A project image can establish a visual direction without explaining the customer’s situation. A case study has a larger job: give the reader enough context to understand why the work took the form it did. Identify the people involved, the problem or opportunity, the contribution made, and the state the project has reached. Let evidence support the important decisions. Avoid writing every engagement as if it were the same completed success story. A useful account of work in progress can be specific and substantial without claiming results that have not been observed.
Explain the situation, decision, and evidence.
A screen from an artist platform means more when the reader knows who uses it, what they are trying to do, and which parts
Tell the customer’s story using details and results you can support with evidence. Explain the important decisions and how far the work has progressed. Where results are still intended rather than observed, say so. Help readers understand the work as well as remember how it looks. Specificity often means explaining a tradeoff: why this sequence, this amount of information, or this delivery stage made sense in the actual situation. That explanation is more useful than a stack of service categories.
Put it into practice.
Begin with the customer and the situation that made the work necessary. Explain how the customer’s situation led to the decisions made in the work, including work still in development. Use screenshots or other examples that help explain those decisions, and say plainly whether they show a proposal, a prototype, or finished work. Distinguish the team’s contribution from the customer’s broader work. Finish with the practical result that is known, or the intended result and remaining work when the project is still developing.
What does the reader need to know that the image cannot show?
