ux research portfolio case study

How to Build a UX Research Portfolio (Step-by-Step Guide)

So you’ve heard about UX research , but you’re not sure how to build your own research-focused portfolio?

Whether you’re new to the field of UX research , or experienced and looking to make your portfolio more specialized, we’ve got you covered!

This guide will cover what a UX researcher does, and how a UX research portfolio is different from a UX design portfolio. We’ll also give you a step-by-step guide (with examples!) to follow as you build your own portfolio.

• What is a UX researcher and what do they do?
• What goes into a UX research portfolio?
• What’s the difference between a UX design portfolio and a UX research portfolio?
• Five steps to creating your UX research portfolio
• Five of our favorite UX research portfolios

1. What is a UX researcher and what do they do?

While UX research falls under the umbrella of UX design , there is an increasing demand for UX professionals with a specialized focus in key areas of the design process —and research is one of these rising stars.

A UX researcher conducts qualitative and quantitative research to inform the design process and keep the user at the center of every design decision.

In broad strokes, a UX researcher is the person on the product team whose job lives closest to the end user.

From user interviews and usability tests to data analytics and deliverables (customer journey maps, for instance), a UX researcher is the most active and vocal advocate for the user’s needs. As such, the work of a UX researcher has arguably the most humanizing influence on the design work that goes into a product.

If you look at what a UX researcher actually does , it’s easy to see that they exercise a skillset that reaches from research strategy and data analysis, to understanding human behavior and effectively carrying on conversations with users and stakeholders alike. That’s an incredibly broad skillset for a portfolio to effectively highlight.

It’s no wonder, then, that there are many UX research bootcamps available now if you want to specialize in this discipline.

2. What goes into a UX research portfolio?

Because UX research is a subset of the broader field of UX, a research-focused portfolio should adopt the general formatting, structure, and content that hiring managers are accustomed to seeing. Your portfolio should include:

• Information about you, your process, and your work experience. A short bio section will usually do the trick.
• Ways to contact and connect with you. Make it easy for potential employers to find you on social media like LinkedIn and Twitter (naturally, it’s best if these accounts are kept up to date and carefully curated).
• Demonstrations of your work. This typically takes the form of powerful case studies and supplemental artifacts showing the work you’ve done. Limit yourself to no more than 3-5 of your best projects that highlight as many of the core skills you see featured in your top UX research job postings.
• Testimonials or references. Show that you’re proud of the work you’ve done and that former clients and colleagues are happy to voice their appreciation of your UX research.

Most, if not all, of these components are included in the portfolios you’ll find in collections like UX Collective’s 50 Essential UX Portfolios .

3. What’s the difference between a UX design portfolio and a UX research portfolio?

Many of the UX portfolios you’ll find online are design-focused, featuring work that is quite visual in nature—prototypes, wireframes, and fully operational websites and apps. Since these are not the direct focus of UX research, the difference will be in the work and skills you showcase.

Gather artifacts related to the conversations you’ve had with users, responses to the surveys you’ve written, and outcomes of the tests you’ve conducted—and get ready to highlight the context, process, and impact of your work. A UX research portfolio is naturally less visual in nature than its UX design counterparts, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be every bit as engaging!

4. Five steps to creating your UX research portfolio

Step 1: do your research..

The first step in the process is to do what a UX researcher does best: research.

Scour job boards for positions that you find intriguing—not only with the job title you’re looking for, but with the kinds of companies you’re truly interested in. Then dig a little—look up the companies and hiring managers, and see what you can learn. Here are some questions to guide your observations:

• What skills and qualities are explicitly stated?
• Which ones are implicit (read between the lines)?
• What are the companies’ values?
• What are the hiring managers’ values and priorities?
• What soft skills or other qualities are they looking for in a colleague?

Now, take what you’ve learned and make a list of the skills, values, and qualities they’re looking for. Then, whether you check off, underline, or cross them out—whatever system comes naturally to you—mark which of these items you feel most confident about, which ones you’re excited to learn or get better at, and which ones you don’t feel confident in or that you really don’t care to learn.

The important thing to accomplish in this step is to understand who your target reader is and where you stand in relation to what they’re looking for.

Note: Save yourself some time later (in Step 3) and pay attention to how these potential employers ask for portfolios/work samples to be submitted.

Step 2: Select the work to feature in your case studies.

Review the research-related work you’ve done. Pick out the best work samples and artifacts (customer journey maps, usability tests, participant screeners, etc.). Here are questions to guide your determination of which ones are the “best”:

• What have been my favorite projects?
• Which ones best demonstrate my approach to design problems?
• Which ones showcase my research process?
• Where have I made mistakes or had to adjust my process?

Shortlist these projects and artifacts (it’s okay if it’s a longer list at this point), then come back to your list from Step 1. Take one project or artifact at a time and compare them to your list.

Your goal: Find the three projects that best exemplify the skills and qualities you’re confident in and/or excited about learning. Ideally, these will be projects that can be built into a full, narrative case study, with related artifacts included along the way.

Step 3: Decide where your portfolio will live.

You understand the skills and qualities you want to highlight, and you know which of your projects you want to feature in your portfolio. Fantastic! Now, you need to decide what format your UX portfolio should be in .

Will you host your portfolio on WordPress or Squarespace? Set it up in Keynote (or a similar application) and convert it to PDF? Will you code a website yourself? Whatever you decide, you want to look before you leap. Consider:

• How do most of your potential employers request that work samples be submitted?
• What are your actual skills in coding and design? No need to start a crash course in coding or pretend to be a designer if that’s not your strong suit.
• What platforms and programs are you already familiar with?
• What method will best adapt itself to the projects you want to feature?
• Do you anticipate changing your portfolio regularly to adapt to the requirements of individual employers/job postings? If so, PDF format might work best for you.

If you’d like a good starting point, check out this article: 9 Free Websites for Your UX/UI Portfolio .

Step 4: Tell engaging stories.

Once you’ve decided where you’ll build your portfolio, it’s time to get down to it. Your portfolio is really just a collection of stories. These fall under two broad categories:

• Your bio: Who you are as a person and as a UX researcher
• Case studies: Specific work you’ve done, with a focus on context, process, outcome, and impact

Let’s have a closer look at each of these.

This typically goes on the first page or is easily accessible from there. As a general rule, keep this portion under 150 words and cover who you are, what you specialize in, and what your overall approach and processes are. No need to go overboard, but don’t shy away from showing your personality here. Hiring managers are looking for the right skillset, to be sure, but they are also looking for the person who will be the best fit for the team.

Don’t forget that a complete bio includes a way for potential employers to contact and connect with you (don’t forget social media), and any references or testimonials you’ve collected over time (specifically relevant to your work as a UX researcher, if possible).

Case studies.

First: What is a case study? Think of each case study as an individual storybook in a series that will give your reader a well-rounded look at your work. A case study tells a concise story with a beginning, middle, and end, and it give illustrations where possible (but only where they’re needed).

You   know the full range of your skills and experience; your case studies are where you show potential employers that you know how to conduct UX research like a pro .

Take these one project at a time. Look at the project and consider:

• The design problem or question that created the need for UX research in the first place
• Your approach to that problem or question
• The process you followed to define your objectives, conduct studies, create deliverables, etc.
• The artifacts you produced along the way
• What impact your work had on the project—be as specific as possible
• What learnings you gathered on the way

Build these points out into a concise but engaging narrative. Don’t underestimate the importance of giving your reader context, revealing your process, and showing the direct results and impact of your work!

The goal with each case study is it to present a good—but brief—story that highlights what skills you possess, what you learned, and what you accomplished.

Step 5: Test your portfolio.

You’ve got your bio and case studies written. You’ve made it easy for potential employers to connect with you and to see what others have said about your work. Well done!

But you’re not ready to send your portfolio out into the world just yet. Once again, it’s time to do your research. See how your product (portfolio) does with members of your target readership.

If you know people in the field, see if any of these colleagues are willing to look over it. Offer free pizza to friends who can exercise a critical eye in exchange. There are many experienced professionals—such as David Travis , Sarah Doody , and Ran Segall —who share portfolio reviews. These can be incredibly helpful as they give an unbiased glimpse into the approaches and perceptions of hiring managers.

Test it. Improve on it. Update it. Your portfolio isn’t a one-and-done project! It should evolve just as you and your work evolve over time.

5. Five of our favorite UX research portfolios

Finally, here are five excellent example portfolios for you to peruse.

• CareerFoundry graduate and senior UX researcher Lina Žigelytė’s portfolio is packed with great work, presented excellently.
• Jason Lipshin’s portfolio is a great example of one created in PDF or “slides” format and still easily accessible online.
• In her “New cancer patient orientation guide” case study, Katie McCurdy achieves an engaging narrative and includes visual elements that are directly relevant to her work.
• We especially like the concision and visual elements in Carl Pearson’s “Videogame HUD Redesign” case study.
• Emily Alter’s portfolio is structured simply, and presents case studies that are concise and provide just enough relevant visual elements to break up the text and keep the reader’s eye engaged.

Have a look at these and note what you like, what you think will work well for your projects and skills, and what will most appeal to your ideal employers.

If you’d like to learn more about UX research and UX portfolios, check out these articles:

• What Does a UX Researcher Actually Do? The Ultimate Career Guide
• Top 5 Mistakes to Avoid in Your UX Research Portfolio
• Interview Toolkit: Top 5 UX Research Questions to Prepare For

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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UX Portfolio Case Study template (plus examples from successful hires)

Your portfolio is the most critical piece of the puzzle when it comes to selling your design skills to recruiters and clients. It’s the single most vital component of any design career move you will ever make.

A UX case study is a detailed but summarized presentation of a design project, its goals and objectives, the research methods used, the process to find a solution and the results achieved.

I hope to share with you a UX portfolio Case Study template for making your portfolio simpler and less overwhelming with the aim of getting you a job interview and potentially a higher paying job. I happen to have stumbled upon it through trial and error but it has resulted in me being headhunted for my last three Senior roles in UX at two agencies and a product company.

But first let’s start at the beginning.   When I was trying to design my portfolio, I used to spend countless hours digging up relevant work from past projects, downloading a ton of device mockups, and implementing every tactic from articles on portfolios that you can find.

The problem with that was it had been months and I was still not done. Every little inspiration I found, seemed to demand a new version. I also was not getting any interviews for the job I had applied for.

How long should a portfolio case study be? What should I include? I felt stuck and overwhelmed by every single detail.

The worst part was, I was not even sure if what I had was good enough to get an interview, let alone a job.

That queasy, gut-twisting anxiety in the pit of your stomach won’t go away no matter how much you tweak your portfolio.

By spending time studying other design portfolios of not just every designer but successful hires, I was finally able to come up with a system that covered what recruiters actually wanted to see.

Why the structure of a case study is important

Recruiters spend a short amount of time on each candidate’s portfolio, scanning for information in the case studies that relates to the role’s skills and responsibilities.

To stress how each important your case study detail and layout is, let’s look at how two recruiter personas who have different business needs might look at the information provided in a designer’s case study.

Recruiter 1

CEO Works at small mobile app company, limited staff. Results orientated, only has 5 minutes to look through a portfolio. Looking for a freelancer/part-time designer.

A quick view of a candidate’s case study should answer: – Is their work relevant to what we do? – How much work did they do on a project – Can they work unsupervised?  – Have they seen a project through to launch?

Recruiter 2

Creative Director Looking for a full-time designer Works for a large agency.  Leads and supervises the design team. Process orientated, has time for a detailed case study.

A quick view of a candidate’s case study should answer   – Is their work relevant to what we do? – Is this their most recent work and skills level  – Do they understand what problem they were solving (big-picture thinking) -Did the solution solve the problem they sort out to address

These two recruiters require different forms of information and detail from your case study. It is up to you to make sure the case studies you create cover what they are looking for in order to land interviews.

Don’t just put a portfolio case study together and hope it will be good enough.

The secret to a portfolio case study that can get you an interview and explode your career opportunities lies in a creation process that is aligned with your audience’s needs.

That’s why I want to share with you this UX Portfolio Case Study template from UX Design Mastery . It is based on over 60 portfolios of successful design hires from Facebook, Amazon, Uber, Twitter, Apple, Google, LinkedIn, Dropbox and the insights of top design recruiters.

How do you write a UX case study

The core idea is to try to break down your case study creation process into a writing component and designing component so that you can tackle each one without getting stuck or overwhelmed.

This template is meant to help outline all the text that is going to be in your case study that recruiters/clients are looking for.

This ensures that your case study has a good narrative and understandable structure. This also allows you to plan more effectively what design artifacts you will need in your case study. It’s a system by which you can rapidly roll out multiple case studies without forgetting anything that’s relevant to a recruiter or client.

The UX Portfolio Case Study template has 8 critical sections that recruiters are looking for.

UX Portfolio Case Study template

• Project Title & Subtitle (A headline and subtitle that indicates the name and goal of the project)

Client/Company/Project type

• Project date (When did you work on the project)
• Your role (What you were responsible for on the project)
• Project Summary/About this Project (An overview that summarizes the project, goal and results)
• The challenge (What specific problem, user needs, business requirements and/or pain points that the project solves. Were there any technical constraints or business KPIs you had to keep in mind? Who are you users and what are their specific needs)
• Solution (What method/process were used to solve specific problem, user needs, business requirements and/or pain points? How did features address the objectives?)
• Results (Project success metrics, awards, reflections, project next steps and/or lessons learnt)

Let’s look at these sections in detail, roughly how long each one should be and share some real life examples from successful hires.

Project title & subtitle.

Length: Project Title (1 line) & Subtitle (1–2 lines)

A short concise headline that couples the name of the brand/application/client and goal of the project. A lot of designers tend to rush the naming of their project but it is crucial in capturing the attention of its reader. It is the first thing a recruiter is going to read to decide whether or not to carry on reading your UX case study. Make sure it is clear, understandable, and does not use technical jargon. The subtitle is optional but a great way to build more context around the Project title.

Length:1 line

Unless stated in the title, this helps build more background to who the project was for. If the project was not a commercial project for a client or brand, this is where you can state that it was a conceptual project, a design challenge, or a practice project.

Project date/duration

When or how long the project was helps the recruiter establish whether this is your most recent work and most importantly, to gauge where your skill level is. Always try to put up work that is recent because it’s an accurate reflection of your skills.

Length:1–2 lines

This is a section to state everything you did and were responsible for. Recruiters are looking to accurately assess your skills in the context of the entire project’s execution. Did you work with a team, did you work unsupervised to create the project deliverables. Recruiters can make an informed decision about whether you will need help on the job or hit the ground running.

Project Summary

Length: 1–2 paragraphs

This is a critical section for any reader who does not have a lot of time to read through the entire case study but wants a brief summary of the project, goals, and results. They may be going through a stack of applications and only have a few minutes to scan over one or two projects in your portfolio. Usually the first two. If nothing stands out or if the work is unclear then they will quickly move on.

That covers the introductory part of your case study. Now we get to the body of the case study.

The Challenge/Problem

Length: 2–3 paragraphs

This section specifically looks at the problems the project is trying to address. What are the business requirements, user needs, pain points that the project solves? Who are the end-users and core target market? What platforms was the project for and where there any technical constraints or business KPIs you had to keep in mind?

The Solution

Length: As long as needed

This section is going to be the longest as it showcases how the project goals where achieved. Firstly, outline the design process steps and methods followed during the project outlines the layout of this section. Show your overall project steps, why you chose the methods you used, Recruiters want to see all the relevant design artifacts that you produced from sketches to visual mockups to prototypes.

Here are some examples for showing the overall process:

Other deliverables that you can show:

• Interview notes
• Usability tests results
• Whiteboards

Length: 1 paragraph

The critical last section concludes the case study by outlining any project success metrics that were achieved, awards that were won. In the case of a project that is not live, reflections and the project’s next steps are sufficient to round up the case study. Try to share any lessons that you learned to demonstrate you are invested in both the project’s life cycle and your career development.

What you can do next

If you would like to get down to work, download my UX Portfolio Case Study template for free . Its included with the Design Portfolio Layout Guide , which including 20 online case studies and example scripts for each case study section.

Calvin Pedzai

Analytical problem solver who enjoys crafting experiences and currently is the Senior UX designer at an awarding winning agency.

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The Ultimate Guide to Building a UX Research Portfolio – with 9 Great Examples

Tímea Falmann

There are many reasons why UX researcher portfolios are becoming more common. First, job posts started asking for them. Second, candidates take every opportunity to stand out in a competitive field like UX . Finally, many want to curate our online presence for a better career outlook.

You might’ve heard designers complaining about UX portfolios . Indeed, creating one can be a daunting task. Some think building a UX researcher portfolio is an even bigger challenge because you have fewer visible results to showcase.

But building a portfolio doesn’t have to be as frustrating. Where most people derail is planning. They come up with an elaborate plan and an unnecessarily detailed design that requires tools with the complexity of a rocket ship. No wonder they get frustrated and never finish their portfolio.

In this article, we’ll give you useful tips on creating a truly appealing researcher portfolio without the hassle. Moreover, we’ll show you some great examples along the way. Let’s get into it!

UX Researcher Portfolio Examples

1. sarah dunn.

2. Kala J. Allen

3. Jon Jieh-hen Tsung

4. Benny Sun

5. Manuela Santos

6. Theo Johnson

7. Franklin Wagner

9. Christina Bridgewater

What makes a UX research portfolio?

A user experience research portfolio is built with the same purpose as any other portfolio. That purpose is to showcase your skills and experience to potential employers or clients through case studies of your past projects.

In UX case studies, showcasing your process – rather than just outputs – is especially important. And this is something that UX researchers can leverage since research can be a very intricate process.

If you’ve been working for a while, you’ve probably tried various methods, tools, and even UX software during your research projects. Or, you might have developed your own processes and workflows. Your portfolio is the platform where you can be excited about these insights.

UX researcher vs. UX designer portfolio

The most obvious difference between the two is that a UX researcher portfolio has fewer visuals. Instead, it emphasizes research methods, outcomes, and their impact on design decisions.

UX/UI designers have plenty of eye-catching stuff lying around – wireframes, sketches, UIs – to showcase in their portfolio. But researchers have more user stories to tell. And ultimately, UX is about users, and portfolios are about storytelling. So, don’t feel discouraged.

Yes, your portfolio will be more content- and data-heavy, but that’s expected.

Finally, a case study in a UX designer portfolio highlights the design process and design decisions. Meanwhile, a UX researcher portfolio focuses on exploring the users’ motivations and problems and the effects of that exploration on design decisions.

Let’s see some useful tips on how to build a portfolio and some great UX research portfolio examples!

How to make a UX research portfolio

1. selecting your projects.

The most difficult part of creating a UX researcher portfolio (or any other portfolio) is getting started. This applies to the beginner with little experience, just as much as the senior with tons. But don’t worry! You don’t have to jump in right away. Diligence and attention to detail have led you to work as a researcher, so start with a good plan:

• Proceed in chronological order
• List the research methods you’ve used in each
• These will be the 3-4 projects that you’ll feature in your portfolio
• The project that you’re most proud of
• The project that showcases most of your skills
• The project that best showcases your process
• The project where your research had the most impact
• The project through which you’ve learned the most
• Start with the project that checks most of these pointers
• This will be the skeleton of your story
• Think about the project’s phases, the methods used, and the findings
• The product/client
• The problem/challenges
• Solutions: Research methods and processes
• Findings/Results
• Personal learnings
• Think about the main points in each step
• List out a few keywords (e.g., major challenges, goals, hypotheses, findings, learnings, etc.)
• This helps you find the focus point of each chapter and stick to it while writing the content.
• Now that you have a structure and keywords, it’s time to connect it all
• Remember to keep it short and focused
• We’ll share some tips for this part as well

Now, we’ll move on to some tips regarding the content!

2. Demonstrate your process

Showing the results of our work is important but explaining how we got there generates even more interest. Familiarizing the reader with your thought processes is the key to a great UX researcher portfolio.

Introduce your methods

Talk about the exact methods in more detail. But instead of defining the method itself, focus on why and how you used them in the project. If you did something unique or experimented with new methods, share the learnings and what you would do differently next time. Explain how you validated or unvalidated hypotheses.

Show outputs

Show the output of your work wherever possible in a visually appealing way. If it’s a spreadsheet with survey answers, put some effort into cleaning it up, and changing the fonts and colors to match your case study. If it’s a screenshot of a user interview, crop everything unnecessary. And so on. These little things take only a few minutes but have a big impact on your case study.

Share findings

Findings are the highlight of UX research case studies, so summarize them with extra care. A great way to approach this part is using statement + evidence pairs. Write a statement and support it with the evidence you have collected during your research. Whenever possible, Include user quotes. They make everything feel much more personal and, therefore, real.

Include firm results

Dedicate a part of your case study to highlighting the impact of your findings. If you have access to designs, you can take screenshots next to which you can explain what was influenced by your findings. You don’t have to overthink this. Just crop a screenshot, and use a simple Text & Image section, like those in UXfolio .

Even better, if you can share quantifiable business results, such as growth in conversion rates, growth in use, decrease in support tickets, and so on. And you don’t need to design for this either. UXfolio has a handy Stats section that’s perfect for this.

3. Emphasize your skills

Employers and clients really want to know how it would be to work with you. They’ll ask how your research and personal skills can add to the success of their company. So, go ahead and include parts that could answer these questions:

• Your role in the team: Emphasize the role of research in the project and how your work fits into the overall product development process. Show the final product and how it improved, thanks to UX research.
• Cooperation: Tell more about how you communicated and cooperated with other team members, especially with designers and stakeholders. Also, you can share some details about the challenges you faced and how you solved them together.
• Learnings: Share your personal learnings and what skills you developed thanks to this project. You can include a short learnings section at the end of your case study.

4. Make it easy to read and understand

In the first chapter, we discussed the importance of creating a well-structured case study. Besides a good structure, you can follow some copywriting best practices to make your project more digestible:

Tell a story

Many of us complain about how neglected research is. So, take this chance to tell a story that testifies to the impact of UX research. Talk about your challenges and how you solved them. Make your readers more intimate with the users by detailing what you learned about them. Always explain how you arrived at conclusions, and don’t be afraid to write about roadblocks and overcoming them.

Use descriptive subtitles 

Give your sections catchy titles that summarize their content and encourage the reader to learn more. The same goes for the main title of your case study. Good titles add a lot to storytelling and help maintain the flow and your readers’ interest. If you can’t come up with something creative, don’t worry! Just go with something descriptive instead.

Break up your text

Break up big chunks of text into smaller paragraphs. Ideally, a paragraph in a case study shouldn’t be longer than three sentences and 4 lines. Also, take every opportunity to introduce a subheading or a bulleted list. This will make even text-heavy case studies more inviting. 

Use simple wording

Whoever reads your case study might not be a researcher. So, whenever possible, use straightforward, descriptive language. You don’t have to dumb it down. Just strive for simplicity. If the project was in a field with lots of jargon (e.g., healthcare), translate those phrases for your readers, so they don’t lose interest while reading.

Summary to build an awesome UX research portfolio

We hope that this article gave you the inspiration and boost to start your UX research portfolio!

If you want to build a great research portfolio quickly and easily, try UXfolio! It is a UX portfolio builder platform designed specifically for UX professionals – with many specific features, UX portfolio templates, and guiding questions that will help you on the way.

Click here to sign up for free!

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How to Build a Strong UX Research Portfolio

TABLE OF CONTENTS

In the realm of user experience, UX research portfolios are a commonplace tool for professionals in the field. This article aims to provide a comprehensive guide to help explore what UX research portfolios are, why they’re important, and offers valuable insight about how to create the most impactful UX research portfolio possible.

Key Takeaways:

➡️ UX research portfolios serve as invaluable tools for effectively conveying the skill, expertise, and experience of a UX researcher

❗ UX research portfolios typically showcase previous work , accompanied by a bio or ‘about’ section providing insights to the researcher’s background

✅ Case studies craft a compelling narrative about problems solved and incorporate deliverables and key outcomes  

🧠 Strong UX research portfolios help candidates stand out in a competitive job market

💡 UX research portfolios are a standard in the user experience industry, and offer a benchmark for showcasing one’s capabilities and accomplishments

What is a UX research portfolio?

A UX research portfolio is a thoughtfully curated collection of an individual UX researcher’s work that showcases experience and expertise in the field of user experience (UX) research. UX research is the systematic process of studying the behaviors, attitudes, pain points and habits of end users who interact with a product or service. Its primary objective is to gain insights that can enable designers and teams to make more informed design decisions for the product.

UX research portfolios typically include a range of projects, case studies, or other examples that exhibit a researcher’s distinct methodology . They often showcase tangible deliverables like personas or user journey maps , and explain how findings from research influenced the overall product or design.

Strong portfolios detail how research impacted a business or project goal, strategy, or metric, in a positive way. 

UX research portfolios can be likened to the canvas of a researcher’s professional journey. Just as an artist’s canvas beautifully displays their artwork, a UX researcher’s portfolio is crafted to showcase the accomplishments and experiences of their career journey .

By painting a vivid picture of their research abilities and talents, a portfolio can leave a lasting impression on potential clients or employers, capturing their attention and appreciation.

What is the purpose of a UX research portfolio?

The job market for UX researchers (or designers) can be fiercely competitive, particularly in areas of high demand for research professionals. Recent years have seen significant shifts in the landscape of UX research, highlighted by a surge in demand for skilled practitioners, scarcity of senior-level positions, and an ever-changing set of required skills.  

Within that competitive landscape, certain expectations for researchers arise.

Qualified UX researchers must exhibit an expected level of skill or experience, and portfolios are the industry standard method for displaying those qualities. Employers look to recruit talented researchers for positions in their organizations – and sift out candidates by reviewing and comparing their portfolios and resumes . 

For UX researchers early in their careers, portfolios can be an invaluable tool to help secure employment .

In a sometimes cruel and unforgiving job market, junior researchers are easily overlooked by companies seeking more senior talent. Without experience, these junior researchers sink to the bottom of the talent pool of potential candidates. Where experience may be limited, however, a strong portfolio of case studies can help prospective researchers rise above the rest . 

It is important to note, however, that while strong UX research portfolios can open doors to interviews, it does not guarantee immediate employment . Successful integration into a new team or company requires additional skills beyond portfolio preparation and presentation.

Qualities like effective communication, collaboration, leadership, adaptability , and other soft skills are vital to help researchers excel and rise above other candidates. These transferable skills become a strength for researchers with less experience than their counterparts.

A mix of skill, experience, and common organizational skills are indispensable components to what makes a UX researcher successful, and portfolios are the medium where UX researchers convey a compelling snapshot of their talents. 

What should a UX research portfolio include?

If a UX research portfolio serves as the canvas of a researcher’s professional journey the same way an artist’s canvas constructs a visual story, masterfully crafting individual details in a research portfolio is key.

Some of the most important elements to a strong portfolio include the following:

• Project case studies. Case studies form the backbone of a UX portfolio. They are the essential, primary content that best demonstrates the researcher’s skill, expertise, and capabilities. They depict problems encountered and the steps taken to solve those problems. Highlighting a few case studies is crucial, as well-constructed quality studies can have a lasting impact.
• Process methodology. Communicating the process from the beginning to the end is what potential clients or employers are looking for. They seek to understand how a researcher will work with them in their organization. Clearly outlining the process taken to solve a particular prompt or problem enables others to envision what it would be like to work with a particular researcher. Condensing the research process into clear, digestible steps highlights effective communication skills.
• Research deliverables. Visuals and other assets serve as tangible demonstrations of a researcher’s ability to digest inputs (or data) into valuable outputs. For example, condensing vast amounts of user information and synthesizing research into assets like personas or customer journey maps showcases the researcher’s understanding of the target audience’s pain points and improvement opportunities. Highlight all deliverables that added value to the project.
• Key outcomes, metrics, or impact. Understanding the impact of a problem solved is one of the most important details UX researchers can highlight in their portfolios. Businesses interested in tangible results want to understand the value research provides, and teams want to understand how work they invest in aligns with their overall strategy and goals. Measurable outcomes detail the thorough understanding needed to focus on high-impact problems that provide the value organizations prioritize.
• Contact or connection. Encourage viewers to take action by providing actionable and easy steps to contact you or connect. Enabling potential customers the ability to continue engaging with you helps convert interest into opportunity. 

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These aforementioned areas tend to draw the most attention from viewers. However, additional secondary details are also needed to contribute to a strong portfolio. Subtle details in a UX research portfolio, though not immediately visible, evoke a subconscious impression – much like the secondary elements in an artist’s canvas enhance the overall beauty and depth of a piece.

Keep in mind the following elements when curating your portfolio:

• Writing. Clear communication is key in all you do. Having simple and effective communication and documentation demonstrates the ability to be concise. In a world full of emails, messages, and notifications, it’s difficult to stay focused – and viewers tend to read through only the first couple words of a sentence. Formatting content in ways that are easy to scan (bullets, headings, bolding, etc.) and convey a concise message is vital to success in your work. 
• Collaboration. Highlight how you collaborated with others on projects. Potential clients or employers will look for how a UX researcher collaborated with others on a project. Most research isn’t done in a vacuum, and showcasing what you did individually and with a group provides greater depth into individual skill while also demonstrating the ability to work with others when needed.
• Testimonials. Testimonials demonstrate what it’s like to work with you and can create a powerful impression. Audaciously listing all of the details as to why you’d be a great addition to another’s team is easily overpowered by someone’s simple testimony of their experience working with you. Include references from those who have had positive experiences working with you.

How to make a UX research portfolio? 

Constructing a compelling portfolio involves several key steps. Here are some of the best steps to keep in mind when crafting or enhancing your own portfolio to make it the best it can be.

1. Know your audience

Consider the individuals who will be reviewing your portfolio. Are they potential clients that need to understand the skills of an independent contractor? Are they potential employers who need to understand how you will integrate into their team?

Take a user-centered approach in constructing your UX research portfolio. Tailor content, case studies, and details toward your target audience to find greater alignment and success with the type of work you aspire to do.

2. Select impactful projects

Rather than overwhelming viewers with a plethora of projects, curate 2-3 of your best works . Quality triumphs over quantity as viewers compare your portfolio to many others.

Hiring managers don’t have time to go through 5+ case studies for each potential candidate. Even though experienced researchers may have many projects to choose from, don’t give into the temptation to highlight all of them . Focus your efforts on 2-3 incredible case studies to help you stand out.

3. Showcase your work

Case studies are the traditional way of showcasing work on a given project. If choosing to highlight your work with case studies, ensure you provide proper context to the work.

Was this a team or individual effort? If you collaborated with others, how and when did you do so? Craft a meaningful story for each project you showcase. Be concise, but provide details that will be meaningful to your audience.

4. Demonstrate your process

As a UX researcher, detailing your process is key . Highlight the decisions you made and explain why you made them.

Demonstrate which research methods you used, and how you conducted your studies. Speak to any constraints the project had (timelines, business pressure, lack of resources, etc.). Summarize findings of what you learned throughout. 

5. Highlight deliverables

Deliberately break up the content of your case study by including artifacts that provide valuable context. These elements provide tangible evidence that you conducted the research, and showcases your ability to synthesize data into digestible artifacts others can use.

Deliverables like r esearch plans , wireframes, testimonials, affinity diagrams , storyboards , excerpts from diary studies or other reports are all examples of deliverables you could include. Highlight what was created as a result of the research.

6. Communicate impact

Calculate the positive impact your work had on the organization. If the research led to measurable differences in results, highlight them by including a before-and-after section .

Hiring managers are making a business decision when hiring a UX researcher, and they need to understand how you will bring value to their business. Examples of how you’ve brought measurable change in the past helps convey to others you can find ways to drive results for their organization as well.

7. Present yourself

Remember that you’re not just telling a story about your work, but about yourself as well. Be natural and genuine in your portfolio in the way you communicate.

Convey what you love about your work and tell your story about why you’re a UX researcher. Include personal tidbits of what makes you unique and present yourself as a well-rounded professional.

Learn more about Why we do UX Research?

8. Test your portfolio

Once completed, enlist help from trusted individuals to examine your portfolio. Have them test functionality, making sure it’s working online and across devices.

Be open to feedback and ideas that come. Make edits to your writing and work based on their suggestions. Work out any kinks before sharing with potential clients or employers. 

9. Share and iterate

Now that the hard work is done, begin sharing it with others. Continue to stay open to feedback, and make changes when necessary. Use it to pitch yourself for opportunities or jobs, providing concrete examples during discussions. The combination of your talent, experience, and the innate personal touch you bring will help you secure the kind of work you desire and find long-term happiness.

Keep in mind that rejection is part of the journey, and that’s okay. Not every opportunity will be the right fit for you, and businesses need to make decisions that align with their needs as well.

Don’t get discouraged, but press on and continue to work hard and believe that your efforts will pay off. Build bridges and relationships along the way. Continue to gain experience and enhance your portfolio iteratively if finding success continues to take time.

Storytelling through UX research portfolios

Vinod Punyani, a Senior Manager of UX Research Design at Walmart Global Tech, believes that storytelling is one of the most critical skills research professionals should practice and embody.

“When I review portfolios of candidates for a role on the research team, regardless of the level I am recruiting for, I assess the candidates’ storytelling abilities. I consider storytelling to be one of the most critical skill sets for researchers. 

I am familiar with the standard advice for structuring the case studies in a portfolio – namely specifying your role, articulating your thought process and approach, and highlighting your learnings along the way. Most candidates’ portfolios I’ve reviewed follow similar patterns, 

With that said, I also look for the candidates’ abilities to set the stage, surface the problem, highlight the challenges they faced and how they overcame them. I look for impressions of a candidate’s ability to influence change – which I believe to be an outcome of effective storytelling.”

Vinod states that while research acumen is important, being able to influence change in an organization is a key element to doing meaningful work in any organization. Storytelling is at the heart of how ideas are shared and how outcomes are articulated. 

Ensuring that you’re telling an engaging story through your work will ensure you have a greater chance of capturing the attention of a hiring manager - and potential stakeholder in the future.

Creating a strong UX research portfolio includes crafting an impactful story to support it. Articulating that story to others is a skill necessary to succeed in the field of UX research today. 

UX research portfolio examples

When seeking to enhance or create your portfolio, it’s helpful to look at other examples.

Here are a few portfolios worth exploring for inspiration:

• Aakriti Chugh – Aakriti’s portfolio showcases well-constructed case studies that effectively demonstrate her skills. Explore her work at: https://www.aakriti-chugh.in/#work
• Carl Pearson – Carl’s portfolio stands out with personal blog posts that help showcase his writing ability and industry knowledge. Discover more at:  https://carljpearson.com/what-does-a-quantitative-ux-researcher-do/
• Tiffany Yang – Tiffany’s video walkthrough of the case study that got her hired is an encouraging example of the steps it takes to secure employment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YswWJV4NUkE   

Take the time to explore these portfolios, and search for additional ones that you admire. Understand how others communicated their strengths, and find ways to highlight your own natural abilities and talent.

UX research templates

For additional resources to enhance your testing or UX research portfolio needs, check out the available templates and tools below: 

• Research and analysis templates – MURAL offers a collection of design research templates ➡️ Explore them here  
• UX research template – Miro provides a UX research plan template to assist in structuring research. They also have many additional templates to leverage. ➡️ Access this template  
• User journey map guide – Learn more about creating user journey maps with the comprehensive guide provided by UXtweak.
• Preference test tool – Additionally, check out UXtweak’s preference test tool to help find even more valuable insights through research.
• Figma portfolio template – Using a Figma portfolio template from the Figma community offers a free template to get started with designing your portfolio. ➡️ Check out the template
• Product research guide – Gain insights into product research with this invaluable guide from UXtweak.
• Card sorting tool – Card sorting helps facilitate information architecture exercises, and is a useful tool to help conduct your research studies.

Wrapping up

Crafting a compelling UX research portfolio that appeals to future employers is no easy task. However, by leveraging some of the best practices for showcasing your work and using storytelling, you’ll be able to stand out from other candidates and secure your dream job.

And if you’re looking for an all-in-one UX tool to help you with research throughout this journey – take a look at UXtweak! Create your UXtweak account , start testing today and master one more essential UX research skill – working with online research tools!

FAQ: UX Research Portfolio

Yes. Most UX professionals have previously had, or actively maintain, a portfolio exhibiting their work. Doing so allows them to present their past work and showcase their talent to potential clients or employers.

Well-structured portfolios give others insight into what it’s like to work with the researcher and help them understand the methodologies they employ. It also provides evidence of experience in a competitive job market. 

Creating a UX research portfolio begins by understanding your audience and selecting projects from your experience that highlights skills relevant to your target audience. Demonstrate your UX research process, and showcase skills and expertise to help you stand out from others. Include deliverables, assets, or artifacts that surfaced from your research.

UX research portfolios should include detailed projects or case studies that highlight the expertise and experience of the researcher. They typically include elements such as (but not limited to) process outlines, methodologies, captured visuals, testimonials, personas, journey maps, outcomes, recommendations, and metrics . Any elements that highlight the skill of the researcher may be included.

John is a seasoned UX designer with a successful track record leading design initiatives for top companies in the United States. Through his years of experience, he has gained a wealth of knowledge on design principles, practices, and concepts, which he shares with others through his writing. After completing his business degree, John discovered the world of UX design and recognized its potential to combine his creative passions with his love for technology and problem-solving. Since then, he has been dedicated to advancing his skills and expertise in this field, and helps to promote others in the industry hoping to do the same.

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5 Principles of Exceptional Case Studies in UX Portfolios

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Check out our new course Master Your UX Portfolio . We’ll show you what hiring managers are looking for and how to make a strong portfolio.

I’ve reviewed hundreds of UX portfolios over the years as a hiring manager and as someone who enjoys building portfolios .

In one instance, I was hiring and job searching at the same time. While reviewing candidates’ portfolios I was also sharing my case studies with employers to find a new role. It was a very unique opportunity to be on both sides of the hiring process at the same time.

Throughout these experiences, I collected thoughts and ideas about what makes a UX case study exceptional .

An exceptional case study is unique

An exceptional case study keeps the audience in mind, show the end result first, refine your lead, answer big questions early, an exceptional case study tells a story, not a process, an exceptional case study answers “why”, wrapping up.

When I started drafting this article I considered developing a template that would be easy to fill out. But you don’t need one. A case study is your own personal experience. You’re the only one who can tell it from your perspective.

This is your story to tell. It doesn’t have to follow the exact formula of every other UX portfolio. Instead, I’ll offer some ideas that can help you find the right approach for your work.

While interviewing candidates, I have come across portfolios from students or coworkers who worked together on the same projects. Their portfolios were indistinguishable, so I had no way to assess their unique skills, perspectives, or contributions. How can you use your case study to showcase what makes you different from other designers?

While every case study should be different, it still has to meet the expectations of a hiring manager. Expectations change based on the size of the company, the maturity of the design team, your seniority level, and the specific role itself. Like any good writer, you need to write for your audience.

I’m going to repeat what others have said many times before: your portfolio is just another design project. You need to understand your user (or reader) and their needs, then develop the right solution for them.

Here are some ways to keep that audience in mind:

• Highlight important parts of the case study. What are you proud of? What sets you apart? This content should stand out.
• Pick the right length for your project. Because this is your own story and perspective, there is no perfect length for a case study. However, it should be long enough to interest the hiring manager in talking further. One paragraph is too short, but a diary of the entire project is too long. Aim for the highlights.
• Use headings to make your case study scannable. This showcases your understanding of typography and hierarchies and makes it much easier to browse.
• Write descriptive headings. Each heading should work to your advantage. Headings like “Research” and “Wireframes” tell the hiring manager that you did the same thing any other designer would do. How can you use that valuable real estate to give extra context? Instead of “Research” try something like, “Discovering how much customers care about privacy.”

An exceptional case study sets expectations upfront

The first thing your case study should do is set the stage . Create a scene, give your story a setting, and help the reader know what’s coming next.

Start by showing the end result of your project. What did your final design look like? Your readers should how good this is going to be in the end! Then deconstruct and show how it all came together.

Starting with the end result gives the reader a sense of what the project involved (mobile vs desktop, app vs web, enterprise vs customer, etc). It prevents them from having to look for those details while scanning the case study.

This also helps readers frame what else they’re seeing. As they read about your research, data, or exploration they can picture the solution and the format in context.

What’s the shortest way to describe your project while still catching the reader’s attention?

Don’t couch the lead in the middle of a paragraph somewhere. Highlight it and make it stand out! The right pitch could answer many of the hiring manager’s questions right off the bat. Here are some examples to help you think about how you can describe your own project:

• “After observing almost 30 people watch videos on our e-learning platform I worked with my team to develop a new note-taking system. Usage of our education videos spiked almost 20% shortly after release.”
• “My team set out to find the root cause of dropping conversion rates in an enterprise SaaS platform. After 6 months we rolled out an entirely new registration process to better showcase the capabilities of the platform. This resulted in a 5% increase in conversions.”
• “For a school project, I worked with individuals who experienced vision loss to develop an app idea that would improve their movie theater experience. One individual called the idea ‘magical.’”
• “While attending a UX bootcamp I explored app ideas for how to help owners find their lost dogs and created a mockup based on research.”

In addition to your lead, answering these questions upfront will make for a much better reading experience. You could present this data as bullet points, a table, a short summary — it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that you clearly communicate the context so the reader can accurately understand the story you’re about to tell.

A hiring manager may have questions such as:

• What platform or OS was this project designed for?
• Was this in-house, agency, freelance, student, or exploratory work?
• Was this ever built?
• Did you work with a team?
• What was the timeline?
• What was your role?
• Was this ever released to the public?
• If released, how did you define success?
• What was the outcome?

Answering these questions early not only provides a better reading experience but always satisfies many of the questions you might hear in an interview, as well.

Your case study isn’t a design textbook . It doesn’t need to explain how the design process works (because everyone reading your portfolio already knows it). Instead, it needs to tell a story of a project and your role in it. Show the wild ride you went on as the design process unfolded. What is the unique and compelling story underlying this project? Why should the viewer care?

Here are a few things to keep in mind to help you stay in story mode and out of textbook mode:

• Stay connected to the problem . Most design projects start with a problem. A reader can’t evaluate your solution if they don’t understand the problem it solves. Ideally, your final solution should clearly solve the initial problem.
• Connect the dots. What did you learn about people, and how did that impact your design? Many case studies list research insights immediately followed by wireframes. How are these connected?
• Tell stories with images. Even product screenshots can tell stories. Spend time on them. Make them interesting. Make it easy to understand how it relates to the work (instead of random isometric grids of app designs). Point to the part that’s different. Compare old and new, or ideas that you threw out and others you kept.
• Show the mess. Your case study doesn’t need to be messy, but your project might be. Messy or negative experiences are okay. Describe the deadlines, the budget constraints, and the limited resources you had to make the project happen. Teams want designers who are still creative under constraints.
• Show what you learned. Even if your project was a complete disaster you can show how you grew and how you approach design differently as a result. If a project blew up in your face, how did you fix it? If the project funding, what did you learn for next time? No one should expect a flawless project, but everyone should expect to learn from past experiences.

Designers produce a lot of work. We gather sticky notes, produce endless sketches, and create massive canvases of UI exploration. I get it. We do a lot and we want people to know that! Unfortunately, none of that work matters unless we can communicate why it matters.

Why was this the right project? Why was it the right solution for the business? Why was this the best user experience? Why were you valuable to the project?

Photos of whiteboards and sticky notes show that you did work, but don’t show why that work matters. Instead of a photo of your notebook, show what you learned from that exciting synthesis session and how it changed your project!

Here are some things that can help you tell the story of “why”:

• Insights from a surprising user interview that changed the direction of a project
• Qualitative observations from usability testing
• Data and analysis of flows, funnels, and success rates
• Business goals and strategies that affected your priorities

Some people, like me, love putting together a portfolio. Others dread it. Either way, it’s the current standard for the UX interview process. Be authentic and honest about your work and you’ll find the right fit for you.

This article is more about principles than rigid requirements. These principles are based on my experience and the shared experience of many other talented design leaders. If you deviate from these ideas and find success, please pay it forward so we can all continue to learn and evolve our craft.

Best of luck in creating a great case study!

If this was helpful, consider giving the Twitter thread some love:

The UX case study format is growing stale. Most portfolios follow the same formula, so no one stands out. I’ve reviewed hundreds of UX portfolios. I've been collecting thoughts and ideas about what makes a UX case study exceptional. 👇 — Taylor Palmer (@_taylorpalmer) February 9, 2022

• Artificial Intelligence
• Product Management
• UX Research

12 Inspiring UX Portfolio Examples

We’ve seen it all. As an international UX design agency , our design leads review hundreds of UX portfolios every time we have an opening in our team. What’s interesting is that there appears to be a recipe for successful portfolios.

In this article

• you’ll find 12 inspiring portfolio examples that utilize this recipe, and
• a rundown on the characteristics of a great UX portfolio .

12 Inspiring UX portfolio examples

1. danielle.

6. Sang Jun Lee

7. Victoria

9. Max Berger

10. Melysia

What is a UX portfolio?

A UX portfolio is a collection of case studies that reveal your design process and skills through the story of design projects you’ve been part of.

The difference between UX portfolios and UX case studies

Many designers use the word ‘portfolio’ to refer to their case studies. But they’re not the same thing. The difference is technical:

• Your case studies use a mix of text and visuals to present your design process in the context of previous design projects.
• The word portfolio refers to the entire file – website or document – that binds your case studies, portfolio cover page, bio, resumé, and contact page together.

What are recruiters and design leads looking for?

When you are building your UX portfolio and case studies, you have to keep thinking like a UX designer. Most importantly, you should consider your target audience: HR managers and UX leads.

They have to review hundreds of portfolios in a limited amount of time. What’s more, there’s probably a set date by which they need to find the right person for the role. This leaves only a few minutes to review a portfolio.

With that in mind, here’s some practical advice:

• Why do so many portfolios follow the same structure and look? Because that structure and look works. Your target audience is comfortable with it, which means that they’ll have a pleasant experience using it. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel: find a stunning, tried-and-true template and customize it to your taste.
• People gravitate towards pretty things, whether we like to admit it or not. Therefore, your portfolio needs to look sleek. What’s more, it’ll need to pass through a few people with varying tastes. So, it’s better to play it safe: go for the minimalistic look, as most people find it pleasing to the eye.
• Due to time restrictions, most design leads will check 1-2 case studies when reviewing your portfolio. So, don’t stress about the number of case studies in your portfolio. “Quality over quantity” should be your mantra. As the seniority level of the role raises, so does the number of projects they’ll check. But there’s absolutely no reason to have more than 5 case studies in your portfolio.
• In this context, ‘best’ doesn’t necessarily mean the most beautiful or smoothest projects. Instead, it means the projects that called for hard decisions, new skills, and lots of cooperation. The rule of thumb is to choose projects that show the most of your soft and hard skills.
• If you’ve worked on something that’s thematically relevant to the niche or product they’re hiring for, give that project the special treatment. This will immediately put you at an advantage.
• Give a good read to the job description and identify the buzzwords regarding skills, methods, and tools. If you have experience with them, highlight that experience in your case studies, just as you would in your resumé .

Now that you have an idea of what makes an exceptional UX portfolio in general, it’s time to move on to your case studies.

How to write UX case studies like a pro?

UX case studies are about storytelling. Yes, it’s an overused word, but bear with us! Storytelling in this context means that you’ll write about the project as you’d talk about it with a colleague over lunch or coffee. Just put it to words, add some visuals and you have a UX case study. Here’s an easy-to-follow structure:

Title and subtitle

Drop the name of the product or feature in your title and give a little description of the process in your subtitle. Keep both short and sweet but intriguing. Overlong titles are unnecessary and they tend to look bad too. Here are some guiding questions:

• What was the product’s name?
• What type of a project was this? (redesign, UI design, UX research)

Context with visuals

Begin your case study by setting the scene. This part is very important, because it’d be hard to understand your decisions and process without knowing the circumstances. This can be done by answering the 5 Ws:

• When? (The date and duration of the project.)
• Who? (Your role, and the team you’ve worked with.)
• Where? (Extremely relevant in the COVID era – remote or in-person setup.)
• What? (The product, feature, and business goal.)
• Why? (The problem.)

Once you’ve set the scene, it’s a great idea to inject something visual into the case study. Use a photo of the team or a teaser screenshot from the finished product. This’ll increase the curiosity of your readers.

Your process, step-by-step

At this point, the spotlight is on your skills. This is where the action begins. When we’re telling stories in a natural setting – like a conversation with a friend – we usually proceed in chronological order. You should do the same in your case study:

• Begin with the discovery : reveal how you’ve familiarized yourself with the product and problem, what were your initial observations and theories, and how you’ve planned to proceed.
• Move on to problem-research-solution trios . While describing them, show as much of your skillset as possible: what methods did you use, what did you find out, how did you organize the data, what tools did you use, how did you come up with the solution, how did you validate the solution. Don’t forget to present your sketches, personas, wireframes, prototypes, and other relevant visuals too!

Show the finished product or feature

The high point of the case study should be the reveal of the final product . The best way to do this is to embed an interactive prototype into your case study. This’ll allow your reader to use the product without having to download it or navigate to another page.

In our UX portfolio-building tool, UXfolio, you can embed your Figma, Axure, Sketch, and other prototypes in just a few clicks. Alternatively, you could also show screenshots of the product, presented in neat device mockups, which are also part of UXfolio.

Underline your impact

The conclusion of your case study is just as important as the introduction. In this part get to show the impact of your design through analytics and data . Your task is to use numbers to answer the following question: what changed after implementing your solutions? For the business-minded reader, this’ll be the sweetest part of the entire case study.

Finish with learnings & quotes

Sometimes a project doesn’t go as planned and initial assumptions get refuted, so we have to re-calibrate our process. The good thing is that we come out from such experiences with learnings that’ll benefit us throughout our careers. Share these insights with your readers at the end of your case study. It’ll show that you’re willing to learn and grow as a designer and a person.

If you have quotes about yourself or your team from the stakeholders, don’t be shy to share those too! Quotes will provide a glimpse into what it’s like to work with you. And that’s a great note to end on.

Start working on your UX portfolio!

That should do it for your UX portfolio! Remember, that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. It’s your storytelling skills, design process, and deliverables that’ll convince design leads to hire you. If you’re ready to work on your portfolio, try UXfolio !

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WEBSITE ESSENTIALS

15 best UX portfolios and what we can learn from them

• Talia Cohen
• 13 min read

Get st arted by: Creating a portfolio → | Getting a domain →

An online portfolio is a must for designers at all career stages, from entry-level freelancers to senior staff designers. Potential clients or employers expect to see a portfolio showcasing your design skills before they make a hire. As a designer it's a type of website to make to showcase your work.

Has your curiosity piqued? Continue scrolling to view 15 of our favorite UX design portfolio examples: Feast your eyes on their impeccable design, learn from best practices and get inspired to create a website of your own.

What is a UX design portfolio and why do you need one?

Any designer working in their respective industry must have a professional portfolio . For UX designers, a portfolio is a chance to present your best work, creative process and personality. You can also provide in-depth case studies that communicate how you facilitate a user experience. However, all UX design portfolios need to balance an engaging visual experience with one that enhances usability.

15 UX portfolio website examples

This curated list of best portfolio websites highlights some of the best practices these pro UX designers have implemented on their Wix sites. Take these into account when creating your own UX design portfolio.

Sophie Brittain

Diana Tatarenko

Run Wild Studio

Saloni Joshi

Dalya Green

Lital Karni

Sophie Westfall

Michaella Twersky

Gautham Mukesh

Zebi Williams

Jennifer Etsuko Higa

Tania Soraya

Sophie Chen

01. Sophie Brittain

Digital and branding designer Sophie Brittain has crafted an inviting, spacious design on her UX portfolio. A visual of brightly colored abstract shapes appears at the top of her homepage. The motif repeats throughout her portfolio, helping to define a distinct personal brand.

Key design takeaways from Sophie Brittain’s UX portfolio

Sophie utilizes the website's top fold to introduce herself and briefly clarify her areas of expertise. Stating her name and creative discipline within the field of design in large typography, site visitors won’t miss this essential information. She’s also added a friendly “hello!” and a personal touch in the form of custom icons.

When you put your own portfolio together, make your personality and expertise clear. Prospective employers and clients will likely look through dozens of UX portfolios in addition to your own, so add personable touches to make yours stand out.

02. Diana Tatarenko

This 2021 Wix Playground Academy participant created a mesmerizing UX portfolio using clean lines and simple colors. The addition of a whimsical, lime green font gives off a playful vibe.

Key designtakeaways from Diana Tatarenko’s UX portfolio

The highlight of Diana’s website is its “Work” section, which not only displays her recent projects, but also explains her process. Each project outlines the problem the client faced and explains how Diana solved it through design. She shows visitors her vision, thought process and images to support each step—offering a comprehensive overview of her creative workflow.

Your portfolio is a chance to be transparent with your clients before you even meet them. By showing how you overcome challenges and solve problems when creating your final product, clients will have more confidence in your approach.

03. Run Wild

Run Wild’s UX portfolio offers an almost interactive experience, using a video background to serve as the site’s welcome screen. A tagline is written in block white letters with a button that begins the user journey placed below, starting with the designer’s bio. The entire site is whimsical and informative, plus it's a breeze to navigate through. Run Wild allows his artistic talent to shine through the use of a hamburger menu, large typography, scrolling effects and images of his design projects.

Key design takeaways from Run Wild’s UX portfolio

Run Wild uses two forms of navigation. The first is a hamburger menu, placed in the upper left corner. There is also a horizontal navigation menu in the website footer, with each menu item written across the bottom of the page.

Take Run Wild’s lead and make all the information visitors need accessible through simple and clear navigation. If someone has to hunt for your resume or contact information, they may give up and leave your site.

04. Saloni Joshi

This straightforward UX portfolio contains a spacious top fold dedicated to a short, introductory paragraph and links for getting in touch with Saloni . Further down, you’ll find her showcased projects.

Key design takeaways from Saloni Joshi’s UX portfolio

Saloni includes quality written content on her UX portfolio, presenting all the most crucial information in an easy-to-read and familiar (yet professional) tone.

Similarly, you should use written content to clarify your information (like your name and current employment status), as well as highlight opportunities of interest and project details. Like Saloni, strategically place these essential details on your portfolio using a readable font and minimal amounts of text. Visitors will want to find the details they need quickly without having to search. Additionally, we suggest adding your CV directly to the website’s menu.

05. Dalya Green

Dalya Green’s one-page UX portfolio certaisonly packs a punch, leaving visitors with a well-rounded impression of her work and vision. The site is full of fun, engaging elements like the gradient background, whose color scheme visitors can change on their own.

Key design takeaways from Dalya Green’s UX portfolio

Dalia includes a white button with the words “Click to see some fun facts” on the top fold of her site. Upon clicking, five more colorful circles open up, overlapping her intro with fun facts including her morning routine and her Netflix vibe. She even has another pink button at the bottom of her page in the “Info” section that says, “Missed the fun facts?” When visitors click, the same facts appear overlaid across the screen. This creatively grabs visitors attention and entices them to continue exploring.

As a UX designer, your job entails creating smooth and effortless digital interaction, so make your portfolio an engaging experience. When you allow visitors to not simply observe your portfolio, but interact with it in unusual ways, it shows off your creativity and design skills—offering a sneak peek at what they can expect from your work. In addition, it makes your portfolio unique and memorable.

06. Lital Karni

The energetic combination of colors stands out on Lital Karni’s professional portfolio, making the top fold appear both sophisticated and playful. The layout on the homepage is simple with an organized fullscreen grid. Lital has carefully matched a different background to each project, while also creating a cohesive homepage aesthetic.

She has also created a custom logo design that stays fixed to the screen and acts as a convenient link to her homepage. Thanks to its subtle glow, the letterform logo remains visible against any background color.

Key design takeaways from Lital Karni’s UX portfolio

Lital has used a combination of techniques for displaying contact details and allowing visitors to contact her. For example, a “Let’s Talk” button is fixed to the screen as you browse through her portfolio, tempting site visitors to reach out. Clicking it will take you to a contact form at the bottom of the page. On top of this, she’s added her email, phone number and social links on her About page, ensuring that visitors have no problem getting in touch.

When you make your own UX portfolio, make sure your contact details are visible. After all, the goal of your personal website is to draw attention to your works and ultimately get hired. Make it easy for employers or clients to get in touch by including all the necessary information in an easy-to-spot location—either on a dedicated contact page or via your website footer or About page. You may also consider adding your email address, phone number and links to your social channels.

07. Jung Hoe

UI/UX designer Jung has created three simple pages on his UX portfolio (Work, About, and CV) which visitors can easily navigate through in the upper right corner menu. When landing on this site, viewers are initially taken to Jung’s Work page, which also acts as the site’s homepage.

Key design takeaways from Jung Hoe’s UX portfolio

Jung's bright yellow portfolio not only grabs your attention, but gives you a glimpse into his upbeat personality. In addition, an animated background of yellow spheres falling from the top of the screen introduce Jung along with rotating greetings in 13 different languages. English greetings include “Hi there!” and “Howdy partner!” and instantly allow visitors to emotionally connect with this designer.

Jung Hoe’s website exemplifies how a UX portfolio can extend your design brand. The look, colors and tone of voice remain consistent on each page and even extend to his CV. Jung's unified brand identity creates a memorable impression that helps visitors understand what to expect from him and his work.

08. Sophie Westfall

A primary tenet of Sophie Westfall’s work relates to dealing with mental health and supporting nonprofit agencies. Following this principle, she incorporates calming color tones and soothing imagery so that visitors “feel calm and safe” while looking through her work. An old black and white photo of her family sits next to a brief introductory paragraph, and a small black and white butterfly flutters in the lower left hand corner.

Key design takeaways from Sophie Westfall’s UX portfolio

Clean, symmetrical lines outline Sophie’s projects on a beige background. Her digital projects appear on a desktop, tablet or cell phone screen, conveying her ability to tailor her work to any device. The three digital showcases Sophie has chosen to feature also include props that emphasize the final product design. The right-sized images don't overwhelm site visitors, but still show off the detail of her work as well as her obvious talent.

Display your work how you want viewers to see it. Sophie’s UX portfolio shows us how to beautifully showcase work on an intended platform. If a project has both a mobile and desktop design, feature both assets so potential clients can see your full range of talent.

09. Michaella Twersky

Product designer Michaella (Miki) Twersky’s portfolio has a classic look, but it simultaneously conveys her unique personality. Miki has added a hover effect on the images on her homepage. While the images first appear in black-and-white, they saturate with color when hovered over. This helps visitors focus on the specific project they’re viewing, improving their browsing experience.

Key design takeaways from Michaella Twersky’s UX portfolio

While it makes a big impression, Michaella’s portfolio only highlights six of her best projects. Since your UX portfolio show off your best skills, you don’t need to include everything you’ve worked on throughout your career. When choosing which of your own projects to display on your portfolio, include only your favorites or those that reflect the type of work you'd like to do in the future.

10. Gautham Mukesh

This UX portfolio example perfectly reflects Gautham Mukesh’s sleek and modern design style. The dark mode-inspired color scheme is paired with clean fonts and perfectly implemented animated trigger effects to convey that this UX, product and web designer cares creating a user-friendly browsing experience.

Key design takeaways from Gautham Mukesh’s UX portfolio

Less is more. Your portfolio should highlight both your design personality as well as your work. But don’t forget the importance of white space—that is, empty space that will help draw peoples’ eyes to your strategic content.

Gautham's clean and simple website emphasizes only vital components of his work. And although it’s easy on the eyes, Gautham’s web design is still rich with sophisticated design features like customized imagery, parallax scrolling and a convenient QR code for getting in touch.

11. Zebi Williams

Starting with a striking hero image, Zebi's UX portfolio takes visitors through a seamless journey to discover the designer's work, experience and processes. Overall, Zebi's site supports important written information with visual details, like color, animation and imagery.

Key design takeaways from Zebi's UX portfolio

Zebi's engaging portfolio delights first-time visitors. A map tracks a user's location as they scroll through the site’s homepage, encouraging continued exploration. Each section of the UX portfolio has value—whether it's detailed case studies, testimonials, supportive imagery or contact details.

12. Jennifer Etsuko Higa

Jennifer's UX portfolio has a trendy 90s vibe thanks to unfiltered imagery, use of a serif font and the vintage feel of her warm color scheme. While it's clean and easy to read, Jennifer's homepage proves that you can make a bold statement with minimalistic elements.

Key design takeaways from Jennifer’s UX design portfolio

Use your knowledge of design principles to fine tune your layout. Jennifer uses her understanding of complementary colors and their effect on the visitor to create a seamless user experience that engages without overwhelming or distracting.

13. Tania Soraya

Tania uses a combination of earthy, neon and neutral colors on her website to foster a more attractive experience. Tania showcases just three core projects she's worked on recently to give visitors a focused overview of her work. Using a friendly written tone and emojis throughout, Tania seems approachable, encouraging visitors to reach out for more details.

Key design takeaways from Tania’s UX design portfolio

Tania’s site uses minimal visual and written content, but communicates a clear vision of her modern style. The simple, clean layout paired with a mesh gradient background emphasizes her personal style.

Sometimes, a good website background is all you need to let your personality shine. In Tania's case, the sophisticated gradient proves two things: First, Tania definitely has her finger on the pulse of web design trends. Second, she's not afraid to jump outside of the box.

14. Madison Yn

It’s the little things that make a site more attractive for visitors. Here, Madison implements strategic design elements that please the eye—like animation to grab attention and white space to create visual balance. Additionally, the use of large typography enhances the level of readability, making the site a breeze to scroll and read through.

Key design takeaways from Madison's UX portfolio

The top fold of your homepage is visible as soon as visitors reach your site. Since it takes only seconds to make an impression on a user, treat it as valuable web design real estate.

Madison takes full advantage of this concept. The top fold of her home page is rich with color. It includes a short professional bio, CTAs and a succinct navigation menu. On top, Madison's animated logo makes a striking impact to the overall design.

15. Sophie Chen

We appreciate how Sophie Chen’s UX portfolio gets straight to the point. The timeless web design dives right into a display of work experience examples, starting at the top fold of her homepage.

Each piece of her portfolio examples includes a title, short summary and a button that leads to the “case study.” Visitors have the option of learning more about Sophie’s process and the specific tools she used for each project.

Key design takeaways from Sophie Chen’s UX design portfolio

The straightforward layout used on Sophie's portfolio translates well on mobile devices. The same information viewed on the desktop version can be comfortably accessed from a smaller screen. The content fits perfectly into the user interface, especially thanks to the hamburger menu which allows more room to display each page's content.

When creating a UX portfolio of your own, make sure you use either adaptive or responsive design methods to perfect the mobile version. And with almost 60% of online traffic coming from mobile devices , you'll avoid missing out on customers who discover your portfolio on-the-go.

What makes a good UX portfolio?

A strong UX portfolio not only demonstrates your expertise but also tells a compelling story that resonates with potential employers or clients. To achieve this, each project should include a comprehensive case study outlining the design process from research and ideation to prototyping and testing. Highlight your results and impact metrics to showcase the effectiveness of the designs in improving user experiences. Make sure to use personal branding and storytelling to really showcase your work.

To stand out, you should regularly update and refine your portfolios, incorporating new projects and skills while seeking feedback for continuous improvement. By showcasing a diverse range of projects, emphasizing user-centered approaches and infusing personal branding, you can effectively communicate your expertise and passion for creating exceptional user experiences, ultimately attracting opportunities for career advancement.

10 best practices for your UX portfolio

After drawing inspiration from fellow creators and other UX research websites , gather your takeaways and craft your own online presence. Here are the essential design portfolio tips to learn how to make a portfolio from the selection of UX industry examples above:

Make it instantly clear who you are and what you do.

Be easy to contact.

Present your portfolio with high quality imagery.

Describe your work using succinct copy.

Present your process, and not just your final product.

Use your website to establish your brand.

Add an updated copy of your CV.

Mention the basic details of each project.

Only include your best work.

Make sure your site looks good on mobile.

How to make a UX portfolio website on Wix

Ready to start a portfolio of your own? Take these steps to learn how to make a website . You can start with portfolio templates to speed up the process or hone your design skills and make one from scratch. Once you've laid a foundation, customize your UX portfolio keeping best practices in mind.

Choose a portfolio website template

Personalize your site with website design features

Dive into the Wix Editor to drag and drop your elements into place

Upload your media

Add an About page

Add a Contact Form

Publish and promote your site

"You can use the template as a starting point in different levels of design - from using it as a layout base or as a wireframe; taking design language and colors as inspiration; using the site structure and content offering; or taking it as it is and just replacing your content. You can get very creative and different results from using a template and it can save a lot of time and effort."

Dafna Rabin, Template Design Team Lead at Wix

UX portfolio FAQ

What does a ux portfolio consist of.

A UX portfolio should showcase your best work through carefully selected projects with comprehensive case studies. It should include the following elements:

An About Me page that introduces you and your work.

Case studies that detail your design process, problem-solving abilities, and outcomes.

Visual examples of your work, such as screenshots or videos.

Design artifacts such as personas, user journey maps, and information architecture diagrams.

Your skills and tools relevant to UX design.

Contact information so potential employers can reach you.

How do I start a UX portfolio for beginners?

How do you make a killer ux portfolio, do ux designers need a portfolio, what's the best format for a ux portfolio, related posts.

Best portfolio websites to fuel your inspiration

17 best portfolio layouts for creative professionals

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3 real-world UX research case studies from Airbnb, Google, and Spotify—and what we can learn from them

All successful products have at least one thing in common: they’re driven by thorough and ongoing UX research. Learn how the biggest brands conduct user research with these real-world case studies from Airbnb, Google, and Spotify.

Free course: Introduction to UX Design

What is UX? Why has it become so important? Could it be a career for you? Learn the answers, and more, with a free 7-lesson video course.

User research is the foundation of good design. Any successful product you can think of is driven by user insights. And, while all UX designers tap into the same pool of tools and techniques, you’ll find that every team has their own unique approach to user research.

Are you curious about how some of the biggest brands conduct UX research? Then keep reading. In this post, we take a deep dive into three real-world UX research case studies:

• Airbnb: The power of observing behaviour to uncover design opportunities
• Google for Education: The importance of user feedback for rapid product adaptation
• Spotify: The value of human perspectives in a data-driven world

Each of these case studies teaches us a valuable lesson about UX research—lessons you can apply to your own design projects. So let’s jump in!

[GET CERTIFIED IN USER RESEARCH]

UX research case study #1: Airbnb and the power of observing user behaviour to uncover design opportunities

Oftentimes, user research is planned in advance and conducted within a controlled setting—think user interviews , or analysing how people interact with your website over a specific period of time. 

But sometimes, user research occurs organically—like an accidental light shining on a major design opportunity. That’s exactly what happened at Airbnb, leading to the design and launch of a new global check-in tool. 

Vibha Bamba, Design Lead on Airbnb’s Host Success Team, writes: 

“The decision to design the tool was informed by an intriguing host behaviour. We noticed that about 1.5 million photo messages were being sent from host to guest each week—the majority of them to explain location and entry details. Photos of the home were juxtaposed with maps, lockbox locations were described, and landmarks were called out.” 

Observing these behaviours over time, the Airbnb team realised that there was a huge opportunity to make the exchange between hosts and guests much more seamless and consistent. This kicked off a year-long project to design a global check-in tool for the Airbnb platform. 

The result? An integrated check-in tool that enables hosts to create visual check-in guides for their guests. They can upload photos and instructions which the tool will translate depending on the guests’ preferred language, and the guides can be accessed both on and offline. 

And, after launching the tool, the team continued to observe how hosts used it. They were able to flag issues and further design opportunities, adapting and evolving the check-in tool to better meet hosts’ needs. That’s the power of observing user behaviour! 

The takeaway

User behaviour provides us with incredibly rich insights. Don’t rely solely on planned or periodic user research—continuously observe how people interact with your product in the wild, too. You don’t know what you don’t know, and this approach will help you to uncover design opportunities you may not have even thought to look for otherwise.

Read the full UX research case study here: Leveraging Creative Hacks: How the Airbnb Community Inspired a Global Check-in Tool . 

[GET CERTIFIED IN UX]

UX research case study #2: Google for Education and the importance of user feedback for rapid product adaptation  

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, our lives changed almost overnight. Many of us were suddenly working from home, navigating new challenges of communicating and collaborating remotely. 

Teachers were no exception. They had to quickly adapt to teaching online, relying on tools like Google Meet to conduct lessons virtually. But Google Meet was originally designed as a conferencing tool for businesses, so the user experience for teachers and students wasn’t ideal. 

In the words of one tech admin speaking to the Google Meet team: 

“Students are using the tools in a way that makes it hard for teachers to do their job. Teachers can’t mute students, or put them in groups, they can’t ask questions easily to take the temperature of the class. Students are also jumping on the video without supervision—and that’s an issue. I wish there was more control.” 

The Google Meet team needed to act fast to figure out how the software could better meet teachers’ needs. To do this, they went straight to the source, gathering user feedback directly from teachers.

Based on this feedback, they added a range of new features such as attendance taking, hand raising, waiting rooms, and polls. 

The result? A rapidly improved user experience for teachers and students which ultimately benefited all Google Meet users. 

Sometimes, UX designers must think and act fast; there’s not always time for lengthy user research and cautious feature rollouts. When you need to adapt and evolve a product to quickly improve the user experience, it pays to go straight to your users for their feedback. 

Read the full UX research case study here: Adapting Products to Meet Teachers’ Changing Needs . 

UX research case study #3: Spotify and the value of human perspectives in a data-driven world 

Data is a powerful research tool. It enables you to gather and analyse broad and vast user insights, to make evidence-backed decisions, and to track and measure important UX KPIs . 

But, as Nhi Ngo, Insights Manager, User Research & Data Science at Spotify will tell you, it’s important not to become over-reliant on data when conducting UX research. Sometimes, making the best design decision boils down to a human perspective. 

Nhi Ngo came to this realisation when developing and launching a feature called “Shortcuts” on the Spotify Home tab. Powered by machine learning, Shortcuts is a dedicated space that showcases the user’s current favourites, as deduced by Spotify’s algorithms. 

The feature was developed based on data collected through a variety of research methods, including longitudinal user studies and A/B testing . 

So far, so good. But when it came to deciding on a name for the feature, A/B tests came back inconclusive. 

In the end, the name was decided based on the product designer’s instinct to go with the name that would create the most human and personal experience. Nhi Ngo explains:

“A few candidates that were tested were ‘Listen Now’ (the objective that the model optimizes for), ‘Shortcuts’ (the user-facing functionality), ‘Quick Access’ (a UX goal of this space), and last but not least, a daypart greeting, ‘Good morning’ (that would change with the time of day to ‘Good afternoon’ or ‘Good evening’). We were counting on the AB test to help us make this important decision. The test returned neutral. Our designer recommended we go with the daypart name, much to my reservations. 

Indeed, participants were most often positively surprised in our interview sessions whenever they opened their phone and saw the greetings. Convinced by our designer’s humanistic approach and recognising the intangible benefits of providing users with this joy of being ‘greeted by Spotify’, we decided to go with our perspective-taking as humans to humans, and chose the daypart name.” 

The result? A new product feature that evoked delight in Spotify’s users and led to further improvements, such as incorporating more time-based features in the model so that the recommendations changed depending on the time of day (for example, showing sleep music playlists at night). 

Data-driven research is an extremely powerful tool, but it may not always give you the full picture or a conclusive answer. Whenever you conduct and interpret research data, it’s important not to lose sight of your human perspective. 

In the words of Nhi Ngo: “When data can’t give you a definitive answer, it is OK to be human and make a human decision. Prioritise user joy; treat them as you would any human in your life.” 

Read the full UX research case study here: It’s OK to be Human in a Machine-Learned World . 

Learn more about UX research

All of these ux research case studies emphasise the importance of user research in UX design . If you’d like to learn more about UX research, check out the 9 best UX research tools , read about a day in the life of a UX research manager with Google’s Dr. Stephen Hassard , and master the art of analysing your UX research and pulling out useful insights in this guide .

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8 October 2024

Creating a UX Design Portfolio Case Study

Summary:  A 7-step process to creating a case study for your portfolio: how to describe your design, the UX process that led to this specific user interface, and the business impact of the design.

3 minute video by 2019-11-08 3

• Rachel Krause

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Rachel Krause is a Senior User Experience Specialist with Nielsen Norman Group. Her areas of expertise include storytelling, UX in agile, design thinking, scaling design, and UX leadership. She has also planned and conducted research on careers, UX maturity, and intranets for clients and practitioners in numerous industries.

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