Below are some of the essential questions one should be prepared before attending an interview for the role of UX Designer. These do not guarantee a job but will certainly add value. The process of interviews will vary depending on the country and type of the company. The hiring process for a Startup might depend on a role who can do multiple tasks whereas a bigger company might look for deeper skills in one single role. The questions are purely based on the requirement of the company but the below grouping of questions and the tips might help you in handling a UX interview well.
Also, remember, many companies follow the process of giving assignments to the designers who have applied for the job and this is based on the level of position one applies. Junior and Mid Level positions do go through assignment process but whereas senior positions face a different approach.
General Questions:
- Give us a background about yourself.
- How did you enter the field of UX Design?
- Why do you want to get into UX design? (applicable for new hires)
- What is your process of design?
- How did you know about this company and what information you gathered?
- Why are you leaving the current job?
- What career are you looking for a future settlement?
- Why are you shifting to UX? (applicable for candidates jumping from other academics of job)
Tips: All the above are typical questions one may face or not face but it is good to be prepared for them. You just need to be confident in answering the ones which you are sure about and try to be clear on why this field is important for you. Explaining about yourself does not mean you talk about what you did from childhood. Be crisp on your likes and mottos.
To answer why you like the UX field and related questions, the answer is simple. Tell you like things that give an emotional impact by the way they are designed. Be it a posh sports car or the latest smartphone. The very factor that people talk is design, so what if you are the one behind any such craft? This is the driving factor which has made you choose the field of design and especially UX where you get to do things which people love to use. Your answers should give the feeling like ” Yes, he/she is the one who is 50% matching the profile” gradually you fill the rest of the percentage.
Dont’s: Do not start your answer like “I like to talk to users, I like traveling with them or I want to make best interfaces and so on..” Things are well understood that UX needs to empathize with users but that is not something the interviewer expects. Do not over boast about design, process and criticize other designs to make your answer stand strong. Be to the point and leave things for discussion.
Typical Questions:
1. What is UX design? explain the process and how you apply the process?
This question is a little traditional method where interviewer goes about asking definitions and asking for an explanation about various terms in the field. This is to know if you are familiar with the basics of the field. Give a specific answer and explain it clearly.
For “process and application” tell about the areas that you worked on like user research, information architecture, interaction design, visual design and relate them with any project which you have done.
Tip: Tell clearly that you follow the design thinking process and explain the importance of keeping design with the user in focus
2. How will you kick-start the design of a project when it is assigned to you?
This is to know a little bit about the process like the previous question but more in context with a real-time project. Here the interviewer wants to understand if ownership is given, how you drive a project from scratch. This will help them assess your leadership qualities.
Tip: Tell that you start with the research data which is given to you and in case there is no data then it would be detailed sessions or workshops with project stakeholders to understand the requirements and later move to design process.
3. How do you validate your design?
This is to see how good your reasoning and analytical skills are. The stronger your justification to your design with valid proof the better you will be able to convey. The panel or person wants to know if you are open for feedback, debates, discussions to prove your design.
Tip: Tell them that you start the design by empathizing with users. You make personas, use cases, and workflows and you also do A/B testing on design solutions. You can also say that you do cognitive walkthroughs which help in getting realistic validation of design.
4. How do you communicate the design to other team members or developers?
Interviewer intention behind asking this question is to check how good you are as a team player and how well your articulation skills are. They want to know how comfortable you will be able to communicate within the team in terms of discussions or debates and plan things accordingly.
Tip: Here you can ask the interviewer about the current team and mold your answer in the context but as a general answer for developers you can say that you are familiar with technology, constraints and that you keep your self-updated on technical things. Also, you are flexible to make design changes for the betterment of the project and team. When it comes to collaboration with fellow team members or designers, you can say that “I am always open to take feedback, criticism and that is the best way to get real insights and make the design better”
Final Words:
Cracking UX interview should not be a hard task unless you do not pay attention to the questions or deviate from the main topic and talk irrelevant stuff. I being a candidate who faced interview and now in a position of taking interviews, my experience has made me answer this. Interviews are very subjective as I mentioned above but it is good if you have built a strong portfolio, any certification to support weak points, good knowledge about the tools which are used in the design. Make sure you are fully prepared from all sides then only think of applying for jobs and facing interviews.
Disclaimer: The above information is based on my experience over the years in the Indian market and it might match little on global scenarios. If you guys have anything different which goes in your region, please feel free to be a contributor and share your advice 🙂
