Top tips to polish a product design case study

Your case study deserves that 2020 glow ✨

This past year, I helped teach a class called Intro to Digital Product Design at Cornell University where students work on a final case study for an app they choose. I created these tips on how to polish a Product Design Case Study based on what I have seen in past student’s work and my experience going through recruiting for Product Design roles.

Hop in to explore tips for storytelling, visual design, prototyping and more.

Tell a story

Your story is everything. Every mock, sentence, and header should help tell the story of your user and your problem. Be intentional. Be bold. Be genuine.

1. Hook! Start your story in the first sentence.
2. Think about the thousands of case studies out there. How can you incorporate your voice (that rocks!) into your work?
3. The language you use can show your passion or excitement around the problem. Focus on improving the language.

Example for the hook:

Could be: Uber is not safe. Users can’t ride alone.

Should be: This summer I was living in Cape Town, South Africa for an internship. As an international traveler, I relied on the safest methods of transportation. In Cape Town, the safest form is Uber… or I thought it was.

The final version sets up why this matters to the designer and where the reader is traveling to in order to be in the user’s shoes. In a paragraph, the reader understands this case study will be about safety, Uber, and related to a specific experience in Cape Town, South Africa.

Highlight your visual design skills

Try to make your case study as visual as possible to highlight your visual design skills and improve the organization.

1. Show the problem in a flow. This helps your reader or interviewer see the problem more clearly when presenting the current problem for the first time. It can also give you a little boost in the visual design department from the start ⭐️

Example from my previous case study

2. Use visual representations to analyze visual work. One way you can do this is with the pros/cons list when analyzing iterations of the feature. This shows the analysis right next to the content which helps to improve clarity.

Example from my previous case study

Put some sparkle on your high-fidelity designs

1. Intentionally label your mockups. This can help a reader follow the actions and intentions behind a user’s journey.

2. When showing flows, I recommend using high fidelity designs when appropriate. You will need to make sure you find balance within your work to show the process beyond just high fidelity designs. Make sure there are no missing icons, images, or tabs on the mocks.

3. Make sure your spacing on your new feature or any design you recreate has consistent spacing. This can also extend to consistency within any other text or arrows you put on an artboard.

4. Mocks should be exported in 2x. You worked hard. Minimize pixelation. Make them look fly!

Maintain visual consistency

Every brainstorm picture and low fidelity sketch show your work as a designer.

1. Edit your photos you include so they have the same exposure and brightness as the other images included. Treat your images like the most beautiful Instagram feed you have ever seen.
2. Scan any sketches to improve quality and visual consistency. This can be used for any sketches or handwritten work.

Scanner app

3. Eliminate photos of post-its you can’t read. So amazing you have such a large amount of ideas but you have to be intentional.

Example of how to improve the legibility of post-its from my previous case study

4. Use text headers to separate sections. If your case study is read on mobile, the bolded text does not create contrast from a paragraph.

How to create headers

Bring your designs to life

Prototypes show your designs in action. Make it sparkle and present it with all its glory!

1. Some apps such as Principle have internal screen recording abilities. If it doesn’t you can record on Quicktime Player on Macs.
2. Edit the video if it has unnecessary parts. Take out any audio if there is any background noise. It should be clean and clear.
3. Think about creating different prototypes for separate flows depending on your feature. In my case study, I had one flow for the riders in Uber and one for the people tracking their ride. Separating them helps the reader focus on one end of the feature at a time.
4. Post the video on YouTube or Vimeo to embed. I personally like using Vimeo.

Get out there

Go write your best case study ever. You went through the entire design process already. It’s time for your takeover.

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