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10 Successful Design Thinking Case Study

Dive into the realm of Successful Design Thinking Case Studies to explore the power of this innovative problem-solving approach. Begin by understanding What is Design Thinking? and then embark on a journey through real-world success stories. Discover valuable lessons learned from these case studies and gain insights into how Design Thinking can transform your approach.

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Design Thinking has emerged as a powerful problem-solving approach that places empathy, creativity, and innovation at the forefront. However, if you are not aware of the power that this approach holds, a Design Thinking Case Study is often used to help people address the complex challenges of this approach with a human-centred perspective. It allows organisations to unlock new opportunities and drive meaningful change. Read this blog on Design Thinking Case Study to learn how it enhances organisation’s growth and gain valuable insights on creative problem-solving.

Table of Contents   

1) What is Design Thinking?

2) Design Thinking process   

3) Successful Design Thinking Case Studies

      a) Airbnb

      b) Apple

      c) Netflix

      d) UberEats

      e) IBM

       f) OralB’s electric toothbrush

      g) IDEO

      h) Tesla

       i) GE Healthcare

       j) Nike

3) Lessons learned from Design Thinking Case Studies

4) Conclusion    

What is Design Thinking ?

Before jumping on Design Thinking Case Study, let’s first understand what it is. Design Thinking is a methodology for problem-solving that prioritises the understanding and addressing of individuals' unique needs.

This human-centric approach is creative and iterative, aiming to find innovative solutions to complex challenges. At its core, Design Thinking fosters empathy, encourages collaboration, and embraces experimentation.

This process revolves around comprehending the world from the user's perspective, identifying problems through this lens, and then generating and refining solutions that cater to these specific needs. Design Thinking places great importance on creativity and out-of-the-box thinking, seeking to break away from conventional problem-solving methods.

It is not confined to the realm of design but can be applied to various domains, from business and technology to healthcare and education. By putting the user or customer at the centre of the problem-solving journey, Design Thinking helps create products, services, and experiences that are more effective, user-friendly, and aligned with the genuine needs of the people they serve.  

Design Thinking process

Design Thinking is a problem-solving and innovation framework that helps individuals and teams create user-centred solutions. This process consists of five key phases that are as follows:  

To initiate the Design Thinking process, the first step is to practice empathy. In order to create products and services that are appealing, it is essential to comprehend the users and their requirements. What are their anticipations regarding the product you are designing? What issues and difficulties are they encountering within this particular context?

During the empathise phase, you spend time observing and engaging with real users. This might involve conducting interviews and seeing how they interact with an existing product. You should pay attention to facial expressions and body language. During the empathise phase in the Design Thinking Process , it's crucial to set aside assumptions and gain first-hand insights to design with real users in mind. That's the essence of Design Thinking.

During the second stage of the Design Thinking process, the goal is to identify the user’s problem. To accomplish this, collect all your observations from the empathise phase and begin to connect the dots.

Ask yourself: What consistent patterns or themes did you notice? What recurring user needs or challenges were identified? After synthesising your findings, you must create a problem statement, also known as a Point Of View (POV) statement, which outlines the issue or challenge you aim to address. By the end of the define stage, you will be able to craft a clear problem statement that will guide you throughout the design process, forming the basis of your ideas and potential solutions.

After completing the first two stages of the Design Thinking process, which involve defining the target users and identifying the problem statement, it is now time to move on to the third stage - ideation. This stage is all about brainstorming and coming up with various ideas and solutions to solve the problem statement. Through ideation, the team can explore different perspectives and possibilities and select the best ideas to move forward with.

During the ideation phase, it is important to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing their ideas without fear of judgment. This phase is all about generating a large quantity of ideas, regardless of feasibility. This is done by encouraging the team to think outside the box and explore new angles. To maximise creativity, ideation sessions are often held in unconventional locations.

It’s time to transform the ideas from stage three into physical or digital prototypes. A prototype is a miniature model of a product or feature, which can be as simple as a paper model or as complex as an interactive digital representation.

During the Prototyping Stage , the primary objective is to transform your ideas into a tangible product that can be tested by actual users. This is crucial in maintaining a user-centric approach, as it enables you to obtain feedback before proceeding to develop the entire product. By doing so, you can ensure that the final design adequately addresses the user's problem and delivers an enjoyable user experience.

During the Design Thinking process, the fifth step involves testing your prototypes by exposing them to real users and evaluating their performance. Throughout this testing phase, you can observe how your target or prospective users engage with your prototype. Additionally, you can gather valuable feedback from your users about their experiences throughout the process.

Based on the feedback received during user testing, you can go back and make improvements to the design. It is important to remember that the Design Thinking process is iterative and non-linear. After the testing phase, it may be necessary to revisit the empathise stage or conduct additional ideation sessions before creating a successful prototype.

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Successful Design Thinking Case Studies  

Now that you have a foundational understanding of Design Thinking, let's explore how some of the world's most successful companies have leveraged this methodology to drive innovation and success:

Case Study 1: Airbnb  

Airbnb’s one of the popular Design Thinking Case Studies that you can aspire from. Airbnb disrupted the traditional hotel industry by applying Design Thinking principles to create a platform that connects travellers with unique accommodations worldwide. The founders of Airbnb, Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk, started by identifying a problem: the cost and lack of personalisation in traditional lodging.

They conducted in-depth user research by staying in their own listings and collecting feedback from both hosts and guests. This empathetic approach allowed them to design a platform that not only met the needs of travellers but also empowered hosts to provide personalised experiences. 

Airbnb's intuitive website and mobile app interface, along with its robust review and rating system, instil trust and transparency, making users feel comfortable choosing from a vast array of properties. Furthermore, the "Experiences" feature reflects Airbnb's commitment to immersive travel, allowing users to book unique activities hosted by locals. 

Case Study 2.  Apple    

Apple Inc. has consistently been a pioneer in  Design Thinking, which is evident in its products, such as the iPhone. One of the best Design Thinking Examples from Apple is the development of the iPhone's User Interface (UI). The team at Apple identified the need for a more intuitive and user-friendly smartphone experience. They conducted extensive research and usability testing to understand user behaviours, pain points, and desires.   

The result? A revolutionary touch interface that forever changed the smartphone industry. Apple's relentless focus on the user experience, combined with iterative prototyping and user feedback, exemplifies the power of  Design Thinking in creating groundbreaking products.    

Apple invests heavily in user research to  anticipate what customers want before they even realise it themselves. This empathetic approach to design has led to groundbreaking innovations like the iPhone, iPad, and MacBook, which have redefined the entire industry.  

Case Study 3. Netflix  

Netflix, the global streaming giant, has revolutionised the way people consume entertainment content. A major part of their success can be attributed to their effective use of Design Thinking principles.

What sets Netflix apart is its commitment to understanding its audience on a profound level. Netflix recognised that its success hinged on offering a personalised, enjoyable viewing experience. Through meticulous user research, data analysis, and a culture of innovation, Netflix constantly evolves its platform. Moreover, by gathering insights on viewing habits, content preferences, and even UI, the company tailors its recommendations, search algorithms, and original content to captivate viewers worldwide.

Furthermore, Netflix's iterative approach to Design Thinking allows it to adapt quickly to shifting market dynamics. This agility proved crucial when transitioning from a DVD rental service to a streaming platform. Netflix didn't just lead this revolution; it shaped it by keeping users' desires and behaviours front and centre. Netflix's commitment to Design Thinking has resulted in a highly user-centric platform that keeps subscribers engaged and satisfied, ultimately contributing to its global success.  

Case Study 4. Uber Eats     

Uber Eats, a subsidiary of Uber, has disrupted the food delivery industry by applying Design Thinking principles to enhance user experiences and create a seamless platform for food lovers and restaurants alike.  

One of  UberEats' key innovations lies in its user-centric approach. By conducting in-depth research and understanding the pain points of both consumers and restaurant partners, they crafted a solution that addresses real-world challenges. The user-friendly app offers a wide variety of cuisines, personalised recommendations, and real-time tracking, catering to the diverse preferences of customers.  

Moreover,  UberEats leverages technology and data-driven insights to optimise delivery routes and times, ensuring that hot and fresh food reaches customers promptly. The platform also empowers restaurant owners with tools to efficiently manage orders, track performance, and expand their customer base. 

Case Study  5 . IBM    

IBM is a prime example of a large corporation successfully adopting Design Thinking to drive innovation and transform its business. Historically known for its hardware and software innovations, IBM recognised the need to evolve its approach to remain competitive in the fast-paced technology landscape.   

IBM's Design Thinking journey began with a mission to reinvent its enterprise software solutions. The company transitioned from a product-centric focus to a user-centric one. Instead of solely relying on technical specifications, IBM started by empathising with its customers. They started to understand customer’s pain points, and envisioning solutions that genuinely addressed their needs. 

One of the key elements of IBM's Design Thinking success is its multidisciplinary teams. The company brought together designers, engineers, marketers, and end-users to collaborate throughout the product development cycle. This cross-functional approach encouraged diverse perspectives, fostering creativity and innovation. 

IBM's commitment to Design Thinking is evident in its flagship projects such as Watson, a cognitive computing system, and IBM Design Studios, where Design Thinking principles are deeply embedded into the company's culture. 

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Case Study 6. Oral-B’s electric toothbrush

Oral-B, a prominent brand under the Procter & Gamble umbrella, stands out as a remarkable example of how Design Thinking can be executed in a seemingly everyday product—Electric toothbrushes. By applying the Design Thinking approach, Oral-B has transformed the world of oral hygiene with its electric toothbrushes.  

Oral-B's journey with Design Thinking began by placing the user firmly at the centre of their Product Development process. Through extensive research and user feedback, the company gained invaluable insights into oral care habits, preferences, and pain points. This user-centric approach guided Oral-B in designing electric toothbrushes that not only cleaned teeth more effectively but also made the entire oral care routine more engaging and enjoyable.  

Another of Oral-B's crucial innovations is the integration of innovative technology into their toothbrushes. These devices now come equipped with features like real-time feedback, brushing timers, and even Bluetooth connectivity to sync with mobile apps. By embracing technology and user-centric design, Oral-B effectively transformed the act of brushing teeth into an interactive and informative experience. This has helped users maintain better oral hygiene.  

Oral-B's success story showcases how Design Thinking, combined with a deep understanding of user needs, can lead to significant advancements, ultimately improving both the product and user satisfaction.

Case Study 7. IDEO  

IDEO, a Global Design Consultancy, has been at the forefront of Design Thinking for decades. They have worked on diverse projects, from creating innovative medical devices to redesigning public services.

One of their most notable Design Thinking examples is the development of the "DeepDive" shopping cart for a major retailer. IDEO's team spent weeks observing shoppers, talking to store employees, and prototyping various cart designs. The result was a cart that not only improved the shopping experience but also increased sales. IDEO's human-centred approach, emphasis on empathy, and rapid prototyping techniques demonstrate how Design Thinking can drive innovation and solve real-world problems.   

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Case Study  8 .  Tesla  

Tesla, led by Elon Musk, has redefined the automotive industry by applying Design Thinking to Electric Vehicles (EVs). Musk and his team identified the need for EVs to be not just eco-friendly but also desirable. They focused on designing EVs that are stylish, high-performing, and technologically advanced. Tesla's iterative approach, rapid prototyping, and constant refinement have resulted in groundbreaking EVs like the Model S, Model 3, and Model X.    

From the minimalist interior of their Model S to the autopilot self-driving system, every aspect is meticulously crafted with the end user in mind. The company actively seeks feedback from its user community, often implementing software updates based on customer suggestions. This iterative approach ensures that Tesla vehicles continually evolve to meet and exceed customer expectations .   

Moreover, Tesla's bold vision extends to sustainable energy solutions, exemplified by products like the Powerwall and solar roof tiles. These innovations  showcase Tesla's holistic approach to Design Thinking, addressing not only the automotive industry's challenges but also contributing to a greener, more sustainable future.   

Case Study 9. GE Healthcare 

GE Healthcare is a prominent player in the Healthcare industry, renowned for its relentless commitment to innovation and design excellence. Leveraging Design Thinking principles, GE Healthcare has consistently pushed the boundaries of medical technology, making a significant impact on patient care worldwide.  

One of the key areas where GE Healthcare has excelled is in the development of cutting-edge medical devices and diagnostic solutions. Their dedication to user-centred design has resulted in devices that are not only highly functional but also incredibly intuitive for healthcare professionals to operate. For example, their advanced Medical Imaging equipment, such as MRI and CT scanners, are designed with a focus on patient comfort, safety, and accurate diagnostics. This device reflects the company's dedication to improving healthcare outcomes.  

Moreover, GE Healthcare's commitment to design extends beyond the physical product. They have also ventured into software solutions that facilitate data analysis and Patient Management. Their user-friendly software interfaces and data visualisation tools have empowered healthcare providers to make more informed decisions, enhancing overall patient care and treatment planning.

Case Study 10. Nike 

Nike is a global powerhouse in the athletic apparel and Footwear industry. Nike's journey began with a simple running shoe, but its design-thinking approach transformed it into an iconic brand.

Nike's Design Thinking journey started with a deep understanding of athletes' needs and desires. They engaged in extensive user research, often collaborating with top athletes to gain insights that inform their product innovations. This customer-centric approach allowed Nike to develop ground breaking technologies, such as Nike Air and Flyknit, setting new standards in comfort, performance, and style.

Beyond product innovation, Nike's brand identity itself is a testament to Design Thinking. The iconic Swoosh logo, created by Graphic Designer Carolyn Davidson, epitomises simplicity and timelessness, reflecting the brand's ethos.  

Nike also excels in creating immersive retail experiences, using Design Thinking to craft spaces that engage and inspire customers. Their flagship stores around the world are showcases of innovative design, enhancing the overall brand perception.

Lessons learned from Design Thinking Case Studies

The Design Thinking process, as exemplified by the success stories of IBM, Netflix, Apple, and Nike, offers valuable takeaways for businesses of all sizes and industries. Here are three key lessons to learn from these Case Studies:  

1)   Consider the b ig p icture   

Design Thinking encourages organisations to zoom out and view the big picture. It's not just about solving a specific problem but understanding how that problem fits into the broader context of user needs and market dynamics. By taking a holistic approach, you can identify opportunities for innovation that extend beyond immediate challenges. IBM's example, for instance, involved a comprehensive evaluation of their clients' journeys, leading to more impactful solutions.  

2)  Think t hrough a lternative s olutions   

One of the basic principles of Design Thinking is ideation, which emphasises generating a wide range of creative solutions. Netflix's success in content recommendation, for instance, came from exploring multiple strategies to enhance user experience. When brainstorming ideas and solutions, don't limit yourself to the obvious choices. Encourage diverse perspectives and consider unconventional approaches that may lead to breakthrough innovations.  

3)  Research e ach c ompany’s c ompetitors   

Lastly, researching competitors is essential for staying competitive. Analyse what other companies in your industry are doing, both inside and outside the realm of Design Thinking. Learn from their successes and failures. GE Healthcare, for example, leveraged Design Thinking to improve medical equipment usability, giving them a competitive edge. By researching competitors, you can gain insights that inform your own Design Thinking initiatives and help you stand out in the market.  

Incorporating these takeaways into your approach to Design Thinking can enhance your problem-solving capabilities, foster innovation, and ultimately lead to more successful results.  

Conclusion    

Design Thinking is not limited to a specific industry or problem domain; it is a versatile approach that promotes innovation and problem-solving in various contexts. In this blog, we've examined successful Design Thinking Case Studies from industry giants like IBM, Netflix, Apple, Airbnb, Uber Eats, and Nike. These companies have demonstrated that Design Thinking is a powerful methodology that can drive innovation, enhance user experiences, and lead to exceptional business success.   

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Frequently Asked Questions

Design Thinking Case Studies align with current market demands and user expectations by showcasing practical applications of user-centric problem-solving. These Studies highlight the success of empathetic approaches in meeting evolving customer needs.

By analysing various real-world examples, businesses can derive vital insights into dynamic market trends, creating innovative solutions, and enhancing user experiences. Design Thinking's emphasis on iterative prototyping and collaboration resonates with the contemporary demand for agility and adaptability.

Real-world examples of successful Design Thinking implementations can be found in various sources. For instance, you can explore several Case Study repositories on Design Thinking platforms like IDEO and Design Thinking Institute. Furthermore, you can also look for business publications, such as the Harvard Business Review as well as Fast Company, which often feature articles on successful Design Thinking applications.

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How To Write A Case Study For Your Design Portfolio

Case studies are an important part of any designer’s portfolio. Read this article to learn everything you need to know to start writing the perfect case study.

When you’re putting together your online design portfolio , design case studies are a great way to showcase your experience and skills. They also give potential clients a window into how you work.

By showing off what you can do and your design process, case studies can help you land more clients and freelance design jobs —so it can be smart to dedicate an entire section of your online portfolio website to case studies.

Getting Started

So—what is a design case study and how do they fit in your portfolio.

Let’s get some definitions out of the way first, shall we? A design case study is an example of a successful project you’ve completed. The exact case study format can vary greatly depending on your style and preferences, but typically it should outline the problem or assignment, show off your solution, and explain your approach.

One of the best ways to do that is to use a case study design that’s similar to a magazine article or long-form web article with lots of images throughout. When building your case study portfolio, create a new page for each case study. Then create a listing of all your case studies with an image and link to each of them. Now, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of creating these case studies.

Choose Your Best Projects

To make your online portfolio the best it can be , it’s good to be picky when choosing projects for case studies. Since your portfolio will often act as your first impression with potential clients, you only want it to showcase your best work.

If you have a large collection of completed projects, you may have an urge to do a ton of case studies. There’s an argument to be made in favor of that, since it’s a way to show off your extensive experience. In addition, by including a wide variety of case studies, it’s more likely that potential clients will be able to find one that closely relates to their business or upcoming project.

But don’t let your desire to have many case studies on your portfolio lead you to include projects you’re not as proud of. Keep in mind that your potential clients are probably busy people, so you shouldn’t expect them to wade through a massive list of case studies. If you include too many, you can never be sure which ones potential clients will take a look at. As a result, they may miss out on seeing some of your best work.

There’s no hard-and-fast rule for how many case studies to include. It’ll depend on the amount of experience you have, and how many of your completed projects you consider to be among your best work.

Use Your Design Expertise

When creating the case study section of your portfolio, use your designer’s eye to make everything attractive and easily digestible. One important guideline is to choose a layout that will enable you to include copy and image captions throughout.

Don’t have your portfolio up and running yet and not sure which portfolio platform is best for you? Try one that offers a free trial and a variety of cool templates that you can play around with to best showcase your design case studies.

If you don’t provide context for every image you include, it can end up looking like just a (somewhat confusing) image gallery. Case studies are more than that—they should explain everything that went into what you see in the images.

Check Out Other Case Study Examples for Inspiration

Looking at case study examples from successful designers is a great way to get ideas for making your case study portfolio more effective. Pay special attention to the case study design elements, including the layout, the number of images, and amount of copy. This will give you a better idea of how the designer keeps visitors interested in the story behind their projects.

To see some great case study examples, check out these UX designer portfolios .

Try a Case Study Template

There are plenty of resources online that offer free case study templates . These templates can be helpful, as they include questions that’ll help you ensure you’ve included all the important information.

However, most of them are not tailored to designers. These general case study templates don’t have the formatting you’ll want (i.e. the ability to include lots of images). Even the ones that are aimed at designers aren’t as effective as creating your own design. That’s why case study templates are best used as a starting point to get you thinking, or as a checklist to ensure you’ve included everything.

How to Write Case Studies

Maintain your usual tone.

You should write your case studies in the same personal, authentic (yet still professional!) tone of voice as you would when creating the About Me section of your portfolio . Don’t get bogged down in too much technical detail and jargon—that will make your case studies harder to read.

Since your case studies are part of your online portfolio, changing your usual tone can be jarring to the reader.

Instead, everything on your portfolio should have a consistent style. This will help you with creating brand identity . The result will be potential clients will be more connected to your writing and get the feeling that they’re learning what makes you unique.

Provide Some Context

Case studies are more effective when you include some information at the beginning to set the stage. This can include things like the date of the project, name of the client, and what the client does. Providing some context will make the case study more relatable to potential clients.

Also, by including the date of the project, you can highlight how your work has progressed over time. However, you don’t want to bog down this part of the case study with too much information. So it only really needs to be a sentence or two.

Explain the Client’s Expectations

Another important piece of information to include near the beginning of your case study is what the client wanted to accomplish with the project. Consider the guidelines the client provided, and what they would consider a successful outcome.

Did this project involve unique requirements? Did you tailor the design to suit the client’s brand or target audience? Did you have to balance some conflicting requirements?

Establishing the client’s expectations early on in the case study will help you later when you want to explain how you made the project a success.

Document Your Design Process

As you write your case study, you should take a look at your process from an outsider’s point of view. You already know why you made the decisions you did, so it may feel like you’re explaining the obvious. But by explaining your thought process, the case study will highlight all the consideration you put into the design project.

This can include everything from your initial plan to your inspiration, and the changes you made along the way. Basically, you should think about why you took the approach you did, and then explain it.

At this point, consider mentioning any tricks you use to make your design process more efficient . That can include how you managed your time, how you communicated with clients, and how you kept things on track.

Don’t Be Afraid to Mention Challenges

When writing a case study, it can be tempting to only explain the parts that went flawlessly. But you should consider mentioning any challenges that popped up along the way.

Was this project assigned with an extremely tight deadline? Did you have to ask the client to clarify their desired outcome? Were there revisions requested?

If you have any early drafts or drawings from the project saved, it can be a good idea to include them in the case study as well—even if they show that you initially had a very different design in mind than you ended up with. This can show your flexibility and willingness to go in new directions in order to achieve the best results.

Mentioning these challenges is another opportunity to highlight your value as a designer to potential clients. It will give you a chance to explain how you overcame those challenges and made the project a success.

Show How the Project’s Success Was Measured

Case studies are most engaging when they’re written like stories. If you followed the guidelines in this article, you started by explaining the assignment. Next, you described the process you went through when working on it. Now, conclude by going over how you know the project was a success.

This can include mentioning that all of the client’s guidelines were met, and explaining how the design ended up being used.

Check if you still have any emails or communications with the client about their satisfaction with the completed project. This can help put you in the right mindset for hyping up the results. You may even want to include a quote from the client praising your work.

Start Writing Your Case Studies ASAP

Since case studies involve explaining your process, it’s best to do them while the project is still fresh in your mind. That may sound like a pain; once you put a project to bed, you’re probably not looking forward to doing more work on it. But if you get started on your case study right away, it’s easier to remember everything that went into the design project, and why you made the choices you did.

If you’re just starting writing your case studies for projects you’ve completed in the past, don’t worry. It will just require a couple more steps, as you may need to refresh your memory a bit.

Start by taking a look at any emails or assignment documents that show what the client requested. Reviewing those guidelines will make it easier to know what to include in your case study about how you met all of the client’s expectations.

Another helpful resource is preliminary drafts, drawings, or notes you may have saved. Next, go through the completed project and remind yourself of all the work that went into achieving that final design.

Draw Potential Clients to See Your Case Studies

Having a great portfolio is the key to getting hired . By adding some case studies to your design portfolio, you’ll give potential clients insight into how you work, and the value you can offer them.

But it won’t do you any good if they don’t visit your portfolio in the first place! Luckily, there are many ways you can increase your chances. One way is to add a blog to your portfolio , as that will improve your site’s SEO and draw in visitors from search results. Another is to promote your design business using social media . If you’re looking to extend your reach further, consider investing in a Facebook ad campaign , as its likely easier and less expensive than you think.

Once clients lay eyes on all your well-written, beautifully designed case studies, the work will come roaring in!

Want to learn more about creating the perfect design portfolio? 5 Designers Reveal How to Get Clients With Your Portfolio 20 Design Portfolios You Need to See for Inspiration Study: How Does the Quality of Your Portfolio Site Influence Getting Hired?

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All About Process: Dissecting Case Study Portfolios

A portfolio is more than a cache of images, it’s a way to demonstrate design skills and problem solving to clients. We show how to elevate portfolios by explaining the inner workings of a case study.

By Adnan Puzic

Adnan is a UI/UX expert with a bold aesthetic and a passion for designing digital products for startups and corporations.

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Designers have portfolios. It’s a precondition of our profession. We all know we need one, so we get to work assembling images and writing project descriptions. Then, we put our work on the web for all to see, tiny shrines to individual talent and creativity.

It’s a familiar process, a rite of passage, but why do we need portfolios in the first place?

If we’re honest, we must admit that most of our portfolio design decisions are influenced by what other designers are doing. That’s not necessarily bad, but if we don’t understand why portfolios look the way they do, we’re merely imitating.

We may produce dazzling imagery, but we also risk a portfolio experience that’s like strolling through an art gallery. “Look at the pretty pictures…”

The number one audience that design portfolios must please? Non-designers.

These are the people who seek our services, the ones working for the businesses and organizations that invest in our problem solving abilities.

Non-designers need more than beauty from a design portfolio; they need clarity and assurance. They need to come away believing in a designer’s expertise, their design process, and ability to solve problems in an efficient manner.

Luckily, it’s not difficult to design a portfolio to meet those needs.

The Advantages of a Case Study

What is a case study?

A case study is a tool that a designer may use to explain his involvement in a design project, whether as a solo designer or part of a team. It is a detailed account, written in the designer’s own voice (first person), that examines the client’s problem, the designer’s role, the problem solving process, and the project’s outcome.

Who can use a case study?

The beauty of the case study framework is that it’s adaptable to multiple design disciplines. It organizes need-to-know information around common categories and questions that are applicable to all kinds of design projects—from UX research to visual identities .

At its core, a case study is a presentation format for communicating the journey from problem to solution. Details within the framework may change, but the momentum is always moving towards clarity and uncovering a project’s most important whats , whys , and hows .

How do case studies benefit designers?

Many clients don’t understand all that goes into the design process. And while they certainly don’t need to know everything , a case study provides a big-picture overview and sets up realistic expectations about what it takes to design an elegant solution.

A case study can also be a handy presentation aide that a designer may use when interviewing a potential client. The format allows a designer to talk about their work and demonstrate their expertise in a natural and logical progression. “Here’s what I did, how it helped, and how I might apply a similar approach with you.”

Are there any drawbacks to using case studies?

Don’t let a case study turn into a ca-a-a-a-a-se study. The whole project should be digestible within 1-2 minutes max. If necessary, provide links to more detailed documents so that interested visitors may explore further.

A lot of design work, especially digital, is created within multidisciplinary teams, so designers need to be clear about their role in a project. Blurring the lines of participation gives clients false expectations.

Many make the mistake of treating portfolios as repositories of all of their past projects, but three to five case studies documenting a designer’s most outstanding work is enough to satisfy the curiosity of most potential clients (who simply don’t have time to mine through everything a designer ever did).

Case studies are professional documents, not tell-all manuscripts, and there are some things that simply shouldn’t be included. Descriptions of difficult working relationships, revelations of company-specific information (i.e., intellectual property), and contentious explanations of rejected ideas ought to be left out.

Crafting a Customer-centric Case Study

It’s one thing to know what a case study is and why it’s valuable. It’s an entirely different and more important thing to know how to craft a customer-centric case study. There are essentials that every case study must include if clients are to make sense of what they’re seeing.

What are the core elements of a case study?

Introduce the client.

Present the design problem.

Recap your role.

Share the solution you designed.

Walk through the steps of your design process.

Describe the results.

Note any key learnings.

Wrap it all up with a short conclusion.

Happily, the core elements also outline a case study presentation format that’s simple, repeatable, and applicable to multiple disciplines. Let’s look closer:

• Who was the client?
• What industry are they in?
• What goods or services do they provide?
• Keep this section brief.
• What was the client’s problem?
• Why was it important that the problem be solved?
• Are there any additional background tidbits that might be helpful or interesting?

• What, specifically, were you hired to do?
• What were the constraints? Time. Budgetary. Technological. Etc.
• Before diving into your process, summarize the solution you designed.
• Make the summary short but powerful.
• Don’t give all the good parts away, and don’t be afraid to use language that makes your audience curious about the rest of the project.
• Go through the various steps of your discipline specific process.
• Again, summarize what you did, but don’t overload. Find a balance between informational and interesting.
• If you can, try to make each step introduce a question that only the following step can answer.

• Use this section to share a more robust description of the results of your design process.
• Be direct, avoid jargon, and don’t get too carried away with the amount of text you include.
• Don’t go overboard here, but if there are interesting things that you learned during the process, include them.
• If they won’t be helpful for the client, leave them out.
• Quickly summarize the project, and invite potential customers to contact you.
• It doesn’t hurt to provide a call to action and a contact link.

*Note: This isn’t the only case study format, just one that works. It’s helpful for people to encounter a predictable framework so they can focus on what they’re looking at as opposed to interpreting an inventive presentation structure.

The Value of Overlooked Details

Want to create a case study with a top notch user experience? Don’t underestimate the value of design details. Design projects are more than problem-meets-solution. They’re deeply human endeavors, and it makes a difference to clients when they see that a designer goes above and beyond in their work.

Share client feedback.

How did the client feel about your working relationship and the solution you provided? When you deliver top-notch work and nurture trust, get client feedback and include it in the case study as a testimonial.

If something you designed blew your client away, weave a testimonial into the case study (along with an image of what you made). This combo is proof positive to potential customers that you can deliver.

Explain positive metrics.

Not all design work has direct metrics that prove its success, but if your work does, and the results are impressive, include them. Just make sure that you don’t mislead (easy to do with statistics), and be careful that the metrics make sense to your audience.

Show unselected work.

Sometimes, amazing work from the design process doesn’t make it through to the finished product. These unused artifacts are helpful because they show an ability to explore a range of concepts.

Highlight unglamorous design features.

Not every aspect of design is glamorous. Like a pinky finger, small details may seem insignificant but they’re actually indispensable. Highlight these and recap why they matter.

Link to live projects.

It can be highly persuasive for a client to experience your work doing it’s thing out in the real world. Don’t hesitate to include links to live projects. Just make sure that your role in the project is clear, especially when you didn’t design everything you’re linking to.

Win Clients and Advance Careers with Case Study Portfolios

Designers need clients. We need their problems, their insights, their feedback, and their investments in the solutions we provide.

Since clients are so important, we ought to think about them often and strive to make entering into partnership with us as easy and painless as possible. Design portfolios are a first impression, an opportunity to put potential clients at ease and show that we understand their needs.

Case studies push our design portfolios past aesthetic allure to a level where our skills, communication abilities, and creativity instill trust and inspire confidence. Even better, they take clients out of a passive, browsing mindset to a place where “That looks cool,” becomes “That’s someone I’d like to work with.”

Further Reading on the Toptal Blog:

• UX Portfolio Tips and Best Practices
• Ditch MVPs, Adopt Minimum Viable Prototypes (MVPrs)
• Breaking Down the Design Thinking Process
• The Best UX Designer Portfolios: Inspiring Case Studies and Examples
• Influence with Design: A Guide to Color and Emotions

Understanding the basics

How do i create a design portfolio.

Nowadays, it’s best to create a design portfolio online. Options vary: Some designers use a service like Behance or a WYSIWYG website builder like Squarespace, while others build custom sites with CSS. It’s also important that online design portfolios be responsive for multiple screen sizes.

How do I create an online portfolio for free?

Websites like Behance and Dribbble (among others) are free options for designers to publish online portfolios. Some designers have opted to forgo traditional web portfolios and instead document their work on social platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Free sites also take care of design portfolio layout.

How do you organize a design portfolio?

A designer ought to organize his portfolio according to his strengths. This means highlighting his best and most relevant work. Remember that design portfolios should be made with potential clients in mind. Avoid overly technical project descriptions, images without context, and excessively long case studies.

What is the purpose of a case study?

Many design portfolios consist of short project summaries and process images, but case studies are a way for designers to show their problem-solving skills to clients in greater detail. This is achieved by defining the client’s problem and the designer’s role, along with an overview of the designer’s process.

What are the advantages of a case study?

Case studies combine descriptive text and images and allow designers to demonstrate the details of their design processes to potential clients. They are also a great way for designers to highlight problem solving and small, but powerful, design features that may otherwise be overlooked.

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Adnan Puzic

Sarajevo, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Member since September 28, 2015

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The Ultimate Product Design Case Study Template

Learn how to write a product design case study that tells the story of your work and shows off your skills. Use our case study template to get started!

Written by Dribbble

Published on Oct 26, 2022

Last updated Mar 11, 2024

As a product designer, you might spend most of your time on user research, functionality, and user testing. But if you want to grow a successful product design career, you also need to present your work in a compelling way. This guide explains how to write a product design case study that makes other people want to hire you. It also includes several examples of amazing case studies to inspire you along with tips from senior designers and mentors from the Dribbble community.

What is a product design case study?

A product design case study is an in-depth analysis of a particular product or project, aimed at showcasing your design process, challenges, and outcomes. It usually includes information about who was involved in the project, the goals and objectives, research and ideation processes, design decisions and iterations, and the final product’s impact on the user and the market.

A product design case study is an in-depth analysis of a product or project, aimed at showcasing your design process, challenges, and outcomes.

Case studies provide a comprehensive understanding of the product design process, from the initial ideation to the final launch, highlighting the key factors that led to its success or failure. Product design case studies also showcase your design skills to prospective clients and employers, making it an important part of your product design portfolio .

What is the goal of a product design case study?

If you’re a designer growing your career, the main goal of your product design case studies is to share your design thinking process with hiring managers or prospective clients. Adding at least one case study to your product design portfolio can help you convince someone that you have the creativity and technical skills needed to solve their problems.

It’s one thing to list on your product design resume that you’re capable of designing high-fidelity prototypes, but it’s another to show exactly how you’ve helped other businesses overcome design-related challenges. A well-written case study shows design managers that you have experience with prototyping, animations, wireframes, user testing, and other tasks, making it easier to land a product design interview , or even better, a job offer.

What makes a good product design case study?

To make your case study as appealing as possible, make sure it checks all the right boxes.

A great product design case study:

• Tells a story
• Makes text and visuals come together to show how you added value to the design project
• Shows that you made important decisions
• Gives readers an understanding of your thought process
• Clearly defines the problem and the result
• Shows who you are as a designer

Product design case study template ✏️

Ready to start your next case study? Use our product design case study template created by Lead Product Designer @KPMG Natalia Veretenyk . Natalia is also a design mentor in Dribbble’s Certified Product Design Course helping new and seasoned product designers build their skills!

1. Project overview

Provide some background on the client featured in your case study. If you didn’t actually work with a client and are showcasing a course project, you can still provide context about the product or user you are designing for. Explain the design problem and describe what problem you were trying to solve.

Here’s an example: “ABC Company was selling 10,000 subscriptions per month, but its churn rate was over 35% due to a design flaw that wasn’t discovered during usability testing. The company needed to redesign the product to reduce its churn rate and increase user satisfaction.”

2. User research

Your case study should include some information about the target users for the project. This can help prospective clients or employers feel more comfortable about your ability to design products that appeal to their customers.

To include user research in your case study, start by explaining the methods used to collect data. This could be through surveys, interviews, user testing, or other methods. You should also explain the tools used to analyze and interpret the data, such as persona development or journey mapping .

You can also include information about the target audience itself. This can include demographic information like age, gender, location, education, and income. You should also mention any other relevant information about the user base, such as their interests, habits, or pain points.

3. Ideating, wireframes, & prototyping

In this section, describe how you brainstormed ideas, created wireframes, and built prototypes to develop your product design. Be sure to explain the tools and techniques you used, such as sketching, whiteboarding, or digital software like Figma or Adobe XD. Also, highlight any challenges you faced during this process and how you overcame them.

Include multiple images here to show the evolution of your design, showing the first and second rounds of iterations.

4. Visual design

Next, explain how you translated your wireframes and prototypes into a visually appealing design. Discuss your design choices, such as color schemes, typography, and imagery, and explain how they support the user experience. Include high-quality visuals of your final design and any design system or style guide you created. Lead Product Designer & Design Mentor Natalia Veretenyk recommends showcasing 4-10 main key mockup screens.

5. Usability testing

Write a short introduction to the usability testing you conducted and summarize your usability test findings. Explain the methods you used to conduct user testing, such as remote testing, in-person testing, or A/B testing. Describe the feedback you received from users and any changes you made to the design based on that feedback. If you didn’t have time to make any changes, write notes on what you might try next.

6. Outcomes and results

In this final section, you should summarize the impact of your design on the user and the business. Write up what you learned throughout the project. Insert 1 or 2 sentences summarizing the impact of your design on the user and the business. Include any relevant metrics, such as increased user engagement, higher conversion rates, or improved customer satisfaction.

As a bonus, you can also reflect on the design process and any lessons learned. This shows prospective clients and employers your ability to learn from your experiences and continuously improve your design skills.

Product design case study examples

If you need a little inspiration, check out the product design case study examples below. The designers did a great job explaining their design decisions and showing off their skills.

Instabook App by Tiffany Mackay

Tiffany Mackay’s Instabook case study starts out strong with a concise description of the client. She also includes a clear description of the design challenge: creating a social platform for authors, publishers, and readers. The case study includes wireframes and other visuals to show readers how Mackay developed new features and refined the tool’s overall user experience.

• View the full case study

Crypto App by Brittney Singleton

The Crypto App case study is an excellent example of how to create a case study even if you don’t have much paid experience. Brittney Singleton created the Crypto App as a project for one of Dribbble’s courses, but she managed to identify a problem affecting the crypto marketplace and come up with a solution. Singleton’s case study contains plenty of visuals and explains the decisions she made at each stage of the project.

PoppinsMail by Antonio Vidakovik

Antonio Vidakovik’s case study has some of the best visuals, making it a great example to follow as you work on your portfolio. His user flow charts have a simple design, but they feature bright colors and succinct descriptions of each step. Vidakovik also does a good job explaining his user interface design decisions.

Super Walk by Micah Lanier

Micah Lanier offers a textbook example of an effective UX case study. It starts out with a quick overview of the client and a description of their problem. Micah also provides a detailed overview of the steps he took to identify user pain points, brainstorm solutions, and test several iterations before delivering a finished product. The Super Walk case study also includes plenty of visuals to show readers how the product evolved from the beginning to the end of the design process.

To the Park by Evangelyn

Evangelyn’s case study is another example of how you can show off your skills even if you don’t have years of professional experience. She created the To the Park app as a part of Dribbble’s Certified Product Design Course, so she had plenty of opportunities to create appealing visuals and conduct user testing. Her product design case study explains exactly how her design solves the initial challenge she identified.

How many case studies should I include in my product design portfolio?

If you have minimal experience, aim for two or three case studies. Like many junior product designers, you can use projects from a product design course you’ve completed if you don’t have a lot of professional experience. More experienced product designers should have up to five. Too many case studies can be overwhelming for recruiters, so don’t feel like you need to include dozens of projects.

Grow your product design portfolio 

To get more product design jobs , try adding at least one product design case study to your portfolio website. Case studies include real-world examples of your work, making it easier for prospective clients and employers to assess your abilities. They’re different from resumes because they show people exactly what you can do instead of just listing your skills, making it more likely that you’ll get hired.

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How To Write a Great Design Case Study

Case studies are often seen as documentation. But they can be more than that — digestible, thorough stories that showcase skills, values and process. Here are some examples to refer to when writing one.

How do we write a great design case study? I’ve put together some practical guides, examples and do’s and don’ts on how to stand out.

Key Takeaways #

• Think of a case study like a magazine feature.
• Keep a case study digestible, thorough and a story.
• Choose a customer that represents your scope of work.
• Promote the skills that you want to be hired for.
• Focus on insights rather than process.
• Show your intention and your values.
• Use the language that your future clients will understand.
• Teach readers something they don’t already know.

A fantastic example: Creating Slack's illustrations , neatly put together by Alice Lee.

I absolutely love diving into case studies that highlight wrong assumptions and failures, explaining how designers managed to turn the ship towards a better outcome. It’s a wonderful way to understand how a designer thinks, and that how they learn and adapt along the way.

Don’t be afraid to show your mistakes, and tell honest stories that your prospect clients can connect to. Probably the worst thing you could do is to create a polished, soulless, marketing version of your work that is too perfect to be true.

Authenticity and enthusiasm always shine through. Don’t hide them, and people will notice how incredible you are.

Design Case Study Examples and Guides #

A Complete Guide To Case Study Design , by Fabricio Teixeira, Caio Braga

Creating Slack's illustration voice , by Alice Lee

Reimagine the future of TV , by Abdus Salam

Designing Urban Walks , by Anton Repponen

Case Study Club , a curated hub by Jan Haaland

A Guide To Case Studies for Designers , by Jenny Kowalski

How to Write Project Case Studies For Your Portfolio , by Tobias van Schneider

Tips to Structuring Case Studies , by Lillian Xiao

How to Write Great UX Case Studies , by Yu Siang Teo

How To Write A Case Study For Your Design Portfolio

How To Write Trust-Building Case Studies (+ Templates) , by Elise Dopson

The Ultimate Guide to Writing a Good Case Study

How to Create Case Studies Without Any Past Projects

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UX Case Studies

What are ux case studies.

A UX case study is a detailed analysis and narrative of a user experience (UX) design project . It illustrates a designer's process and solution to a specific UX challenge. A UX case study encompasses an explanation of the challenge, the designer’s research, design decisions and the impact of their work. UX designers include these case studies in their portfolios to demonstrate their experience, skills, approach and value to potential employers and clients. 

“ Every great design begins with an even better story.” — Lorinda Mamo, Designer and creative director

Why UX Case Studies are Essential for a Successful Design Career 

© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0

UX case studies are more than just documentation—they are powerful tools that advance a designer’s career and are integral to their success. They provide concrete evidence of a designer’s ability to tackle complex challenges from the initial user research to the final implementation of their solution. This transparency—a clear explanation and examination of the approach, thinking and methods—builds trust and credibility with potential clients and employers. 

Beyond showcasing expertise, case studies encourage personal and professional growth . Through reflection and analysis, designers identify areas for improvement that hone their skills and deepen their understanding of user-centered design principles.  What’s more, when designers compile and refine their case studies, they strengthen communication skills which allows them to articulate, rationalize and present data effectively.  

For potential employers and clients, case studies give insight into a designer’s thought process and problem-solving approach . They reveal how designers gather and analyze user data, iterate on designs, and ultimately deliver solutions. This level of insight goes beyond resumes and qualifications as they provide tangible evidence of a designer's ability to research, reason and create user-centered products that meet business objectives. Ultimately, UX case studies empower designers to tell their unique story, stand out in a competitive market and forge a successful career in the evolving field of UX design. 

How to Approach UX Case Studies

Recruiters want candidates who can communicate through designs and explain themselves clearly and appealingly. Recruiters will typically decide within five minutes of skimming UX portfolios whether a candidate is a good fit. Quantity over quality is the best approach to selecting case studies for a portfolio. The case studies should represent the designer accurately and positively. So, they should illustrate a designer’s entire process and contain clear, engaging, error-free copywriting and compelling visual aids. Designers can convince recruiters they’re the right candidate when they portray their skills, thought processes, choices and actions in context through engaging, image-supported stories. 

• Transcript loading…

Content strategy, too, is a fundamental aspect of UX design case studies and portfolios. In the next video, Morgane Peng talks about content strategy in the context of case studies and design portfolios. 

How to Build Successful UX Case Studies

Case studies should have an active story with a beginning, middle and end—never a flat report. So, a designer would write, e.g., “We found…”, not “It was found…”. Designers must always get their employer’s/client’s permission when they select case studies for their portfolios. Important information should be anonymized to protect your employer’s/client’s confidential data (by changing figures to percentages, removing unnecessary details, etc.). What is anonymized or omitted depends on whether a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is involved. 

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Create a UX Case Study  

1. Choose the right project: Whether this is for a web-based portfolio or one created for a specific job, choose a project that showcases the best, most relevant work and skills. Make sure permission is granted to share the project, especially if it involves client work. 

2. Define the problem: Clearly articulate the problem addressed in the project. Explain its significance and why it was worth solving. Provide context and background information about the project, including the target audience and stakeholders. 

3. Establish your role and contribution: Detail specific responsibilities and contributions to the project. Highlight collaboration with team members to showcase teamwork and communication too.  

4. Describe the process: Include research methods used (e.g., user interviews, surveys) and the insights gained. Use quotes , anecdotes and even photographs and artifacts from user research to bring the story to life. Introduce user personas developed from the research to add depth to the narrative. Insert user journey maps to visualize the user experience and identify pain points. 

5. Illustrate the design and development journey: Show the initial wireframes and prototypes . Explain the iteration process and how feedback was incorporated. Explain the reasons behind design choices , supported by visuals like sketches, wireframes, and prototypes. Mention the tools and techniques used during the design process. 

6. Highlight the testing and iteration phase: Detail the usability tests conducted and key findings. Use real user feedback to add authenticity to the story. Describe how feedback was used to make iterations to demonstrate a commitment to continuous improvement. 

7. Showcase the final solution: Present high-fidelity mockups of the final design. Highlight key features and functionalities. Discuss final product’s visual and functional aspects with the use of visuals to enhance the narrative. 

8. Conclude with results and impact: Describe the results, including metrics and data that demonstrate the impact (e.g., increased user engagement, improved usability). Reflect on the lessons learned during the project—mention any challenges faced and how they were overcome. 

9. Present the story: Make sure the case study tells a compelling story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Check to see where images, charts, and other visuals can be added to further support the story. Ensure visuals are well-integrated and enhance the narrative. Keep the narrative concise and focused—always avoid unnecessary details and jargon. 

10. Final review and polishing: Reread, edit and proofread—the case study should be clear, well-written, free of errors, and professional. It’s always advisable to get feedback from peers or mentors to refine the case study. 

In this video, Michal Malewicz, Creative Director and CEO of Hype4, has some tips for writing great case studies. 

Storytelling for Case Studies: How to Hook Hiring Managers and Clients 

Consider Greek philosopher Aristotle’s storytelling elements and work with these in mind when getting started on a case study: 

Plot : The career- or job-related aspect the designer wants to highlight. This should be consistent across case studies for the specific role for which they’re applying. So, if they want to land a job as a UX researcher, they must focus on the relevant skills—user research methods—in their case studies. 

Character : A designer’s expertise in applying industry standards and working in teams. 

Theme :  Goals, motivations and obstacles of their project. 

Diction : A friendly, professional tone in jargon-free language. 

Melody : Your passion—for instance, where a designer proves that design is a lifelong interest as opposed to just a job. 

Décor : A balance of engaging text and images. 

Spectacle : The plot twist/wow factor—e.g., a surprise discovery. Naturally this can only be included if there was a surprise discovery in the case study. 

All good stories have a beginning, a middle and an end.

© Interaction Design Foundation. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

Designers can also take inspiration from German novelist-playwright Gustav Freytag’s 5-part pyramid to structure their case studies and add a narrative flow: 

Typical dramatic structure consists of an exposition and resolution with rising action, climax and falling action in between.

Exposition — the introduction or hook (4–5 sentences) . This should describe the: 

Problem statement : Include the motivations and thoughts/feelings about the problem. 

The solution : Outline the approach. Hint at the outcome by describing the deliverables/final output. 

The role: What role was played, what contribution was made. 

Stages 2-4 form the middle (more than 5 sentences). Summarize the process and highlight the decisions: 

Rising action : Outline some obstacles/constraints (e.g., budget) to build conflict and explain the design process (e.g., design thinking ). Describe how certain methods were used, e.g., qualitative research to progress to one or two key moments of climax. 

Climax : Highlight this, the story’s apex, with an intriguing factor (e.g., unexpected challenges). Choose only the most important information and insights to tighten the narrative and build intrigue. 

Falling action: Show how the combination of user insights, ideas and decisions guided the project’s final iterations. Explain how, e.g., usability testing helped shape the final product. 

Stage 5 is the conclusion: 

Resolution (4–5 sentences) : Showcase the end results as how the work achieved its business-oriented goal and what was learned. Refer to the motivations and problems described earlier to bring the story to an impressive close. 

Overall, the case study should: 

Tell a design story that progresses meaningfully and smoothly. 

Tighten/rearrange the account into a linear, straightforward narrative . 

Reinforce each “what” that’s introduced with a “how” and “why”. 

Support text with the most appropriate visuals (e.g., screenshots of the final product, wireframing , user personas , flowcharts , customer journey maps , Post-it notes from brainstorming ). Use software (e.g., Canva, Illustrator) to customize visually appealing graphics that help tell a story. 

Balance “I” with “we” to acknowledge team members’ contributions and shared victories/setbacks. 

Make the case study scannable , e.g., Use headings, subheadings etc. 

Remove anything that doesn’t help explain the thought process or advance the story. 

Learn More about UX Case Studies

Take our course Build a Standout UX/UI Portfolio: Land Your Dream Job .

Read our article Turn Your Non-Design Experience into Design Portfolio Gold .

Read our article 7 Design Portfolio Mistakes That Are Costing You Jobs! And How to Fix Them .

UX designer and entrepreneur Sarah Doody offers advice in How to write a UX case study .

Learn what can go wrong in UX case studies in the article 7 Case Study Mistakes You Are Making in Your UX Portfolio .

Questions related to UX Case Studies

A UX case study showcases a designer's process in solving a specific design problem. It includes a problem statement, the designer's role, and the solution approach. The case study details the challenges and methods used to overcome them. It highlights critical decisions and their impact on the project.

The narrative often contains visuals like wireframes or user flowcharts. These elements demonstrate the designer's skills and thought process. The goal is to show potential employers or clients the value the designer can bring to a team or project. This storytelling approach helps the designer stand out in the industry.

To further illustrate this, consider watching this insightful video on the role of UX design in AI projects. It emphasizes the importance of credibility and user trust in technology. 

Consider these three detailed UX/UI case studies:

Travel UX & UI Case Study : This case study examines a travel-related project. It emphasizes user experience and interface design. It also provides insights into the practical application of UX/UI design in the travel industry.

HAVEN — UX/UI Case Study : This explores the design of a fictional safety and emergency assistance app, HAVEN. The study highlights user empowerment, interaction, and interface design. It also talks about the importance of accessibility and inclusivity. 

UX Case Study — Whiskers : This case study discusses a fictional pet care mobile app, Whiskers. It focuses on the unique needs of pet care users. It shows the user journey, visual design, and integration of community and social features.

Writing a UX case study involves several key steps:

Identify a project you have worked on. Describe the problem you addressed.

Detail your role in the project and the specific actions you took.

Explain your design process, including research , ideation , and user testing.

Highlight key challenges and how you overcame them.

Showcase the final design through visuals like screenshots or prototypes . This video discusses why you should include visuals in your UX case study/portfolio.

Reflect on the project's impact and any lessons learned.

Conclude with the outcomes. Showcase the value you provided.

A well-written case study tells a compelling story of your design journey. It shows your skills and thought process.

A case study in UI/UX is a detailed account of a design project. It describes a designer's process to solve a user interface or user experience problem. The case study includes

The project's background and the problem it addresses.

The designer's role and the steps they took.

Methods used for research and testing.

Challenges faced and how the designer overcame them.

The final design solutions with visual examples.

Results and impact of the design on users or the business.

This case study showcases a designer’s skills, decision-making process, and ability to solve real-world problems.

A UX writing case study focuses on the role of language in user experience design. It includes:

The project's background and the specific language-related challenges.

The UX writer's role and the strategies they employed.

How did they create the text for interfaces, like buttons or error messages?

Research and testing methods used to refine the language.

Challenges encountered and solutions developed.

The final text and its impact on user experience and engagement.

Outcomes that show how the right words improved the product's usability.

You can find professionals with diverse backgrounds in this field and their unique approaches to UX writing. Torrey Podmakersky discusses varied paths into UX writing careers through his video. 

Planning a case study for UX involves several steps: 

First, select a meaningful project that showcases your skills and problem-solving abilities. Gather all relevant information, including project goals, user research data, and design processes used. 

Next, outline the structure of your case study. This should include the problem you addressed, your role, the design process, and the outcomes. 

Ensure to detail the challenges faced and how you overcame them. 

To strengthen your narrative, incorporate visuals like wireframes, prototypes, and user feedback . 

Finally, reflect on the project's impact and what you learned. 

This careful planning helps you create a comprehensive and engaging case study.

Presenting a UX research case study involves clear organization and storytelling. 

Here are eight guidelines:

Introduction: Start with a brief overview of the project, including its objectives and the key research question.

Background: Provide context about the company, product, or service. Explain why you did the research. 

Methodology: Detail the research methods, like surveys, interviews, or usability testing. 

Findings: Present the key findings from your research. Use visuals like charts or user quotes to better present the data. 

Challenges and Solutions: Discuss any obstacles encountered during the research and how you addressed them.

Implications: Explain how your findings impacted the design or product strategy.

Conclusion: Summarize the main points and reflect on what you learned from the project.

Appendix (if necessary): Include any additional data or materials that support your case study.

UX case studies for beginners demonstrate the fundamentals of user experience design. They include:

A defined problem statement to clarify the user experience issue.

Descriptions of research methods used for understanding user needs and behaviors.

Steps of the design process, showing solution development. The 5 Stages in the Design Thinking Process illustrate these steps in detail. 

Visual elements, such as sketches, wireframes, or prototypes, illustrate the design stages.

The final design solution emphasizes its impact on user experience.

Reflections on the project's outcomes and lessons learned.

These case studies guide beginners through the essential steps and considerations in UX design projects. Consider watching this video on How to Write Great Case Studies for Your UX Design Portfolio to improve your case studies.

To learn more about UX case studies, two excellent resources are available:

Article on Structuring a UX Case Study : This insightful article explains how to craft a compelling case study. It emphasizes storytelling and the strategic thinking behind UX design, guided by expert opinions and industry insights.

User Experience: The Beginner's Guide Course by the Interaction Design Foundation: This comprehensive course offers a broad introduction to UX design. It covers UX principles, tools, and methods. The course provides practical exercises and industry-recognized certification. This course is valuable for aspiring designers and professionals transitioning to UX.

These resources provide both theoretical knowledge and practical application in UX design.

Literature on UX Case Studies

Here’s the entire UX literature on UX Case Studies by the Interaction Design Foundation, collated in one place:

Learn more about UX Case Studies

Take a deep dive into UX Case Studies with our course Build a Standout UX/UI Portfolio: Land Your Dream Job .

“Your portfolio is your best advocate in showing your work, your skills and your personality. It also shows not only the final outcomes but the process you took to get there and how you aligned your design decisions with the business and user needs.”  

— Morgane Peng, Design Director, Societe Generale CIB  

In many industries, your education, certifications and previous job roles help you get a foot in the door in the hiring process. However, in the design world, this is often not the case. Potential employers and clients want to see evidence of your skills and work and assess if they fit the job or design project in question. This is where portfolios come in.  

Your portfolio is your first impression, your foot in the door—it must engage your audience and stand out against the hundreds of others they might be reviewing. Join us as we equip you with the skills and knowledge to create a portfolio that takes you one step closer to your dream career. 

Build Your Portfolio is taught by Morgane Peng, a designer, speaker, mentor and writer who serves as Director of Experience Design at  Societe Generale CIB. With over 12 years of experience in management roles, she has reviewed thousands of design portfolios and conducted hundreds of interviews with designers. She has collated her extensive real-world knowledge into this course to teach you how to build a compelling portfolio that hiring managers will want to explore. 

In lesson 1, you’ll learn the importance of portfolios and which type of portfolio you should create based on your career stage and background. You’ll discover the most significant mistakes designers make in their portfolios, the importance of content over aesthetics and why today is the best day to start documenting your design processes. This knowledge will serve as your foundation as you build your portfolio. 

In lesson 2, you’ll grasp the importance of hooks in your portfolio, how to write them, and the best practices based on your career stage and target audience. You’ll learn how and why to balance your professional and personal biographies in your about me section, how to talk about your life before design and how to use tools and resources in conjunction with your creativity to create a unique and distinctive portfolio. 

In lesson 3, you’ll dive into case studies—the backbone of your portfolio. You’ll learn how to plan your case studies for success and hook your reader in to learn more about your design research, sketches, prototypes and outcomes. An attractive and attention-grabbing portfolio is nothing without solid and engaging case studies that effectively communicate who you are as a designer and why employers and clients should hire you. 

In lesson 4, you’ll understand the industry expectations for your portfolio and how to apply the finishing touches that illustrate your attention to detail. You’ll explore how visual design, menus and structure, landing pages, visualizations and interactive elements make your portfolio accessible, engaging and compelling. Finally, you’ll learn the tips and best practices to follow when you convert your portfolio into a presentation for interviews and pitches. 

Throughout the course, you'll get practical tips to apply to your portfolio. In the " Build Your Portfolio" project, you'll create your portfolio strategy, write and test your hook, build a case study and prepare your portfolio presentation. You’ll be able to share your progress, tips and reflections with your coursemates, gain insights from the community and elevate each other’s portfolios. 

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50+ Design Thinking Case Study Examples

Design Thinking Case Studies demonstrate the value of the Design Thinking methodology. They show how this Design Thinking methodology helps creatively solve problems and improve the success rate of innovation and increase collaboration in corporations, education, social impact work and the public sector by focusing on the needs of humans.

There are many Design Thinking Case Study examples on the web, but few meet the criteria for a robust case study: a clear description of the methodology, steps undertaken, experimentation through rapid prototypes and testing with people and finally documented results from the process. In this section, we have been selective about the design thinking case study examples that we highlight. We look for Design Thinking Case Studies that demonstrate how a problem was tackled and wherever possible the results or effect that the project produced. Our goal in curating this section of Design Thinking Case Study examples is quality over quantity.

Browse this page to view all Design Thinking Case Study examples, or if you are looking for Design Thinking Case Studies in a specific industry or marketing vertical, then rather start with the Design Thinking Case Studies Index .

If you have an interesting application of Design Thinking that you have a case study for, we would be happy to publish it.

Submit your Design Thinking Case Study for publication here.

Design Thinking Case Study Index

Welcome to the Design Thinking Case Study Index. There are many Design Thinking Case Studies on the internet. Many are retrofitted descriptions of what occurred, rather than evidence of the Design Thinking process in action. In order to bring a higher standard to the practice of Design Thinking, we require stronger evidence and rigor. Only members can post and must provide strong evidence in the Design Thinking Case Study that the Design Thinking process was used to create the original idea for the product or service solution. The criteria that needs to be proved to make your project a Design Thinking Case Study are:

The Guardian: Benefits of Design Thinking

Design thinking helped The Guardian newspaper and publishing group change their funding model, boost revenue and adapt their culture and engage on an emotional level with their readers. In this case study, Alex Breuer, Executive Creative Director and Tara Herman, Executive Editor, Design explain how design thinking was able to achieve these goals for The Guardian.

Read more...

Tackling the Opioid Crisis at the Human and Systems Levels

How the Lummi Tribal clinic used design to address opioid overdoses

Applying Design Thinking Internally

Applying Design Thinking internally, within a group, community or to ourselves. This is a new application of the Design Thinking Methodology.

An internal application in this sense can have two meanings. First, the internal application of design thinking tactics within a group, organization or community, and second, the internal application of design thinking to one’s own self and life.

Can Design Thinking help you solve your own problems?

The Use of Design Thinking in MNCH Programs, Ghana

Responding to growing interest among designers, global health practitioners, and funders in understanding the potential benefits of applying design thinking methods and tools to solving complex social problems, the Innovations for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (MNCH) Initiative (Innovations) developed and piloted innovative interventions to address common barriers to improving the effectiveness of basic MNCH health services in low-resource settings.

Société Générale's Time Tracking Nightmare Solved

In 2017, employees, managers, and partners of Société Générale Global Solution Centre agreed that invoices based on time tracking and project allocation were a chronic and painful challenge.

At SG-GSC, customers were billed for the time each assigned employee worked. The process of collecting the time worked by those employees (HCC) was a complicated and difficult ordeal. It consumed 21 days per month for senior employees. These employees had to navigate different systems, many types of contracts, high staff mobility, and a variety of processes between business lines.

How to Stimulate Innovation in Your Organization With Design Thinking

In this use case the cities of Aalborg and Rotterdam share their findings obtained from design thinking initiatives. This is based on empirical research as part of an evaluation. The use case is written for other professionals in the field of design in public organizations.

One of the main targets of the Interreg NSR project Like! is to create a digital innovative culture in which citizens are engaged, and more inclusive services are build. To reach this the municipalities started several initiatives with design thinking. In these initiatives one of the objectives was to find out how design thinking can help us to develop innovative and inclusive services. To research what design thinking contributed, we evaluated the pilots with participants.

The Impact of Design Thinking on Innovation: A Case Study at Scania IT

Organizational culture represents a crucial factor for the introduction of innovation throughout the organization via Design Thinking and agile way of working. Thus, the organization must establish a culture that encompasses a shared vision with values that create a commitment to learn, experiment and accept failure.

Oral B - Putting the User At the Center of Innovation

Oral B wanted to integrate digital technology into their electric toothbrush. The Brands first thoughts were to help users to track how well they were brushing their teeth. Future Facility, a product design firm in the UK suggested a different approach. Focus on the pain points of electric toothbrush users.

This case study discusses the importance of placing the user at the center of your innovation activities.

Design Thinking at Innogy

eCarSharing:   Energy Solutions for the New Generation

In 2015, Itai Ben-Jacob pitched his own ideas for a viable business model and developed the idea for innogy’s eCarSharing project in a design thinking workshop. His goal was to explore one of innogy’s innovation focus areas, ‘urban mobility.’

Together with fellow innovation hub members he organized a series of design thinking workshops to wade through the expansive topic of urban concepts – one of them focusing on mobility: “ We wanted to understand urban mobility – what does it actually entail? What type of business should we start? “

Building Cape Town’s Resilience Qualities Through Design Thinking.

This case study focuses on a Design Thinking Workshop for primary school learners. The aim of the workshops was to provide learners with a new set of skills which they can employ when problem solving for real world challenges.

Building resilience is essential for cities that face increasing uncertainty and new challenges that threaten the well-being of its citizens. This is especially important when looking at the diversity and complexity of potential shocks and stresses. 

Cape Town’s efforts to build skills in design thinking supports the creation of locally-relevant and innovative solutions that contribute to building resilient individuals and communities in Cape Town.

Designing Waste Out of the Food System

The average American  wastes  enough food each month to feed another person for 19 days. Through a number of projects with The Rockefeller Foundation and other organizations, IDEO designers from across the U.S. devised novel ways to tackle food waste.

B2B Design Thinking: Product Innovation when the User is a Network

When B2B companies talk about user experience, they are really considering the aggregated needs of multiple people and roles in a large ecosystem. But what happens when those objectives are vastly different for every individual?

“Humans don’t stop being humans just because they entered an office building.”

Self-Checkout: Improving Scan Accuracy Through Design

In this unique applied research study, academics and designers partnered with four of ECR’s Retailer members to immerse themselves in the self-checkout experience, understanding from the perspectives of the shopper and self-checkout supervisors, their journey from entry to exit, and their design challenges and frustrations.

Co-designing OTP Bank’s Strategic Plan for Growth

This is an example of accelerating a transformation through co-design. Eighty-two professionals gathered, representing OTP’s whole organization. Together, they were able to achieve months of work in just three days.

OTP Bank Romania (OTP) was at a key turning point in late 2018. The organization was undergoing changes in its leadership team. This new team helped them develop an ambitious goal:

OTP Bank will double its market share in 5 years.

They gathered for two Discovery sessions in December 2018. In these sessions, a carefully selected senior team chose three market segments to focus on. Then they built these segments into Personas.

IDEO: Journey to Mastery

While this is not a case study as such, it sits in our case study section as it is an important piece of information from a consultancy that played a large part in popularizing Design Thinking. In their Journey to Mastery section, IDEO discuss and shine a light on the shortcomings of the design thinking term and how it has been applied. I.e that it is not designing and that just knowing and using the practice does not in itself produce amazing solutions to problems.

It is worth a read to understand some of the nuance that is important to successful design thinking work.

Singapore Government: Building Service Platforms Around Moments in Life

In 2017, the product development team at Singapore’s Government Technology Agency (GovTech) was tasked to develop a tool to consolidate citizen-facing services previously delivered by different government agencies onto a single platform. The initiative, Moments of Life, sought to make it easier for citizens to discover and access relevant services during important changes in their lives by reducing fragmentation and being more anticipatory in the delivery of those services.

Organizing the delivery of services around a citizen’s journey, rather than fitting their delivery to existing processes, required extensive interagency collaboration beyond functional silos.

Mayo Clinic: Design Thinking in Health Care – Case Study

In the early 2000s, Mayo Clinic physician Nicholas LaRusso asked himself a question: if we can test new drugs in clinical trials, can we in a similarly rigorous way test new kinds of doctor-patient interactions?  

Consequently, the Mayo Clinic set up a skunkworks outpatient lab called SPARC. Within 6 years it had grown to an enterprise wide department called the Center for Innovation a dedicated research and design-oriented institute that studies the processes of health care provision, from the initial phone call, to the clinic visit, to the diagnosis and treatment of the problem, to follow-up and preventive care.

Design Thinking and Participation in Switzerland: Lessons Learned from Three Government Case Studies

Olivier Glassey, Jean-Henry Morin, Patrick Genoud, Giorgio Pauletto

This paper examines how design thinking and serious game approaches can be used to support participation.

In these case studies the authors discovered the following results.

Perceived usefulness. Based on informal discussions and debriefing sessions following all workshops, it is clear that the vast majority of workshop participants explicitly stated that both the actual outcome of the workshop and the methods used would significantly contribute to enhancing their performance in their work. Some workshops have actually led to follow up workshops or concrete actions based on the outcome.

Asili: Addressing an Entire Ecosystem of Need in a Rural Community

Design Thinking in HR at Deutche Telekom

Reza Moussavian, a senior HR and IT executive at Deutsch Telekom explains the company's journey and how important Design Thinking is as a business strategy for HR. Reza Moussavian's presentation provides great examples of issues tackled in HR and the results achieved. The presenter claims that there is not a singe issue that Deutche Telekom tackles in HR now that does not start with a Design Thinking methodology.

"Design Thinking solves 5% of our problems." says Reza Moussavian, "What we found out was that the magic was really in the implementation phase. We had to learn how to keep the momentum, the spirit and the fire from the co-creation workshops alive through the long implementation phase. Success is really about technology, transformation and leadership skills."

Design Thinking in Education: Perspectives, Opportunities and Challenges

This very informative article discusses design thinking as a process and mindset for collaboratively finding solutions for wicked problems in a variety of educational settings. Through a systematic literature review the article organizes case studies, reports, theoretical reflections, and other scholarly work to enhance our understanding of the purposes, contexts, benefits, limitations, affordances, constraints, effects and outcomes of design thinking in education.

Specifically, the review pursues four questions:

Design Thinking in the Classroom: What can we do about Bullying?

As children move from kindergarten, through middle school, and to high school, instruction shifts from stories to facts, from speculation to specifics, and imagination fades from focus. Design Thinking provides an alternative model to traditional ways of learning academic content by challenging students to find answers to complex, nuanced problems with multiple solutions and by fostering students’ ability to act as change agents.

Design Thinking is all about building creative confidence — a sense that “I can change the world.” In the Bullies & Bystanders Design Challenge, the students discovered that changing themselves might be even more important.

Following One School District's Approach to Innovation for the 21st Century

In her doctoral paper Loraine Rossi de Campos explores the use of Design Thinking in a school district for a 4-5 grade school.

India: Using ‘Design Thinking’ to Enhance Urban Redevelopment.

The discourse on urban planning and development has evolved over the last century with top-down methods of planning urban spaces giving way to bottom-up approaches that involve residents and other stakeholders in the design process. While the notion of participation and user involvement is considered critical to the design of appropriate and acceptable urban forms, there is no clear consensus in the literature on the methodology to be used to involve users and stakeholders in the design process. In this paper, we propose that the use of ‘Design-Thinking’ – a methodology for Human-Centred Design that is often used in product design and related industries – may be an effective methodology for engaging stakeholders in the urban design domain.

E*Trade: From Idea to Investment in 5 Minutes

Why the Financial Services Sector Should Embrace Design Thinking. Financial institutions need to evolve rapidly or risk disruption at the hands of nimble Fintech start-up companies.

In this article Kunal Vaed, The Street, describes how E*Trade used design thinking to enable the company to help investors get smarter by going from the idea of investing to an investment in 5 minutes.

E*Trade's Adaptive Portfolio service offering provides a good example of the work and results that E*Trade achieved with Design Thinking.

Fidelity Labs: Optimizing near-term savings goals

Thanks to providers like Fidelity, people can rely on easy, convenient systems to stay on track with their retirement savings. But when it comes to saving for important near-term goals (think: vacation, house, or wedding), people tend to be less organized. 

Fidelity Labs tackled this problem and defined the challenge as: "How might we improve the experience of saving for near-term goals? How might we make it easier, faster, and better?"

Design for Action: MassMutual and Intercorp Group

How to use design thinking to make great things actually happen by Tim Brown and Roger L. Martin. In this great HBR article, the authors look at design thinking in Finance with two case studies, one from MassMutual and the other from Intercorp. Group of Peru.

In this article highlighting the development of the acceptance of Design Thinking, they discuss how Design Thinking helps to create the artifact that creates the new solution as well as the intervention/s that brings the artifact to life.

How to Use Design Thinking to Make Great Things Actually Happen

Ever since it became clear that smart design led to the success of many products, companies have been employing it in other areas, from customer experiences, to strategy, to business ecosystems. But as design is used in increasingly complex contexts, a new hurdle has emerged: gaining acceptance (for the new solutions).

4 Design Thinking Case Studies in Healthcare: Nursing

The 4 case studies by Penn Nursing illustrate how nurses can be really powerful collaborators and generators of solutions within Healthcare. The videos describe the main attributes that nurses bring to the problem solving table

Philips: Improving the Patient Experience

Philips Ambient Experience service offers hospitals a way to radically improve the patient experience and results that they can achieve from their CT scanning suites. The best way to understand what it is is to watch this video  and this video  discussing the latest addition to the service. The white paper from Philips is also a good source of information on the Ambient Experience Service.

IBM: Design Thinking Adaptation and Adoption at Scale

How IBM made sense of ‘generic design thinking’ for tens of thousands of people. 

Generic design thinking often faces heavy resistance from influential skeptics, gets misunderstood or not understood at all, or less dire, it gets picked up with an unreflected euphoria and is applied as a “silver bullet” to all kinds of problems and projects (the famous “methodology misfit” we also see with Scrum for example). The big hangover often comes after the first experimentation budgets are expended and at worst a blame game starts.

Design Thinking in Public Engagement: Two Case Studies

Dave Robertson presents two case studies with the British Columbia Government (Canada). One with the Ministry of Transportation discussing their (public servant centered website), the other solving the problem of finding a solution to where to place a power substation.

Dave shows how he was stuck working in the public sector as a consultant and how creativity expressed through the Design Thinking methodology helped him to see a different, more effective way of creating solutions.

Bank of America Helps Customers Keep the Change

How do you encourage new customers to open bank accounts? In 2004, Bank of America used the Design Thinking methodology to look at the problem from a human centered perspective when they assigned design agency IDEO to boost their enrollment numbers: a problem that at the time, lacked any user perspective on why it was so hard for customers to save.

Redesigning The Employment Pass Application in Singapore

The Ministry of Manpower’s Work Pass Division (WPD) used design thinking as a tool to develop better ways to support foreigners who choose Singapore as a destination to live, work and set up businesses. The case reveals: Design thinking can potentially transform the perception and meaning of public service.

The team found out that the service redesign process required a better understanding of the decision points of both users and non-users. This involved taking a closer look at the opportunities and difficulties facing users, including those who had succeeded and failed within it, or had encountered problems or avoided it.

The US Tax Forms Simplification Project

This case concerns one of the earliest attempts by design thinkers at designing a large, complex system. It shows that design approaches in the public sector can look back at a long history. And it reveals how design thinking within the organization must include members of the whole organization in the design process.

Design has a long tradition and a rich history in the public sector. Nearly 40 years ago, when the US Congress passed the Paperwork Reduction Act into law, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) turned to designers in an effort to implement the new policy and to improve its relationship with taxpayers. 

A Tough Crowd: Using Design Thinking to Help Traditional German Butchers

Between 2004 and 2014, more than 4000 butcher shops were forced to shut down in Germany. When last was the butcher shop redesigned? The process started in the 1990s, as supermarkets became the favored spot for meat-shopping. As if a dramatic loss of market share was not enough, the industry as a whole started suffering from a serious image crisis. It was time to apply design Thinking to the traditional German Butcher Shop.

The initial problem statement read “Create the meat shop 2.0, an up-to-date version of the classic butcher business”. 

IDEO: Using Design Thinking to Create a Better Car

The challenge.

Remove roadblocks that can compromise the in-car experience for the Lincoln car company.

The final product, the Lincoln MKC luxury crossover, is credited with helping the Lincoln brand outpace growth in the luxury segment by more than two-to-one over competitors.

THE OUTCOME

A pop-up studio where IDEO designers helped departments communicate and collaborate more effectively.

Transforming Constructivist Learning into Action: Design Thinking in Education

In an ever changing society of the 21st century, there is a demand to equip students with meta competences going beyond cognitive knowledge. Education, therefore, needs a transition from transferring knowledge to developing individual potentials with the help of constructivist learning. A Scheer, C Noweski,  C Meinel , University of Potsdam, Germany.

Design Thinking is the most effective method of teaching constructivist learning.

Scaling Design Thinking in the Enterprise, a 5 Year Study

During Julie Baher's five years at  Citrix  between 2010 to 2015, she was fortunate to gain first-hand experience leading a transformation in product strategy to a customer-centered approach. It began when several senior executives attended the  design thinking boot camp  at Stanford’s d-school, returning with a new vision for the product development processes. Julie goes into detail about how they scaled up the customer centric methodology across the organizations 8,000 employees.

Developing Environmental Sustainability Strategies

Developing environmental sustainability strategies, the Double Diamond method of LCA and design thinking: a case study from aged care. Journal of Cleaner Production, 85, 67-82. Stephen J. Clune*, Simon Lockrey.

Developing an App for Type II Diabetes

Development and testing of a mobile application to support diabetes self-management for people with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes: a design thinking case study. Numerous mobile applications have been developed to support diabetes-self-management. However, the majority of these applications lack a theoretical foundation and the involvement of people with diabetes during development. The aim of this study was to develop and test a mobile application (app) supporting diabetes self-management among people with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes using design thinking. The article was written by Mira Petersen and Nana F. Hempler.

Improving UX in Public Transportation

In this case study the project leaders goal was to  improve the experience of bus users  on Madrid's EMT system by offering a technological solution to  increase the users’ satisfaction with regard to accessibility  during the bus trip as well as when waiting for the bus to arrive.

Transforming Life Insurance through Design Thinking

To some fintechs, non-insurance incumbents, and venture capitalists, the industry’s challenges suggest opportunity. The life insurance value chain is increasingly losing share to these players, who are chipping away at the profit pool. 

How might incumbent life insurers keep pace in today’s fast-moving competitive environment and meet customers’ changing needs?

Deploying the Design Thinking methodology in the insurance sector could be the key to helping save insurance from itself. Here's what McKinsey has to say about design thinking in insurance in their article "Transforming Life Insurance through Design Thinking".

"Better addressing the evolving needs of consumers can help incumbents win their loyalty—and protect against new competitors. 

Bringing Design Thinking to the Insurance World

Pancentric helped  Jelf kick-off a several-year digital transformation journey by getting to know not just their customers better, but their own staff, too. Jelf has dozens of offices around the UK, all with specialties in insuring different kinds of commercial businesses. For our project team trying to determine a roadmap of new developments, there was no easy overview of how each office operated or what the entire customer experience looked like.

The Features of Design Thinking in Fast Moving Consumer Goods Brand Development

This paper investigates what features of design thinking are employed in FMCG brand development via stakeholder interviews in three domains: agencies, companies, and retailers. This paper concludes with suggestions of how design thinking can be embraced in FMCG brand development.

A Chain of Innovation The Creation of Swiffer

This is a great case study that underlines the complexity of bringing game changing products to market. It helps to provide an understanding of just how much more is needed that a simple five step process of idea generation.

Read more from Continuum , the Design Firm responsible for the Swiffer

The Guardian: Using Design to Reaffirm Values

The Guardian's redesign, which launched in January 2018, illustrated the business impact when design is valued. The Guardian has a strong culture of design and increasingly, how design thinking can contribute to organizational change and development.

• Melanie Lang
• Jul 19, 2013

75 Instructive Design Case Studies

• 21 min read
• Inspiration , Web Design , Graphic Design , Case Studies
• Share on Twitter ,  LinkedIn

About The Author

Former Smashing Editor Melanie completed her degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Otago University, and is now freelancer and part-time politician. … More about Melanie ↬

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Not only are case studies a great way to explain the design process of an agency, but they also help designers and developers to learn from each other. Seeing how designers work, create, build and play is great, and furthermore, you can learn how to write a great case study yourself and how to use one to spice up your portfolio .

In this overview of useful case studies, we’ve featured studies that have recounted decisions made about particular design elements, as well as studies of full overhauls and their accompanying technical challenges. Most of them provide interesting insights into failures and successes , stories, workflows and design decisions made and rejected.

We must admit that this post is quite a long one, so we’ve decided to divide it into two parts to make it easier for you to navigate. Now you should be well prepared for a couple of late reading sessions over the next weekends!

Illustration, Graphics And Logo Design

“ Illustrator Full Spectrum Spirograph ,” Veerle Pieters Pieters talks about her experimentation process with spirographs, inspired by the work of Andy Gilmore.

“ The Design Process of my Infographic About Women Cycling for Grinta! ,” Veerle Pieters Pieters shares her experience of the design process behind the infographic on women’s cycling that she produced for Grinta magazine.

“ A Systematic Approach to Logo Design ,” Adham Dannaway Icon design can be time-consuming. Dannaway shows how to systematically approach a new logo design.

“ (Re)building a Simplified Firefox Logo ,” Sean Martell Learn how Firefox’s logo was simplified to better fit its extended usage beyond a desktop web browser.

“ Five Details ,” Jon Hicks Jon Hicks shares the design process behind the Five Details Logo, including the design and choice of typography.

“ Iconfinder Logo ,” SoftFacade SoftFacade completely reimagined Iconfinder’s existing identity and came up with a shiny and modern robot character. View the detailed design process.

“The Great Gatsby” Like Minded Studio collaborated on the branding of “The Great Gatsby“. The aim was to develop a bespoke Deco styled logo reflective of the roaring 20s and Fitzgerald’s masterpiece. They also created a display typeface to acompany the main branding. Additionally read more about it following this link.

“ Whitney Graphic Identity ,” Experimental Jetset In this case study of the Whitney Museum of Art’s logo, Experimental Jetset discusses the impact that a responsive logo can have on branding.

“My ‘Tour de France’ posters,” Veerle Pieters Pieters created posters for the 100th edition of the Tour of France. She mainly used the French landscape which she had used for the ‘Tour de France Infographic’ as a starting point.

“ Designing Type Systems ,” Peter Bil’ak To create truly useful designs, typographers need to examine not only how characters relate to each other within a style, but also how different styles relate to each other within a family. Peter Bil’ak discusses how to achieve this.

“ Novel Constructions: The Making of a Typeface ,” Christopher Dunst Dunst shares the process behind the creation of the “Novel” typeface.

“ The Development of the Signage Typeface Wayfinding Sans Pro ,” Ralf Herrmann Herrmann describes the development of the Wayfinding Sans Pro, a signage typeface that can be read from a long distance.

“ The Making of FF Tundra ,” Ludwig Übele Übele shares the process behing making the FF Tundra typeface, which was highly inspired by nature.

“ The Making of Magasin ,” Laura Meseguer Meseguer writes how she created Magasin, a typefaces inspired by fluid handwriting.

“Type Study” series, Adobe Typekit Typekit features a whole series of case studies of typography:

• “ Hi-DPI Web Typography ,” David Demaree
• “ Typographic Hierarchy ,” Frank Chimero
• “ Pairing Typefaces ,” Aura Seltzer
• “ Sizing the Legible Letter ,” Ethan Marcotte
• “ Stereo-Typography ,” Dan Mall
• “ Choosing Fallback Fonts ,” Josh Brewer
• “ Techniques for Using Novelty Fonts ,” Meagan Fisher

“ Social Login Buttons Aren’t Worth It ,” MailChimp Social login buttons are used by many apps today. MailChimp shares its own experience and considerations in using social login buttons.

“Usability in Icons,” Peter Steen Høgenhaug Icons are used to illustrate a particular function, anything from information to actions. This article explains what needs to be considered when designing them.

“iOS Icon Design: A Designer’s Exploration,” iOS icon design is not only difficult, but requires a lot of experimentation. David Killoy shares his experience of designing the icon for his note-taking app Notorious.

“ The Making of Octicons ,” GitHub Octicons is a icon font made by GitHub. Five designers collaborated on the project, and they share how they built Octicons and what they learned along the way.

“ Designing Facebook Home ,” Julie Zhuo On May 8th, the designers behind Facebook Home (Justin Stahl, Francis Luu, Joey Flynn and Mac Tyler) presented a behind-the-scenes look at their work at the Bluxome Street Winery for a small crowd.

Advertising, Promotion And E-Commerce

“ How to Make Your Own App Promo Cards ,” Mike Swanson Swanson was inspired by Starbuck’s promo cards for giving away free apps and decided to make his own for an upcoming event. Learn how you can do one, too!

“ The Art of Launching an App ,” John Casey You’ve made your first app! Now what? This study covers some tactics and lessons learned during one process of launching an app.

“ How to Launch Anything ,” Nathan Barry Barry has launched five products in fewer than nine months. Read about the strategy that helped him generate over $200,000 in revenue from online products, starting from scratch.

“ Selling My E-Book on Amazon ,” Jonathan Snook Several people predicted that 2013 would be the year of self-publishing. Snook shares insight into his eBook sales on Amazon.

“ Increase Online Sales on Your Ecommerce Website ,” Headscape increased sales on Wiltshire Farmfoods’ e-commerce website by over 10,000% in only five years. What makes it even more special, the target audience is over 50 years old. Paul Boag shares his experience.

“ Twitter Promoted Tweets ,” MailChimp MailChimp has made use of Twitter’s promoted tweets and shares insight into this experience.

Redesigning Elements And Features

“ Visual Exploration Behind Signal vs. Noise ,” Mig Reyes 37signals share the process behind making its blog special. This study is about how the company visualized noise and styled its blog categories in a unique way.

“ Reinventing Our Default Profile Pictures ,” Jamie Jamie talks about the process of finding the right default profile pictures for the 37signals website. It’s a great new approach to a very basic element.

“ Login Screen Design: Behind the Scenes ,” Simon Tabor Good UX is not just about the main content, but also about little details such as log-in (and error) pages. GoSquared shares how it made its log-in experience exceptional.

“ Save for Later ,” Brian Groudan All browsers support two functions: searching and revisiting. Groudan worked closely with Mozilla’s user experience researchers and designers to rethink how Firefox could better offer “saving for later” functionality in the browser.

“A Closer Look at Zoom,” FiftyThree FiftyThree shares the design process behind the new zoom feature in its Paper app.

“Reinventing the Investment Calculator ,” Alex Bendiken Drawing from the book Money for Something , Alex Bendiken built a tool that lets users experiment and create a unique investment plan. It’s a UX study in turning a boring financial calculator into something you’d actually want to use.

“ Getting Down to Business ,” Teenhan+Lax The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper of record. It serves millions of readers everyday with in-depth journalism and informed comment. Learn how Teenhan+Lax helped refresh and enrich the way users experience and engage with the news today.

“ Olympics: User Experience and Design ,” Nick Haley Nick Haley shares the BBC’s design process of delivering the Olympics across desktop, tablet, mobile and connected TV.

“ How We Built the Responsive Olympics Site ,” Matt Clark Matt Clark writes about MSN UK’s approach to delivering the Olympics digitally, from the brief to the finished design.

“ The Anatomy Of A Successful Logo Redesign ,” Belinda Lanks Lanks summarizes how Jessica Hische had freshened up the new logo for MailChimp with a slight facelift. The new logo now looks new and fresh — more refined but just as playful.

“ What I Want Out of Facebook ,” Keenan Cummings Cummings explains why Facebook fails him and what he wants to get out of it that would make it useful for his personal life.

“ In Praise of Lost Time ,” Dan Hill Dan Hill talks about Facebook’s Timeline as an exemplary bit of interaction design that does little to advance the timeline formally. Yet it might alter the nature of human memory itself.

“Designing the new, fully responsive Wired.co.uk article pages,” Javier Ghaemi This article is about redesigning the Wired.co.uk article website to provide a more content-first and immersive experience.

Complete (Re)branding And (Re)design

“How to Approach a Responsive Design,” Tito Bottitta This article shows the design process behind The Boston Globe’s website, one of the most famous examples of responsive designs. Read about how Upstatement approached its first responsive design.

“Responsive Design Case Study,” Matt Berridge This case study outlines the entire process of constructing the South Tees Hospitals’ website, a large responsive design containing over a thousand pages.

“ Rebuilding a University Homepage to Be Responsive. Twice. In Less Than a Year ,” Erik Runyon This slideshow discusses how and why Notre Dame University’s home page was rebuilt twice in less than a year. You will find a recording of the talk below the slides.

“Yes, You Really Can Make Complex Web Apps Responsive,” Daniel Wearne Wearne shares his experience in creating Adioso’s web app, a complex yet accessible project. He covers the framework, responsive mixins, tables and future challenges.

“Designing a New Playground Brand,” Ryan Bannon This case study shows the design process of Playground’s new brand. It covers the logo, overall website and vector animation process, as well as the core values and personality of the company. The extensive study comes in three parts.

“ How House Parties Helped Us Design Potluck ,” Cemre Güngör The team at Potluck describes how it took inspiration from reality to design a “house party on the Internet.”

“ Colorado Identity ,” Berger & Föhr Imagine someone hiring you to define your own identity. Berger & Föhr was hired to help create the new identity and visual brand of Colorado, the place they call home. Have a look at the work and logo they came up with.

“ Building the New Financial Times Web App ,” Wilson Page Page talks about building the Financial Times’ new app, a challenge that many on his team believed to be impossible. He covers device support, fixed-height layouts, truncation, modularization, reusable components, Retina support, native-like scrolling, offline support and the topic of ever-evolving apps.

“ Google Treasure Maps ,” Alex Griendling Griendling writes about the design process behind Google Maps’ treasure mode.

“ Find Your Way to Oz ,” HTML5 Rocks This very detailed case study looks at the “Find Your Way to Oz” demo, a Google Chrome experiment by Disney. It covers sprite sheets, Retina support, 3-D content and more.

“ The Making of the Moscow Metro Map 2.0 ,” Art Lebedev Studio This study is about the design process behind the Moscow Metro map, a complex project that needed to meet the requirements of both Web and print.

“ Skinny Ties and Responsive eCommerce ,” Brendan Falkowski Read and learn how GravDept redesigned Skinny Ties’ creative and technical direction to propel shopping on every device.

“ The Design Thinking Behind the New Disney.com ,” Bobby Solomon Solomon shares the process of creating a Disney website that is flexible enough to showcase the widest range of offerings imaginable — in other words, a website that can do everything.

“Say Hello to the New ISO,” Andy Clarke Clarke and David Roessli redesigned the website of the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and share their experience.

“ A Responsive Design Case Study ,” David Bushell The redesign of Passenger Focus takes advantage of the Web as an unique medium.

“ BBC News: Responsive Web Design and Mustard ,” Kaelig Deloumeau-Prigent These slides address the core principles and the “cutting the mustard” technique behind the BBC News’ responsive website.

“The Trello Tech Stack,” Brett Kiefer Read the process behind the Trello app, from initial mockup to a solid server and maintainable client.

“ Responsibly Responsive: Developing the Greenbelt Website ,” Rachel Andrew Andrew writes about her front-end design decisions in rebuilding the Greenbelt Festival’s website.

“ The Digital-Physical: On Building Flipboard for iPhone and Finding the Edges of Our Digital Narratives ,” Craig Mod Mod walks through the process of building the Flipboard app for iPhone and of finding the edges of its digital narratives.

“ Page-Flip Effect From 20 Things I Learned ,” Hakim El Hattab This study shows how this team found the best way to achieve the feeling of a real-world book, while leveraging the benefits of the digital realm in areas such as navigation.

“ Six Key Lessons From a Design Legend ,” Kapil Kale The GiftRocket team eventually recruited Mike Kus as a designer. This article shows why that decision took their website to the next level.

“ Breaking The Rules: A UX Case Study ,” Laura Klein Klein shows how she broke all rules to create the great UX for Outright.

“ 7 UX Considerations When Designing Lens Hawk ,” Christian Holst Lens Hawk is a massive DSLR lens database. This article shares seven UX considerations that were made in its design process.

“ The Story of the New Microsoft.com ,” Nishant Kothary Kothary shares his insight into making Microsoft’s new website. Also, check out Trent Walton’s perspective on the redesign .

“Behind the Scenes of the New Kippt,” Gannon Burgett This interview about the work behind the new Kippt app covers the redesign process, the design principles and problems that the team faced, insights into the new era of web app design, and where Kippt will head in the future.

“ Crayola: Free the ‘What If’ ,” Daniel Mall Dan Mall has put together a case study of the creation of the new Crayola application for kids.

“Campus Quad iPhone App,” Soft Facade Soft Facade covers every aspects of the design process behind its Campus Quad app.

“How to Make a Vesper: Design,” Vesper Learn how the Vesper app was designed and made.

“ Betting on a Fully Responsive Web Application ,” 14islands Read about how 14islands took the web app for Kambi, a sports-betting service, to the next level.

“AMMO Rack App Design Critique,” Alexander Komarov An interesting study of the feedback process that improved the AMMO Rack app.

“ Walking Through the Design Process ,” Ian Storm Taylor Taylor walks you through the design process of Segment.io, including the progression of mockups in Photoshop.

“ Music Video ‘Lights’: The Latest WebGL Sensation ,” Carlos Ulloa Interactive studio HelloEnjoy built a mind-blowing 3-D music video for Ellie Goulding’s song “Lights.” Creative director Carlos Ulloa explains why the team chose WebGL and how it created various immersive graphic effects.

“Designing for Designers,” Kyle Meyer Designing for other designers is different than working for regular clients. Kyle Meyer shares his experience.

“ Adapting to a Responsive Design ,” Matt Gibson Cyber-Duck abandoned its separate mobile website and created a new responsive design.

“ Grids, Flexibility and Responsiveness ,” Laura Kalbag Kalbag shares her thoughts on the redesign of her own website, including her choice of typefaces.

“ Making of Typespiration ,” Rafal Tomal Rafal Tomal built Typespiration as a side project. Learn about the process from initial idea to finished WordPress website.

“ Case Studies ,” Fi Design firm Fi has integrated case studies into its portfolio. The studies are very interactive and beautifully designed. Here are four of them:

• “Is This The Future of The Airline Website?”
• “The Story of Ramayana: Brought to Life by Google Chrome”
• “Sony: Connected World”
• “USAToday.com: Redesigning One of America’s Most Popular News Sites”

Content And Storytelling

“ Step-By-Step Landing Page Copywriting ,” Nathan Barry The process of writing great copy for a landing page is covered step by step.

“ The Art Of Storytelling Around An App ,” John Casey This case study is about the art of storytelling in the app “The House That Went on Strike.”

“Rethinking the Case Study,” Christopher Butler Butler explains what case studies are for and what a great one looks like, and he lays out a practical plan for writing one.

“ Retiring The Portfolio Screenshot ,” James Young You’ve probably noticed that portfolios nowadays are packed with detailed analysis, rather than screenshots. Take yours to the next level and learn how to create an amazing portfolio (such as the ones featured in this post).

“Responsibly Leveraging Advanced Web Features,” Ryan Heap Heap tells us about his full responsive redesign of Travois, a consulting firm focused on housing and economic development. The study includes topics such as progressive enhancement, responsive and responsible Web design, SVG, and the HTML5 History API.

“ My Notes on Writing an E-Book ,” Jonathan Snook Several people have suggested that 2013 is the year of self-publishing. Jonathan Snook shares his process of writing and digital publishing.

Technical Challenges And Solutions

“ Beating Borders: The Bane of Responsive Layout ,” Joshua Johnson Responsive design often requires setting widths in percentages. This is easy enough, until borders are thrown into the mix.

“ How We Improved Page Speed by Cleaning CSS, HTML and Images ,” Lara Swanson Page-loading time is a big part of the user experience. Dyn shows how it improved it simply by cleaning up the CSS, HTML and images.

“ Mein Honig – Brand Identity ,” Thomas Lichtblau “My Honey makes people and bees happy. And if they are happy, nature is happy too.” This simple yet beautiful statement belongs to Mein Honig (My Honey), a personal project of Thomas Lichtblau from Austria. Thomas shares fascinating insights about a production, banding and packaging process in which he only used colorless, organic and traditional tools and materials.

“Front-End Performance Case Study: GitHub,” JP Castro Castro analyzes the front-end performance of GitHub and shares his findings.

“ iPad to Windows Store App ,” Bart Claeys and Qixing Zheng This case study helps designers and developers who are familiar with iOS to reimagine their apps using design principles for Windows Store apps. Translate common UI and UX patterns found in iPad apps to Windows 8 apps.

“ Behind the Scenes of Mad Manimation ,” Anthony Calzadilla Here is the process behing the Mad Manimation, an HTML- and CSS-based animation of the introduction to the Mad Men TV show.

“ Embedding Canvas and SVG Charts in Emails ,” Thomas Fuchs Learn how to use embedded canvas and SVG charts in email.

“ Scaling Pinterest From 0 to 10s of Billions of Page Views a Month in Two Years ,” Todd Hoff This case study traces the evolution of Pinterest’s architecture, which was scaling fast, with a lot of incorrect choices made along the way

“ How We Built a Photoshop Extension With HTML, CSS and JS ,” Brian Reavis Creative Market’s extension is a Backbone.js Web app that lives inside of Photoshop. The team can update it without the user having to install an update. How does that work? Read up on it!

“ Batch Processing Millions and Millions of Images ,” Mike Brittain Etsy wanted to redesign a few of its major sections and had to rescale over 135 million images in order to do it.

“ Making 100,000 Stars ,” Michael Chang Chang writes about 100,000 Stars, an experience for Chrome that was built with Three.js and CSS3D.

“ Mastering the Application Cache Manifest for Offline Web Apps and Performance ,” Julien Nicault Nicault, who work on Cinémur, a new social film app, describes how to use AppCache to improve performance and enable offline usage of Web apps

“ Harvey: A Second Face for Your JavaScript ,” Joschka Kintscher Responsive design often requires drastic UI changes. This study shows how to execute parts of your JavaScript depending on the device’s type and screen size.

“ Our First Node.js App: Backbone on the Client and Server ,” Spike Brehm The team at Airbnb has been curious about Node.js for a long time, but used it only for odds and ends. See how they used it on a production-scale project.

“ Making a 60fps Mobile App ,” Paul Lewis Paul Lewis shows you how to make a mobile app that has 60fps at all times, does one thing really well, has offline support and a flat UI.

“ The Making of the Interactive Treehouse Ad ,” Chris Coyier Treehouse is the primary sponsor of CSS-Tricks, and this case study looks at its interactive ad using jQuery.

“ Improve Mobile Support With Server-Side-Enhanced Responsive Design ,” Jon Arne Sæterås This is an analysis of the process of finding the right mix between server-side and client-side logic for adaptive Web design.

“Designing an Instant Interface,” Luke Wroblewski Wroblewski shows how to design the instant interface used for the real-time views, real-time notifications and real-time comments on Bagcheck’s website.

“ Lessons in Website Security Anti-Patterns by Tesco ,” Troy Hunt Hunt looks closely at the many simple security errors Tesco makes, analyzing how he would apply basic security principles to remedy them.

“ Refactoring >14,000 Lines of CSS Into Sass ,” Eugene Fedorenko Beanstalk is a mature product whose CSS grew accordingly to 5 files, 14,211 lines and 290 KB of code. Learn how the team rebuilt its style sheets into something cleaner and easier to maintain.

“Refinder: Test-Driven Development,” Maciej Pasternacki These slides show how test-driven development enabled Gnowsis to reimplement Refinder’s basic data model.

“Managing JavaScript on Responsive Websites,” Jeremy Fields Jeremy Fields of Viget talks about how to manage JavaScript on a website whose interface and functionality changes at different breakpoints.

“ Trimming the Fat ,” Paul Robert Lloyd Lloyd walks through the performance optimizations he made for his website, trimming the page load from 383 to 100 KB. He also shows graphs.

Workflow And Optimization

“ Visual Design Explorations ,” Paul Lloyd Lloyd of Clearleft talks about how to maintain knowledge-sharing and collaboration on a growing team.

“ The Anatomy of an Experience Map ,” Chris Risdon Experience maps are becoming increasingly useful for gaining insight in order to orchestrate service touch points over time and space. This study explains what they are and how to create them.

“The design process of my infographic for the ‘Tour of France’ for Grinta!,” Veerle Pieters Pieters designed an infographic about the Tour of France, and focused mainly on the question, “What does a pro cycling team take with them to the Tour of France?”

“ Turning Small Projects Into Big Profit ,” Jon Savage and Simon Birky Hartmann Ace of Spade discusses how it overhauled its operations and started making a living off of small projects.

“What We’ve Learned About Responsive Design,” Christopher Butler Butler shares what his agency has learned about responsive design, which is to overcome initial fears and focus on what is important.

“The Modular Canvas: A Pragmatic Workflow for Designing Applications,” by Gabriel O’Flaherty-Chan There are some gaps in the way we work; the bigger the project, the more glaring the gaps become. O’Flaherty-Chan looks at a better workflow for designing apps.

“ How We Reduced Our Cancellation Rate by 87.5% ,” Kareem Mayan Kareem Mayan tackles the issue of user cancellations by using a cohort analysis. Learn how he did it.

“ How I Run a Membership Site ,” Justin Tadlock This study looks at how Theme Hybrid handles memberships after registration and payment.

“Post-Implementation, Pre-Launch: A Crucial Checkpoint,” Mindy Wagner Wagner of Viget discusses how to approach the time of post-implementation and pre-launch, a crucial checkpoint that can create a lot of stress for a team.

“ A New Make Mantra: A Statement of Design Intent ,” Mark Boulton Mark Boulton used the CERN redesign project as an occasion to define a new “make” mantra that would help him tackle projects. This single, actionable sentence would guide him through projects.

“ 100 Conversion Optimization Case Studies ,” KISSmetrics Lots of techniques and tactics to optimize your website for better conversions shared by marketers.

Responsive Design

“ Responsive Design and ROI: Observations From the Coalface ,” Chris Berridge Working on the frontline, Berridge share his insights on responsive design and returns on investment.

“ Making Your Site Responsive: Mastering Real-World Constraints ,” Alex Fedorov Listen to how agency Fresh Tilled Soil addressed real-world constraints, such as resources, time and budget, in its responsive design process.

“ Goals, Constraints, and Concept in a Redesign ,” Steven Bradley Some thoughts on the redesign of Vanseo Design.

“ How a Simple Redesign Increased Customer Feedback by 65% ,” James Santilli Customer feedback is the backbone of many Web services. Campaign Monitor analyzed the process behind a simple redesign that increased customer feedback by 65%.

“ More on Apples: Mobile Optimization in Ecommerce ,” Electric Pulp This study analyzes how both mobile and non-mobile conversions went up when Electric Pulp redesigned a website to be responsive.

“How I’m Implementing Responsive Web Design,” Jeff Croft Croft is finally at the point where responsive design feels worth the extra effort. Read about how he got there.

“ Mentoring: The Evaluation ,” Laura Kalbag Freelancers are often offered projects whose budget is below their rate. Laura Kalbag had a fantastic idea on how to transform these kind of projects into a win-win: She decided to mentor a group of students. Such a project would give the students an opportunity to gain valuable experience and help them transition into freelancing, and the client would get good quality work, despite the modest budget. This series of posts describes her experience, from initial idea to launched project.

Further Reading

• Showcase of Case Studies in Design Portfolios
• 15 Impressive Case Studies from Behance
• Improving Smashing Magazine’s Performance: A Case Study
• Powerful Workflow Tips, Tools And Tricks For Web Designers

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What is design thinking?

Discover what is design thinking and why it’s important, including the five stages of design thinking. Deep dive into a few case studies and learn how to apply design thinking.

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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.

Design thinking is a mindset that breeds innovation. While it’s based on the design process, anyone in any profession can use it when they’re trying to come up with creative solutions to a problem. 

In this guide, we’ll walk you through what design thinking is and why it’s important, including the five stages of design thinking. Then we’ll present a couple of design thinking case studies and wrap up with a primer on how to apply design thinking. And don’t worry, this guide is broken down into easily digestible chunks, as follows:

Let’s get started!

What is design thinking? A definition

Design thinking is an approach used for problem-solving. Both practical and creative, it’s anchored by human-centred design.

Design thinking is extremely user-centric in that it focuses on your users before it focuses on things like technology or business metrics. 

Design thinking is also solution-based, looking for effective solutions to problems, not problem-based, which looks at the problem itself and tends to focus on limitations. 

Design thinking is all about getting hands-on with solutions. The aim is to quickly turn your ideas into testable products so you can see what works and what doesn’t.

[GET CERTIFIED IN UX]

Why is design thinking important? 

Design thinking is important because it challenges assumptions and fosters innovation. While many ways of thinking rely on the habits and experiences we’ve formed, they can limit us when it comes to thinking of design solutions. Design thinking, however, encourages us to explore new ideas. 

It’s an actionable technique that allows us to tackle “wicked problems,” or problems that are ill-defined. For example, achieving sustainable growth or maintaining your competitive edge in business count as wicked problems, and on a broader scale, poverty and climate change are wicked problems too. Design thinking uses empathy and human-centred thinking to tackle these kinds of problems.

Who uses design thinking?

The short answer? Everyone! Design thinking can help you in whatever your role or industry. People in business, government, entertainment, health care, and every other industry can benefit from using design thinking to come up with innovative solutions. 

The most important thing design thinking does is help people focus on their customers or end users. Instead of focusing on problems to fix, design thinking keeps things user-centric, which boosts customer engagement. 

What are the 5 stages of design thinking?

According to the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University (known as d-school), the five stages of design thinking are: 

Although these stages appear to be linear, following one after the other, design thinking isn’t a linear process. Stages are often run in parallel or out of order, or repeated when necessary.

Phase 1: Empathise 

Your goal here is to research your users’ needs to gain an empathic understanding of the problems they face. You’ll get to know your users and their wants and needs so you can make sure your solutions put them front and centre. This means setting aside your own assumptions and getting to know your users on a psychological and emotional level. You’ll observe, engage, watch and listen. 

Phase 2: Define

Here you state your users’ needs by compiling the information you gathered during the Empathise phase and then analysing it until you can define the core problem your team has identified. 

You do this by asking questions like: what patterns do you see in the data? What user issues need to be resolved? The conclusion of this phase comes when you’ve figured out a clear problem statement that is defined by the users’ needs. For example, “Bank customers in Glasgow need…”

You can learn more about how to write a problem statement in this guide.

Phase 3: Ideate

In this phase, you’ll generate ideas and solutions. You and your team will hold ideation sessions where you can come up with as many ideas as possible. No idea is too silly for this stage. The important thing is getting all ideas out on the table. There are a variety of techniques you can use, like brainstorming and mind mapping, to come up with solutions. This phase ends when you’ve managed to narrow down your ideas to just a few of the best ones.

Phase 4: Prototype

Your goal in this phase is to find the best solution to the problem by prototyping —that is, producing scaled down versions of the product or its features found in the previous phase. You’ll put each solution to the test by improving, redesigning, accepting, or rejecting it.

Phase 5: Test

Here you’ll try out the solutions you arrived at in the previous phases by user testing them. However, while this is the final stage of design thinking in theory, it’s rarely the final stage in reality. Design thinking often includes going back to previous phases to find other solutions or to further iterate or refine your existing solution.

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Design thinking examples and case studies

Now that you understand the theory and process of design thinking, let’s look at some examples in action where design thinking had a real-world impact.

Case Study 1: American Family Insurance’s Moonrise App

American Family Insurance, a company that offers life, business, auto, and home insurance, came to design company IDEO with the goal of innovating in a way that would help working families. 

Stages 1 & 2: Empathise and Define

While American Family thought their customers might benefit from budgeting tools, IDEO found from their research in the Empathise phase that, actually, people needed a way to build up their savings against unforeseen needs.

They noticed a lot of people had meticulously planned budgets, which made budgeting tools a moot point. But they were living just within their means and an extra expense, like a doctor’s visit or kid’s basketball uniform, could throw their budget off. These people didn’t want to take on debt though, they wanted extra work so they could have a cushion.

Stages 3 & 4: Ideate and Prototype

IDEO took that idea and ran with it, creating Moonrise, an app that matches people looking for work with extra hours and income. Today’s businesses depend on on-demand work but the temp agencies they work with tend to want permanent placements. Moonrise does things differently. It enables companies to find people who are already employed elsewhere for short-term work through a simple text message interface. The employers can list shifts on the platform and workers are paid as soon as they finish their shifts.

Stage 5: Test

To test the app, 11 Moonrisers, six employers, and a team of designers and programmers were assembled for a one week period to work out the kinks in the platform. 

Based on the test’s success, American Family Insurance now owns the startup Moonrise, which launched in Chicago in 2018 and has since expanded to additional states. In 2018, over 7,000 shifts have been fulfilled and over $500,000 has been earned by people on the app.

Case Study 2: GE Healthcare’s Scanning Tools

GE Healthcare has cutting-edge diagnostic imaging tools at its disposal, but for kids they’re an unpleasant experience. 

“The room itself is kind of dark and has those flickering fluorescent lights…. That machine that I had designed basically looked like a brick with a hole in it,” explained Doug Dietz , a designer who worked for GE. How could they make the experience better for kids?

The team at GE began by observing and gaining empathy for children at a daycare centre and talking to specialists who knew what paediatric patients went through. The team then recruited experts from a children’s museum and doctors from two hospitals. This gave them a lot of insight into what children went through when they had to sit for these procedures and what could be done to lessen the children’s stress.

Stages 3, 4 & 5: Ideate, Prototype, and Test

The first prototype of the new and improved “Adventure Series” scanner was invented. Through research and pilot programs, the redesign made imaging machines more child-friendly, making sure they have other things to focus on than the scary looks and sounds of the machine. For example, the Coral City Adventure in the emergency room gives children an underwater experience where they get into a yellow submarine and listen to the sound of harps while their procedure takes place.

Patient satisfaction scores increased to 90% and children no longer suffer such anxiety about their scans. The children hold still for their procedures more easily, making repeats of the scans unnecessary. There’s also less need for anesthesiologists, which improved the bottom line for those hospitals that used the scanning machines because more patients could get scanned each day.

How to apply design thinking 

If you want to apply design thinking in your own work, follow these steps and best practices:

• Improve design thinking skills. Use training to explain, improve, and practically implement the phases of design thinking. You can do this in several ways such as workshops, online courses, or case studies shared with your team.
• Identify the correct problem. Listen to users and ask them unbiased questions in order to understand their perspectives. Engage with everyone and stay open-minded, so you can identify the correct problem, not the problem you or your organisation thinks users are having. 
• Have more debriefs. Be open about what went right and what went wrong in your process. Openly discuss why things succeeded or failed and why. View failure as learning, not as an excuse to give up.
• Iterate and iterate some more. The goal of design thinking is finding the best answer possible—and that probably won’t come in the first round of iteration. You’ll need to test and iterate as much as possible with new ways to solve the problem.

Design thinking is so popular—and so effective—because it places the user’s needs front and centre. For more user-centric design tips, learn how to incorporate user feedback in product design , get to grips with user research ethics , and learn how to conduct effective user interviews .

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8 October 2024

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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10 Amazing Case Study Design Examples

March 16, 2023

Words by Jeff Cardello

Wondering how to grow your business? Our favorite case study design examples will definitely spark a few lightbulb moments.

For agencies, one of the most effective ways to communicate your technical expertise, problem-solving skills, and professional knowledge is to show how you’ve put this all into action in real-world examples of your work. For SaaS companies, case studies are your chance to share how your product provides value to successful customers and clients.

Case study designs should be as uniquely bold and creative as the services or products you offer. This is where no-code tools like Vev are invaluable. Using pre-coded design components, interactive case studies are easy to build and publish in as little as two hours. Let’s take a look at the basics of case study design and some stunning examples.

Why is Case Study Design Important?

Think of case studies as the chance to tell stories about how valuable your service or product is. It’s an opportunity to lead prospective clients and customers through a relatable use case, culminating in how you can help them meet— or even exceed—their goals. Case studies give freelancers and agencies the opportunity to demonstrate their skills, and SaaS companies the chance to showcase their product for various use cases. Case studies are proof of the value of your work or product.

As a reflection of your expertise and creative prowess, you’ll want to think careful about your case study design. Good design doesn’t only make for a visually engaging piece of content; it enhances the functionality and can help support your authority. You’ll find that the best case study design examples will have a few things in common:

• They are visually captivating . All good case study designs will include a combination of photo, video, and illustrations or charts to tell a story of their clients’ success. Rather than just relying on text, these visual aids back-up any claims being made as well as visually capturing the attention of readers.
• They are laser focused. With case study design, there’s no room for filler. Copy is clear and concise, offering explanations about the customer’s goals, as well as the tools, techniques, and skills used to achieve these. You’ll notice most case studies follow a fool-proof structure: establish the client problem, present the solution, explore the benefits and value delivered.
• They tell a story. Often, a chronology of the work process that takes people through what happened at each stage. Some case studies even use horizontal scrolling timelines to showcase this in a more imaginative way.
• They hammer home ROI. case studies are full of data on how the project or product succeeded in meeting the client’s goals or objectives. From animated charts to number counters , this is another opportunity to make sure your design pops and draws attention to the core impact of your service or product.
• They drive action. good case studies urge website visitors to take further actions, such as book a call or demo, get in touch, purchase your product, or book your services. These are usually included in the case study design as a button , brightly colored and prominent placed to grab attention and make next steps clear.

10 Case Study Design Examples

There are so many ways to put together a case study — and as a reflection of your brand, you’ll want to get creative with it. We’re going to take you through several case study design examples that manage to capture what went on behind the scenes in ways that is both informative and visually engaging.

Vev - Decimal

Giving real-world examples of how people use your products is a great way to demonstrate their value. We put together this case study on how Decimal uses Vev for interactive prototyping. As a creative agency that utilizes 3D animations and video in their web projects, it’s essential that clients grasp how complex interactivity will work up front. This case study focuses on how important Vev is for Decimal to explore and communicate interactivity internally and with clients in the early stages of a project.

Along with telling the story about how Decimal uses Vev, we also included plenty of action-packed visuals in the form of screen captures, animations, horizontal scrolling, and micro-interactions that make this a lively and engaging case study design.

DFY - Galaxy Z7 FLIP3 5G

Writing a case study lets you go in-depth into the strategy and reasoning that guided your work. In this case study DFY talks about what went into creating a website for the Galaxy Z Flip3 5G phone. It covers the marketing goals and the decisions DFY made for the visuals of this design that would show people why they should buy it.

DFY was tasked with creating a design that showed that the Galaxy Z Flip3 5G wasn’t a throwback to the clunky days of flip phones, but rather a sleek and modern reimagining. Much of this case study goes into the visuals and 360-view animations they created and how they were used to highlight this product’s main features. 

What’s impressive isn’t just the beautiful visuals they created for the Galaxy Z Flip3 5G website, but this case study itself. It echoes the same creative approach with a space full of brilliant effects and interactivity making it one of the most visually compelling case study design examples we’ve come across.

Publicis Norway - Burger King Spicy Whopper

Case study design examples can range from huge and expansive reads covering every bit of minutiae about a project, or they may provide just enough context and background in understanding what was behind it.

The Norwegian arm of international media and tech agency Publicis specializes in PR, marketing, and video production. This case study they made in Vev for the Burger King Spicy Whopper succeeds with minimal text, taking a highly visual approach. They let the video they made speak for itself, demonstrating to potential clients their creative skills with a video that captures the burger’s heat in a way that’s offbeat and ridiculous in just the right ways.

Orizon - LoveTheSales 

When discussing something like a rebrand, you want to explain why it was necessary, show what needed to be changed, and demonstrate how it succeeded. In this case study Orizon gives plenty of background into why the e-commerce website LoveTheSales wanted to change things up. There are numerous examples throughout of problem areas in terms of UI and UX, and what Orizon did to address these issues.

Orizon’s rebranding for LoveTheSales met its objectives, as demonstrated throughout this case study with metrics as well as quantitative insights showing the positive outcomes of Orizon’s work. With fade-in animations and a custom cursor, this colorful case study design example keeps readers scrolling to the end.

Colin Reitz - Marine Data Platform

If you’re a designer, writer, programmer, or in another type of creative field, having a portfolio website is essential in getting your work out there in front of prospective clients and employers. Case studies can be a big part of demonstrating your talents, skills, and knowledge. 

Colin Reitz is a designer with a multidisciplinary skill set that touches UI and UX design, strategy, and technology. In this case study made in Vev, he explains how he created the Marine Data Platform which is a collaborative and interactive web app that collects data gathered from oceanic sensors.

If it sounds like there are a dizzying number of moving parts to this application, you would be right, but Colin doesn’t let the complexities of this project get in the way. With an easy to follow layout and screenshots of the work he completed, it’s immediately easy to see how much work Colin put into the project. The use of image carousels even keeps the page short and relevant visuals grouped together. We love seeing case study design examples like Colin’s that distill a large amount of information in a way that is easy to understand and looks good.

Miracle Next - Prehistoric Chef

We love seeing case study design examples that not only highlight talents and expertise, but capture the creative sensibilities of those behind them. Miracle Next is a game development studio with a focus on 3D modeling. This case study for the game Prehistoric Chef has a nice balance between visuals that demonstrate their skills as artists, as well as text that gives a glimpse into their creative process.

Whether it’s the cast of prehistoric characters or the different types of food you’ll juggle in preparing the dishes that are a part of the gameplay, all of the artwork has a sense of consistency and personality. The rough drawings of the artwork are also a nice touch, showing how they transformed simple renderings into fully fleshed-out three-dimensional characters.

Dragonfly - Natural History Museum

Dragonfly worked with the National History Museum in producing a fun animated short about bugs aimed at kids. This case study showcases the storyboards, illustrations, character designs, and scriptwriting that went into creating it.

Case study design examples like this one aren’t only important in communicating the steps you took in completing a project, but serve an important marketing role. This case study shines due to its navigation. While it could be complicated in some instances to have multiple CTAs, Dragonfly makes sure that each section showcases a service they offer, linking readers directly from that section to the service they are most interested in. When you offer so much, this is a smart way to capture all prospective clients and make it easy for them to learn more about what they want to know, rather than overwhelming them with irrelevant information.

OH Partners - Arizona Lottery

In the advertising industry case studies are essential in showing how an agency’s work helps its clients in meeting their goals. Providing examples from successful marketing campaigns, along with numbers representing their positive results goes far in showing prospective clients the value of what advertising agencies do.

OH Partners , launched a campaign for the Arizona Lottery that went far in building awareness and excitement about it. They hired actor Jon Ennis, known for his work on Better Call Saul and Mr. Show as the bearded old-timey prospector, and produced several hilarious and weird spots.

This case study features images and videos from this marketing campaign, as well as data in the form of big and bold text showing how lottery sales went up, how social media likes increased, the dollar amounts of earned media, as well as numerous awards their work received.

Joy Pepper - Nextdoor

Nextdoor features stylized depictions of people from a diversity of backgrounds that add a sense of warmth and humanity to its website and app. Joy Pepper is the artist responsible for these amazing illustrations, and we love seeing case study design examples like this that go in-depth into the creative process.

Joy Pepper recounts her work in coming up with these illustrations in a case study full of wonderful details and sketches. From finding inspiration in real life, her first drawings, and the concept boards she put together, to the final versions of the icons and other artwork you get a glimpse into every step of her creative process.

Aucadian - GoLoop

It’s no secret that we’re fans of storytelling , and we love seeing case study design examples that take you along a journey from the initial spark of an idea to product launch.

GoLoop is a fleet management app, and this detailed case study begins with scribbles on a whiteboard and ends with screenshots of its sophisticated GPS-based app. From analyzing what problems it should solve and branding ideas to design elements like component libraries, typography style sheets, and color schemes this is a comprehensive look at everything that was involved in building this application.

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Website button design 101: tips, best practices and examples, prototyping in figma to live site: the vev shortcut, create your own compelling case studies with no-code.

Feeling inspired to create your own cutting-edge case study? Vev makes it easy to put one together so that you can broadcast your talents and products with the world. With a host of powerful tools, layout options, immersive effects, and animations all easy to access in Vev’s drag-and-drop interface, creating for the web has never been easier. Publish your creation anywhere when you’re done — including to your existing website.

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The Ultimate Guide to Qualitative Research - Part 1: The Basics

• Introduction and overview
• What is qualitative research?
• What is qualitative data?
• Examples of qualitative data
• Qualitative vs. quantitative research
• Mixed methods
• Qualitative research preparation
• Theoretical perspective
• Theoretical framework
• Literature reviews

Research question

• Conceptual framework
• Conceptual vs. theoretical framework

Data collection

• Qualitative research methods
• Focus groups
• Observational research

What is a case study?

Applications for case study research, what is a good case study, process of case study design, benefits and limitations of case studies.

• Ethnographical research
• Ethical considerations
• Confidentiality and privacy
• Power dynamics
• Reflexivity

Case studies

Case studies are essential to qualitative research , offering a lens through which researchers can investigate complex phenomena within their real-life contexts. This chapter explores the concept, purpose, applications, examples, and types of case studies and provides guidance on how to conduct case study research effectively.

Whereas quantitative methods look at phenomena at scale, case study research looks at a concept or phenomenon in considerable detail. While analyzing a single case can help understand one perspective regarding the object of research inquiry, analyzing multiple cases can help obtain a more holistic sense of the topic or issue. Let's provide a basic definition of a case study, then explore its characteristics and role in the qualitative research process.

Definition of a case study

A case study in qualitative research is a strategy of inquiry that involves an in-depth investigation of a phenomenon within its real-world context. It provides researchers with the opportunity to acquire an in-depth understanding of intricate details that might not be as apparent or accessible through other methods of research. The specific case or cases being studied can be a single person, group, or organization – demarcating what constitutes a relevant case worth studying depends on the researcher and their research question .

Among qualitative research methods , a case study relies on multiple sources of evidence, such as documents, artifacts, interviews , or observations , to present a complete and nuanced understanding of the phenomenon under investigation. The objective is to illuminate the readers' understanding of the phenomenon beyond its abstract statistical or theoretical explanations.

Characteristics of case studies

Case studies typically possess a number of distinct characteristics that set them apart from other research methods. These characteristics include a focus on holistic description and explanation, flexibility in the design and data collection methods, reliance on multiple sources of evidence, and emphasis on the context in which the phenomenon occurs.

Furthermore, case studies can often involve a longitudinal examination of the case, meaning they study the case over a period of time. These characteristics allow case studies to yield comprehensive, in-depth, and richly contextualized insights about the phenomenon of interest.

The role of case studies in research

Case studies hold a unique position in the broader landscape of research methods aimed at theory development. They are instrumental when the primary research interest is to gain an intensive, detailed understanding of a phenomenon in its real-life context.

In addition, case studies can serve different purposes within research - they can be used for exploratory, descriptive, or explanatory purposes, depending on the research question and objectives. This flexibility and depth make case studies a valuable tool in the toolkit of qualitative researchers.

Remember, a well-conducted case study can offer a rich, insightful contribution to both academic and practical knowledge through theory development or theory verification, thus enhancing our understanding of complex phenomena in their real-world contexts.

What is the purpose of a case study?

Case study research aims for a more comprehensive understanding of phenomena, requiring various research methods to gather information for qualitative analysis . Ultimately, a case study can allow the researcher to gain insight into a particular object of inquiry and develop a theoretical framework relevant to the research inquiry.

Why use case studies in qualitative research?

Using case studies as a research strategy depends mainly on the nature of the research question and the researcher's access to the data.

Conducting case study research provides a level of detail and contextual richness that other research methods might not offer. They are beneficial when there's a need to understand complex social phenomena within their natural contexts.

The explanatory, exploratory, and descriptive roles of case studies

Case studies can take on various roles depending on the research objectives. They can be exploratory when the research aims to discover new phenomena or define new research questions; they are descriptive when the objective is to depict a phenomenon within its context in a detailed manner; and they can be explanatory if the goal is to understand specific relationships within the studied context. Thus, the versatility of case studies allows researchers to approach their topic from different angles, offering multiple ways to uncover and interpret the data .

The impact of case studies on knowledge development

Case studies play a significant role in knowledge development across various disciplines. Analysis of cases provides an avenue for researchers to explore phenomena within their context based on the collected data.

This can result in the production of rich, practical insights that can be instrumental in both theory-building and practice. Case studies allow researchers to delve into the intricacies and complexities of real-life situations, uncovering insights that might otherwise remain hidden.

Types of case studies

In qualitative research , a case study is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Depending on the nature of the research question and the specific objectives of the study, researchers might choose to use different types of case studies. These types differ in their focus, methodology, and the level of detail they provide about the phenomenon under investigation.

Understanding these types is crucial for selecting the most appropriate approach for your research project and effectively achieving your research goals. Let's briefly look at the main types of case studies.

Exploratory case studies

Exploratory case studies are typically conducted to develop a theory or framework around an understudied phenomenon. They can also serve as a precursor to a larger-scale research project. Exploratory case studies are useful when a researcher wants to identify the key issues or questions which can spur more extensive study or be used to develop propositions for further research. These case studies are characterized by flexibility, allowing researchers to explore various aspects of a phenomenon as they emerge, which can also form the foundation for subsequent studies.

Descriptive case studies

Descriptive case studies aim to provide a complete and accurate representation of a phenomenon or event within its context. These case studies are often based on an established theoretical framework, which guides how data is collected and analyzed. The researcher is concerned with describing the phenomenon in detail, as it occurs naturally, without trying to influence or manipulate it.

Explanatory case studies

Explanatory case studies are focused on explanation - they seek to clarify how or why certain phenomena occur. Often used in complex, real-life situations, they can be particularly valuable in clarifying causal relationships among concepts and understanding the interplay between different factors within a specific context.

Intrinsic, instrumental, and collective case studies

These three categories of case studies focus on the nature and purpose of the study. An intrinsic case study is conducted when a researcher has an inherent interest in the case itself. Instrumental case studies are employed when the case is used to provide insight into a particular issue or phenomenon. A collective case study, on the other hand, involves studying multiple cases simultaneously to investigate some general phenomena.

Each type of case study serves a different purpose and has its own strengths and challenges. The selection of the type should be guided by the research question and objectives, as well as the context and constraints of the research.

The flexibility, depth, and contextual richness offered by case studies make this approach an excellent research method for various fields of study. They enable researchers to investigate real-world phenomena within their specific contexts, capturing nuances that other research methods might miss. Across numerous fields, case studies provide valuable insights into complex issues.

Critical information systems research

Case studies provide a detailed understanding of the role and impact of information systems in different contexts. They offer a platform to explore how information systems are designed, implemented, and used and how they interact with various social, economic, and political factors. Case studies in this field often focus on examining the intricate relationship between technology, organizational processes, and user behavior, helping to uncover insights that can inform better system design and implementation.

Health research

Health research is another field where case studies are highly valuable. They offer a way to explore patient experiences, healthcare delivery processes, and the impact of various interventions in a real-world context.

Case studies can provide a deep understanding of a patient's journey, giving insights into the intricacies of disease progression, treatment effects, and the psychosocial aspects of health and illness.

Asthma research studies

Specifically within medical research, studies on asthma often employ case studies to explore the individual and environmental factors that influence asthma development, management, and outcomes. A case study can provide rich, detailed data about individual patients' experiences, from the triggers and symptoms they experience to the effectiveness of various management strategies. This can be crucial for developing patient-centered asthma care approaches.

Other fields

Apart from the fields mentioned, case studies are also extensively used in business and management research, education research, and political sciences, among many others. They provide an opportunity to delve into the intricacies of real-world situations, allowing for a comprehensive understanding of various phenomena.

Case studies, with their depth and contextual focus, offer unique insights across these varied fields. They allow researchers to illuminate the complexities of real-life situations, contributing to both theory and practice.

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Understanding the key elements of case study design is crucial for conducting rigorous and impactful case study research. A well-structured design guides the researcher through the process, ensuring that the study is methodologically sound and its findings are reliable and valid. The main elements of case study design include the research question , propositions, units of analysis, and the logic linking the data to the propositions.

The research question is the foundation of any research study. A good research question guides the direction of the study and informs the selection of the case, the methods of collecting data, and the analysis techniques. A well-formulated research question in case study research is typically clear, focused, and complex enough to merit further detailed examination of the relevant case(s).

Propositions

Propositions, though not necessary in every case study, provide a direction by stating what we might expect to find in the data collected. They guide how data is collected and analyzed by helping researchers focus on specific aspects of the case. They are particularly important in explanatory case studies, which seek to understand the relationships among concepts within the studied phenomenon.

Units of analysis

The unit of analysis refers to the case, or the main entity or entities that are being analyzed in the study. In case study research, the unit of analysis can be an individual, a group, an organization, a decision, an event, or even a time period. It's crucial to clearly define the unit of analysis, as it shapes the qualitative data analysis process by allowing the researcher to analyze a particular case and synthesize analysis across multiple case studies to draw conclusions.

Argumentation

This refers to the inferential model that allows researchers to draw conclusions from the data. The researcher needs to ensure that there is a clear link between the data, the propositions (if any), and the conclusions drawn. This argumentation is what enables the researcher to make valid and credible inferences about the phenomenon under study.

Understanding and carefully considering these elements in the design phase of a case study can significantly enhance the quality of the research. It can help ensure that the study is methodologically sound and its findings contribute meaningful insights about the case.

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Conducting a case study involves several steps, from defining the research question and selecting the case to collecting and analyzing data . This section outlines these key stages, providing a practical guide on how to conduct case study research.

Defining the research question

The first step in case study research is defining a clear, focused research question. This question should guide the entire research process, from case selection to analysis. It's crucial to ensure that the research question is suitable for a case study approach. Typically, such questions are exploratory or descriptive in nature and focus on understanding a phenomenon within its real-life context.

Selecting and defining the case

The selection of the case should be based on the research question and the objectives of the study. It involves choosing a unique example or a set of examples that provide rich, in-depth data about the phenomenon under investigation. After selecting the case, it's crucial to define it clearly, setting the boundaries of the case, including the time period and the specific context.

Previous research can help guide the case study design. When considering a case study, an example of a case could be taken from previous case study research and used to define cases in a new research inquiry. Considering recently published examples can help understand how to select and define cases effectively.

Developing a detailed case study protocol

A case study protocol outlines the procedures and general rules to be followed during the case study. This includes the data collection methods to be used, the sources of data, and the procedures for analysis. Having a detailed case study protocol ensures consistency and reliability in the study.

The protocol should also consider how to work with the people involved in the research context to grant the research team access to collecting data. As mentioned in previous sections of this guide, establishing rapport is an essential component of qualitative research as it shapes the overall potential for collecting and analyzing data.

Collecting data

Gathering data in case study research often involves multiple sources of evidence, including documents, archival records, interviews, observations, and physical artifacts. This allows for a comprehensive understanding of the case. The process for gathering data should be systematic and carefully documented to ensure the reliability and validity of the study.

Analyzing and interpreting data

The next step is analyzing the data. This involves organizing the data , categorizing it into themes or patterns , and interpreting these patterns to answer the research question. The analysis might also involve comparing the findings with prior research or theoretical propositions.

Writing the case study report

The final step is writing the case study report . This should provide a detailed description of the case, the data, the analysis process, and the findings. The report should be clear, organized, and carefully written to ensure that the reader can understand the case and the conclusions drawn from it.

Each of these steps is crucial in ensuring that the case study research is rigorous, reliable, and provides valuable insights about the case.

The type, depth, and quality of data in your study can significantly influence the validity and utility of the study. In case study research, data is usually collected from multiple sources to provide a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the case. This section will outline the various methods of collecting data used in case study research and discuss considerations for ensuring the quality of the data.

Interviews are a common method of gathering data in case study research. They can provide rich, in-depth data about the perspectives, experiences, and interpretations of the individuals involved in the case. Interviews can be structured , semi-structured , or unstructured , depending on the research question and the degree of flexibility needed.

Observations

Observations involve the researcher observing the case in its natural setting, providing first-hand information about the case and its context. Observations can provide data that might not be revealed in interviews or documents, such as non-verbal cues or contextual information.

Documents and artifacts

Documents and archival records provide a valuable source of data in case study research. They can include reports, letters, memos, meeting minutes, email correspondence, and various public and private documents related to the case.

These records can provide historical context, corroborate evidence from other sources, and offer insights into the case that might not be apparent from interviews or observations.

Physical artifacts refer to any physical evidence related to the case, such as tools, products, or physical environments. These artifacts can provide tangible insights into the case, complementing the data gathered from other sources.

Ensuring the quality of data collection

Determining the quality of data in case study research requires careful planning and execution. It's crucial to ensure that the data is reliable, accurate, and relevant to the research question. This involves selecting appropriate methods of collecting data, properly training interviewers or observers, and systematically recording and storing the data. It also includes considering ethical issues related to collecting and handling data, such as obtaining informed consent and ensuring the privacy and confidentiality of the participants.

Data analysis

Analyzing case study research involves making sense of the rich, detailed data to answer the research question. This process can be challenging due to the volume and complexity of case study data. However, a systematic and rigorous approach to analysis can ensure that the findings are credible and meaningful. This section outlines the main steps and considerations in analyzing data in case study research.

Organizing the data

The first step in the analysis is organizing the data. This involves sorting the data into manageable sections, often according to the data source or the theme. This step can also involve transcribing interviews, digitizing physical artifacts, or organizing observational data.

Categorizing and coding the data

Once the data is organized, the next step is to categorize or code the data. This involves identifying common themes, patterns, or concepts in the data and assigning codes to relevant data segments. Coding can be done manually or with the help of software tools, and in either case, qualitative analysis software can greatly facilitate the entire coding process. Coding helps to reduce the data to a set of themes or categories that can be more easily analyzed.

Identifying patterns and themes

After coding the data, the researcher looks for patterns or themes in the coded data. This involves comparing and contrasting the codes and looking for relationships or patterns among them. The identified patterns and themes should help answer the research question.

Interpreting the data

Once patterns and themes have been identified, the next step is to interpret these findings. This involves explaining what the patterns or themes mean in the context of the research question and the case. This interpretation should be grounded in the data, but it can also involve drawing on theoretical concepts or prior research.

Verification of the data

The last step in the analysis is verification. This involves checking the accuracy and consistency of the analysis process and confirming that the findings are supported by the data. This can involve re-checking the original data, checking the consistency of codes, or seeking feedback from research participants or peers.

Like any research method , case study research has its strengths and limitations. Researchers must be aware of these, as they can influence the design, conduct, and interpretation of the study.

Understanding the strengths and limitations of case study research can also guide researchers in deciding whether this approach is suitable for their research question . This section outlines some of the key strengths and limitations of case study research.

Benefits include the following:

• Rich, detailed data: One of the main strengths of case study research is that it can generate rich, detailed data about the case. This can provide a deep understanding of the case and its context, which can be valuable in exploring complex phenomena.
• Flexibility: Case study research is flexible in terms of design , data collection , and analysis . A sufficient degree of flexibility allows the researcher to adapt the study according to the case and the emerging findings.
• Real-world context: Case study research involves studying the case in its real-world context, which can provide valuable insights into the interplay between the case and its context.
• Multiple sources of evidence: Case study research often involves collecting data from multiple sources , which can enhance the robustness and validity of the findings.

On the other hand, researchers should consider the following limitations:

• Generalizability: A common criticism of case study research is that its findings might not be generalizable to other cases due to the specificity and uniqueness of each case.
• Time and resource intensive: Case study research can be time and resource intensive due to the depth of the investigation and the amount of collected data.
• Complexity of analysis: The rich, detailed data generated in case study research can make analyzing the data challenging.
• Subjectivity: Given the nature of case study research, there may be a higher degree of subjectivity in interpreting the data , so researchers need to reflect on this and transparently convey to audiences how the research was conducted.

Being aware of these strengths and limitations can help researchers design and conduct case study research effectively and interpret and report the findings appropriately.

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Designing and Conducting Case Studies

This guide examines case studies, a form of qualitative descriptive research that is used to look at individuals, a small group of participants, or a group as a whole. Researchers collect data about participants using participant and direct observations, interviews, protocols, tests, examinations of records, and collections of writing samples. Starting with a definition of the case study, the guide moves to a brief history of this research method. Using several well documented case studies, the guide then looks at applications and methods including data collection and analysis. A discussion of ways to handle validity, reliability, and generalizability follows, with special attention to case studies as they are applied to composition studies. Finally, this guide examines the strengths and weaknesses of case studies.

Definition and Overview

Case study refers to the collection and presentation of detailed information about a particular participant or small group, frequently including the accounts of subjects themselves. A form of qualitative descriptive research, the case study looks intensely at an individual or small participant pool, drawing conclusions only about that participant or group and only in that specific context. Researchers do not focus on the discovery of a universal, generalizable truth, nor do they typically look for cause-effect relationships; instead, emphasis is placed on exploration and description.

Case studies typically examine the interplay of all variables in order to provide as complete an understanding of an event or situation as possible. This type of comprehensive understanding is arrived at through a process known as thick description, which involves an in-depth description of the entity being evaluated, the circumstances under which it is used, the characteristics of the people involved in it, and the nature of the community in which it is located. Thick description also involves interpreting the meaning of demographic and descriptive data such as cultural norms and mores, community values, ingrained attitudes, and motives.

Unlike quantitative methods of research, like the survey, which focus on the questions of who, what, where, how much, and how many, and archival analysis, which often situates the participant in some form of historical context, case studies are the preferred strategy when how or why questions are asked. Likewise, they are the preferred method when the researcher has little control over the events, and when there is a contemporary focus within a real life context. In addition, unlike more specifically directed experiments, case studies require a problem that seeks a holistic understanding of the event or situation in question using inductive logic--reasoning from specific to more general terms.

In scholarly circles, case studies are frequently discussed within the context of qualitative research and naturalistic inquiry. Case studies are often referred to interchangeably with ethnography, field study, and participant observation. The underlying philosophical assumptions in the case are similar to these types of qualitative research because each takes place in a natural setting (such as a classroom, neighborhood, or private home), and strives for a more holistic interpretation of the event or situation under study.

Unlike more statistically-based studies which search for quantifiable data, the goal of a case study is to offer new variables and questions for further research. F.H. Giddings, a sociologist in the early part of the century, compares statistical methods to the case study on the basis that the former are concerned with the distribution of a particular trait, or a small number of traits, in a population, whereas the case study is concerned with the whole variety of traits to be found in a particular instance" (Hammersley 95).

Case studies are not a new form of research; naturalistic inquiry was the primary research tool until the development of the scientific method. The fields of sociology and anthropology are credited with the primary shaping of the concept as we know it today. However, case study research has drawn from a number of other areas as well: the clinical methods of doctors; the casework technique being developed by social workers; the methods of historians and anthropologists, plus the qualitative descriptions provided by quantitative researchers like LePlay; and, in the case of Robert Park, the techniques of newspaper reporters and novelists.

Park was an ex-newspaper reporter and editor who became very influential in developing sociological case studies at the University of Chicago in the 1920s. As a newspaper professional he coined the term "scientific" or "depth" reporting: the description of local events in a way that pointed to major social trends. Park viewed the sociologist as "merely a more accurate, responsible, and scientific reporter." Park stressed the variety and value of human experience. He believed that sociology sought to arrive at natural, but fluid, laws and generalizations in regard to human nature and society. These laws weren't static laws of the kind sought by many positivists and natural law theorists, but rather, they were laws of becoming--with a constant possibility of change. Park encouraged students to get out of the library, to quit looking at papers and books, and to view the constant experiment of human experience. He writes, "Go and sit in the lounges of the luxury hotels and on the doorsteps of the flophouses; sit on the Gold Coast settees and on the slum shakedowns; sit in the Orchestra Hall and in the Star and Garter Burlesque. In short, gentlemen [sic], go get the seats of your pants dirty in real research."

But over the years, case studies have drawn their share of criticism. In fact, the method had its detractors from the start. In the 1920s, the debate between pro-qualitative and pro-quantitative became quite heated. Case studies, when compared to statistics, were considered by many to be unscientific. From the 1930's on, the rise of positivism had a growing influence on quantitative methods in sociology. People wanted static, generalizable laws in science. The sociological positivists were looking for stable laws of social phenomena. They criticized case study research because it failed to provide evidence of inter subjective agreement. Also, they condemned it because of the few number of cases studied and that the under-standardized character of their descriptions made generalization impossible. By the 1950s, quantitative methods, in the form of survey research, had become the dominant sociological approach and case study had become a minority practice.

Educational Applications

The 1950's marked the dawning of a new era in case study research, namely that of the utilization of the case study as a teaching method. "Instituted at Harvard Business School in the 1950s as a primary method of teaching, cases have since been used in classrooms and lecture halls alike, either as part of a course of study or as the main focus of the course to which other teaching material is added" (Armisted 1984). The basic purpose of instituting the case method as a teaching strategy was "to transfer much of the responsibility for learning from the teacher on to the student, whose role, as a result, shifts away from passive absorption toward active construction" (Boehrer 1990). Through careful examination and discussion of various cases, "students learn to identify actual problems, to recognize key players and their agendas, and to become aware of those aspects of the situation that contribute to the problem" (Merseth 1991). In addition, students are encouraged to "generate their own analysis of the problems under consideration, to develop their own solutions, and to practically apply their own knowledge of theory to these problems" (Boyce 1993). Along the way, students also develop "the power to analyze and to master a tangled circumstance by identifying and delineating important factors; the ability to utilize ideas, to test them against facts, and to throw them into fresh combinations" (Merseth 1991).

In addition to the practical application and testing of scholarly knowledge, case discussions can also help students prepare for real-world problems, situations and crises by providing an approximation of various professional environments (i.e. classroom, board room, courtroom, or hospital). Thus, through the examination of specific cases, students are given the opportunity to work out their own professional issues through the trials, tribulations, experiences, and research findings of others. An obvious advantage to this mode of instruction is that it allows students the exposure to settings and contexts that they might not otherwise experience. For example, a student interested in studying the effects of poverty on minority secondary student's grade point averages and S.A.T. scores could access and analyze information from schools as geographically diverse as Los Angeles, New York City, Miami, and New Mexico without ever having to leave the classroom.

The case study method also incorporates the idea that students can learn from one another "by engaging with each other and with each other's ideas, by asserting something and then having it questioned, challenged and thrown back at them so that they can reflect on what they hear, and then refine what they say" (Boehrer 1990). In summary, students can direct their own learning by formulating questions and taking responsibility for the study.

Types and Design Concerns

Researchers use multiple methods and approaches to conduct case studies.

Types of Case Studies

Under the more generalized category of case study exist several subdivisions, each of which is custom selected for use depending upon the goals and/or objectives of the investigator. These types of case study include the following:

Illustrative Case Studies These are primarily descriptive studies. They typically utilize one or two instances of an event to show what a situation is like. Illustrative case studies serve primarily to make the unfamiliar familiar and to give readers a common language about the topic in question.

Exploratory (or pilot) Case Studies These are condensed case studies performed before implementing a large scale investigation. Their basic function is to help identify questions and select types of measurement prior to the main investigation. The primary pitfall of this type of study is that initial findings may seem convincing enough to be released prematurely as conclusions.

Cumulative Case Studies These serve to aggregate information from several sites collected at different times. The idea behind these studies is the collection of past studies will allow for greater generalization without additional cost or time being expended on new, possibly repetitive studies.

Critical Instance Case Studies These examine one or more sites for either the purpose of examining a situation of unique interest with little to no interest in generalizability, or to call into question or challenge a highly generalized or universal assertion. This method is useful for answering cause and effect questions.

Identifying a Theoretical Perspective

Much of the case study's design is inherently determined for researchers, depending on the field from which they are working. In composition studies, researchers are typically working from a qualitative, descriptive standpoint. In contrast, physicists will approach their research from a more quantitative perspective. Still, in designing the study, researchers need to make explicit the questions to be explored and the theoretical perspective from which they will approach the case. The three most commonly adopted theories are listed below:

Individual Theories These focus primarily on the individual development, cognitive behavior, personality, learning and disability, and interpersonal interactions of a particular subject.

Organizational Theories These focus on bureaucracies, institutions, organizational structure and functions, or excellence in organizational performance.

Social Theories These focus on urban development, group behavior, cultural institutions, or marketplace functions.

Two examples of case studies are used consistently throughout this chapter. The first, a study produced by Berkenkotter, Huckin, and Ackerman (1988), looks at a first year graduate student's initiation into an academic writing program. The study uses participant-observer and linguistic data collecting techniques to assess the student's knowledge of appropriate discourse conventions. Using the pseudonym Nate to refer to the subject, the study sought to illuminate the particular experience rather than to generalize about the experience of fledgling academic writers collectively.

For example, in Berkenkotter, Huckin, and Ackerman's (1988) study we are told that the researchers are interested in disciplinary communities. In the first paragraph, they ask what constitutes membership in a disciplinary community and how achieving membership might affect a writer's understanding and production of texts. In the third paragraph they state that researchers must negotiate their claims "within the context of his sub specialty's accepted knowledge and methodology." In the next paragraph they ask, "How is literacy acquired? What is the process through which novices gain community membership? And what factors either aid or hinder students learning the requisite linguistic behaviors?" This introductory section ends with a paragraph in which the study's authors claim that during the course of the study, the subject, Nate, successfully makes the transition from "skilled novice" to become an initiated member of the academic discourse community and that his texts exhibit linguistic changes which indicate this transition. In the next section the authors make explicit the sociolinguistic theoretical and methodological assumptions on which the study is based (1988). Thus the reader has a good understanding of the authors' theoretical background and purpose in conducting the study even before it is explicitly stated on the fourth page of the study. "Our purpose was to examine the effects of the educational context on one graduate student's production of texts as he wrote in different courses and for different faculty members over the academic year 1984-85." The goal of the study then, was to explore the idea that writers must be initiated into a writing community, and that this initiation will change the way one writes.

The second example is Janet Emig's (1971) study of the composing process of a group of twelfth graders. In this study, Emig seeks to answer the question of what happens to the self as a result educational stimuli in terms of academic writing. The case study used methods such as protocol analysis, tape-recorded interviews, and discourse analysis.

In the case of Janet Emig's (1971) study of the composing process of eight twelfth graders, four specific hypotheses were made:

• Twelfth grade writers engage in two modes of composing: reflexive and extensive.
• These differences can be ascertained and characterized through having the writers compose aloud their composition process.
• A set of implied stylistic principles governs the writing process.
• For twelfth grade writers, extensive writing occurs chiefly as a school-sponsored activity, or reflexive, as a self-sponsored activity.

In this study, the chief distinction is between the two dominant modes of composing among older, secondary school students. The distinctions are:

• The reflexive mode, which focuses on the writer's thoughts and feelings.
• The extensive mode, which focuses on conveying a message.

Emig also outlines the specific questions which guided the research in the opening pages of her Review of Literature , preceding the report.

Designing a Case Study

After considering the different sub categories of case study and identifying a theoretical perspective, researchers can begin to design their study. Research design is the string of logic that ultimately links the data to be collected and the conclusions to be drawn to the initial questions of the study. Typically, research designs deal with at least four problems:

• What questions to study
• What data are relevant
• What data to collect
• How to analyze that data

In other words, a research design is basically a blueprint for getting from the beginning to the end of a study. The beginning is an initial set of questions to be answered, and the end is some set of conclusions about those questions.

Because case studies are conducted on topics as diverse as Anglo-Saxon Literature (Thrane 1986) and AIDS prevention (Van Vugt 1994), it is virtually impossible to outline any strict or universal method or design for conducting the case study. However, Robert K. Yin (1993) does offer five basic components of a research design:

• A study's questions.
• A study's propositions (if any).
• A study's units of analysis.
• The logic that links the data to the propositions.
• The criteria for interpreting the findings.

In addition to these five basic components, Yin also stresses the importance of clearly articulating one's theoretical perspective, determining the goals of the study, selecting one's subject(s), selecting the appropriate method(s) of collecting data, and providing some considerations to the composition of the final report.

Conducting Case Studies

To obtain as complete a picture of the participant as possible, case study researchers can employ a variety of approaches and methods. These approaches, methods, and related issues are discussed in depth in this section.

Method: Single or Multi-modal?

To obtain as complete a picture of the participant as possible, case study researchers can employ a variety of methods. Some common methods include interviews , protocol analyses, field studies, and participant-observations. Emig (1971) chose to use several methods of data collection. Her sources included conversations with the students, protocol analysis, discrete observations of actual composition, writing samples from each student, and school records (Lauer and Asher 1988).

Berkenkotter, Huckin, and Ackerman (1988) collected data by observing classrooms, conducting faculty and student interviews, collecting self reports from the subject, and by looking at the subject's written work.

A study that was criticized for using a single method model was done by Flower and Hayes (1984). In this study that explores the ways in which writers use different forms of knowing to create space, the authors used only protocol analysis to gather data. The study came under heavy fire because of their decision to use only one method.

Participant Selection

Case studies can use one participant, or a small group of participants. However, it is important that the participant pool remain relatively small. The participants can represent a diverse cross section of society, but this isn't necessary.

For example, the Berkenkotter, Huckin, and Ackerman (1988) study looked at just one participant, Nate. By contrast, in Janet Emig's (1971) study of the composition process of twelfth graders, eight participants were selected representing a diverse cross section of the community, with volunteers from an all-white upper-middle-class suburban school, an all-black inner-city school, a racially mixed lower-middle-class school, an economically and racially mixed school, and a university school.

Often, a brief "case history" is done on the participants of the study in order to provide researchers with a clearer understanding of their participants, as well as some insight as to how their own personal histories might affect the outcome of the study. For instance, in Emig's study, the investigator had access to the school records of five of the participants, and to standardized test scores for the remaining three. Also made available to the researcher was the information that three of the eight students were selected as NCTE Achievement Award winners. These personal histories can be useful in later stages of the study when data are being analyzed and conclusions drawn.

Data Collection

There are six types of data collected in case studies:

• Archival records.
• Interviews.
• Direct observation.
• Participant observation.

In the field of composition research, these six sources might be:

• A writer's drafts.
• School records of student writers.
• Transcripts of interviews with a writer.
• Transcripts of conversations between writers (and protocols).
• Videotapes and notes from direct field observations.
• Hard copies of a writer's work on computer.

Depending on whether researchers have chosen to use a single or multi-modal approach for the case study, they may choose to collect data from one or any combination of these sources.

Protocols, that is, transcriptions of participants talking aloud about what they are doing as they do it, have been particularly common in composition case studies. For example, in Emig's (1971) study, the students were asked, in four different sessions, to give oral autobiographies of their writing experiences and to compose aloud three themes in the presence of a tape recorder and the investigator.

In some studies, only one method of data collection is conducted. For example, the Flower and Hayes (1981) report on the cognitive process theory of writing depends on protocol analysis alone. However, using multiple sources of evidence to increase the reliability and validity of the data can be advantageous.

Case studies are likely to be much more convincing and accurate if they are based on several different sources of information, following a corroborating mode. This conclusion is echoed among many composition researchers. For example, in her study of predrafting processes of high and low-apprehensive writers, Cynthia Selfe (1985) argues that because "methods of indirect observation provide only an incomplete reflection of the complex set of processes involved in composing, a combination of several such methods should be used to gather data in any one study." Thus, in this study, Selfe collected her data from protocols, observations of students role playing their writing processes, audio taped interviews with the students, and videotaped observations of the students in the process of composing.

It can be said then, that cross checking data from multiple sources can help provide a multidimensional profile of composing activities in a particular setting. Sharan Merriam (1985) suggests "checking, verifying, testing, probing, and confirming collected data as you go, arguing that this process will follow in a funnel-like design resulting in less data gathering in later phases of the study along with a congruent increase in analysis checking, verifying, and confirming."

It is important to note that in case studies, as in any qualitative descriptive research, while researchers begin their studies with one or several questions driving the inquiry (which influence the key factors the researcher will be looking for during data collection), a researcher may find new key factors emerging during data collection. These might be unexpected patterns or linguistic features which become evident only during the course of the research. While not bearing directly on the researcher's guiding questions, these variables may become the basis for new questions asked at the end of the report, thus linking to the possibility of further research.

Data Analysis

As the information is collected, researchers strive to make sense of their data. Generally, researchers interpret their data in one of two ways: holistically or through coding. Holistic analysis does not attempt to break the evidence into parts, but rather to draw conclusions based on the text as a whole. Flower and Hayes (1981), for example, make inferences from entire sections of their students' protocols, rather than searching through the transcripts to look for isolatable characteristics.

However, composition researchers commonly interpret their data by coding, that is by systematically searching data to identify and/or categorize specific observable actions or characteristics. These observable actions then become the key variables in the study. Sharan Merriam (1988) suggests seven analytic frameworks for the organization and presentation of data:

• The role of participants.
• The network analysis of formal and informal exchanges among groups.
• Historical.
• Thematical.
• Ritual and symbolism.
• Critical incidents that challenge or reinforce fundamental beliefs, practices, and values.

There are two purposes of these frameworks: to look for patterns among the data and to look for patterns that give meaning to the case study.

As stated above, while most researchers begin their case studies expecting to look for particular observable characteristics, it is not unusual for key variables to emerge during data collection. Typical variables coded in case studies of writers include pauses writers make in the production of a text, the use of specific linguistic units (such as nouns or verbs), and writing processes (planning, drafting, revising, and editing). In the Berkenkotter, Huckin, and Ackerman (1988) study, for example, researchers coded the participant's texts for use of connectives, discourse demonstratives, average sentence length, off-register words, use of the first person pronoun, and the ratio of definite articles to indefinite articles.

Since coding is inherently subjective, more than one coder is usually employed. In the Berkenkotter, Huckin, and Ackerman (1988) study, for example, three rhetoricians were employed to code the participant's texts for off-register phrases. The researchers established the agreement among the coders before concluding that the participant used fewer off-register words as the graduate program progressed.

Composing the Case Study Report

In the many forms it can take, "a case study is generically a story; it presents the concrete narrative detail of actual, or at least realistic events, it has a plot, exposition, characters, and sometimes even dialogue" (Boehrer 1990). Generally, case study reports are extensively descriptive, with "the most problematic issue often referred to as being the determination of the right combination of description and analysis" (1990). Typically, authors address each step of the research process, and attempt to give the reader as much context as possible for the decisions made in the research design and for the conclusions drawn.

This contextualization usually includes a detailed explanation of the researchers' theoretical positions, of how those theories drove the inquiry or led to the guiding research questions, of the participants' backgrounds, of the processes of data collection, of the training and limitations of the coders, along with a strong attempt to make connections between the data and the conclusions evident.

Although the Berkenkotter, Huckin, and Ackerman (1988) study does not, case study reports often include the reactions of the participants to the study or to the researchers' conclusions. Because case studies tend to be exploratory, most end with implications for further study. Here researchers may identify significant variables that emerged during the research and suggest studies related to these, or the authors may suggest further general questions that their case study generated.

For example, Emig's (1971) study concludes with a section dedicated solely to the topic of implications for further research, in which she suggests several means by which this particular study could have been improved, as well as questions and ideas raised by this study which other researchers might like to address, such as: is there a correlation between a certain personality and a certain composing process profile (e.g. is there a positive correlation between ego strength and persistence in revising)?

Also included in Emig's study is a section dedicated to implications for teaching, which outlines the pedagogical ramifications of the study's findings for teachers currently involved in high school writing programs.

Sharan Merriam (1985) also offers several suggestions for alternative presentations of data:

• Prepare specialized condensations for appropriate groups.
• Replace narrative sections with a series of answers to open-ended questions.
• Present "skimmer's" summaries at beginning of each section.
• Incorporate headlines that encapsulate information from text.
• Prepare analytic summaries with supporting data appendixes.
• Present data in colorful and/or unique graphic representations.

Issues of Validity and Reliability

Once key variables have been identified, they can be analyzed. Reliability becomes a key concern at this stage, and many case study researchers go to great lengths to ensure that their interpretations of the data will be both reliable and valid. Because issues of validity and reliability are an important part of any study in the social sciences, it is important to identify some ways of dealing with results.

Multi-modal case study researchers often balance the results of their coding with data from interviews or writer's reflections upon their own work. Consequently, the researchers' conclusions become highly contextualized. For example, in a case study which looked at the time spent in different stages of the writing process, Berkenkotter concluded that her participant, Donald Murray, spent more time planning his essays than in other writing stages. The report of this case study is followed by Murray's reply, wherein he agrees with some of Berkenkotter's conclusions and disagrees with others.

As is the case with other research methodologies, issues of external validity, construct validity, and reliability need to be carefully considered.

Commentary on Case Studies

Researchers often debate the relative merits of particular methods, among them case study. In this section, we comment on two key issues. To read the commentaries, choose any of the items below:

Strengths and Weaknesses of Case Studies

Most case study advocates point out that case studies produce much more detailed information than what is available through a statistical analysis. Advocates will also hold that while statistical methods might be able to deal with situations where behavior is homogeneous and routine, case studies are needed to deal with creativity, innovation, and context. Detractors argue that case studies are difficult to generalize because of inherent subjectivity and because they are based on qualitative subjective data, generalizable only to a particular context.

Flexibility

The case study approach is a comparatively flexible method of scientific research. Because its project designs seem to emphasize exploration rather than prescription or prediction, researchers are comparatively freer to discover and address issues as they arise in their experiments. In addition, the looser format of case studies allows researchers to begin with broad questions and narrow their focus as their experiment progresses rather than attempt to predict every possible outcome before the experiment is conducted.

Emphasis on Context

By seeking to understand as much as possible about a single subject or small group of subjects, case studies specialize in "deep data," or "thick description"--information based on particular contexts that can give research results a more human face. This emphasis can help bridge the gap between abstract research and concrete practice by allowing researchers to compare their firsthand observations with the quantitative results obtained through other methods of research.

Inherent Subjectivity

"The case study has long been stereotyped as the weak sibling among social science methods," and is often criticized as being too subjective and even pseudo-scientific. Likewise, "investigators who do case studies are often regarded as having deviated from their academic disciplines, and their investigations as having insufficient precision (that is, quantification), objectivity and rigor" (Yin 1989). Opponents cite opportunities for subjectivity in the implementation, presentation, and evaluation of case study research. The approach relies on personal interpretation of data and inferences. Results may not be generalizable, are difficult to test for validity, and rarely offer a problem-solving prescription. Simply put, relying on one or a few subjects as a basis for cognitive extrapolations runs the risk of inferring too much from what might be circumstance.

High Investment

Case studies can involve learning more about the subjects being tested than most researchers would care to know--their educational background, emotional background, perceptions of themselves and their surroundings, their likes, dislikes, and so on. Because of its emphasis on "deep data," the case study is out of reach for many large-scale research projects which look at a subject pool in the tens of thousands. A budget request of $10,000 to examine 200 subjects sounds more efficient than a similar request to examine four subjects.

Ethical Considerations

Researchers conducting case studies should consider certain ethical issues. For example, many educational case studies are often financed by people who have, either directly or indirectly, power over both those being studied and those conducting the investigation (1985). This conflict of interests can hinder the credibility of the study.

The personal integrity, sensitivity, and possible prejudices and/or biases of the investigators need to be taken into consideration as well. Personal biases can creep into how the research is conducted, alternative research methods used, and the preparation of surveys and questionnaires.

A common complaint in case study research is that investigators change direction during the course of the study unaware that their original research design was inadequate for the revised investigation. Thus, the researchers leave unknown gaps and biases in the study. To avoid this, researchers should report preliminary findings so that the likelihood of bias will be reduced.

Concerns about Reliability, Validity, and Generalizability

Merriam (1985) offers several suggestions for how case study researchers might actively combat the popular attacks on the validity, reliability, and generalizability of case studies:

• Prolong the Processes of Data Gathering on Site: This will help to insure the accuracy of the findings by providing the researcher with more concrete information upon which to formulate interpretations.
• Employ the Process of "Triangulation": Use a variety of data sources as opposed to relying solely upon one avenue of observation. One example of such a data check would be what McClintock, Brannon, and Maynard (1985) refer to as a "case cluster method," that is, when a single unit within a larger case is randomly sampled, and that data treated quantitatively." For instance, in Emig's (1971) study, the case cluster method was employed, singling out the productivity of a single student named Lynn. This cluster profile included an advanced case history of the subject, specific examination and analysis of individual compositions and protocols, and extensive interview sessions. The seven remaining students were then compared with the case of Lynn, to ascertain if there are any shared, or unique dimensions to the composing process engaged in by these eight students.
• Conduct Member Checks: Initiate and maintain an active corroboration on the interpretation of data between the researcher and those who provided the data. In other words, talk to your subjects.
• Collect Referential Materials: Complement the file of materials from the actual site with additional document support. For example, Emig (1971) supports her initial propositions with historical accounts by writers such as T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, and D.H. Lawrence. Emig also cites examples of theoretical research done with regards to the creative process, as well as examples of empirical research dealing with the writing of adolescents. Specific attention is then given to the four stages description of the composing process delineated by Helmoltz, Wallas, and Cowley, as it serves as the focal point in this study.
• Engage in Peer Consultation: Prior to composing the final draft of the report, researchers should consult with colleagues in order to establish validity through pooled judgment.

Although little can be done to combat challenges concerning the generalizability of case studies, "most writers suggest that qualitative research should be judged as credible and confirmable as opposed to valid and reliable" (Merriam 1985). Likewise, it has been argued that "rather than transplanting statistical, quantitative notions of generalizability and thus finding qualitative research inadequate, it makes more sense to develop an understanding of generalization that is congruent with the basic characteristics of qualitative inquiry" (1985). After all, criticizing the case study method for being ungeneralizable is comparable to criticizing a washing machine for not being able to tell the correct time. In other words, it is unjust to criticize a method for not being able to do something which it was never originally designed to do in the first place.

Annotated Bibliography

Armisted, C. (1984). How Useful are Case Studies. Training and Development Journal, 38 (2), 75-77.

This article looks at eight types of case studies, offers pros and cons of using case studies in the classroom, and gives suggestions for successfully writing and using case studies.

Bardovi-Harlig, K. (1997). Beyond Methods: Components of Second Language Teacher Education . New York: McGraw-Hill.

A compilation of various research essays which address issues of language teacher education. Essays included are: "Non-native reading research and theory" by Lee, "The case for Psycholinguistics" by VanPatten, and "Assessment and Second Language Teaching" by Gradman and Reed.

Bartlett, L. (1989). A Question of Good Judgment; Interpretation Theory and Qualitative Enquiry Address. 70th Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. San Francisco.

Bartlett selected "quasi-historical" methodology, which focuses on the "truth" found in case records, as one that will provide "good judgments" in educational inquiry. He argues that although the method is not comprehensive, it can try to connect theory with practice.

Baydere, S. et. al. (1993). Multimedia conferencing as a tool for collaborative writing: a case study in Computer Supported Collaborative Writing. New York: Springer-Verlag.

The case study by Baydere et. al. is just one of the many essays in this book found in the series "Computer Supported Cooperative Work." Denley, Witefield and May explore similar issues in their essay, "A case study in task analysis for the design of a collaborative document production system."

Berkenkotter, C., Huckin, T., N., & Ackerman J. (1988). Conventions, Conversations, and the Writer: Case Study of a Student in a Rhetoric Ph.D. Program. Research in the Teaching of English, 22, 9-44.

The authors focused on how the writing of their subject, Nate or Ackerman, changed as he became more acquainted or familiar with his field's discourse community.

Berninger, V., W., and Gans, B., M. (1986). Language Profiles in Nonspeaking Individuals of Normal Intelligence with Severe Cerebral Palsy. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 2, 45-50.

Argues that generalizations about language abilities in patients with severe cerebral palsy (CP) should be avoided. Standardized tests of different levels of processing oral language, of processing written language, and of producing written language were administered to 3 male participants (aged 9, 16, and 40 yrs).

Bockman, J., R., and Couture, B. (1984). The Case Method in Technical Communication: Theory and Models. Texas: Association of Teachers of Technical Writing.

Examines the study and teaching of technical writing, communication of technical information, and the case method in terms of those applications.

Boehrer, J. (1990). Teaching With Cases: Learning to Question. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 42 41-57.

This article discusses the origins of the case method, looks at the question of what is a case, gives ideas about learning in case teaching, the purposes it can serve in the classroom, the ground rules for the case discussion, including the role of the question, and new directions for case teaching.

Bowman, W. R. (1993). Evaluating JTPA Programs for Economically Disadvantaged Adults: A Case Study of Utah and General Findings . Washington: National Commission for Employment Policy.

"To encourage state-level evaluations of JTPA, the Commission and the State of Utah co-sponsored this report on the effectiveness of JTPA Title II programs for adults in Utah. The technique used is non-experimental and the comparison group was selected from registrants with Utah's Employment Security. In a step-by-step approach, the report documents how non-experimental techniques can be applied and several specific technical issues can be addressed."

Boyce, A. (1993) The Case Study Approach for Pedagogists. Annual Meeting of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. (Address). Washington DC.

This paper addresses how case studies 1) bridge the gap between teaching theory and application, 2) enable students to analyze problems and develop solutions for situations that will be encountered in the real world of teaching, and 3) helps students to evaluate the feasibility of alternatives and to understand the ramifications of a particular course of action.

Carson, J. (1993) The Case Study: Ideal Home of WAC Quantitative and Qualitative Data. Annual Meeting of the Conference on College Composition and Communication. (Address). San Diego.

"Increasingly, one of the most pressing questions for WAC advocates is how to keep [WAC] programs going in the face of numerous difficulties. Case histories offer the best chance for fashioning rhetorical arguments to keep WAC programs going because they offer the opportunity to provide a coherent narrative that contextualizes all documents and data, including what is generally considered scientific data. A case study of the WAC program, . . . at Robert Morris College in Pittsburgh demonstrates the advantages of this research method. Such studies are ideal homes for both naturalistic and positivistic data as well as both quantitative and qualitative information."

---. (1991). A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing. College Composition and Communication. 32. 365-87.

No abstract available.

Cromer, R. (1994) A Case Study of Dissociations Between Language and Cognition. Constraints on Language Acquisition: Studies of Atypical Children . Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 141-153.

Crossley, M. (1983) Case Study in Comparative and International Education: An Approach to Bridging the Theory-Practice Gap. Proceedings of the 11th Annual Conference of the Australian Comparative and International Education Society. Hamilton, NZ.

Case study research, as presented here, helps bridge the theory-practice gap in comparative and international research studies of education because it focuses on the practical, day-to-day context rather than on the national arena. The paper asserts that the case study method can be valuable at all levels of research, formation, and verification of theories in education.

Daillak, R., H., and Alkin, M., C. (1982). Qualitative Studies in Context: Reflections on the CSE Studies of Evaluation Use . California: EDRS

The report shows how the Center of the Study of Evaluation (CSE) applied qualitative techniques to a study of evaluation information use in local, Los Angeles schools. It critiques the effectiveness and the limitations of using case study, evaluation, field study, and user interview survey methodologies.

Davey, L. (1991). The Application of Case Study Evaluations. ERIC/TM Digest.

This article examines six types of case studies, the type of evaluation questions that can be answered, the functions served, some design features, and some pitfalls of the method.

Deutch, C. E. (1996). A course in research ethics for graduate students. College Teaching, 44, 2, 56-60.

This article describes a one-credit discussion course in research ethics for graduate students in biology. Case studies are focused on within the four parts of the course: 1) major issues, 2 )practical issues in scholarly work, 3) ownership of research results, and 4) training and personal decisions.

DeVoss, G. (1981). Ethics in Fieldwork Research. RIE 27p. (ERIC)

This article examines four of the ethical problems that can happen when conducting case study research: acquiring permission to do research, knowing when to stop digging, the pitfalls of doing collaborative research, and preserving the integrity of the participants.

Driscoll, A. (1985). Case Study of a Research Intervention: the University of Utah’s Collaborative Approach . San Francisco: Far West Library for Educational Research Development.

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, Denver, CO, March 1985. Offers information of in-service training, specifically case studies application.

Ellram, L. M. (1996). The Use of the Case Study Method in Logistics Research. Journal of Business Logistics, 17, 2, 93.

This article discusses the increased use of case study in business research, and the lack of understanding of when and how to use case study methodology in business.

Emig, J. (1971) The Composing Processes of Twelfth Graders . Urbana: NTCE.

This case study uses observation, tape recordings, writing samples, and school records to show that writing in reflexive and extensive situations caused different lengths of discourse and different clusterings of the components of the writing process.

Feagin, J. R. (1991). A Case For the Case Study . Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.

This book discusses the nature, characteristics, and basic methodological issues of the case study as a research method.

Feldman, H., Holland, A., & Keefe, K. (1989) Language Abilities after Left Hemisphere Brain Injury: A Case Study of Twins. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 9, 32-47.

"Describes the language abilities of 2 twin pairs in which 1 twin (the experimental) suffered brain injury to the left cerebral hemisphere around the time of birth and1 twin (the control) did not. One pair of twins was initially assessed at age 23 mo. and the other at about 30 mo.; they were subsequently evaluated in their homes 3 times at about 6-mo intervals."

Fidel, R. (1984). The Case Study Method: A Case Study. Library and Information Science Research, 6.

The article describes the use of case study methodology to systematically develop a model of online searching behavior in which study design is flexible, subject manner determines data gathering and analyses, and procedures adapt to the study's progressive change.

Flower, L., & Hayes, J. R. (1984). Images, Plans and Prose: The Representation of Meaning in Writing. Written Communication, 1, 120-160.

Explores the ways in which writers actually use different forms of knowing to create prose.

Frey, L. R. (1992). Interpreting Communication Research: A Case Study Approach Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

The book discusses research methodologies in the Communication field. It focuses on how case studies bridge the gap between communication research, theory, and practice.

Gilbert, V. K. (1981). The Case Study as a Research Methodology: Difficulties and Advantages of Integrating the Positivistic, Phenomenological and Grounded Theory Approaches . The Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for the Study of Educational Administration. (Address) Halifax, NS, Can.

This study on an innovative secondary school in England shows how a "low-profile" participant-observer case study was crucial to the initial observation, the testing of hypotheses, the interpretive approach, and the grounded theory.

Gilgun, J. F. (1994). A Case for Case Studies in Social Work Research. Social Work, 39, 4, 371-381.

This article defines case study research, presents guidelines for evaluation of case studies, and shows the relevance of case studies to social work research. It also looks at issues such as evaluation and interpretations of case studies.

Glennan, S. L., Sharp-Bittner, M. A. & Tullos, D. C. (1991). Augmentative and Alternative Communication Training with a Nonspeaking Adult: Lessons from MH. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 7, 240-7.

"A response-guided case study documented changes in a nonspeaking 36-yr-old man's ability to communicate using 3 trained augmentative communication modes. . . . Data were collected in videotaped interaction sessions between the nonspeaking adult and a series of adult speaking."

Graves, D. (1981). An Examination of the Writing Processes of Seven Year Old Children. Research in the Teaching of English, 15, 113-134.

Hamel, J. (1993). Case Study Methods . Newbury Park: Sage. .

"In a most economical fashion, Hamel provides a practical guide for producing theoretically sharp and empirically sound sociological case studies. A central idea put forth by Hamel is that case studies must "locate the global in the local" thus making the careful selection of the research site the most critical decision in the analytic process."

Karthigesu, R. (1986, July). Television as a Tool for Nation-Building in the Third World: A Post-Colonial Pattern, Using Malaysia as a Case-Study. International Television Studies Conference. (Address). London, 10-12.

"The extent to which Television Malaysia, as a national mass media organization, has been able to play a role in nation building in the post-colonial period is . . . studied in two parts: how the choice of a model of nation building determines the character of the organization; and how the character of the organization influences the output of the organization."

Kenny, R. (1984). Making the Case for the Case Study. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 16, (1), 37-51.

The article looks at how and why the case study is justified as a viable and valuable approach to educational research and program evaluation.

Knirk, F. (1991). Case Materials: Research and Practice. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 4 (1 ), 73-81.

The article addresses the effectiveness of case studies, subject areas where case studies are commonly used, recent examples of their use, and case study design considerations.

Klos, D. (1976). Students as Case Writers. Teaching of Psychology, 3.2, 63-66.

This article reviews a course in which students gather data for an original case study of another person. The task requires the students to design the study, collect the data, write the narrative, and interpret the findings.

Leftwich, A. (1981). The Politics of Case Study: Problems of Innovation in University Education. Higher Education Review, 13.2, 38-64.

The article discusses the use of case studies as a teaching method. Emphasis is on the instructional materials, interdisciplinarity, and the complex relationships within the university that help or hinder the method.

Mabrito, M. (1991, Oct.). Electronic Mail as a Vehicle for Peer Response: Conversations of High and Low Apprehensive Writers. Written Communication, 509-32.

McCarthy, S., J. (1955). The Influence of Classroom Discourse on Student Texts: The Case of Ella . East Lansing: Institute for Research on Teaching.

A look at how students of color become marginalized within traditional classroom discourse. The essay follows the struggles of one black student: Ella.

Matsuhashi, A., ed. (1987). Writing in Real Time: Modeling Production Processes Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation.

Investigates how writers plan to produce discourse for different purposes to report, to generalize, and to persuade, as well as how writers plan for sentence level units of language. To learn about planning, an observational measure of pause time was used" (ERIC).

Merriam, S. B. (1985). The Case Study in Educational Research: A Review of Selected Literature. Journal of Educational Thought, 19.3, 204-17.

The article examines the characteristics of, philosophical assumptions underlying the case study, the mechanics of conducting a case study, and the concerns about the reliability, validity, and generalizability of the method.

---. (1988). Case Study Research in Education: A Qualitative Approach San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Merry, S. E., & Milner, N. eds. (1993). The Possibility of Popular Justice: A Case Study of Community Mediation in the United States . Ann Arbor: U of Michigan.

". . . this volume presents a case study of one experiment in popular justice, the San Francisco Community Boards. This program has made an explicit claim to create an alternative justice, or new justice, in the midst of a society ordered by state law. The contributors to this volume explore the history and experience of the program and compare it to other versions of popular justice in the United States, Europe, and the Third World."

Merseth, K. K. (1991). The Case for Cases in Teacher Education. RIE. 42p. (ERIC).

This monograph argues that the case method of instruction offers unique potential for revitalizing the field of teacher education.

Michaels, S. (1987). Text and Context: A New Approach to the Study of Classroom Writing. Discourse Processes, 10, 321-346.

"This paper argues for and illustrates an approach to the study of writing that integrates ethnographic analysis of classroom interaction with linguistic analysis of written texts and teacher/student conversational exchanges. The approach is illustrated through a case study of writing in a single sixth grade classroom during a single writing assignment."

Milburn, G. (1995). Deciphering a Code or Unraveling a Riddle: A Case Study in the Application of a Humanistic Metaphor to the Reporting of Social Studies Teaching. Theory and Research in Education, 13.

This citation serves as an example of how case studies document learning procedures in a senior-level economics course.

Milley, J. E. (1979). An Investigation of Case Study as an Approach to Program Evaluation. 19th Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research. (Address). San Diego.

The case study method merged a narrative report focusing on the evaluator as participant-observer with document review, interview, content analysis, attitude questionnaire survey, and sociogram analysis. Milley argues that case study program evaluation has great potential for widespread use.

Minnis, J. R. (1985, Sept.). Ethnography, Case Study, Grounded Theory, and Distance Education Research. Distance Education, 6.2.

This article describes and defines the strengths and weaknesses of ethnography, case study, and grounded theory.

Nunan, D. (1992). Collaborative language learning and teaching . New York: Cambridge University Press.

Included in this series of essays is Peter Sturman’s "Team Teaching: a case study from Japan" and David Nunan’s own "Toward a collaborative approach to curriculum development: a case study."

Nystrand, M., ed. (1982). What Writers Know: The Language, Process, and Structure of Written Discourse . New York: Academic Press.

Owenby, P. H. (1992). Making Case Studies Come Alive. Training, 29, (1), 43-46. (ERIC)

This article provides tips for writing more effective case studies.

---. (1981). Pausing and Planning: The Tempo of Writer Discourse Production. Research in the Teaching of English, 15 (2),113-34.

Perl, S. (1979). The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers. Research in the Teaching of English, 13, 317-336.

"Summarizes a study of five unskilled college writers, focusing especially on one of the five, and discusses the findings in light of current pedagogical practice and research design."

Pilcher J. and A. Coffey. eds. (1996). Gender and Qualitative Research . Brookfield: Aldershot, Hants, England.

This book provides a series of essays which look at gender identity research, qualitative research and applications of case study to questions of gendered pedagogy.

Pirie, B. S. (1993). The Case of Morty: A Four Year Study. Gifted Education International, 9 (2), 105-109.

This case study describes a boy from kindergarten through third grade with above average intelligence but difficulty in learning to read, write, and spell.

Popkewitz, T. (1993). Changing Patterns of Power: Social Regulation and Teacher Education Reform. Albany: SUNY Press.

Popkewitz edits this series of essays that address case studies on educational change and the training of teachers. The essays vary in terms of discipline and scope. Also, several authors include case studies of educational practices in countries other than the United States.

---. (1984). The Predrafting Processes of Four High- and Four Low Apprehensive Writers. Research in the Teaching of English, 18, (1), 45-64.

Rasmussen, P. (1985, March) A Case Study on the Evaluation of Research at the Technical University of Denmark. International Journal of Institutional Management in Higher Education, 9 (1).

This is an example of a case study methodology used to evaluate the chemistry and chemical engineering departments at the University of Denmark.

Roth, K. J. (1986). Curriculum Materials, Teacher Talk, and Student Learning: Case Studies in Fifth-Grade Science Teaching . East Lansing: Institute for Research on Teaching.

Roth offers case studies on elementary teachers, elementary school teaching, science studies and teaching, and verbal learning.

Selfe, C. L. (1985). An Apprehensive Writer Composes. When a Writer Can't Write: Studies in Writer's Block and Other Composing-Process Problems . (pp. 83-95). Ed. Mike Rose. NMY: Guilford.

Smith-Lewis, M., R. and Ford, A. (1987). A User's Perspective on Augmentative Communication. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 3, 12-7.

"During a series of in-depth interviews, a 25-yr-old woman with cerebral palsy who utilized augmentative communication reflected on the effectiveness of the devices designed for her during her school career."

St. Pierre, R., G. (1980, April). Follow Through: A Case Study in Metaevaluation Research . 64th Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. (Address).

The three approaches to metaevaluation are evaluation of primary evaluations, integrative meta-analysis with combined primary evaluation results, and re-analysis of the raw data from a primary evaluation.

Stahler, T., M. (1996, Feb.) Early Field Experiences: A Model That Worked. ERIC.

"This case study of a field and theory class examines a model designed to provide meaningful field experiences for preservice teachers while remaining consistent with the instructor's beliefs about the role of teacher education in preparing teachers for the classroom."

Stake, R. E. (1995). The Art of Case Study Research. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

This book examines case study research in education and case study methodology.

Stiegelbauer, S. (1984) Community, Context, and Co-curriculum: Situational Factors Influencing School Improvements in a Study of High Schools. Presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA.

Discussion of several case studies: one looking at high school environments, another examining educational innovations.

Stolovitch, H. (1990). Case Study Method. Performance And Instruction, 29, (9), 35-37.

This article describes the case study method as a form of simulation and presents guidelines for their use in professional training situations.

Thaller, E. (1994). Bibliography for the Case Method: Using Case Studies in Teacher Education. RIE. 37 p.

This bibliography presents approximately 450 citations on the use of case studies in teacher education from 1921-1993.

Thrane, T. (1986). On Delimiting the Senses of Near-Synonyms in Historical Semantics: A Case Study of Adjectives of 'Moral Sufficiency' in the Old English Andreas. Linguistics Across Historical and Geographical Boundaries: In Honor of Jacek Fisiak on the Occasion of his Fiftieth Birthday . Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

United Nations. (1975). Food and Agriculture Organization. Report on the FAO/UNFPA Seminar on Methodology, Research and Country: Case Studies on Population, Employment and Productivity . Rome: United Nations.

This example case study shows how the methodology can be used in a demographic and psychographic evaluation. At the same time, it discusses the formation and instigation of the case study methodology itself.

Van Vugt, J. P., ed. (1994). Aids Prevention and Services: Community Based Research . Westport: Bergin and Garvey.

"This volume has been five years in the making. In the process, some of the policy applications called for have met with limited success, such as free needle exchange programs in a limited number of American cities, providing condoms to prison inmates, and advertisements that depict same-sex couples. Rather than dating our chapters that deal with such subjects, such policy applications are verifications of the type of research demonstrated here. Furthermore, they indicate the critical need to continue community based research in the various communities threatened by acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome (AIDS) . . . "

Welch, W., ed. (1981, May). Case Study Methodology in Educational Evaluation. Proceedings of the Minnesota Evaluation Conference. Minnesota. (Address).

The four papers in these proceedings provide a comprehensive picture of the rationale, methodology, strengths, and limitations of case studies.

Williams, G. (1987). The Case Method: An Approach to Teaching and Learning in Educational Administration. RIE, 31p.

This paper examines the viability of the case method as a teaching and learning strategy in instructional systems geared toward the training of personnel of the administration of various aspects of educational systems.

Yin, R. K. (1993). Advancing Rigorous Methodologies: A Review of 'Towards Rigor in Reviews of Multivocal Literatures.' Review of Educational Research, 61, (3).

"R. T. Ogawa and B. Malen's article does not meet its own recommended standards for rigorous testing and presentation of its own conclusions. Use of the exploratory case study to analyze multivocal literatures is not supported, and the claim of grounded theory to analyze multivocal literatures may be stronger."

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This book discusses in great detail, the entire design process of the case study, including entire chapters on collecting evidence, analyzing evidence, composing the case study report, and designing single and multiple case studies.

Related Links

Consider the following list of related Web sites for more information on the topic of case study research. Note: although many of the links cover the general category of qualitative research, all have sections that address issues of case studies.

• Sage Publications on Qualitative Methodology: Search here for a comprehensive list of new books being published about "Qualitative Methodology" http://www.sagepub.co.uk/
• The International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education: An on-line journal "to enhance the theory and practice of qualitative research in education." On-line submissions are welcome. http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/tf/09518398.html
• Qualitative Research Resources on the Internet: From syllabi to home pages to bibliographies. All links relate somehow to qualitative research. http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/qualres.html

Becker, Bronwyn, Patrick Dawson, Karen Devine, Carla Hannum, Steve Hill, Jon Leydens, Debbie Matuskevich, Carol Traver, & Mike Palmquist. (2005). Case Studies. Writing@CSU . Colorado State University. https://writing.colostate.edu/guides/guide.cfm?guideid=60

From David E. Gray \(2014\). Doing Research in the Real World \(3rd ed.\) London, UK: Sage.

Asset Information Handover Guidelines from Planning and Construction to Operations and Maintenance (2024)

Chapter: 7 case study process.

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CHAPTER 7 Case Study Process Introduction to the Process The research team conducted focus group interviews beginning in the spring of 2022 with airports that believed they had functioning asset management programs with successful busi­ ness processes and procedures in place or airports that were simply interested in improving their internal processes addressing project closeout activities. In addition, one non-airport organiza­ tion was interviewed to understand their approach to asset information handover. The phase of a project referred to in this guide as “project closeout” has also been referred to as “asset onboarding” or “asset acquisition.” This phase occurs when a project is coming to an end, and the airport, as the owner, will soon be gaining control over its operation and mainte­ nance management. At this time, the contractor or construction team provides maintenance and warranty requirements and numerous other contractual requirements to the airport owner, as part of the closeout process. No matter what term airport staff might use to refer to this phase of a project, it is when an airport owner gains the information needed to properly own, operate, and maintain the newly constructed asset. Design and construction teams play a crucial role in helping to manage an airport’s asset data. Software and technology help these teams throughout the design and con­ struction phases, but unfortunately, at project closeout, all their data falls into a black hole if the airport, as the owner, has no business process or plan in place to accept it. The intent of the focus group interviews was to learn from the participating organizations what they currently were doing to support their understanding of their constructed assets, espe­ cially in relation to project closeout and the asset information deliverables that are part of this business process. Another intent was to learn how each organization obtained the documenta­ tion necessary to effectively maintain and manage the assets created as part of a design and construction project. Several questions focused on asset information handover at all phases of a project were devel­ oped by the research team. These questions formed the basis of the case study conversations about collecting and keeping accurate asset data; the traditional planning, design, and construc­ tion activities; and finally, each airport’s expectations for asset ownership. Questions as Part of the Process Several questions were developed within a spreadsheet application workbook prior to sched­ uling the focus group sessions to serve as a guide for the conversation about asset information handover. This workbook consisted of several worksheets, each intended to address a topic seen as significant to the overall process of managing and maintaining constructed assets at an airport. 37 

38   Asset Information Handover Guidelines from Planning and Construction to Operations and Maintenance The original intent was that the workbook would be reviewed, if not completed, by participat­ ing airport staff prior to the focus group conversation. The workbook began with this question, which was intended as the introduction to the general premise of the case study research: Considering how you currently manage and maintain your constructed assets (e.g., cargo/terminal buildings, utilities, pavements) provide information in response to the questions. These subsequent work­ sheets are intended to align with traditional phases in the asset acquisition process. What followed this prelude was a lengthy conversation with each organization participating in the case studies about its areas of concern. Questions for the organizations participating in the case studies were organized by the life-cycle phase of a project. There were multiple questions associated with each phase, so they cannot all be listed here. However, some sample questions listed by project phase follow: • Planning, design, and construction: Who do you consider stakeholders in your planning, design, and construction process (list departments, position titles, or similar)? • Closeout: Does your organization conduct a review of such requirements prior to substantial completion to help facilitate a smooth conclusion? • O&M: How does your organization develop maintenance strategies for your asset systems (e.g., PM modes/schedules, job plans, safety plans)? • Management of asset data: Do you have an enterprise-wide asset identification, structure, taxonomy, and/or naming convention? Does an asset have the same ID in each enterprise system? Focus Groups Several interviews were conducted with the case study participants. In some instances, more than one session was held, or sessions were conducted with multiple individuals one at a time to allow them to provide their perspectives on asset information handover roles and responsibilities without influencing their peers. Following the completion of the interviews, the conversations were summarized and documented as case studies (see Appendix D). These summaries provide helpful information about airports’ experiences with the project closeout phase of a project, asset management practices, and lessons learned. Analysis Analysis of the focus group conversations indicated that there is not one standout or foolproof approach to asset information handover at project closeout that will work for everyone. Each of the case study participants has “made do” with what works in their respective environments using the labor and financial resources that are available. Some effective practices that were identified by the case study participants include the following: • Creating a specific asset management division with the sole responsibility to oversee and man­ age the airports’ assets. • Tracking asset age, current condition, and identifying metrics across all asset classes and docu­ menting these metrics within an EAM system. • Keeping asset maintenance data in a software system accessible to anyone in the organization with a login. • Developing end-to-end data management processes and procedures beginning with planning and design. 

Case Study Process   39 • Developing standardized processes and procedures and then enforcing the requirements to obtain accurate data associated with project closeout and asset information handover. • Defining asset management as a “culture,” so the various stakeholders throughout the plan­ ning, design, and construction processes will, without having to think about it, ensure that future maintenance and management of the built environment will occur seamlessly. • Conducting meetings with stakeholders to discuss each project and each stakeholder’s needs, as well as the importance of working together for the benefit of the airport. These meetings improve staff members’ understanding of the requirements of others regarding each project. • Embracing mobile maintenance applications to better ensure work orders are established, issued, and completed, and the data needed to understand what it costs to maintain the assets is appropriately documented upon completion. 

The transition of asset information from the planning, design, and construction stages to the operations and maintenance (O&M) stage can be challenging. A successful asset information handover process will lead to informed O&M planning decisions, which may result in positive financial and functional impacts for O&M departments.

ACRP Research Report 264: Asset Information Handover Guidelines from Planning and Construction to Operations and Maintenance , from TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program, presents guidelines for airport operators on establishing an asset information handover process during construction project closeout.

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Home › Insights › Case Studies › Case Study: From Pain Points to Progress – Union Pension Fund Optimizes Operations

Case Study: From Pain Points to Progress – Union Pension Fund Optimizes Operations

Operational process mapping and optimization opportunities for improvement.

Download a PDF of this case study .

Executive Summary

A client in the union pension fund space offers various services including healthcare benefits, retirement and pension plans, disability and life insurance and advocacy support. The company faced challenges with its business systems – expressing a need for comprehensive and holistic general organizational process improvements. Withum was brought in to assist in identifying and optimizing improvement opportunities to reach future state goals through prioritized initiatives effectively.

Withum undertook a comprehensive operational diagnostic to pinpoint the root causes of the client’s business process pain points. This allowed Withum’s business and management consulting teams to offer change management solutions and optimize an efficient roadmap of prioritized initiatives. Withum’s thorough assessment of the client’s business processes aimed to standardize and define operations so the client could be confident in their business systems. Consulting engagement efforts culminated in opportunities for improvement deliverables with a central focus on prioritized initiatives and key actions that would deliver the most value to the client.

The Challenge

The company recognized the need for a comprehensive overhaul of its business processes, primarily due to challenges identified by Withum. These included:

• A manual workload and underutilization of system functionality
• Data unreliability and lack of insights visibility
• A reactive approach to work
• Challenges with cross-departmental communication
• Risk management
• Siloed systems

These hurdles presented a significant operational transformation and improvement opportunity, which were further uncovered in a comprehensive operational assessment.

The Withum team identified several challenges that required a comprehensive approach to address. The challenges were not just related to the systems themselves but were indicative of broader issues in the operational model. The project aimed to align technology investments with strategic growth goals, which involved prioritizing initiatives amidst competing projects and goals.

With a complex systems architecture and high investment in more technology solutions, the client was becoming more inundated with half-complete workflows and complex workarounds that grew as the technology environment became more complicated.

This was rooted in the organization’s ability to prioritize initiatives. The company often took a “big bang” approach to solving issues by layering more technology, time and initiatives to patch problems far and wide. Withum helped facilitate prioritization with the business to help them plan to allocate their resources effectively, allowing them to roll out phased changes.

The client suffered from execution challenges that significantly impacted the roll-out of organizational changes. They were in fire-fighting mode so much in the day-to-day that they were not tactically equipped to support the execution of strategies.

The client team recognized that addressing system challenges alone was insufficient and that an operational transformation required elevating people, optimizing processes and implementing data controls alongside technology changes. This holistic approach was necessary to maximize the organization’s yield and ensure investments were made in the right areas. Elevating people would include addressing low-hanging fruit, elevating roles and responsibilities to be more value-added across the organization and having leaders be able to operate above the weeds.

In terms of low-hanging fruit, the client had multiple systems and sources of truth that they struggled to tie together. Instead of building an entirely new architecture up front, the optimal choice was to fix what we have today through training and minor process improvements. This would result in quick wins for the client team, increasing morale and client buy-in which is imperative for the project going forward. Given the heavy resistance to change in this organization, it’s important to note that quick wins are not a replacement for long-term solutions – they help to build momentum for longer-term initiatives.

These challenges highlight the complexity of the system modernization project, the need for a strategic, disciplined, accountable approach to drive value through the new system and the evolution of people’s roles and responsibilities in the organization. The project’s success depended on the collaborative efforts of the team to address these challenges effectively.

The Approach and Solution

The engagement with this client consisted of a comprehensive operational diagnostic and concluded with an opportunity for improvement. Withum undertook a current-state strategic, tactical and operational process mapping review and an initiatives prioritization workshop to determine the ideal sequence of events for introducing organizational change. To support workshop initiatives, the Withum team also utilized surveys to perform general sentiment analysis and uncover pain points that may not have been freely shared in a workshop environment.

The operational assessment revealed critical themes and challenges that, once addressed, will significantly benefit the organization. These insights emerged from evaluating the company’s organizational structure, technological footprint, operational pain points and inefficiencies. With this knowledge, we aligned the company’s strategic vision with a streamlined process.

Withum discovered that the client suffered from people, process, technology and data themes that offered significant organizational improvement opportunities. To combat these issues, the Withum team created comprehensive opportunities for improvement along with a detailed roadmap for company success. The roadmap was phased first to stabilize, optimize and grow the operations’ efficiency and effectiveness. Change management was factored in to change the organization’s approach from a “big bang” model to one focused on quick wins and holistic solutions.

Additionally, a change management user adoption approach was vital to gaining more ownership and active participation, contributing to the growth path potential for functions and the organization. A hybrid waterfall and agile approach was adopted to address immediate challenges while laying the strategic groundwork for future changes.

Three overarching pillars were identified to achieve future state success:

The Results, ROI

Through a successful partnership between Withum and the client, a thorough assessment was conducted to evaluate the maturity of the company’s business systems and processes. This evaluation led to the formulation of valuable recommendations that, once put into action, promised to strengthen and enhance the company’s operations. The primary objective is establishing stability within the organization’s core activities and advancing its capabilities toward long-term financial planning, analysis and operational efficiency.

Over time, the company will automate manual and time-consuming tasks, leverage valuable insights from its data and pivot towards predictive and prescriptive analytics to contribute to its business planning and decision making processes. The roadmap to address this transformation is anchored in a strategic orientation incorporating quick wins to tackle immediate challenges. It also follows a phased project approach, designates change champions and establishes a robust project governance framework to ensure successful execution.

For more information, please contact a member of our team.

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• Published: 27 September 2024

Cross-cultural design in costume: case study on totemic symbols of China and Thailand

• Yixin Zou 1 ,
• Chao Zhao 2 ,
• Peter Childs   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2465-8822 3 &
• Ding-Bang Luh 1  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  11 , Article number:  1263 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

Metrics details

• Cultural and media studies

Cross-cultural design has emerged as a pivotal domain of significance within the context of globalization. In the field of cross-cultural design, designers are tasked with addressing user requirements and identity characteristic contexts across diverse cultural backgrounds, aiming to achieve enhanced service delivery and cultural dissemination outcomes. Nonetheless, the landscape of contemporary fashion design research exhibits a noticeable dearth in studies that effectively integrate with cross-cultural design. This study selects the iconic cultural symbols of the Chinese loong (dragon) and Thai naga as case subjects, embarking upon research that employs costume design as a medium and bridge for cross-cultural design and communication. The research methodology integrates qualitative and quantitative approaches, including field investigations, participatory research, and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) analysis, thereby substantiating theoretical constructs through empirical investigation. The study proposes that cross-cultural costume design, undertaken with the purpose of cross-cultural communication, can be conceptualized as a cyclical process involving multiple encoding and decoding iterations. The research elaborates on how costume, functioning as a non-verbal language, serve as a medium for facilitating cross-cultural interactions. Furthermore, the design extraction of cultural symbols is approached through a four-tiered framework. By articulating its research perspective, methodologies, and design cases, this study contributes valuable insights to researchers and practitioners engaged in cross-cultural design and related fields.

Introduction

Cross-cultural communication represents a common facet of contemporary society. The topic spans not only the life level of the “individual” in the context concerned but also wider levels at regional, country, national relationships and globalization. The cross-cultural communication discipline refers to the activities of communication between individuals, groups or organizations of different cultural backgrounds (Hurn et al., 2013 ). It is important to understand the meaning of “culture” in cross-cultural communication study. Culture can be divided into four levels: material, institutional, behavior, and mental (Davidsson, ( 1995 ); Karahanna et al., 2005 ; Spencer-Oatey and Franklin, 2012 ). The first, addressing human material production methods and products, represents tangible specific physical objects, such as clothing, food, shelter, and transportation. Hocart ( 1929 ) and Pintong ( 2017 ) agreed that material culture incorporates foods, clothing, sheltering, and medicine. Institutional culture serves as the norm built by humans to regulate their own behaviors and adjust the relationships in social practice (Higgins, 2007 ; Daniels, 2012 ). Behavior culture refers to facets of social and collective behavior, incorporating conventional etiquette and customs, folk customs, habits, and customs in social communication (White, 1959 ; Zhao et al., 2016 ). Mental culture refers to people’s social psychology and social ideology, including views of value and life, esthetic taste, totem worship, religion and faith, and their literary and artistic works (Mechanic, 1986 ; Morgan, 2010 ). Taken holistically these aspects can be regarded as representing a comprehensive synthesis of the core and essence of culture. Regarding the explicit concept of culture, Geertz and Wrobel assert that the essence of the cultural concept is fundamentally semiotic ( 1989 ), and proposes that culture is not an empirical science in pursuit of definitive cultural truths, but rather an interpretive science functioning as an agent of meaning. Building upon this view, culture can be viewed as interpretable symbols or symbolic systems.

In an era of globalization, cross-cultural design emerges as a pivotal strategy for addressing the challenges of globalization and facilitating the successful integration of products and services within culturally diverse societies, to ensure that the products or services designed possess universality, acceptability, and usability on a global scale. Representing the originators of the term “Cross-cultural design,” Steiner and Haas, in their work, encapsulate the design mindset and visual presentation attributes inherent in cross-cultural design, which from design thinking perspectives divide the design process into three stages known as the “Q.M.T. design process,” involving Quotation, Metaphor, and Transformation ( 1995 ). the authors think Cross-cultural design is an approach to produce an esthetic style based on cultural understanding and communication, a methodology which is related to design logic and design thinking process. Based on this angle, relevant classical studies encompass Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory, which stands as one of the extensively employed theoretical frameworks in cross-cultural design (Wu, 2006 ). Following this theory an analysis of cultural disparities in cross-cultural product design is conducted by examining cultural variations in target users’ values, behavior and design orientations. Furthermore, through a synthesis of the constituents, the theory outlines the elements essential for incorporation in cross-cultural product design.

However, in the current landscape of costume design research, there is a scarcity of studies that integrate with cross-cultural design. Most research studies have tended to focus on reproduction of esthetic forms, such as the decorative function as pattern in clothing. The themes of fashion, encapsulated in classical costume design and contemporary apparel design, and cross-cultural communication are closely connected. Carvalho ( 2017 ) argues that costume culture is moving towards a greater emphasis on the subject’s identity, seeking new relationships between local and global societies, and reshaping contemporary cultural expressions through its objects of consumption. Cultural diversity can be seen as a manifestation of identity formation. Especially, in the cross-cultural costume design process, “Costume” as a non-verbal symbol, plays a symbolic role in conveying information in cross-cultural communication (Zou et al., 2022 ). In the context of cross-cultural costume design, designers are required to transcend the constraints of their local cultural background and gain meaningful insights into and respect for the needs, values, habits, and contexts of diverse cultural groups. This entails avoiding cultural biases and misunderstandings to ensure that design works go beyond mere “translation” or “adaptation,” fostering a deep emotional connection with the target user community.

In order to investigate how to carry out cross-cultural design in the context of cross-cultural communication with costume as the carrier, this study selected the Chinese loong (another translation is “dragon”) and the Thai naga (shown in Fig. 1 ) totem as the design objects to study this issue. A principal reason for this slection is because of costume design should reflect specific objects, functions, content or contexts, and is implemented by design languages, including patterns, colors, techniques, materials. Another reason is the loong and the naga are the most representative totem symbols of the Chinese and Thai national cultures. When thinking of China, people especially the younger generation have oft associated the country with the image of the loong totem. Correspondingly, there is also a totem with a similar appearance in Thai culture, called the naga. The two totems have similar appearance but different cultural background and connotation and can be easy confused especially for younger generations. As such they provide an opportunity for case study for exploration and research in the cross-cultural costume design domain.

(The left side picture is the image of Chinese Loong, picture available at https://www.freepik.com/premium-vector/chinese-dragon_3948771.htm . Art by 9comeback ( 2024 ), Reproduced with permission of Freepik Company, S.L. Copyright © 2010–2024 Freepik Company S.L., all rights reserved. The right side picture is the image of Thailand naga, picture available at https://www.pinterest.com/pin/231372499600636980/ . Art by Pattaraporn ( 2024 ), Reproduced with permission of Pinterest Europe Ltd. copyright © Pinterest 2024, all rights reserved.).

Hence, this study conducted systematic research on the Chinese loong and Thai naga, and design strategies are proposed from the perspective of young generation users’ perception and needs. This paper reports the process of analyzing those two totemic symbols, a summary of design strategies, and a series costume design cases.

Literature review

Cross-cultural design in fashion domain.

Current research in the field of design related to cross-cultural integration is mostly focused on consumer research and cultural studies. For instance, Walker et al., which investigates cross-cultural aspects between China and the UK, providing frameworks for the contemporization of traditional craftsmanship and cultural heritage ( 2018 ). Santamaria’s ‘encoding and decoding’ frameworks for managing cultural meanings as ‘symbolic assets’ in design ( 2023 ) and the role of designers as cultural intermediaries, which provide valuable reference perspectives for the research. There are also studies that are related to design practice such as Cui, Shaari ( 2023 ) that focused on several commonly used geometric patterns in fashion design. They proposed a method for symbolizing pattern designs, integrating them into a semiotic framework with categories such as ‘similarity,’ ‘indication,’ and ‘reduction.’ Another study explores the practice of combining Chinese and English culture in fashion design within a cross-cultural context (Zhi, 2022 ). While both studies effectively showcase their research processes, they rely on judgments from designers. The researchers concur with the viewpoint of Azevedo et al., which suggests a revisiting of the impacts of attire in cross-cultural design and the associated relationships, they argue that recognizing cultural diversity as an expression of identity forms the foundation for comprehending design objectives ( 2018 ). It is crucial to acknowledge the unity and diversity of identities, as well as the dialectical relationship between local and regional cultures.

Ji’s ( 2011 ) study was guided by Pierce’s theory of the triadic relationship of signs, demonstrating the process of symbol “representamen” to “object” and then to “interpretant”. In the study of Andrew ( 2008 ), the theoretical foundation relies on semiotics, drawing from the works of Barthes ( 1990 ), Saussure (Holdcroft, 1991 ). These studies utilize semiotic and communication theory methodologies to examine how meaning is constructed through textiles, recognizing textiles as potent “cultural signifiers”. The costume is not only a communication medium, it is also a “symbol”. As a form of material culture, costume has been widely analyzed. However, the physical object of clothing represents non-verbal communications and a kind of “symbol”. The function of the symbol includes two aspects. The first is the intuitive sounds and images, which belong to the sensory effect while the other is conceptual design that belongs to an abstract psychological idea. How is a physical object translated into language? The same technique is used for clothing and literature to translate a physical object into language and represents “Description”. The primary function of “Description” is to build on the understanding of the dissemination while readers are given free reign in the interpretation of the content. Barthes ( 1990 ) suggested that the concept of symbols includes signifier and signified. The fabric, color and structure of clothing belong to both the manner of environmental communication and the “signifier” in the symbol, while signified refers to facets such as the conceptual content, abstract thinking, and the expression of emotions. Costume has strong intuitive connection between the signifier and the sign of the symbol compared to the general symbol. Costume represents both the primary symbol and also covers a multi-level symbol system. Based on this understanding, Paivio ( 1991 ) proposed dual-coding theory and coded information into visual information and verbal information. The two systems generate a mutually corresponding relation which can improve communication.

A second technique is “Connaissance”, that is, clothing can express savoir through fabrics and designs. The purpose of the description is to provide a kind of cultural concept analytically. Roland Barthes ( 1990 ) proposes three different structures for clothing, technologique, iconic and verbal, respectively. Only after certain shifters can clothing be transformed into representation. The role of shifters is to transform a kind of culture, content, or symbol into another form of expression, or from one code to another. It is a transformation approach from reality to intention, from reality to language, or from intention to language. According to Peirce’s “On Signs” ( 1991 ), any symbol is composed of three elements: media related objects, object-related objects, and related interpretive objects. A sign embodies the functions of human creativity and morality and provides structural relationship between meaning and objects. This structural relationship fuses objects and meanings into a unified symbol system. The function of the symbol includes two aspects; one being the intuitive sound and the image, which belongs to the sensory effect; and the other is conceptual design relating to an abstract psychological idea.

This research proposes a hypothesis that in the context of cross-cultural design, cultural totem symbols as design objects should be based on in-depth analysis of cultural connotations. This should include explicit decorative art features and implicit cognition and knowledge, transforming valuable features with costume language. Consideration should be given to the complex relationship between human behavior, cognition, and societal culture. Emphasis needs to be given to multiple meaning connections and combinations in perception of totemic symbols formed, caused by Human-Object-Environment-Society-Culture, to enable implementation of traditional cultural elements into fashion design works.

Chinese loong and Thai naga

As totem worship, Chinese long, and Thai naga are often found in people’s beliefs, festivals, and related traditions and customs. They have high cultural status in their respective country. The language of symbol is actually the hidden expression of the culture (signified) through the symbols (signifier) (Zou and Joneurairatana, 2020 ). Each nation has its special cultural symbol because as the object of a primitive tribe’s emotional identity and spiritual belief, totems not only become the most sacred and the best symbol in the tribe’s mind but also become the link to maintain the clan members. A totem has a marking function for a nation. It is also the symbol of that nation, and the essence of the nation lies within its “symbol”. National cultural symbols are perceptual symbols embedded with feelings and wishes, which can arouse the common historical memory of the members of the “national community” and enhance the psychological cohesion of the “community” (Zhang Cziráková, 2023 ).

In national culture, the totem is the most common way to display ancient civilization. Almost every nation or culture has a special animal or plant symbol. In the course of its development, the totem may be influenced by social system changes, cultural environment, and political evolution, and endowed with different meanings in different periods. Totem culture can be seen as the epitome of a country or a nation’s culture.

The loong in China

Loong totem has also become the flag of national unity and the patron of various tribes. It was originally held as the clan insignia by Fu Hsi in ancient China, and then gradually evolved into a common belief among different tribes. Therefore, animals such as the loong (snake), became a form of universal totem worship. In the view of ancient peoples, the clan insignia could protect them, and the loong would eliminate disasters from overtaking them.

In addition, the loong is the symbol of royalty and monarchs. With the development of the social structure, the loong totem later evolved into the ruling “tool”. Tribal leaders often made use of the loong image to unite and control their tribes (Ranjan and Zhou, 2011 ). In order to strengthen their image in the hearts of the people, emperors used to call themselves “son of the loong” (Peng, 2010 ), claiming to be bestowed with a mandate granted by heaven and that bestowed by the imperial throne. In later periods of feudal society (since the Qin dynasty, 221 BC), the loong pattern became a special color exclusive to the royal family. In this way, rulers used people’s worship of the loong totem to “mythologize” themselves and strengthen feudal imperial rule (Van Henten, 2006 ). By this time the loong had become a symbol of absolute power and supreme political status.

In the loong culture in China, the inclusiveness spirit always plays an important role. The appearance of loong can be said to be strange and diverse. The body is also composed of many different animals. Inclusiveness in this point refers to creating a new object after widely absorbing and digesting, which is shown by the appearance of loong. In people’s minds, the loong has always been sacred. In appearance, it is composed of nine different animals “Antlers are like a deer, head is like a camel, neck is like a snake, abdomen is like shen, scales are like fish, claws are like eagles, palms are like tigers, ears are like cattle” (Zhou, 2012 ). In skills, it gathers all the strengths of others and can do anything. This is why it was worshiped by people in ancient times. It was once also regarded as the medium of communication with heaven and earth to be responsible for winds and rains.

As a symbol of fortune, loong is sincerely loved and welcomed by the Chinese. In ancient periods, people would build loong and worship it. It was hoped that this would eliminate threats and bring greater care and blessings. Nowadays, loong related artefacts are very common in folklore and express auspicious and happy meanings, epitomized in wearing loong cloth, hanging loong paintings, eating loong noodles, and writing loong characters. In addition, the loong in daily life is also compared to the outstanding embodiment of wisdom. Those with outstanding talents are often referred to as “Ren Zhong loong Feng (The remarkable and outstanding person)”; a handsome son-in-law will be referred to as “Cheng loong Kuai Xu (An agreeable son-in-law is likened to an immortal on a loong)”; To congratulate those who have passed the imperial examination one would say “Yu Yue loong Men (A fish leaps over the loong gate)”; To describe a happy marriage one would say “loong Feng Ji Xiang (auspicious and delightful things)”; To express the hope for children one would say “Wang Zi Cheng loong (hope one’s children will have a bright future)” (Nadezhda, 2022 ; Maguth and Wu, 2020 ).

The naga in Thailand

For thousands of years, the naga has played an important role in the history of South East Asia (Tu, P. A., 2007 ). The word “naga” which frequently appears in Indian and South East Asian literature is from Sanskrit and has various and confusing meanings such as “Naked”, “Snake”, and “Barbarian”. Archeological evidence found in various places in South East Asia and specifically in Ban Chiang, Udon Thani, Thailand, provides strong support for the theory that people who used to live in the area presently referred to as South East Asia worshiped the “Snake” as a sacred animal (Chang, 2017 ). People were living with natural threats, surrounded by various kinds of dangers, and yet to develop understanding of natural phenomenon such as thunderstorms, earthquakes, and other forms of natural disasters. “Supernatural” and “animism” beliefs emerged to provide comfort from fear. They started to pray, worship, and sacrifice to certain spirits in an attempt to seek protection and abundance.

It is interesting to note that “snakes”, were known as the most dangerous species due to their abilities which not only included deadly poison but also silent movement, the ability to go everywhere from above-ground or underground into the water or even into the air, the ability to molt (skin removal) and especially their movement that looks similar to a wave in water. Naga is also a symbol of water. In northern Thailand, the Mekong River that is deeply embedded and associated with Thai culture is called “naga”. In Udon Thani in northern Thailand, people set up naga sculptures to worship the naga, make wishes, and offer incense to the naga, hoping that the naga will bless them to provide a good harvest during the year. Among all of these different meanings, “the God of Rain” which brings life (vital force), seasons, wealth, and fortune seems to be the strongest belief for those people, especially those who were residing along both sides of the Mekong riverbanks from Yunnan (South of China) down through Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam where the mouth of Mekong river is located (Robinson and Sinha, 2010 ).

A further set of paradigms is associated with this area. The Hindu gods answered all the questions of suspicion through the “Mahabharata” and the “Tri-Bhumi”. This is when in the folklore of the local people, the story of “naga” became integrated into a new emerging “story” that of Naga as the protector of Buddha. According to legend, before becoming Buddha, when Sakyamuni (Siddhartha) was meditating under a Bodhi tree, Mara cast spells to interrupt the meditation of Siddhartha in fear of Siddhartha’s God-realization, resulting in a furious storm between heaven and earth. Then naga was sent by Shiva to protect the Buddha, who, in order to protect the meditation of Buddha, not only fought with Mara, but also formed a colorful umbrella beside the Buddha to provide shelter for Siddhartha to continue his mediation (Moonkham ( 2021 )). Naga has thus become the symbol of protection and is auspicious.

Most existing academic studies on this subject are about the comparisons between the Chinese loong and the western dragon (Yuan, 2015 ; Maguth and Wu, 2020 ), while few studies compare loong and naga in depth. As both China and Thailand belong to the East, it would seem that there is not much difference between them. There are also many young Chinese and Thai people who do not know the authentic features of loong and naga and often confuse them, however, they are different and they represent the regional cultures with unique characteristics. In this paper, loong and naga, which are national cultural symbols, are selected as case studies, to show the results of the interdisciplinary study of costume design and cross-cultural communication.

From perspectives of the intersection between cross-cultural design and the fashion domain, as well as the comparative analysis between the Chinese loong and the Thai naga, this study holds significance for the interdisciplinary research encompassing fashion, culture, sociology, and design.

Research methodology and process

Research design.

A cross-cultural costume design study on the Chinese dragon and the Thai naga as design objects requires an in-depth understanding of the characteristics and cultural connotations of Chinese loong and Thai naga, as well as the audience’s perceptions and views of them. The specific research objectives were divided into three sub-parts:

To comprehensively analyze the tangible and intangible cultural attributes of the loong and naga, identifying any similarities, differences, or potential connections between them.

To conduct an in-depth investigation into the audience’s cognition of the loong and naga, in order to identify the most appropriate design strategy that aligns with the audience’s fundamental needs for cultural communication.

To propose a well-structured guidance mode for costume design, incorporating cultural symbols to facilitate successful cross-cultural communication.

The cross-cultural inheritance and design transformation research of Chinese loong and Thai naga will be conducted through the following steps: Collecting and organizing information data related to Chinese loong and Thai naga respectively, to extract their explicit visual factors and implicit semantic factors, and building a cultural knowledge mapping database of the loong and naga. The next step is to investigate audiences’ background knowledge, cognition, and needs of loong and naga culture. Based on this, audiences can choose the optimal design factors from the previously established knowledge database. Design factors can then be synthesized and categorized and preference assessments conducted for target users in costume design transformation to generate a design strategy. Apparel is used as a medium, non-verbal communication to tell the story of the loong and naga. The research process is outlined in Fig. 2 . The research methodology integrates qualitative and quantitative approaches, including field investigations, participatory research, and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) analysis, thereby substantiating theoretical constructs through empirical investigation.

Research process.

Research methods and process

Basic knowledge collection.

Basic knowledge about the Chinese loong and Thai naga ranging from tangible features and intangible cultural meaning and contents respectively are acquired from literature analysis. This research phase provides the fundamental knowledge and information for the next step in research. Firstly, the history and current understanding of the historical background and cultural communication between Thailand and China are summarized; secondly, a theoretical base is provided for the next research with a preliminary and overall understanding of the source and culture of loong worship and naga worship.

Field trips combined with site visiting and observation, field experiments, and research are conducted through embedding into the local cultural environment in depth to observe and analyze the existing artworks, such as buildings, sculptures and textiles, within the local language context and environment. Both tangible and intangible characteristics of loong and naga can be analyzed using comparison and analysis methods. The field research framework is shown in Fig. 3 .

Field research framework.

Table 1 provides a summary of the cultural contents of loong and naga arising from findings from the field investigation, observation, and analysis of a significant quantity of artwork. The researchers did field visits around Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Sukhothai, Phitsanulok, Udonthani in Thailand to study about Naga culture. And visitied Beijing, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Shanghai, Nanjing, Shan Xi province in China. More than 800 pieces of art works about Loong and Naga were analyzed. In order to summarize the understanding of the dissemination while readers are given free reign of the research results, they are displayed in the form of tabulated entries. The table is divided into four columns, the first column is a summary of the cultural characteristics of the loong (shown in Table 1 ) and naga (shown in Table 2 ), the second column is a detailed description, the third column is their functions as symbols, and the fourth column is how it is presented in the artwork.

Stakeholders participation

In the context of cross-cultural research, a significant challenge arises from the inherent barriers between the principal researcher’s personal cultural inclinations and the nuanced cultural perspectives of the subjects under study. To circumvent potential cognitive biases introduced by designers or researchers, it is imperative to formulate a design strategy grounded in a comprehensive comprehension of the audience’s cognition. This research adopted participatory research, with a combination of interviews and workshops to determine audience perceptions and opinions. Table 3 provides a summary of the research approach adopted for stakeholders engagement and analysis.

Some characteristic examples of questions and the corresponding answers from the participants were as follow.

Question: Whether they know and what they think it is when showing some pictures about Thai naga.

Answer: “ I think it’s a loong, much like a loong, but looks like a snake .”

Question: Do you know what this is and how much do you know about it (when showing some pictures about Chinese loong)?

Answer: “ This is a loong, but I do not know much about it. I became acquainted with it through Chinese TV dramas, it symbolizes the emperor. They appear and look beautiful but cruel as well .”

Question: What do you think of the existing clothing design products that incorporate loong/naga; do you like it or not and the reasons?

Answer: “ I do not like because some of the products on the market nowadays use particularly figurative patterns as decorative elements, which look very traditional and the styles aren’t very nice, and I think it should be rejuvenated and casualised, perhaps more aligned with young people’s aesthetics ”

Question : In designing costumes incorporating loong and naga within a background of cross-cultural communication, what do you think should be developed?

Answer: “ I think we can’t just stop at the application of patterns, I hope we can show the story of loong and naga through different design series, and learn something about the culture of loong and naga through the clothing, maybe there should be two clothing series, one series about the Chinese loong, and one series about the Thai naga ”.

In comparison, the familiarity of Thai individuals with the Chinese loong symbol surpasses that of Chinese individuals with the Thai naga symbol. Both Chinese and Thai individuals exhibit a lack of awareness regarding the cultural totem symbols of the loong and naga, along with instances of cognitive misinterpretation. However, both groups acknowledge the significant cultural importance of these symbols within their respective cultural contexts, and there is a desire to acquire a deeper understanding of their significance. Regarding design requirements, it is desirable to incorporate a more comprehensive representation of cultural knowledge related to the loong and naga in clothing designs. This should encompass both explicit and implicit cultural elements. The aim is to showcase the distinctions and connections between the loong and naga symbols, thereby enhancing the portrayal of cultural depth within designs.

The next step in the research methodology was to let participants select the significant design factors. For data analysis, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was utilized. AHP, was originally proposed by the American operations researcher T.L. Saaty in the 1970s, and involves breaking down decision-making elements into multiple levels and factors (Yu et al., 2021 ). The fundamental steps of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) involve deconstructing complex decision problems into a structured hierarchy with interrelationships among its elements. Subsequently, the relative importance of criteria at the same level are compared pairwise, resulting in several judgment matrices. The next step entails calculating the relative importance weights of each element within the hierarchical criteria. Finally, by synthesizing the relative weights among criteria at different levels, the overall weights of all the criteria are determined (Russo and Camanho, 2015 ). Based on this weighting scheme, a comprehensive evaluation of the research problem can be conducted. The arising AHP data results are shown in Fig. 4a–c .

a AHP data results for the priority factors in the design incorporating the tangible characteristics of Chinese loong and Thai naga. b AHP data results for the priority factors in the design incorporating the tangible characteristics of Chinese loong and Thai naga. c AHP data results for the preferred design plan in the design incorporating the tangible characteristics of Chinese loong and Thai naga.

An analysis of the priority factors for the design transformation of the tangible characteristics of Chinese Loong and Thai naga

The raw data for the AHP (i.e., input data) are presented in Table 4 . The AHP data format follows the rule that the elements on the upper right and lower left diagonal are always equal to 1, indicating that the importance of an element to itself is completely equal; and the elements on the upper right and lower left sides are reciprocals of each other; The numerical values represent the relative importance between the criteria, with higher values indicating stronger relative importance.

When using AHP for weight calculation, it is necessary to conduct a consistency check to evaluate the consistency of the weight calculation results. This involves calculating the Consistency Ratio (CR) value (CR = CI/RI). Firstly, the CI value is obtained from the calculation, given by the formula CI = (λ_max − n)/(n − 1), where λ_max represents the maximum eigenvalue, and n is the order of the judgment matrix. Secondly, the RI value is determined based on the order of the judgment matrix. Thirdly, the CR value is calculated, and the consistency is assessed. Typically, a smaller CR value indicates better consistency in the judgment matrix. In general, if the CR value is less than 0.1, the judgment matrix passes the consistency check; however, if the CR value exceeds 0.1, it implies that the matrix lacks consistency, and appropriate adjustments should be made before further analysis. For this 7th-order judgment matrix, the computed CI value is 0.051, and the corresponding RI value from the table is 1.360. Therefore, the calculated CR value is 0.038, which is less than 0.1. This indicates that the judgment matrix in this study meets the consistency check, and the derived weights exhibit consistency (Ossadnik and Lange, 1999 ; Podvezko, 2009 ).

The research results indicate that the priority factors to be considered in the design transformation strategy of the tangible characteristics of Chinese loong and Thai naga are as follows: decoration form (33.00%)> decoration elements (18.63%)> body shape (16.43%)> movements (11.00%)> body details (8.02%)> color (7.46%)> organs (5.45%).

An analysis of the priority factors for the design transformation of the Intangible contents of Chinese loong and Thai naga

After applying the same calculation and analysis process, the results for the priority factors to be considered in the design incorporating the intangible contents of Chinese loong and Thai naga are: national philosophy (33.75%) symbol (27.95%) Beliefs (14.15%) Myth (7.66%) spiritual (9.24%) story (7.24%).

Regarding preferred design plan, the selection of respondents is as follows

Combination design of intangible meaning (25.32%) > Contrast design of intangible meaning (17.01%) >Combination design of tangible features (13.96%) > Contrast design of tangible features (10.84) > Costume design based on naga intangible meaning (9.03%) > Costume design based on loong intangible meaning (8.78%) > Costume design based on naga tangible features (7.53%) = Costume design based on loong tangible features (7.53%).

Design strategy and design application

Design strategy.

To achieve effective cross-cultural communication, fashion design works should integrate the audience’s cognition with the characteristics of “cultural symbols”. Merely focusing on the representational meaning of symbols without delving into their deeper cultural connotations may result in a shallow understanding and ultimately lead to a failure in genuine cross-cultural communication. For a more effective symbol dissemination, a multi-layer superposition of symbols is necessary. Based on the extensive literature discussion and analysis, the principal researcher has posited that fashion design serves as a medium for fostering integrated and harmonious cross-cultural communication. In this study, the theoretical framework of “decoding and encoding,” derived from Hall’s cultural communication theory ( 2007 ), is adopted as the principal guiding perspective, which is then integrated with the discipline of fashion design.

Communication, viewed as an “encoding-decoding” process, involves the secondary conversion of “symbol-meaning-design” and subsequently “design-meaning.” When the communicators belong to different “language systems,” the “encoding-decoding” process necessitates the intervention of a “translator,” which in this context is the fashion designer. Consequently, the presence of the designer introduces two consecutive “encoding-decoding” processes: The first approach involves the process of interpreting cultural symbols, encompassing symbols’ cultural information, semantic information, and presentation form. Subsequently, the designer re-encodes the decoded meaning and communicates it to the audiences, constituting a re-encoding process. In this process, the transmission of cultural information occurs through the medium of clothing, achieved through various aspects such as shape language, color language, pattern language, textile or material language, and texture language. The audience engages in a secondary cultural interpretation through clothing, and their individual perceptions are further communicated back to the designer. Throughout this process, the designer assumes a dual role, serving as both the recipient of the initial communication process and the disseminator in the subsequent communication process. Figure 5 illustrates the main concepts.

“Encoding-decoding” framework in cross cultural costume design.

After summarizing and analyzing the characteristics of the symbols, the audience’s conditions, and priority factors of design strategy, the researchers divided the design strategy into four layers, shown in Fig. 6 .

Design strategy.

The initial design stage draws inspiration from the graphic design tradition of loong and naga. The design elements involve the integration of loong and naga patterns into clothing. The objective is to effectively convey the audience’s understanding of loong and naga graphics. This represents the preliminary layer of the design process. The second stage of design practice emphasis is on the artistic application of loong and naga. Following an examination of artistic expressions within the fashion and textile application of their respective regions, the principal researcher employed a comparable creative approach to re-envision the loong and naga motifs, subsequently integrating them into garment design. This third design practice phase primarily focuses on elucidating the symbolic characteristics of the loong and naga as cultural symbols. This involves delving into the meanings, stories, and representations underlying these symbols. The design at this stage aims to fulfill the audience’s desire to gain a deeper understanding of the implicit knowledge associated with the loong and naga. The fourth stage of design directed attention towards the shared foundation conveyed by loong and naga in their capacities as national symbols. Beyond serving as artistic symbol alone, each national emblem stands as a tangible embodiment of the ancient populace’s ideologies, convictions, and reverence. Such totemic representations, often referred to as cultural symbols, genuinely encapsulate the profound philosophical essence of the nation. This culminates in the ultimate manifestation of “national culture” within the veneration of totemic symbols, simultaneously constituting the definitive substance to be conveyed in cross-cultural communication.

In essence, these four instances represent the process of “encoding.” Once the design strategy is established, the primary objective of the designer’s “encoding” lies in visually depicting the cultural values inherent in both cultural symbols for the audience. This visualization aids in facilitating the audience’s assimilation of cultural messages and information through fashion products, thereby fostering the desired degree of comprehension.

The process of design decoding involves purposeful composition, entailing the utilization of specific decoding principles to amalgamate a distinct “cultural code” aimed at communicating with the audience through attire. This integration of loong and naga cultural insights is accomplished through the clothing’s patterns, colors, structure, texture, materials, etc., effectively achieving the objective of dissemination cultural knowledge.

Design results

1st design phase: graphic practice.

The initial design phase focuses on the graphic design practice of loong and naga, involving the combination of their patterns on clothing. The primary purpose here is to acquaint the audience with the first image of loong and naga graphics. Adopting the “direct message” design style, the loong and naga motifs are combined and placed on the ready-to-wear designs. The design results are shown in Fig. 7 .

Design results for the 1st design phase.

2nd design phase: arts from application practice

This phase emphasizes the application of arts forms of loong and naga in the fashion design domain. Design results are shown in Fig. 8 . This phase involves analyzing the artistic creations prevalent in the fashion and textile industries of their respective countries, the clothing design techniques used include pattern translation and the use of lines in clothing silhouettes.

Design results from the 2nd design phase.

This choice prompted the development of a collection of designs influenced by the contemporary utilization of the loong pattern in costume design. While retaining the established loong pattern as an ornamental component, the design of the clothing incorporated the graceful lines evocative of loong motion, contributing to its progressive evolution. The resultant collection of designs found its roots in the modern-day incorporation of the loong pattern within costume design. Given the unchanging nature of the loong pattern, this collection’s design strategy involved retaining the loong pattern for decorative purposes, while concurrently integrating the flowing lines representative of loong movements into the clothing’s silhouette design.

The distinction between loong and naga design is notable due to the limited utilization of naga patterns in Thai costume design. In the realm of textiles, naga patterns find predominant application in products such as Paa chet, Paa sin, Paa Hom (shawls), as well as household articles such as quilt, pillows, bed sheets, and mosquito nets. By means of extensive on-site investigations and meticulous analysis, the researchers systematically categorized and scrutinized the arrangement of naga patterns. Given the distinctive nature of various textile techniques, naga patterns encompass a range of primary artistic expressions, including geometric metamorphoses, abstract artistic depictions, and figurative artistic elements (Yixin Zou and Joneurairatana, 2021 ). Drawing inspiration from these artistic genres, the researcher adopted a methodology of reimagining and reconfiguring naga patterns. Considering the prevalent use of naga patterns in textiles, the integration of these patterns into garment design materializes primarily in knitted apparel. The attire’s design amalgamates an “H” shape and an “O” shape, resulting in an overall esthetic that conveys elements of contemporary fashion and youthful vibrancy.

3rd design practice: multiple layers of symbolization

In conceptual design, each component exists in an abstract and indistinct discrete state. This characteristic not only contributes to the intricacy of the design process but also allows for adaptability in the final products, thus affording designers a wide expanse of creative ideation. The conceptual design stage represents a foundational cornerstone of product innovation, and within this stage, the innovation in materials or fabrics assumes a pivotal role in realizing the precise manifestation of the conceptual design. In the realm of costume design, a multitude of avenues exist for expressing attire, including exploration of fabric design and pioneering production techniques such as material embellishments. Results from the third phase of design are shown in Fig. 9 .

Design results for the 3rd design phase.

The differentiation between the loong and naga lies in the loong’s composite form, incorporating traits from various animals alongside its serpentine aspect. Despite differing depictions of its appearance, it is widely acknowledged that the loong’s portrayal involves a fusion of numerous animal attributes, including “deer antlers, camel head, snake neck, clam belly, fish scales, eagle talons, tiger paws, and ox ears.” As articulated by Wen Yi-Duo ( 2009 ) in “Inquiring into Fuxi and Fuxi Culture,” the loong stands as a metaphysical entity existing solely within the realm of totemic representations rather than in the natural world, as it constitutes a intricate amalgamation of distinct totemic elements. However, on a more profound level, the essence of loong culture encapsulates the spiritual significance of the traditional Chinese virtue of unity. It is apparent that the initial image of the loong symbolized the unity and resilience of the Chinese nation. Moreover, the loong is intricately linked with the feudal imperial authority in Chinese history. Now it evolves into a symbol of Chinese people. Through the study of loong culture, several pivotal design themes emerge, including Imperial authority, auspiciousness, unity, and protection.

In the context of naga worship, the naga symbolizes the deity of rain and water. The notion of the “rain deity,” responsible for bestowing life, seasons, and prosperity, it also represents inhabitants residing along the banks of the Mekong River. Possessing a serpentine form, the naga may sometimes be depicted with feet and an invincible potency. Certain nagas are believed to possess the ability to reciprocate kindness and exhibit caution against wrongdoing. The foundation for these variations in beliefs can be traced back to their moral education encompassing concepts of virtue and malevolence. Furthermore, the naga holds the aspect of being a “guardian.” The propagation of Indian religious influences into Thailand left an impact on the ruling elite, leading to a transformation in the cultural significance associated with the naga. Consequently, four pivotal thematic components emerge from the conceptual design of the naga: water, beneficial and harmful, morality, and guardian.

4th design practice: cultural context design

Both the loong and naga as the representatives of national cultural symbols transcend their artistic representation, encapsulating the genuine portrayal of ancient individuals’ ideologies, convictions, and worship. Functioning as cultural icons, they encapsulate profound national philosophical principles, embodying the definitive embodiment of “national culture” through totemic symbol veneration, and serving as the quintessential content for cross-cultural communication. This stage encompasses the fourth instance of “encoding,” involving the transmission of cultural messages. Arising design results are shown in Fig. 10 .

Design results for the 4th design phase.

Origin of life

Within Chinese and Thai cultures, the ancestral notion and practice of “snake worship” holds a significant place. Early animal veneration and mythological narratives predominantly sprang from human imagination, tailored to address emotional necessities. This amalgamation of artistic and non-artistic elements forms not only an artistic medium but also delves into philosophical realms. Totemic worship, in the form of art, enables humans to seek self-preservation by nurturing the inner spiritual wellspring essential for a nation’s survival and progress. This rationale clarifies the underlying rationale for the “S-curve line” evident in the body contours of loong and naga. In this sequence of design, the researchers, in their capacity as designers, have built upon the foundational visage of loong and naga, employing the “metaphor” technique to incorporate the snake imagery into clothing.

The myths surrounding loong and naga share common elements, notably their capability to control water and rainfall. Philosophically, the serpent has been likened to the “tree of life.” Furthermore, the serpent is not solely an animal; it is also the progenitor of humanity and tribes. Water held immense significance for ancient civilizations as it nurtured life and gave rise to societies. In Thai narratives, the naga symbolizes the Mekong River (Tu, 2007 ). Similarly, in Chinese stories, loongs inhabit the sea and reign as sovereigns of the ocean. The design sketch amalgamates the themes of rainfall and loong’s and naga’s scales. A translucent PVC overcoat conveys the divinity and enigma encapsulated by these mythical beings. The ensemble holistically represents the interconnectedness of loong and naga with life and water. The sample crafting technique involves heating organza yarn to induce creases, followed by a hot-pressing process to affix it to foil and Tyvek. Varied temperatures during the heating process produce distinct wrinkle patterns in the Tyvek material.

Notions of harmony between humanity and nature

As human civilization progressed, ancient cultures have transitioned in their concept of the connection between humans and the universe, nature, and life. In Chinese culture, the concept of “relationship” aligns with the “Way” in Taoism, representing a mode of thought concerning the underlying principles running all things. Both loong and naga possess the capacity to control water and fire, embodying symbols of good agriculture harvest. Beyond this, they serve as intermediaries through which humans commune with the heaven. Loong and naga symbolically encompass the elements of water, fire, air, and earth (associated with cultivation). Over time, this symbolism evolved from “water” to encapsulate these “four elements.” In philosophy, these elements form the basis of the world, underscoring the symbiotic rapport between humanity and the natural world (Macauley, 2010 ). Among these elements, “water” and “fire” stand as opposites, forming a harmonious interplay alongside “air” and “earth.” In Chinese Taoism, a dictum encapsulates the world’s functioning: “The Word begets one, one begets two, two begets three, and three begets everything. Everything carries Shade on its back and Shine in its arms, the opposites tending to harmony” (Liu, 2008 ). Buddhist ideology, on the other hand, posits that “all the four elements are void.” Buddhism concurs that the world is constituted by four elements—earth, water, fire, and wind—integrating them with the human physique. The earth corresponds to solid materials like bones and muscles; water pertains to liquids such as blood and sweat; wind signifies human respiration and internal airflow; fire equates to temperature, denoting body heat (Jiyu, 2010 ). Both Taoism and Buddhism epitomize the wisdom of ancient cultures regarding the harmonious among nature, the universe, and humans.

This collection of costumes simplifies the symbols representing the four elements—“fire, water, air, and earth.” All the garments convey notions of inclusiveness and equilibrium. Moreover, this series of attire employs the “metaphor” technique to convey the ancient human’s imaginative comprehension of loong and naga, rooted in their profound reverence and contemplation of the natural world. The abilities attributed to loongs and nagas mirror the limited understanding ancient civilizations had of nature, coupled with their aspiration for a harmonious rapport between humanity and the natural realm.

The four stages of design practice a stepwise evolution built upon insights arising from preceding phases. Concluding the research, the cumulative sequence of designs can be distilled into four strata of symbolic exploration, as depicted in Fig. 11 . The initial stratum, termed the “Contact” layer, centers on the visual portrayal of symbols. This encompasses the graphical medium and mode of presentation for these symbols, designed to be easily embraced and comprehended by the general populace. Conversely, the second phase, designated as the “arts form application” layer, delves into the pragmatic implementation of symbols. This involves streamlined symbol depictions, and their utilization across diverse artistic mediums, including fashion, painting, and sculpture. In the third layer, the “Multiple Semantic”, emphasis shifts towards delving beyond the mere visual aspects of symbols. This stage involves delving into the evolutionary trajectory of symbols and their underlying profound connotations, encompassing spiritual implications, mythical narratives, and other cultural elements that grant them recognition as “etiquettes and rules.” Lastly, titled the “Cultural Context Layer,” delves into the core of symbol significance, which is the cultural context encompassing the represented “values” and national philosophy. This layer uncovers the factual substance underlying the evolution of symbol culture, necessitating thorough exploration and insight.

Four strata of symbolic exploration.

Whether conducting a unidirectional cultural symbol design exploration or engaging in a multi-faceted cross-cultural inquiry, these four strata of knowledge stand as invaluable points of reference. They offer a framework for uncovering the profound cultural implications spanning diverse dimensions.

This research demonstrates through design practice that a well-established fashion design research methodology will empower fashion designers to convey concealed cultural aspects while satisfying the esthetic preferences of their audience. Thus, this study represents a research case that harmoniously integrates theory, practice, and methodological exploration. In combination with conventional research methodologies, participatory research is integrated through a combination of interviews and design workshops. AHP Hierarchical Analysis was applied to perform weighting analysis of the elements in order to obtain more appropriate alternatives. This integration allows for the acquisition of objective quantitative data, subjective emotional insights, and guidance for design strategies.

Compared with Volonté ( 2012 ) and other studies on cross-cultural fashion design, this study provides new insights in theory and methodology, applying the theory of “dual coding” to cross-cultural costume design, proposing a multilevel and multifaceted interaction between the “cultural content—language of costume design” and “the designer—the audience”. It also uncovers the process of interpreting ethnic totemic symbols such as the Chinese loong and Thai naga across multiple levels, progressing from representation to extension and then delving into intrinsic meaning. This study is consistent with some of the views of Farshid Nik ( 2020 ), the difference being that in addition to iconography study, this study has been expanded by incorporating semiotic theories, and proposes four levels of totemic cultural symbols a contact layer, an application layer, a multiple semantic layer and a cultural context layer, where the interpretation of symbols at each level is consistent with the views of Stamatopoulou et al. ( 2016 ) and Shelestiuk ( 2003 ) for the perception of cultural symbols, but enriches the understanding of cultural symbols from a design thinking perspective. Moreover, the utilization of distinct fabrics and materials further adds to the diversity of approaches, thereby offering valuable insights for design praxis.

There are certain limitations within this study. The current discussion lacks depth when compared to scholars in sociological or cultural studies, and the opportunity exists to incorporate Pierre Bourdieu’s thinking on cultural transmission (Lizardo, 2011 ) and Edward T. Hall’s intercultural study ( 1976 ) for a more in-depth critical theoretical study in future research. Beyond that, the paper has not investigated of the target audience’s feedback about the final design works. There is also a lack of more systematic and diverse design practices regarding loong and naga. To address this gap, future research could propose a systematic design of loong and naga, such as serial development and research of products and services that are compatible with esthetics, function, perception, and value. In this process, a systematic inquiry into the audience’s perspectives can be conducted. This iterative process of collecting audience feedback will culminate in a closed loop of multiple encoding and decoding cycles in order to influence people’s viewpoints and perceptions from the perspective clothing as non-verbal language and realize the audience’s understanding of traditional cultural symbols and respective about other cultures in diverse cultural backgrounds.

Data availability

The datasets generated or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This paper is a phased research result of the 2023 Youth project of Guangdong Philosophy and Social Science Planning , entitled “Research on Guangdong virtual fashion innovation design and service system under the background of digital economy” (Project number: GD23YYS03). And a phased research result of the Guangzhou Philosophy and Social Science Development “14th Five-Year Plan” 2023 Co-construction Subjects , entitled “Innovation design of Guangzhou garment industry under the background of digital economy: elements, paths and approaches” (Project number: 2023GZGJ296). It is also the phased research result of joint research conducted with Tsinghua-ANTA Joint research center for sports fashion .

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YXZ conceived the ideas, investigation design, data analyzation, interpretation of the results, drafted and edited the manuscript. CZ contributed part of conception of the study, manuscript reviewing, and revising, including the structure adjustment and figures fixing. PC performed part of conception of the study and manuscript revisions, and oversight responsibility for the research activity planning and execution. DBL provided continuous support and helped perform the analysis with constructive discussions.

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The research interview and methodology were examined, approved, and endorsed by the Science and Technology Ethics Committee of Guangdong University of Technology. The ethical approval number is GDUTXS2023238. The study meets the requirements of the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2007). The procedures used in this study adhere to the tents of the declaration of Helsinki.

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Zou, Y., Zhao, C., Childs, P. et al. Cross-cultural design in costume: case study on totemic symbols of China and Thailand. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11 , 1263 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03707-w

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Analysis of changes in river connectivity during the urbanization process: a case study of the southeastern plain of Yinzhou, China

• Published: 26 September 2024
• Volume 196 , article number  982 , ( 2024 )

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• Miao Lu 3 ,
• Yinjiang Sang 4 ,
• Youpeng Xu 1 &
• Lachun Wang 1  

Affected by human activities, the naturally occurring river network in the southeastern plain of Yinzhou has gradually evolved into a natural–artificial composite water system, and changes in river connectivity due to changes in river network systems have caused water security problems, including urban flooding. To clarify the river connectivity change and its relationship with the urbanization process, this paper discusses an evaluation method for river connectivity based on complex networks and cellular automata (CA) from the perspective of complex systems, quantitatively analyzes the spatial–temporal characteristics of the structural and functional river connectivity in the study area during the 1990s–2020s, and reveals the impact of river nodes and chains on the connectivity level under the disturbance of natural or human factors. The results contained the following revelations: ① River connectivity showed a decreasing trend in the initial and rapid development stages of urbanization from the 1990s to the 2010s and a limited increasing trend in the optimization and upgrading stages from the 2010s to the 2020s. ② River network degradation and ongoing connectivity decline are found in the northeastern part of the study area. The highest river connectivity exists in Dongqianhukaifaqu. ③ The number of river nodes and chains should be maintained at approximately 80% for normal river connectivity. The nodes of high degree in the inflow area are listed in the key protection areas. ④ Changes in river connectivity are significantly correlated with the urbanization process. Changes in the functional connectivity level affect the magnitude of a flood. This study provides a theoretical basis for river network connectivity improvement and flood prevention in plain areas.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editors for their profound comments, which helped us improve the quality of this paper.

This research was funded by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Science [grant number XDA230402], the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 42001025], and the Natural Science Foundation of Ningbo Municipality [grant number 2023J133].

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Pan, Y., Xu, Y., Lu, M. et al. Analysis of changes in river connectivity during the urbanization process: a case study of the southeastern plain of Yinzhou, China. Environ Monit Assess 196 , 982 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-024-13121-z

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A hybrid type II effectiveness-implementation trial of a positive emotion regulation intervention among people living with HIV engaged in Ryan White Medical Case Management: protocol and design for the ORCHID study

• Casey D. Xavier Hall 1 , 2 , 3 ,
• Kristen Ethier 4 ,
• Peter Cummings 3 ,
• Angela Freeman 3 , 5 ,
• Katrin Bovbjerg 3 ,
• Jacqueline Bannon 3 ,
• Andrea Dakin 5 ,
• Fay Abujado 5 ,
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• Lakethia Patterson 5 ,
• Lisa R. Hirschhorn 3 ,
• Alida Bouris 6 , 7 &
• Judith T. Moskowitz   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1399-3318 3  

Trials volume  25 , Article number:  631 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

Metrics details

The Ryan White Medical Case Management System, which serves more than half of people living with HIV (PLWH) in the USA, is an opportune setting for identifying and addressing depression among PLWH. A growing body of research suggests that interventions that promote positive emotion may lessen symptoms of depression and improve physical and psychological well-being among people experiencing a variety of health-related stress, including living with HIV. Research on how best to integrate standardized mental health screening and referral to evidence-based interventions in Ryan White Medical Case Management settings has the potential to improve the health and wellbeing of PLWH.

This mixed-methods study will enroll up to N  = 300 Ryan White clients who screen positive for depressive symptoms in ORCHID (Optimizing Resilience and Coping with HIV through Internet Delivery), a web-based, self-guided positive emotion regulation intervention. The study will be conducted in 16 Ryan White Medical Case Management clinics in Chicago, IL. Following pre-implementation surveys and interviews with Medical Case Managers (MCMs) and Supervisors to develop an implementation facilitation strategy, we will conduct a hybrid type 2 implementation-effectiveness stepped wedge cluster randomized trial to iteratively improve the screening and referral process via interviews with MCMs in each wedge. We will test the effectiveness of ORCHID on depression and HIV care outcomes for PLWH enrolled in the program. RE-AIM is the implementation outcomes framework and the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research is the implementation determinants framework.

Study findings have the potential to improve mental health and substance use screening of Ryan White clients, decrease depression and improve HIV care outcomes, and inform the implementation of other evidence-based interventions in the Ryan White Medical Case Management System.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05123144. Trial registered 6/24/2021

Peer Review reports

Depression is common among people living with HIV (PLWH) [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. A meta-analysis of 118 studies from 2000 to 2018 demonstrated that the global estimated prevalence rate of depression was 31% (95% CI: 28–34%) among PLWH [ 4 ], with another meta-analysis estimating 41% [ 5 ]. Further, depression is underdiagnosed among PLWH underscoring the need for systematic screening in clinical settings [ 6 , 7 ]. Depression is a barrier to optimal engagement in, and success with, HIV care [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ]. For example, Gonzalez et al. [ 12 ] found that depression was significantly associated with HIV treatment nonadherence among 95 distinct samples of PLWH. Additionally, PLWH with untreated depression have a lower level of sustained viral suppression compared to those without depression or those receiving antidepressants [ 13 ].

Despite elevated rates of depression among PLWH and the documented deleterious associations with HIV progression [ 14 ], PLWH often lack access to adequate mental health screening [ 6 ] and treatment [ 7 , 15 ]. In response, practitioners and researchers have called for universal mental health screening among PLWH and increased access to treatment options [ 16 , 17 ]. Screening guidelines highlight the need for brief screening tools with high-burden populations, including PLWH experiencing trauma, violence, and other structural inequalities that can limit mental health screening and treatment access [ 18 ].

Once a mental health challenge is identified, there is an ethical imperative to provide evidence-based interventions to address mental health needs and well-being [ 16 ]. A growing body of evidence suggests that targeting the ability to experience and maintain positive emotion in the context of stress (rather than targeting the reduction of depression, stress, and negative emotion) is a promising approach to promoting physical and psychological adjustment when coping with a chronic illness [ 19 , 20 ]. Grounded in theory [ 21 , 22 ] and building on empirical links between positive affect and adaptive outcomes for people coping with significant stress, we developed an intervention that focuses on skills for increasing the frequency of positive affect for people coping with health-related or other life stress [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]. Our Positive Pathways to Health theoretical model [ 29 ] posits that increased positive affect has a range of proximal effects, such as providing a timeout from stress [ 30 ], prompting more adaptive coping strategies [ 21 ], broadened attention and cognition, and increased behavioral action tendencies [ 22 ], as well as reduced emotional reactivity to daily stress and strengthened social relationships, all of which lead to reduced depression [ 20 , 29 ]. This reduction, in turn, predicts better physiological functioning (e.g., quicker autonomic recovery after a stressful event) [ 20 , 31 , 32 ] and greater adherence to recommended health behaviors [ 33 , 34 , 35 ], which ultimately lead to improved physical and psychological well-being. In concert with the rapidly growing literature on the social, cognitive, psychological, and health benefits of positive affect, our theoretical model argues strongly for programs that increase positive affect as an approach for mitigating depression, stress, and distress, and subsequently increasing the likelihood of beneficial health behaviors, ultimately improving physical health.

Among PLWH, positive emotion, separately from depression, predicts a slower progression of disease [ 14 , 36 ], improves medication adherence [ 33 , 37 ], and is associated with a greater likelihood of attaining a suppressed viral load [ 38 ]. In a previous randomized controlled trial conducted by our group, we found that sexual minority men (SMM) who endorsed substance abuse randomly assigned to a positive emotion skills intervention had lower viral load, increased positive affect, and reduced drug use when compared to SMM in an attention-control condition [ 39 ]. A separate trial showed that online delivery of the intervention resulted in decreased depression in a general population sample with elevated depressive symptoms [ 40 , 41 ]. Finally, pilot testing of ORCHID (Optimizing Resilience and Coping with HIV through Internet Delivery), our self-guided, online, positive emotion regulation intervention, demonstrated feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy among PLWH with co-occurring depression [ 42 ].

The present paper describes the protocol for a hybrid type II effectiveness-implementation stepped wedge cluster randomized trial (SW-CRT) [ 43 ] of a clinic-based behavioral health screening and referral to ORCHID, a 6-week online positive emotion regulation intervention for people living with co-morbid HIV and depression. The study aims are to: (1) determine the effects of ORCHID on the primary outcome of depression symptoms and the secondary outcomes of retention in care, adherence to antiretroviral therapies (ART), viral suppression, and substance use; and (2) evaluate and iteratively refine the implementation strategies to support widespread adoption of mental health screening and the ORCHID intervention in Ryan White Medical Case Management settings.

We will use two implementation frameworks, each with distinct purposes aligned with study aims. The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), a meta-theoretical framework based on 19 implementation theories and models, will be the determinants framework [ 44 ] to help us understand factors that determine implementation effectiveness. CFIR focuses on five domains: (1) the characteristics of the intervention ; (2) the inner setting, i.e., where the intervention is implemented ; (3) the outer setting, i.e., factors exogenous to the implementation setting ; (4) the individuals involved in implementing the intervention ; and (5) the implementation process [ 44 ] . In addition, we will use RE-AIM [ 45 ] as the evaluation framework to structure the factors on which we evaluate the success of the program. Like CFIR [ 44 ], RE-AIM is a widely used implementation outcomes framework [ 46 ] that focuses on five domains: Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance . In applying both frameworks, we will conduct cross-sectional and longitudinal mixed-methods research with MCMs and other clinical leaders to evaluate key implementation parameters, identify relevant implementation facilitators and barriers, and adapt the implementation strategy over the course of the trial.

In preparation for the stepped wedge trial, we conducted a sequential, explanatory mixed-methods study with medical case managers (MCMs) and supervisors across the network of 16 participating clinics. Through surveys with MCMs and supervisors followed by in-depth interviews, we identified barriers and facilitators to implementation and developed a set of initial implementation strategies. Please see Stump et al. for a full discussion of the methods and results of the pre-implementation research [ 47 ].

Materials and methods

The study is taking place in 16 Ryan White Medical Case Management Clinics in Chicago, IL. All participating clinics are part of the Northeastern Illinois HIV/AIDS Case Management Collaborative (the Collaborative), which is coordinated by AIDS Foundation Chicago (AFC), a study partner. AFC has led and coordinated the Collaborative since 1989. Through the Collaborative, AFC offers central administration and coordination to Ryan White Parts A and B funded clinics, including (1) standardized policies and procedures across sites, (2) intake and needs assessments, (3) standardized training and technical assistance, and (4) direct data entry of client-level reporting. Clinics that provide Ryan White medical case management but are not part of the Collaborative were not included in the study.

Behavioral health screener

AFC developed a behavioral health screener that includes standardized assessments of depression symptoms [ 48 ], anxiety symptoms [ 49 ], post-traumatic stress symptoms [ 50 ], alcohol use [ 51 ], and substance abuse [ 52 ]. Clients who screen positive for depression symptoms, as measured by the PHQ-9, are eligible to be referred to ORCHID.

ORCHID is a 6-week self-guided online positive emotion regulation intervention for PLWH. Hosted and maintained on the BrightOutcome platform, ORCHID teaches and reinforces a set of skills week by week, including savoring positive events, gratitude, mindfulness, positive reappraisal, personal strengths, goal setting, and acts of kindness. These skills and sessions have been described in-depth elsewhere [ 28 , 39 , 42 , 53 ] (see Table  1 ). The intervention begins with an overview of the philosophies and structure of the course and presents a new skill or set of skills each week. This content is accompanied by daily practice, such as mindfulness exercises and gratitude journaling, as well as an instrument for brief emotion reporting.

Stepped wedged cluster randomized trial (SW-CRT)

Data collection will follow a stepped-wedge cluster design to recruit up to 300 PLWH receiving care at 16 Ryan White Medical Case Management clinics in Chicago, IL, USA. Recruitment for the evaluation of ORCHID effectiveness will last from the beginning of each wedge through the duration of the study. The 16 Ryan White clinics with co-located medical services were grouped into three clusters for randomization to timing of implementation of mental health screening + referral to ORCHID. We randomized groups using a modified constrained randomization process for cluster-based design [ 76 ] to ensure balance according to 12 baseline-level criteria pre-specified before randomization. The criteria included size, location, and other factors likely to influence the success of implementation as elucidated in the surveys and focus groups in the pre-implementation work [ 47 ]. Using this method, practices were randomly assigned into one of three wedges, and then the balance across waves was checked for those 12 criteria. Using REDCap, we simulated 30,000 randomization schemes, and of those, 15 distinct schemes met balancing criteria; from those 15, one was randomly selected for use in the project.

Each wedge will last approximately 12 months. See Fig.  1 . Cluster assignment was concealed to participating clinics up until the start of the trial with trial recruitment starting in Oct 2021.

Scheme for stepped wedge cluster randomized trial

Behavioral health screening

All PLWH over age 18 receiving care at one of the participating Ryan White clinics are offered a behavioral health screener at intake. Should a client score above the clinical threshold on any scale, they are scheduled to complete the questionnaire every 6 months [ 47 ]. If clients score below the threshold or decline the screener, they are offered the screener again after 12 months. The behavioral health screener is being rolled out as standard care across the full network and is used for other referrals, in addition to ORCHID.

ORCHID study participants and recruitment

Clients with a PHQ-9 [ 48 ] score ≥ 5 on the behavioral screener are eligible for referral to ORCHID. MCMs provide a link to the study website and the study phone number to eligible clients, who then complete an online screener in REDCap in English or Spanish prior to consent and participation which includes: previous participation in the study, zip code, and whether the client has daily access to the internet.

ORCHID study retention

We plan a multi-pronged approach to ensure acceptable rates of retention in the study. First, we will work with AFC to re-contact participants enrolled in ORCHID who are lost to follow-up. AFC oversees all the Ryan White MCMs and will attempt to recontact participants through them. Second, we will work with the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health at Northwestern which has been successful in attaining high rates of retention (> 80%) for online HIV prevention interventions in high-risk populations [ 77 ]. Finally, we will use participant locator software such as Alumni Finder and Lexus Nexus to find hard-to-reach participants.

Potential Harms: The risks of participating in ORCHID are minimal. In past research, the research team has not observed any participants experiencing serious or lasting distress in response to similar interventions or assessments. The intervention has been user-tested to remove any material/content that might be upsetting or insensitive, to reduce the chances of using those questions in future versions. Therefore, the risk of discomfort is extremely low.

Nonetheless, ORCHID study staff who are interacting with participants or monitoring their responses to study procedures must be alert to indicators of elevated distress or possible suicidality. If an ORCHID study staff member observes a possible sign of significant distress and/or suicidal ideation, they will follow a standard protocol to record details of the interaction, working together with designated team members to evaluate the severity of the situation, generate a tailored response, and complete final responding and reporting.

Participants who enroll in ORCHID will complete self-report assessments at baseline, post intervention (approximately 8 weeks later), and 6 months, and 12 months post-intervention (See Fig. 2 ).

SPIRIT Figure for a hybrid type II effectiveness-implementation trial of a positive emotion regulation intervention. *This study used a Stepped-Wedge Design meaning that 3 different clusters of clinics received the intervention in 3 different consecutive years (Wedge 1–3) see Fig.  1 ** T 2  = immediately post intervention (8 weeks), T 3  = 6 months post intervention, T 4  = 12 months post intervention. *** These will be derived from health records in aggregate by clinic see Measures

The primary effectiveness outcome is depression, as measured by depressive symptoms with the PROMIS CAT Depression scale [ 53 ]. Secondary outcomes are retention in care and viral suppression based on data from clinic EHRs. Retention in care is operationalized as the percentage of patients living with HIV with at least 2 encounters (> 89 days apart) within 12 months divided by the total number of patients living with HIV who had at least one medical encounter within 12 months [ 78 ] and viral suppression is operationalized following recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control [ 79 ], i.e., ≤ 200 RNA copies/mL defined. Secondary outcomes also include self-report measures of ARV adherence and engagement in HIV care. We will assess adherence over the past 30 days using a visual analog scale which is strongly correlated with objective measures of adherence [ 80 ]. For each HIV medication prescribed, the participant is asked to indicate how much of each drug they have taken in the past 30 days from 0 to 100%. In addition, we will ask how many doses were missed in the last week [ 81 ]. All measures are shown in Table  2 . We will also examine maintenance of effects at the clinic level by examining changes in clinic-level viral suppression and engagement in care at the beginning and ending of each wedge as well as through the end of the study period.

Effectiveness analysis

Effectiveness analyses will examine the effect of ORCHID on depression symptoms and key secondary outcomes, with analyses occurring at both the individual and clinic levels. In modeling individual depressive symptoms, we will utilize multilevel latent growth curve modeling [ 104 ] to estimate adjusted latent growth curves while accounting for nesting of observations both with clusters and individuals over time [ 104 , 105 ]. Similarly, viral load will be evaluated using a piecewise multilevel growth model [ 106 ]. The primary analysis will utilize multiple imputation leveraging baseline data to estimate missing values for those participants who are missing observations [ 107 , 108 ]. In addition, a sensitivity analysis will compare this approach to listwise or pairwise deletion [ 109 ]. All analyses will be completed using Mplus [ 110 ]. At the clinic level, we will compare clinics where the intervention has been implemented (intervention clinics) to those where it has not yet been implemented (control clinics). We will use Wilcoxon signed-rank tests comparing rates of viral suppression by clinic before and after the introduction of the intervention [ 111 , 112 ].

Power analysis was conducted simulation in R [ 113 ] using variation in potential sample and effect sizes to estimate potential power to detect effects, assuming 16 clinics, a small intraclass correlation within sites (ICC = 0.05), and a substantial ICC within individuals (ICC = 0.30). We estimate that with 300 participants and a medium effect size for change in depression ( d  = 0.40), the study has sufficient power sufficient power (0.806) to detect a significant effect, with substantial power (0.950) to detect large effect sizes ( d  = 0.60) as found in our previous studies.

Implementation of evaluation procedures and participants

We will conduct an iterative mixed-methods evaluation of the implementation of the questionnaire and referral to ORCHID.

Qualitative interviews

We will conduct individual, in-depth interviews guided by the CFIR [ 44 ] with MCMs and supervisors in an active wedge at approximately 8 months post-implementation. The goal of the interviews is to understand barriers and facilitators to implementing the screener and referral to ORCHID to generate potential modifications to improve the implementation strategy package for the next cluster, as well as for future scalability and dissemination. MCMs and supervisors will be invited to participate in a confidential interview via email and provide informed consent via REDCap [ 114 ]. Interviews will be conducted via Zoom by trained members of the study team. Interviewers will take field notes [ 115 ] for each interview using a structured template designed to capture implementation facilitators, barriers, and insights, thereby capturing qualitative impressions and important implementation insights in real time [ 116 ]. All MCMs and supervisors who complete an interview will receive a $50 incentive in the form of a gift card. We also will track the response rate of MCMs and Supervisors who agree to participate, as well as reasons for refusal when provided.

Qualitative data analysis

Rapid qualitative methods are a pragmatic and robust approach to analyzing implementation data that can produce actionable and timeline insights [ 117 , 118 ]. To start, we will analyze the field notes using the Stanford Lightning Report Method (SLRM) [ 119 ], a rapid qualitative synthesis method that organizes implementation data into three categories: (1) the plus: implementation facilitators or the factors that are working well, (2) the delta: barriers to implementation or the factors that need to change, and (3) insights: any implementation insights, recommendations or changes derived from the data or evaluators. Using the SLRM in real time will enable the team to quickly synthesize implementation barriers and facilitators and to identify potential changes to implementation strategies [ 116 ].

We will supplement this approach with Rapid Qualitative Analysis (RQA) [ 120 , 121 ] of the transcripts. RQA is a rigorous, team-based approach to analyzing qualitative implementation data in order to produce actionable insights and outcomes. We will start with a structured template that follows the qualitative guides and facilitates rapid identification of key themes. Next, we will develop an analytic matrix that summarizes key findings and relevant quotes across transcripts. This approach, which we used in our pre-implementation research, has been found to be as rigorous as traditional qualitative analysis [ 118 ].

Implementation strategy adaptations

We will use the SLRM and RQA findings to identify the need for any adaptations or additions to the implementation strategy package used to support the referral and behavioral screener in each clinic wedge. All strategy adaptations will be recorded and reported in accordance to the Framework for Reporting Adaptations and Modifications to Evidence-based Implementation Strategies (FRAME-IS) [ 122 ]. For instance: initially, participants needed to be able to read English but in response to feedback from the initial set of clinics, we translated the platform and all materials into Spanish so that Spanish-speaking participants are now eligible.

Implementation outcome data tracking and data analysis

The majority of the data collected under RE-AIM is quantitative. With the exception of our effectiveness analyses, many of the analyses will be descriptive in order to provide quantitative perspectives on each outcome.

For mental health screening, we will measure the total number who are screened and referred. We will also compare characteristics (e.g., age, race/ethnicity, gender) of those who are screened to the population of patients in the clinic, and we will compare those who enroll in ORCHID to those who screened with elevated depression but did not enroll. We will also track the characteristics of those who refuse enrollment and those who withdraw or are lost to follow-up. We will use t-tests or chi-square tests to compare differences between targeted populations and those who enroll, with a Holm-modified Bonferroni correction to control for experiment-wise error rates, which minimizes both types I and II error rates [ 123 ].

AFC will track the characteristics of clients who have appointments during the study period, those who are offered the behavioral health screener (MCM adoption), those who accept the Behavioral Health Screener (acceptability), and those who are eligible for and referred to (ORCHID staff adoption) and enrolled in ORCHID (client adoption). From these data, we can calculate adoption at the MCM, clinic, and client levels.

Implementation

Implementation includes the fidelity to the protocol delivery. With an online intervention such as ORCHID, delivery is highly consistent but we will track other aspects of implementation including indicators of fidelity, such as the percentage of ORCHID participants who complete the intervention sessions and the associated home practice (all data is tracked on the BrightOutcome platform).

At the study end, MCMs will be asked to complete a survey assessing acceptability, feasibility, and appropriateness of the behavioral health screener and referral to ORCHID using three brief scales that assess perspectives on intervention appeal and acceptability, how well the questionnaire and referral to ORCHID fits with MCM’s work, and the overall ease of implementing the questionnaire and referral process [ 124 ].

Maintenance

At the study end, MCMs will complete a survey assessing the potential for sustainability of the behavioral health screener and referral of ORCHID with the Clinical Sustainability Assessment Tool (CSAT), which assesses perceptions of organizational capacity to sustain the implementation of a new clinical practice in the future, including the organization’s ability to respond and adapt new practices in response to the dynamic contexts of any service environment [ 125 ]. The CSAT consists of 7 subscales with five items each that measure perceptions of (1) staff and leadership engagement, (2) key stakeholder engagement, (3) organizational readiness, (4) workflow integration, (5) implementation and training, (6) monitoring and evaluation, and (7) outcomes and effectiveness [ 124 ]. All items are assessed on a 1  =  to little or no extent to 7  =  a great extent [ 125 ].

In addition to the effectiveness outcome measured in the primary trial, clients will be asked the extent to which they continue to practice the skills they learned in ORCHID and any barriers to continued engagement.

Oversight and monitoring

The team overseeing and monitoring the trial consists of roughly 22 individuals who meet on a weekly basis and represent three major institutions: Northwestern University, University of Chicago, and AIDS Foundation of Chicago. The DSMB for this study is comprised of roughly 3 individuals who are external to the three aforementioned institutions. The DSMB meets at a minimum annually. The DSMB is independent of the sponsor and does not have competing interests. The charter for the DSMB is available on request. There is not a Stakeholder Public Involvement Group for this trial.

Data security

All quantitative data will be collected via secure HIPAA-compliant platforms such as REDCap. Data shared by AFC to academic partners will be de-identified and aggregated. Qualitative transcripts will be de-identified and all qualitative data will be stored on a secure HIPAA-compliant server.

Dissemination

Findings will be disseminated through academic journals, academic conferences, and community presentations (e.g., presentations to AFC and their constituents). Authorship will follow the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors guidelines [ 126 ].

Persistent behavioral health inequities among PLWH highlight the need to increase evidence-based screening and referral in clinical care settings. The present study will be one of the first to examine the effectiveness of an evidence-based behavioral screener and referral to an online positive affect regulation intervention for PLWH who are receiving care in the Ryan White Medical Case Management System. Nationwide, the Ryan White Medical Case Management System serves over half of PLWH [ 127 ], with many encountering significant structural and psychosocial barriers to staying actively engaged in care and reaching viral suppression [ 128 , 129 ]. Although positive affect interventions have evidence of efficacy, it is essential to address challenges to implementation, including the development of strategies that will enhance adoption into routine clinical or organizational practice. In addition, the ability to measure implementation outcomes and adapt existing or introduce new strategies to address barriers is important learning that can support scale-up to similar and new settings.

Using a type II hybrid effectiveness-implementation design [ 130 ] to scale out promising interventions for PLWH and depression is critical. Although numerous HIV interventions have demonstrated efficacy, few are widely disseminated and implemented [ 131 ]. In light of the ambitious timelines of the EHE plan [ 54 , 132 ], we will use a hybrid type II effectiveness-implementation design [ 130 ] to yield simultaneous data on internal and external validity for screening and addressing depression among PWH receiving medical case management through Ryan White Parts A and B funded clinics in Chicago [ 46 ]. Compared to the typical decades-long approach that goes from efficacy to effectiveness to implementation, a hybrid type II design [ 130 ] will accelerate the time between research discovery and routine uptake, thereby maximizing the impact on Continuum of Care outcomes for PLWH and depression.

Trial status

Date of first recruitment: 10/1/2021.

Approximate date of completion: 6/30/2025.

Protocol Version: Version 15 (Approved 11/3/2023).

Availability of data and materials

Data will be available upon request.

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Acknowledgements

This trial was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH124632; Moskowitz & Bouris). This project also was supported by a grant from the Third Coast Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), an NIH-funded program (P30 AI117943) supported by the following NIH co-funding and participating Institutes and Centers: NIAID, NCI, NICHD, NHLBI, NIDA, NIA, NIDDK, NIGMS, NIMH, NIMHD, NINR, NIDCR. Dr. Xavier Hall’s time was supported by a grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (1L60HL170367-01; PI: Xavier Hall). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the official views of the funders.

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Authors and affiliations.

Center of Population Science for Health Equity, College of Nursing, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

Casey D. Xavier Hall

School of Social Work, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

Department of Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA

Casey D. Xavier Hall, Peter Cummings, Angela Freeman, Katrin Bovbjerg, Jacqueline Bannon, Lisa R. Hirschhorn & Judith T. Moskowitz

School of Social Work, Simmons University, Boston, MA, USA

Kristen Ethier

AIDS Foundation Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

Angela Freeman, Andrea Dakin, Fay Abujado, Nora Bouacha, Devan Derricotte & Lakethia Patterson

Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

Alida Bouris

Chicago Center for HIV Elimination, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

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Casey D. Xavier Hall: conceptualization, coordination, drafting, editing. Kristen Ethier: conceptualization, drafting, editing. Peter Cummings: conceptualization, drafting, editing. Angela Freeman: conceptualization, drafting, editing. Katrin Bovbjerg: conceptualization, drafting, editing. Jacqueline Bannon: conceptualization, editing. Andrea Dakin: conceptualization, editing. Fay Abujado: conceptualization, editing. Nora Bouacha: conceptualization, editing. Devan Derricotte: conceptualization, editing. Lakethia Patterson: conceptualization, editing. Lisa R Hirschhorn: conceptualization, drafting, editing. Alida Bouris: conceptualization, drafting, editing, principal investigator. Judith T. Moskowitz: conceptualization, drafting, editing, principal investigator.

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Correspondence to Judith T. Moskowitz .

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Xavier Hall, C.D., Ethier, K., Cummings, P. et al. A hybrid type II effectiveness-implementation trial of a positive emotion regulation intervention among people living with HIV engaged in Ryan White Medical Case Management: protocol and design for the ORCHID study. Trials 25 , 631 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-024-08475-1

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Received : 31 March 2024

Accepted : 17 September 2024

Published : 27 September 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-024-08475-1

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Integration of laser scanning, digital photogrammetry and bim technology: a review and case studies.

1. Introduction

1.1. point cloud definition, 1.2. point cloud extraction methods, 1.2.1. laser scanning (lidar), 1.2.2. digital photogrammetry, 1.3. bim modeling based on point clouds, 1.4. bim definition, 2. literature review, 2.1. state of the art, 2.2. the objectives, 3. materials and methods: workflow—from point clouds to building information model, 4. results—case studies, historical/heritage building information modeling (hbim), 5. discussion, 6. conclusions, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest.

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Borkowski, A.S.; Kubrat, A. Integration of Laser Scanning, Digital Photogrammetry and BIM Technology: A Review and Case Studies. Eng 2024 , 5 , 2395-2409. https://doi.org/10.3390/eng5040125

Borkowski AS, Kubrat A. Integration of Laser Scanning, Digital Photogrammetry and BIM Technology: A Review and Case Studies. Eng . 2024; 5(4):2395-2409. https://doi.org/10.3390/eng5040125

Borkowski, Andrzej Szymon, and Alicja Kubrat. 2024. "Integration of Laser Scanning, Digital Photogrammetry and BIM Technology: A Review and Case Studies" Eng 5, no. 4: 2395-2409. https://doi.org/10.3390/eng5040125

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