio review with a seasoned UX designer, check out this video:

Beyond this, you want to make sure that your portfolio meets these criteria:

• Includes a memorable introduction
• Consists of just the right number of high-quality UX case studies
• Demonstrates reflexivity —shows your ability to reflect and learn
• User-friendly format (practice what you preach)
• Excellent UI design —shows you know what a good, polished final product looks like

To learn more about these five criteria (and how to meet them), read more in this guide: Five Golden Rules to Build a Job-Winning UX Design Portfolio .

Where else can you look for UX design portfolio inspiration?

That just about concludes our selection of awesome UX design portfolios from around the web. We hope this list has given you a feel for some of the most important UX design portfolio best practices and left you feeling suitably inspired.

For more portfolio inspiration, check out websites like Bestfolios , Behance , and Dribbble . For further tips and advice on building your own UX design portfolio, check out these articles:

• 9 Awesome Portfolios From UX Design Bootcamp Graduates
• How I Designed And Built My UX Design Portfolio From Scratch
• 9 Free Websites for Building You UX/UI Portfolio

And finally, if you’re a UX designer looking to specialize, we’ve also written guides to build portfolios for UX writing and UX research . If you spot any further examples of great portfolios while navigating the web, do let us know so we can add them to the list.

Want to keep exploring UX design? Here are a few other articles you might like:

• How to become a UX designer in under one year
• Do you need a degree to become a UX designer?
• 7 best practices to help keep your UX skillset in shape
• How Nikolaos became a UX designer

And if you’re on the hunt for even more UX design inspiration, here are 15 quotes from design masters .

Frequently asked portfolio (FAQ) about UX portfolios

What should be in a UX portfolio?

A UX portfolio should showcase your expertise, understanding, and passion for UX. A portfolio can include elements like case studies, design, personal projects, examples of your process, and should be presented in a visually pleasing way.

How do I start a UX portfolio for beginners?

A beginner’s UX portfolio is a vital tool for entering the industry. Highlight your passion and motivation for the UX design, include your personal approaches, and if you have minimal case studies to present, include personal projects. 

How do I build my UX portfolio?

With the amount of free templates available online, building your UX portfolio has never been easier. However, it’s important to not limit yourself to a standardized approach and showcase your own unique talent. 

First and foremost, choose your projects and case studies carefully. Then present them in a logical narrative that tells a story about your design process. In your descriptions, highlight your motivations and thought processes.

Across your portfolio, focus on showcasing your design skills and problem-solving abilities, and keep your portfolio up-to-date with your latest work. Be sure to customize your portfolio for the audience.

10 UX/UI Design Portfolio Examples to Inspire You (Updated for 2024)

Explore these unique, standout UX/UI design portfolio examples from UX Academy graduates who landed new jobs in the field of product design.

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Switching careers at any point is challenging.

Switching careers during a time of global and economic uncertainty is an even bigger challenge. That’s why we continue to be awed by the creativity of our UX Academy graduates who commit to pursuing their dreams of a creative career despite the challenges they face. 

As we enter a new calendar year, it's become more important than ever for new UX, UI, and product designers to enter the field with tools and training they need to stand out from the competition of entry level designers and top level talent.

A huge part of the career pivot into the world of product design includes a unique, relevant UX design portfolio. While we regularly publish success stories of UX Academy alumni that profile how and why they made their career switch to UX/UI design, we also like to spotlight a few standout portfolio examples to showcase the original, creative ways that they showcase their abilities.

With the help of mentors and career coaches, the Designlab community continues to create noteworthy portfolios. Read on to explore a selection of UX design portfolios from Designlab students— that are sure to inspire you.

What Is a UX Design Portfolio?

A UX design portfolio is a compilation of work samples that demonstrates your skills and abilities as a UX designer. It should include examples that span the UX design process for relevant projects you've worked on—research insights, concept sketches, wireframes, and prototypes.

One of the most important aspects of a portfolio is to showcase your design thinking process and results. Furthermore, the best UX portfolios demonstrate an applicant’s ability to think critically and solve problems creatively in order to come up with innovative solutions—all valuable components when it comes to hiring managers finding the right candidate.

UX design portfolios are incredibly important for job-seekers because they provide hiring managers with a glimpse into your skill set and experience. The quality of a portfolio is used to quickly weed out potential candidates whose abilities may not match the specific requirements of the job.

Read more: How to Make a UX Design Portfolio: Tips & Examples to Help You Stand Out

What Should I Include In My UX Portfolio?

When building your UX portfolio, think about the types of projects you've worked on and the skills you have developed that would be valuable to potential employers.

Your portfolio should include a mix of work samples from each part of the UX design process, such as concept sketches, wireframes, prototypes, case studies, usability testing insights, or interactive design concepts. The overall look and feel should reflect your personal style while also highlighting the technical expertise you possess. Additionally, consider including any certifications or achievements that help to bolster your credentials.

Ultimately, your goal is to create a portfolio that demonstrates both your technical proficiency as well as creative problem-solving ability. Your portfolio should be concise yet comprehensive – so don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to cram too much into one.

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What Makes a Good UX UI Design Portfolio?

There are some fundamentals to include in your portfolio, from projects that align with the type of company or role you're applying for (like how Grace Guibert tailored her portfolio website to highlight the UX writing elements of each project she worked on in UX Academy).

As you create your own portfolio , it's worth remembering that hiring managers aren't looking at your UX case studies in a silo to see if they check all the right boxes—if the UX work displayed in the projects is stellar but your portfolio website as a whole contains bad UX, that can wave a red flag.

For more insight and tips on crafting an effective UX design portfolio, watch this video by Kelly Stevens, who shares her top tips for design portfolios:

Read more: 6 UX/UI Design Portfolio Builders You Should Try, From Low Effort to Highly Customizable

10 UI & UX Design Portfolio Examples

Before they can graduate from UX Academy, each student must have their design portfolio approved by a panel of experts. This helps to ensure that each student has the strongest chance of success in the job search process as they move into the Career Services phase.

Each UX designer portfolio in this roundup is unique and stands out for a different reason. But it's worth noting that each UI / UX portfolio site also embraces visual design and UX best practices to create a powerful, engaging experience for curious viewers and prospective employers alike.

Nicole Locklair, formerly in charge of Talent Partnerships and Career Services at Designlab, selected these ten portfolios to showcase, along with insights into what was particularly great about each one. (Portfolios are listed in no particular order.)

10 Great Portfolio Examples from Designlab Students

Here are some of our top student portfolios, and insights into what we particularly liked about each. (Portfolios are listed in no particular order.)

1. Jane Noh

Jane's portfolio stands up for its bold color palette, strong research, and attention to detail. Using vibrant imagery and font choices across her work, Jane creates a portfolio that is incredibly visually dynamic.

Jane also has a background in education and brings what she learned from teaching to her UX design work. This shows particularly in products such as Domokos, a responsive project geared towards helping teach math—her area of expertise from when she was an educator herself.

2. Josie Allison

We talk about keeping things clean and minimal in design, but sometimes going over the top with visual elements works out. Josie has a background in Graphic Design, and clearly illustrates her ability to surprise and delight in her own portfolio. 

Her unconventional case study presentations challenge the norms, but the details are all there for someone who wants to take the time to learn more. In a sea of grids and san serif, Josie's work is a breath of fresh air. 

3. Florinda Sgueglia

With high contrast colors and an easy-to-read case study layout, Flo’s design skills truly stand out in every part of this eye-catching, beautifully well-done portfolio. It's also clear to see that she has a background in graphic design, with fun, playful elements such as dynamic illustrations in her "About Me".

4. Paula Wrzecionowska

When recruiters or hiring managers are sifting through 50-100 UX portfolios for a single role, they may only look at one case study. Paula does a good job in her feature projects of summarizing the client/brand, task at hand, and work she did on the project in the rollover state. 

By including that information, the viewer can choose what's most relevant to them, instead of clicking on a random project that might not resonate. 

5. Gloria Ha

This is another great portfolio website that adds unexpected touches and a bold personal brand into the viewing experience. Elements on the homepage animate if you stumble across them, but aren't moving so quickly or intrusively as to detract from the work. 

'Gloria also has a good variety of work: a skincare e-commerce experience, a bank feature, and a travel booking redesign. Showing your versatility in this way can certainly help when looking for your first UX/UI design role.

6. Celia Hazard

Celia takes a fresh and unconventional approach to the presentation of her UX materials. Calling herself a "design scientist", Celia's work is heavily rooted in strong research to back up her project work. There are some bold visual choices, and Celia's well laid out case studies are comprehensive but still scannable. This is an exciting portfolio showcasing a unique perspective on UX design.

7. Jared Bartman

So many portfolios are grid images on a white page, and while there’s nothing wrong with that approach, Jared’s portfolio stands out for its light grey background and use of color in general. One important feature is the “Back to Top” button on the right-hand side of the case study pages. Instead of having to scroll all the way back to the top of the page after you’re done, he’s made it much easier to navigate and keep going. 

8. Siriveena Nandam

Another great example of how a subtle color shift can make the design that much more compelling. Siriveena also has a nice variety of projects in her portfolio. It’s tempting to only pick what you find most interesting or exciting, but in the real world, you’d be much more likely to work on a very specific feature, or for an audience you have no expertise with. It’s nice to show that you’re interested and able to design for all, and it’s great to see Siriveena reflect that here. 

9. Katherine Chen

Katherine’s portfolio is clean, consistent, and easy to navigate, with section buttons on the left-hand side of the page for navigation on the case study pages. She also shows how to feature a confidential project, which will often happen as a designer. The “Healthcare Staffing” case study shows you a bit of the branding, outlines the ask and deliverable, and when you click on it, brings you to a page where you can email her for access. 

10. Chofi Chang

Chofi's portfolio is a great study in how to display different types of projects without feeling fragmented. Chofi specializes in creating brand identity, and has project work across both UX and other types of design. The visual presentation showcases the various design projects, but still communicates a sense of cohesion.

Are you pursuing a career change into the field of UX/UI design?

If you want to create a UX/UI design portfolio that inspires, we invite you to learn more about our UX Academy bootcamp: a fully online, intensive bootcamp that equips you with the UX/UI skills and portfolio you need to launch a new career in the field of UX/UI design.

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Top 3 UI Design Case Studies for Every Creative to Read

Table of Contents

• Importance of UI Design

Examples of UI Design Case Study

Key takeaways.

You have heard time and again how companies like Spotify, Airbnb, Dropbox, Netflix, etc., dominated the market with their solid product design from the beginning of their product development. Outstanding interface design aided them in creating a platform that piqued people’s interest in no time. They are exceptional UI design case studies to take inspiration from for anyone. 

User Interface Design is about creating an interactive experience through an interface with clear and simple choices for the user. It revolves around the proper placement of a text field, radio buttons, sliders, icons, tags, notifications, menu bar, message boxes, modal windows, search field, toggles, footer, lists, etc. All these elements directly impact the user’s interaction and overall experience. 

Importance of UI design

A good user interface gives its users a sense of control. They feel more at ease, learn faster, and gain mastery over the product quickly. It saves their time, reduces confusion, improves customer experience and satisfaction. An efficient user interface increases conversion rate and SEO functionalities. Strategic planning and accurate decision-making at the initial stages act as brand differentiators, resulting in increased sales and revenue opportunities.

A successful user interface design contributes to a positive user experience and can attract new customers. The effort made to provide a consumer-tailored interface could increase the overall business reputation.

An intuitive and user-friendly interface causes fewer problems and frustrations for designers at later stages. When done correctly, the projection of the user interface design reduces costs, time, and effort, implying that the strategic decisions made at the start of the project determine the cost and performance in the future. All in all, it makes the software efficient, functional, aesthetic, accessible, and stylish. 

As a UI designer, you investigate all possible interactions and behaviors of the user with a product to create a prototype that best adapts to the user’s needs. Your product has to be easy to comprehend, access, and operate, in which most of the decision-making is automatic. However, a good UI design is hard to achieve when a product requires constant updates of new features.

Sometimes, it’s tricky to integrate complex functionalities into one product. You may cripple with the decision-making of elements to be revealed or concealed. Which one should you hide or put under a menu? How many orders of action are possible? Which order is the best for wireframing? You will have to make too many decisions for feature placement, size of buttons, typography, color, ease of access, and to ensure low cognitive effort.

In such a situation, learning from a previous UI design case study and its outcome can alleviate your mental blocks. Let’s look at the following UI case studies and find what you can learn from them.

Case study #1: Designing A Better Cinema Experience

Designer Ariel Verber recognized some pain points with booking cinema tickets in Tel Aviv, Israel, where he lives. He pointed out a tiresome ticket booking experience in his UI case study. 

The user had to feed all the information like movie name, time, theater, location, etc. Also, after going through the entire process, there was no guarantee of confirmed ticket booking. He picked up the most popular cinema app – Cinema City, to improve its UI/UX design for a seamless cinematic experience. 

So, he decided to segregate the browsing functionality into ‘Search by Title’ and ‘Search by Time’ in his new UI design. That helped the interface become simple and easier to navigate. He further reduced the cognitive load by replacing the date pickers with large buttons displaying weekdays for the current week. He introduced morning, afternoon, evening, and late-night buttons under the ‘Search by Time’ category. Besides each screening tab, he added beautiful graded icons showing seat availability. Lastly, payment through Apple Pay or Google Pay was the icing on the cake.

Source  

Case study #2: Simplifying The Jambb Score

Finna Wang and her team of UI designers designed an incentive for the fans of famous comedians to join Creator Aggregator Platform – Jambb. This platform aims to help creators grow their communities by rewarding 99% of fans who contribute in non-monetary ways.

Finna Wang redesigned the Jambb interface after taking inspiration from YouTube. They introduced a “Jambb score” – that represented the attribution given to individual creators by the fan. Then they placed a button to access the onboarding tutorial to clarify the Jambb score. 

Her team created various symbols that were applied throughout the site, such as typography, colors, and buttons. They turned these symbols into components and assembled them into the display cards seen throughout the prototype.

She, with her team, improved the basic UI to an interactive UI that enabled creator-wise easy content access. Furthermore, the ‘My Account’ section displayed the number of times this user has attributed each of his favorite creators. 

Case study #3: Redesigning Cooking Application

While having dinner with his wife, designer Vitaly Dulenko thought of creating an application that could advise him what to cook. He thought how amazing it would be if you’d pick ingredients from your refrigerator and get some recipes instantly. He wrote the user flow to add the following three crucial functionalities:

• Finding interesting recipes quickly
• Search for and edit the ingredient you’ve chosen
• Adding your ingredients and recipes

He created paper prototypes of the cooking app and validated them by user testing. After testing and concluding the findings of his case study, he came up with a clean and light UI design.

The Main Screen was designed with two visual columns: Categories (means breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc.) and Ingredients. It provided a clear direction to the user as to where and what to look for. 

With the “Select Ingredients” feature, a user can decide what to cook by combining the ingredients in the fridge. Moreover, he clubbed auto-complete and auto-suggestions functionalities in the Smart Search Feature. 

• User Interface Design is about creating an interactive experience through an interface with clear and simple choices for the user.
• A successful user interface design contributes to a positive user experience and can attract new customers.
• It saves their time, reduces confusion, improves customer experience and satisfaction. 
• The effort made to provide a consumer-tailored interface could increase the overall business reputation.
• A good UI design is hard to achieve when a product requires constant updates of new features and a minimalistic appearance. 
• You can take lessons from a previous UI design case study to help streamline the design process.

The goal for UI designers today is to produce user-friendly interfaces: interfaces that encourage exploration without fear of negative consequences. An efficient UI design provides the user a seamless experience, saves time, reduces cognitive load, and improves overall satisfaction.

In turn, this helps you to increase the number of people who use your product. To create a good design, you investigate all possible interactions and behaviors of the user through detailed prototyping and user testing. Never assume user behavior while designing. 

You can assimilate complex functionalities in your design by researching a similar UI design case study. They can provide you with some direction and alleviate your mental blocks. Doing research and testing prototypes may be time-consuming, but it’s the best way to create an accessible, functional, and aesthetic product that users will love. 

It refers to the input, navigational, informational, and stylistic decisions that a designer makes when creating a product. Interaction design, visual design, and information architecture are all combined in UI design.

UI design case studies help the employers/recruiters understand the skills of a UI designer to solve interface problems. They also serve the designer and showcase their problem-solving skills and visual design talent in their portfolios.

It typically includes an introduction to the concept and the team, project description, UI design decisions, customization features, wireframing, card creation, adding engaging photos, explanation of the modifications, and a brief discussion of the impact. A UI design case study can vary from one another.

An efficiently designed user interface saves user’s time, reduces confusion, improves customer experience and satisfaction. It makes the software efficient, functional, aesthetic, accessible, and stylish.

The interface design of your software or hardware product can make or break your business.

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How to create the perfect structure for a UX case study

UX case studies form the core content of a UX professional’s portfolio. They are essential to getting you hired, because case studies are a window to your professional practice, by showing how you think, adapt, cooperate and ultimately solve challenges. A UX case study has to tell a story about you. Like all good stories, case studies benefit greatly from a solid structure that guides the reader through your thinking and experience. Here, we will explore how to craft the perfect structure for your UX case studies.

Let’s begin with a few quotes about case studies and interviews, from UX recruiters worldwide, compiled in 2017 by Cassandra Naji ( marketing content manager at Justinmind, the popular UX prototyping software):

”I want to see how you think strategically, how you connected the dots to land at the right solution. What does your process look like? What steps did you take to learn more about your users?” (Melissa Perri, Product Manager and UX Designer at Produx Labs) ”Having a really strong portfolio where you can talk through your whole process , not just showing research, user flows , wireframes, etc, but turning it into a story for example why you moved onto each part of the process so a hiring manager can really get inside your thought process.” (Tom Cotterill, UX Recruiter at Source LF) ” Storytelling is important. The interviewer wants to understand your process , your contribution to the team, and how your mind works.” (Rebecca Levi, UX/ UI / Product Design Recruiting Manager, The Joanne Weaver Group) “My tip would be, tell stories . When designers present a flat portfolio it doesn’t tell me about how they approach the work they do and how they deal with the ebbs and flows of design. Tell me how you navigate from start to end of a project, I like to see a case study approach.” (Sarah Bellrichard, SVP of Wholesale Internet Solutions & UX at Wells Fargo) “So, when I interview you, tell me a story about how you made something awesome even though it was super uncertain what it was going to turn out to be. And get meta and walk me through how you approach problems, how you navigate through idea generation and synthesis, and how you build solutions.” (Jeff Onken, Design Strategist & UX Manager at Northrop Grumman)

You might begin to see the pattern here: Recruiters from both large and small companies alike are all immensely interested in the same thing: your thinking and professional process. They want you to tell them a story about how you tackled previous UX challenges. To progress through to an actual interview, where you can elaborate on your stories in person, first you must pass the portfolio review obstacle – UX case studies in your portfolio are your first opportunity to tell recruiters your stories. These stories have to be tantalizing enough that the recruiter will want to invite you to learn more about them, and you. So, in order to get the recruiters’ attention, first we need to understand the power of stories, so we can understand why they are so much in demand by recruiters, and then see what story elements your UX case study should contain.

The power of storytelling in UX hiring

In our long history as a species, stories have always played an important role in our societies. Pick any time and any populated place on the planet, and some research into that culture during that era will bear this out as a fact. Writer and copyeditor Shannon Turlington (2010) offers some excellent insight from her 20+ years of experience in science and academic writing, about the importance of stories for humans.

“We use stories not only to learn but also to speculate, to pose questions and then find solutions.” - Shannon Turlington

Through storytelling, we pass on important information and lessons from generation to generation. Some stories are fictional; others are accounts of true events. But we don’t use stories just to learn. Stories are also an exercise in speculation and the exploration of possibilities. They are a great way to ask the “what if” questions in life, and find possible answers to these. In fact, storyboarding is one of the most well-known UX tools used to do just that!

Since we don’t know how the stories of our own lives will end, absorbing stories that have a beginning, middle and end can provide great satisfaction. Generally speaking, stories have the ability to provoke strong emotional responses , so they are an immensely powerful tool that can connect people to one another and, if sufficiently persuasive, bring about dramatic and profound changes in thinking.

Copyright holder: Gerd Leonhard, Flickr. Copyright terms and license: CC BY-SA 2.0

For UX professionals, telling the story of how they tackled the challenges of wicked UX design problems provides recruiters with the confidence that an applicant has great communication skills, matched with excellent technical skills and a deep understanding of methodological approaches to product development.

Assuming that you might be looking for a UX job in the near future, let’s take a look at who is going to be hiring you. They have a specific and immediate need in mind: to find a new member to join their UX team, someone brilliant who will bring inspiration, talent and hard work that will raise the team to new heights. We already know from their testimonials above that they are interested in your stories. Why?

Quite simply, by going through applicants’ portfolios, recruiters are subconsciously asking themselves a what-if question: “What if this person joined our team? What would it be like to work with this person?”. Therefore, what better way for you to answer this question for them than to provide a story? Telling a great story about your own experiences as a UX professional gives this satisfaction of having something come full circle: starting from somewhere and arriving somewhere else. It helps the recruiter see the world through your own eyes, and in the process, hopefully recognize someone who has fought a difficult challenge with skill, integrity, commitment, courage and perseverance – just the right kind of person to solve the wicked problems of design.

Structuring a captivating story

Orson Scott Card, an American science-fiction writer, wrote in 2010 that most novels are dominated by four types of story structures: milieu, idea, character and event. From this classification, we can single out the “idea” structure because it accurately frames the type of experience that a UX professional has throughout his or her working life. In Card’s own words:

“Idea stories are about the process of seeking and discovering new information through the eyes of characters who are driven to make the discoveries. The structure is very simple: The idea story begins by raising a question; it ends when the question is answered.” – Orson Scott Card

Idea stories have a structure of discovery, so the question is naturally a “why”, “how” or “what if”, exactly the type of thing that UX professionals ask themselves daily. So, in this context, there is a question that begets an answer (that’s the design problem), the protagonist (i.e., you as a UX professional) tells the story of how he or she arrived at an answer for that question (helping the reviewer see the process through the protagonist’s eyes), and, finally, there is a conclusion, an answer to the question (that’s your final product and its impact).

Copyright holder: Smita Nair Jain, Flickr. Copyright terms and license: Public Domain

A good UX case study is the story of how you broke a design challenge down into its components, and then expertly put this knowledge together to deliver a superb user experience.

Turning a UX case study into a story

Of course, we’re not saying here that you need to write a whole novel to explain what happened in a UX project you undertook in the past. A case study has to be succinct, but all the crucial elements of the story need to be there: the starting question, the process, the answer. And remember that just like any project that you designed, your UX case study is also a product of design – something that you give shape and essence to, with care and attention to detail, attempting to solve a real need: the recruiter’s need to see how you think, and, through this, your own need to become employed. So, we can conclude that the perfect UX case study has three parts, which we will outline next.

The beginning of a UX case study

Here is where you should explain the question that you tried to answer, and the context. For example, look at how the following statement describes the goals, vision and challenges to be addressed by a project:

“We wanted to design a new app that reminds busy people to do important things. The challenge was that simple reminders are often issued at a place or time where the user can’t really act on them, like a reminder to buy milk, while the user is at the office. Wouldn’t it be better to issue that reminder as the user is walking past a supermarket, on the way home?”

If you were part of a larger UX team here, you should also state your role in the project – for example, you might write something like “ My role in the project was to undertake user research and evaluation of prototypes ”.

The process of the UX case study

This part of the case study explains the steps that you took to arrive at a solution. Here, you should highlight the activities that you took and illustrate those activities with sketches, photographs, diagrams or other design artifacts or deliverables that you produced. Bear in mind that the focus here is on the process , so emphasis on iterations, rising challenges, alternatives, decision points and conflict resolution is paramount.

You should always start with some user research that frames the problem. For example, you might write this:

“We analyzed the to-do lists of 140 users aged 18-40 for a period of 3 weeks and discovered that about 60% of their tasks were location-dependent. From this analysis, we made 4 user personas and defined their experiences in managing to-do lists with customer journey maps .”

You could show one persona and one journey map here to illustrate.

Then, show how you progressed into ideation for solutions – for example, putting in a sequence of sketches that shows a user interface design evolution from napkin drawing, to low-fidelity wireframes, then interactive low-fidelity prototypes and a final pixel-perfect design shows that you have progressed from early concepts to an end product.

It’s important to annotate these with information, too, which describes how the evolution took place through consultation and evaluation . For example, next to your napkin drawing, you might say “ we carried out a focus group with 20 users to co-design an early prototype based on this idea ” and then show 2-3 alternative low-fidelity UI sketches that emerged as an output of that process. Then you might show a wireframe emerge from these sketches and say something like “ undertaking heuristic and lab-based user evaluation, we selected Alternative 2 as the way forward, but improved it with features from Alternatives 1 & 3 which were found to work better in the lab ”.

The conclusion of the UX case study

This last part of the structure shows your final answer to the original question. It’s not enough here simply to show your final deliverable. In this section, you have to demonstrate impact – how did your designed product improve the situation? Remember that the final step in every Design-Thinking process is evaluation. So, mention what you learned through lab tests, field tests, analytics mining or other data you have – e.g., “ In a 3-week field trial with 30 users, we found that these location-sensitive reminders led to less cluttered to-do lists for our users, since they were able to act on the reminders and cross them off their list instead of postponing them. ” Charts and statistics are great for demonstrating this impact.

However, don’t just stay stuck on the impact bit. It’s also important to highlight the lessons you learned and that you later reflected on your experience. What would you do differently if you had more time or resources to spend on the project? You might say this, for example: “ We found that 20% of the tasks in the to-do lists related to things that other people had to do, instead of the user. We didn’t have the budget or time to address this challenge, but in the future, we could revisit the project and focus on collaborative aspects of task managemen t.” Do remember to acknowledge your co-workers and collaborating stakeholders in the last section, too, as this shows a teamworking spirit.

“To design is to communicate clearly by whatever means you can control or master.” — Milton Glaser, celebrated American graphic designer

UX case studies are an exercise in communication

One of the most important skills for a UX professional is the ability to communicate. A UX case study is a demonstration of that ability, so writing good case studies doesn’t only demonstrate your technical and other professional skills; it also gives you a chance to prove how effective your communication skills are.

We will end this piece with a final note on UX case study structures. Many UX professionals believe that a great case study should end with a great product, but this is not always the case. First of all, remember that greatness is a relative attribute – what works well for you might be less than optimal for the person next to you and his/her own circumstances. It is also a temporary attribute: An app that was great back in 2005 was probably next to useless by 2017 – given that so much of the hardware and people’s lives had changed in the interim. However, what remains is the process – how you masterfully employed your critical thinking and knowledge of methodology to solve a difficult design problem, in the context and constraints that applied to the project at the time.

In this sense, don’t be shy to demonstrate those grand projects where the shining element was your approach to the work, even though the end product might have lost some of its luster.

The Take Away

A UX case study is an account of the events that led you to the discovery of some new knowledge, the answer to a UX design problem. Keeping in mind the recruiters’ need to answer their “what if” question (i.e., “What would it be like if this person joined our team and we had to work with him/her every day?”), structuring your case studies in the shape of an “idea” type of story will help recruiters get a glimpse of the world through your eyes, and provide a (hopefully) positive response to their question.

Your case study is a glimpse into your way of thinking: It is a demonstrator of process and critical reflection, rather than of the end product. There are only three parts to a UX case study structure (the beginning, the process and the conclusion), but knowing how much and what type of content is appropriate for each part will get you off to a good start on writing eye-grabbing case studies.

References & Where to Learn More

Hero Image: Copyright holder: Jacopo Romei, Flickr. Copyright terms and license: CC BY-SA 2.0

Course: “User Experience: The Beginner’s Guide”

Turlington, S. (2010). Why are stories so important?

Card, O. S. (2015). The 4 Story Structures that Dominate Novels

Naji, C. (2017). 8 tips for UX job interviews: questions & insights from UX managers

Human-Computer Interaction: The Foundations of UX Design

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