Hiring managers skim a case study in about two minutes. A six part structure that shows how you think, not only what you made.
A portfolio full of final screens tells a reviewer that you can use Figma. A case study tells them how you decide. That is what gets you to the interview, and it fits in six parts.
- 01The problem in one sentence. Who had it and why it mattered to the business.
- 02Your role. Be exact: what you owned, who you worked with and how long it took.
- 03What you found. Research, data or a quick audit. One or two findings, not twenty.
- 04The decisions. Show two or three options you explored and why you picked one. This is the most important part.
- 05The result. Final screens, and a number if you have one, like fewer support tickets or a faster checkout.
- 06What you would do next. It shows you can judge your own work.
Show the messy middle
Juniors often hide sketches and rejected versions because they look unfinished. Those are exactly what a reviewer wants to see. One photo of a whiteboard, two wireframe directions and a short note on why one lost says more than ten polished mockups.
Cut, then cut again
Write the full story, then remove half of it. Use short captions under images instead of long paragraphs, and bold the one line in each section you want remembered. A case study is a design problem too: the reader is the user, and their time is the constraint.