What 25 LPA Designers Put in Their UI/UX Case Studies (With Real examples)
Download the Decision Stories framework guide: https://uxanudeep.com/free?magnet=decision-stories-for-the-ai-era
Want me to help you find and write the decision stories hidden in your own projects? Apply for UX Gym mentorship: https://forms.gle/pcyMv4EhJ2WtKQz48
In the first 30 seconds of looking at your portfolio, a recruiter is scanning for one thing, and that is whether you can take design decisions. The templated case study with personas, journey maps and the double diamond process is exactly what is getting portfolios rejected in 2026, and what really works now is showing your design decisions clearly as stories.
In this video, I am going to show you the complete Decision Stories framework in 5 steps. The framework works with whatever project you already have, whether it is a concept project, an internship project, a redesign or your real company work, and it works even if you have done zero research and iterated directly in Figma based on stakeholder feedback. In fact, the messier your project was, the better your decision stories become.
The 5th step is where it all comes together, because one set of decision stories becomes the backbone of your long format case study, your portfolio presentation, your LinkedIn posts and every answer you give in your interviews.
What you will learn in this video:
✅ Why the templated case study advice is getting your portfolio rejected in 2026
✅ The one thing a recruiter looks for in the first 30 seconds of your portfolio
✅ Step 1: Start with whatever project you already have, even a messy one
✅ Step 2: List every design decision you have taken, 20 to 30 from a single project
✅ Step 3: Classify your decisions into strategic decisions and micro decisions
✅ Step 4: Write each decision as a story using the 6-part structure: title, hook, before, decision, after and result
✅ Step 5: Use one set of decision stories for your case study, presentation, LinkedIn and interview answers
✅ Real decision stories from case studies that got offers at Infosys and other companies
Results from UX Gym mentees (last 6 months):
- Junior UX Designer got a salary offer of Senior UX Designer at HCL with 100% hike
- Junior UX Designer got a salary offer of Senior UX Designer at Virtusa with 100% hike
- Junior UX Designer got a salary offer of Senior UX Designer at JP Morgan with 200% hike
- Degree graduate with no work experience got a salary offer of Product Designer at Rapido at 12 LPA
- Designer on a 3-year career break got a salary offer of a 75K per month paid internship
- Dentist earning 6K per month got a salary offer of Product Designer at 17 LPA
- Lawyer with no design background got a salary offer of UX Designer at a product company
💬 One mentee cracked Infosys after 1.5 years of rejections with an outdated portfolio. His Zepto case study had a decision story about where to place Daily Essentials on the home page, and he showed how he explored 4 placements before deciding to add it as a subcategory inside an existing section.
💬 Anurag got a 200% hike with his IRCTC case study. His decision story showed why he rebuilt the experience instead of adding AI badges on top of the existing interface, and how it could bring the booking time down from 15 minutes to 3 minutes.
💬 Kratika got 4 offers at 22 to 24 LPA, with a 200% hike, after her case studies started showing her design decisions instead of her research process.
📌 Chapters:
00:00 Why the Decision Stories framework cracks UX design interviews
01:13 Why the templated case study advice is outdated
02:50 What a recruiter looks for in the first 30 seconds
04:10 Step 1: Start with whatever project you already have
06:37 Step 2: List every design decision you have taken
07:54 Step 3: Classify decisions into strategic and micro decisions
10:04 Step 4: Write each decision as a 6-part story
12:40 Step 5: Use your decision stories everywhere
15:47 Final takeaways
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📩 Apply for UX Gym mentorship: https://forms.gle/pcyMv4EhJ2WtKQz48
🌐 Website: https://uxanudeep.com
📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/ux.anudeep
💼 LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/uxanudeep
Who is UX Anudeep?
UX Anudeep is the founder of UX Gym, India's most trusted UX design mentorship brand, and a UX Designer at Amazon. He has worked on Amazon Pay, Amazon Business, Amazon Core Shopping, and multiple payment and travel categories, and has built 3 design systems inside Amazon. He has personally mentored hundreds of designers across India, helping junior designers become senior designers, career transitioners break into product design, and freshers with no experience land offers at companies like Blinkit, Infosys, IndusInd, HCL, Virtusa, Philips, and JP Morgan.
Want me to help you find and write the decision stories hidden in your own projects? Apply for UX Gym mentorship: https://forms.gle/pcyMv4EhJ2WtKQz48
In the first 30 seconds of looking at your portfolio, a recruiter is scanning for one thing, and that is whether you can take design decisions. The templated case study with personas, journey maps and the double diamond process is exactly what is getting portfolios rejected in 2026, and what really works now is showing your design decisions clearly as stories.
In this video, I am going to show you the complete Decision Stories framework in 5 steps. The framework works with whatever project you already have, whether it is a concept project, an internship project, a redesign or your real company work, and it works even if you have done zero research and iterated directly in Figma based on stakeholder feedback. In fact, the messier your project was, the better your decision stories become.
The 5th step is where it all comes together, because one set of decision stories becomes the backbone of your long format case study, your portfolio presentation, your LinkedIn posts and every answer you give in your interviews.
What you will learn in this video:
✅ Why the templated case study advice is getting your portfolio rejected in 2026
✅ The one thing a recruiter looks for in the first 30 seconds of your portfolio
✅ Step 1: Start with whatever project you already have, even a messy one
✅ Step 2: List every design decision you have taken, 20 to 30 from a single project
✅ Step 3: Classify your decisions into strategic decisions and micro decisions
✅ Step 4: Write each decision as a story using the 6-part structure: title, hook, before, decision, after and result
✅ Step 5: Use one set of decision stories for your case study, presentation, LinkedIn and interview answers
✅ Real decision stories from case studies that got offers at Infosys and other companies
Results from UX Gym mentees (last 6 months):
- Junior UX Designer got a salary offer of Senior UX Designer at HCL with 100% hike
- Junior UX Designer got a salary offer of Senior UX Designer at Virtusa with 100% hike
- Junior UX Designer got a salary offer of Senior UX Designer at JP Morgan with 200% hike
- Degree graduate with no work experience got a salary offer of Product Designer at Rapido at 12 LPA
- Designer on a 3-year career break got a salary offer of a 75K per month paid internship
- Dentist earning 6K per month got a salary offer of Product Designer at 17 LPA
- Lawyer with no design background got a salary offer of UX Designer at a product company
💬 One mentee cracked Infosys after 1.5 years of rejections with an outdated portfolio. His Zepto case study had a decision story about where to place Daily Essentials on the home page, and he showed how he explored 4 placements before deciding to add it as a subcategory inside an existing section.
💬 Anurag got a 200% hike with his IRCTC case study. His decision story showed why he rebuilt the experience instead of adding AI badges on top of the existing interface, and how it could bring the booking time down from 15 minutes to 3 minutes.
💬 Kratika got 4 offers at 22 to 24 LPA, with a 200% hike, after her case studies started showing her design decisions instead of her research process.
📌 Chapters:
00:00 Why the Decision Stories framework cracks UX design interviews
01:13 Why the templated case study advice is outdated
02:50 What a recruiter looks for in the first 30 seconds
04:10 Step 1: Start with whatever project you already have
06:37 Step 2: List every design decision you have taken
07:54 Step 3: Classify decisions into strategic and micro decisions
10:04 Step 4: Write each decision as a 6-part story
12:40 Step 5: Use your decision stories everywhere
15:47 Final takeaways
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📩 Apply for UX Gym mentorship: https://forms.gle/pcyMv4EhJ2WtKQz48
🌐 Website: https://uxanudeep.com
📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/ux.anudeep
💼 LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/uxanudeep
Who is UX Anudeep?
UX Anudeep is the founder of UX Gym, India's most trusted UX design mentorship brand, and a UX Designer at Amazon. He has worked on Amazon Pay, Amazon Business, Amazon Core Shopping, and multiple payment and travel categories, and has built 3 design systems inside Amazon. He has personally mentored hundreds of designers across India, helping junior designers become senior designers, career transitioners break into product design, and freshers with no experience land offers at companies like Blinkit, Infosys, IndusInd, HCL, Virtusa, Philips, and JP Morgan.