October 14, 2026 · Maren Okafor · 5 min read
Start with the before state
The single image most case studies are missing, and how to recover it when you did not save it.
When I reviewed portfolios as a hiring manager, the fastest way to understand a designer's judgment was the before state. Not the final screen: the thing they were handed. Without it, a final screen is just taste. With it, the final screen becomes a decision.
Most case studies skip it, usually because nobody took a screenshot before the work began. That is fixable.
Why it matters
A reader can only judge a change if they can see both ends of it. The before state tells them how hard the problem was, which constraints were real, and what you chose to keep. It also keeps you honest: it is much harder to overclaim when the starting point is on the wall next to the result.
How to recover one
Look in old tickets, design reviews, and slide decks; someone almost always pasted the old screen into a bug report. Check the Wayback Machine for public products. Ask a colleague who still has the old app version on a test device. For physical work, old listing photos, street view, or the client's social accounts often have it.
If nothing survives, draw it. A labeled sketch of the old flow, clearly marked as reconstructed, is far better than nothing.
How to show it
Put it early, right after the problem statement, and caption it with the one thing the reader should notice. "The same ingredient appeared three times" does more work than "Old design."
Casepanorama asks for the before state whenever it cannot find one in your images. It is the most common question it asks, for good reason.