They skim the cover image, the pull quote, and the numbers at the bottom, in that order, and usually in under twenty seconds. Everything in between is for the one in twenty people who actually read the whole thing, and it’s still worth writing well for them.
Designing for the skim
Most case studies are written like reports and read like posters. If the skim path (cover, quote, numbers) doesn’t tell the whole story on its own, most readers leave with the wrong impression, and no amount of careful prose further down the page will correct it. Design the skim path first, as its own complete narrative.
Writing for the one who stays
The reader who does read the whole thing is usually evaluating you for something specific, a similar project, a similar problem, and they’re reading closely enough to notice if the reasoning doesn’t hold up. That reader deserves the real story: the wrong turns, the version that didn’t work, the actual reason a decision was made. Skipping straight to the tidy version insults the reader who’s paying the most attention.
Two documents, one page
In practice this means writing two documents that share a page: a fast, visual one for the skim, and a slower, honest one underneath for the stayer, rather than one document trying to serve both readers at once and serving neither particularly well.