Communicate rationale~45 min

Communicate Rationale: Case Study, Skeleton to Story

Early preview draft — not yet practitioner or accessibility reviewed.
Goal
Practice the writing that makes a portfolio work: turning "here is what I made" into a narrative of problem, decisions, and evidence a hiring manager can follow in three minutes.
Scenario
Take one real project — class work, a lab from this platform, anything you actually did — and write the case study's full text (no visuals yet): the story a reviewer reads while deciding whether to interview you.
Audience
A design hiring manager reading at speed with forty tabs open, who will stop at the first paragraph that says nothing.
Constraints
Text only, 600 words maximum. Structure: context (2 sentences), problem, your role stated honestly, TWO decisions with the reasoning and what you weighed against, outcome with real evidence (or an honest "here's what I'd measure"), and what you'd do differently.
Deliverable
The complete case-study text within the word limit, with the two decisions clearly marked — plus a one-line answer to: "what does this project prove about you that your other work doesn't?"
Counts on your evidence profile as
A completed Skill Lab with its rubric and your deliverable
Accessibility requirement
Structure the text with real headings in reading order — a case study that depends on layout to make sense will also fail the recruiters who read it in a text extractor.
AI policy
AI use is allowed in a limited way for this lab — see details below. AI can tighten sentences after the story exists; the decisions, the honesty about your role, and the evidence are unfakeable — and interviewers WILL ask follow-ups only the real author can answer.
Rubric
  • Decisions carry the story: The two marked decisions each name a real alternative that was rejected and why — "I chose X" without a road not taken is description, not decision-making.
  • The role claim is honest: Your contribution is specific ("I owned the flows; a teammate did visual design") — solo-hero framing on team work fails, and reviewers can smell it.
  • Evidence over adjectives: The outcome section contains at least one concrete observation or measurement — or an honest statement of what evidence is missing — and zero "significantly improved the experience."
Resources

Skills: Presentation, Stakeholder Communication

Relevant to: Product Designer, UX Designer, Graphic Designer

Your work

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