What are the best practices for creating UX case studies for your portfolio?

Our portfolio approach should mirror our product approach. It's crucial we tailor the portfolio to each specific brand we present to. It's all about guiding the audience on a journey from point A to B. Our aim is getting a project or job within a company. With that goal in mind, optimize the portfolio for the target brand's identity and needs. At each step, avoid overwhelming with too many details. Present information clearly, organized, transparently. As the article states, prune irrelevant, outdated projects. Rather than showing everything, emphasize content aligning with the primary objective.

Your UX portfolio is also a user journey, and just like an onboarding flow, you have to bring someone along for the ride, so they convert into a happy user. If you don’t view your UX portfolio as a user journey, your UX portfolio will be hard to follow, less engaging, and less interesting. To tell a compelling story, share the overview of the project to keep it to the point. Applying to a job is like an onion, and you don't want someone to take out a big bite at once. Instead, you need to slowly peel the layers back as the hiring team gains more interest in you. A concise portfolio leads to a detailed portfolio presentation full of *new* information.

When in doubt, keep it concise. I agree you should provide enough context so visitors know the problem, your role, some brief insight into your design thinking, and the outcome. But you can usually do this with a single screenshot and around 200 words. Hiring managers are busy and inundated with applications. Short and sweet is perfect. Whet their appetite, and save the gritty details for the live interview after they reach out to you.

Don't write like YOU talk, write like THEY talk. Adapt your language and vocabulary to fit all audiences. A good story is a story anyone can understand and tell to others. Avoid acronyms, and technical jargon or explain it. The hero of the story is not you it's the solution that emerged from your process make it all is about the hero.

You should also talk about what struggles you faced and how you overcame them. Doing this helps hiring managers understand how you approach challenges and what impact you could have joining their team. Every project is going to have challenges, how you overcome them is the defining factor.

One thing I've found helpful is building a matrix of ideas generated vs. ideas accepted vs. ideas went live. As designers, we go beyond UI design; often, a lot of stuff is buried in collaborative tools. It's essential to document multiple facets of design impact.