Showcase vs Case Study in Product Design
Why I decided to use a showcase instead of case studies on my website
Intro
After I posted my recent website redesign along with a template I created on Framer, I received a lot of questions regarding the use of case studies to explain my thinking and why I didn’t create them on my website.
Context
For context, I’ve created many versions through the years to attract direct clients, not to get a full-time job. In recent years, I’ve been measuring all user data on my website to see what works and what doesn’t.
First version
Dividing my timeline into three versions, the first one contained a wall of work images and only one case study, which was pretty tiresome to write. I don’t have the exact data anymore, but I remember only 1% of the visits I got actually clicked on the case study. None read it. None of my leads actually went to my case study. They hired me because they trusted I could deliver the work based on what they saw with the wall of work.
Second version
I decided to ditch the case study and go all in with the work-all style in this version. I got leads who gave great feedback on my work, saying it’s strong and shows that I’m experienced.
But I was intrigued. Everybody says I need a case study to prove I know what I’m doing. So, in the second version, I decided to run an experiment: add work images along with an overview of each project with a “read more.” This way, I wanted to measure how many people would click on “read more,” which project would get more clicks (more interest), and based on the results I would create a case study for that specific project.
At that time, I posted about the experiment on LinkedIn and got 20k impressions and more than a thousand views on my website. Almost no clicks on “read more,” just project scrolling. Still, I acquired many leads who gave me good feedback and some of them hired my services.
Third version
In the 3rd version, I ditched text altogether and left just a line explaining my role and results for each project. However, in version three, I decided to work more on the project images, putting them in mockups. I noticed a drop in scroll depth and also in leads. I have a hypothesis that mockups made it feel less “real” compared to the straightforward screen gallery I had before.
To solve that, I made the latest version based on everything I measured, also using a Mobbin-style approach that shows pure project screens. It worked. In the last 7 days, I got more than 700 visits and 75% scroll depth vs 52% in the prior version. Visitors with more screen time also went back and forth on the project images, spending 5 to 10 minutes looking at them.
Reflections
I’m not against using case studies to prove yourself, especially if you’re looking for a full-time job. I think of it as a funnel: the first step is getting attention and proving yourself by showing you’ve got quality work as a product designer. Then you go deeper in the funnel by showing how you got results with a case study. However, as a freelancer, a commercial proposal works better than a case study, and I can talk more about that in future posts. Finally, you close by winning over the recruiter or client with your personality. After all, people hire people.
Liked the portfolio? I created a Framer template based on it for free.
→ https://lunaportfolio.framer.website
Click on “get template” and use it as you wish.
Don’t worry if you don’t have a picture like mine, I created other hero sections to support that. Let me know if you have any questions at falecom@victorluna.com.br
Thank you!
Victor Luna