Chan Karunamuni

⌚Break this Safe

Currently working on a new case study for my portfolio. Anyone got any tips on making case studies more engaging?

I also really like porto rocha’s portfolio, lol. Ask @feliperocha how they do it

But the most effective portfolio I have seen in 20 years is still: https://www.chankarunamuni.com/

I’m trying real hard not to talk about myself a whole bunch. It’s hard when you’re the only person on the design team 😅🫣

I like how you make the analogy with sales pitch. There isn’t a perfect design process because they are tough to exist lol

I’d suggest a really short punchy sentence up front that captures the main theme. Also chunk up the storytelling- lots of hiring managers skim, not read, so bias towards that behavior. Admit mistakes, or constraints- no project is ideal.

^I realize how declarative I sound. This is by no means the only way to write an engaging case study but it’s what worked for me :)

Consider this my official opt-in to a future update from you once that’s happened ✅

Give a quick overview then go straight to the good stuff. Interesting/frustrating problems and how you overcame it with ingenuity and persistence

i love when people tell a story through the headings in the case study! oftentimes, i don’t have much time to read when i’m reviewing lots of portfolios.

so instead of saying “user research,” you could try something more descriptive like “learning from restaurant owners”

Im going through this right now too:) a couple of thoughts ive had:
- who do you want to read these?
- whats the end goal?
- what did you actually learn or come across that was eye opening in the process? 
And then the less i can talk abt myself in all that, the better:)

My personal “case study gold standard” for this is @rafaelconde ‘s http://breakthissafe.com/#case-study

I also love @ptpells and the “retrospective” file attached to each project: https://pelberg.com

Lead with the ending: show a big picture of the final product / UI at the very beginning and then go into the story. As others have said, I also like to hear of a big challenge or something that tripped you up that you didn’t see coming.

This is such good advice! I think case studies are hard because it’s not easy to make them short and succinct AND interesting, yet we know that it’s unlikely the target audience will really be able to read the whole thing 🥺

@jmaaloe, you mentioning these retrospectives was the prompt I didn’t know I needed to go back and revisit them…thank you ^ _ ^

Best advice I ever read on case studies (in a job-application-context) is this:

Your case doesn’t matter. What happened in the case process doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters in it is your POV on it.

It’s not a study, it’s a sales pitch

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