ux case study template

ux case study template

The Importance of UX Case Studies

1. Introduction

The method of testing used in the case study outlined in this report is a quantitative statistical analysis of certain behaviors by users. The goal of the test was to determine whether certain design and layout changes had an effect on user behavior, and whether these changes were effective in improving the rate of conversion of users signing up for a particular service.

User experience (UX) is a vital part of any website, particularly a commercial one. It allows the user to seamlessly navigate through the site, ultimately creating repeat usage. It is also the most cost-effective way to improve customer satisfaction, something that is difficult to quantify, but critical to a business’s success. Because of the intricacy of human emotion and its effects on their decision-making process, it is difficult to accurately gauge the UX of a site without running tests on users.

2. Methodology

Longitudinal, naturalistic studies have the potential to provide accurate insights into real-world user experiences, but they are typically too costly and slow to be practical for most design projects. In contrast, traditional usability methods are oriented to identifying and fixing usability problems in a finished design, and have been shown to be ill-suited to iterative design and long-term evaluation. In theory, case studies of relatively small design elements or interactions could be a practical method for demonstrating the value of UX in those specific pieces, by showing changes in UX metrics before and after improvements. But how to do a case study, and what qualities would make it a UX case study? UX is defined by holistic perception and understanding resulting from the use of a product; this perception can be influenced by a user’s experiences with any and all aspects of the product or similar products in the past. Therefore, understanding UX would ideally require a comprehensive understanding of the user’s entire history with the type of product in question; how it has affected their life and how they have formulated opinions on it. Yet case studies are typically defined by looking at a single instance of a phenomenon, and attempting to decode its causality. UX is strongly influenced by people’s personalities and other individual differences, so this causality would likely vary considerably between different users, and a comprehensive understanding would require multiple case studies and generalizations based on synthesis of the results. This situates case studies as more of a method for user research than UX research. Given that individual differences in causality would necessitate large sample sizes for generalizations, and the comprehensive understanding of a product from the importance of it in a person’s life would require understanding that person’s entire history with the product type, case studies for UX would appear to be infeasible without diving into full-blown longitudinal studies.

3. Findings and Analysis

Findings After interviewing involved colleagues and researching similar systems in depth, several needs were revealed. A successful system must satisfy the security concerns of those funding it. This includes administrators involved with endorsing the system and student workers responsible for large amounts of alumni data. Primary concerns here are keeping private information from the public and allowing different levels of access to certain data. Another common theme relates to the “user friendliness” of the system. Having used a wide array of systems for a number of different purposes, all four interviewees were able to reflect on experiences with both good and bad user interfaces. The consensus here was that all users would like the system to be easy to navigate and require little training. The easier the system is to use, the less users will resist the change from their current methods to input data. A system which takes away a lot of data entry work from student workers, but is difficult to use may be met with refusal from those workers. Cognitive walkthroughs and a compare/contrast analysis could be used to weigh the current system at various stages in design and development. An often overlooked UX research method useful for convincing clients to improve an existing interface.

4. Recommendations

By starting separate case studies, you can analyze the context and constraint to decide which part is more suitable to be viewed or used as learning reference for someone else, and easier to compare the before-after condition.

A wiser way is to break the whole process into several phases, and start separate case studies for each of them. I did it that way when I was working in a startup company and government institution. With each project only lasted for a few months, I thought that wrapping every research and design from the beginning would be sufficient. But within one project, we as UXers know that we would face many problems and decision-making that are contextually different. This is the case when different UX processes within a single project deserves different case studies. A mix of Lean UX with agile development might benefit from a more comprehensive testing phase. Or, the design could be usable but project owner decided they need a better visual aesthetics which would need an overhaul.

It’s great that you have such a comprehensive knowledge on the project you’re working on. But a long case study to cover a whole UX process could be time-consuming to read, say more than 15 minutes. It’s risky that someone will lose their attention in the early stage; or they might open your case study, scroll down, and give up while looking for something that meets their interest.

UX is a vast profession, which includes strategy, research, design, and testing. You probably worked on different parts of an application or a website, and then decided to pack everything into a single case study.

Make it easier to read – breaking your UX case studies by projects.

5. Conclusion

As a qualitative research method, case studies have an intuitive appeal. Researchers in many disciplines use the case study method to build theory that is grounded in the data. Given its flexibility, a case study is an appropriate methodology when a holistic, in-depth investigation is needed. It is possible to have different types of case studies. These can be positivist, interpretive, or critical, and may be conducted in different disciplines or areas of inquiry.

Throughout this document, the value of case studies has been demonstrated in the context of furthering the understanding of a phenomenon. The essence of a case study is that it tries to tell the story of something that has happened. It endeavors to capture what it is like to be a thing, in the midst of a happening. The case study attempts to capture that rich understanding of the data and complexity of the event described. It is because of this that case studies are often described as dense, being an examination of a single instance or event which describes the interrelations of many factors.