UX Designer

Keep yourself up to date with the upcoming trends in the user interface field before answering. Because it helps the employer to know how truly dedicated, passionate and knowledgeable you are in the field and how proactive you will be in your approach to stay ahead of the competitors. Therefore, learn about all the interesting buzz and hot trends in the market.

Best is to read about micro-interaction, layered interface and agnostic information flow, from what it is, how it works, what is its significance and what are their future implications. Let the employer know the level of commitment and interest you have in a user interface and how your approach as a designer is different from others.

Since this is your first interview, you may need to use an example of how you dealt with conflict that draws from experience that is not UX design-related. That doesn’t matter. Describe how you were able to settle the conflict and what the outcome was. Diplomacy and the ability to communicate with people of all levels are both crucial skills to success in this field so the interviewer wants to understand how you would deal with client misunderstandings. Demonstrate your listening skills throughout the interview by paying careful attention to the interviewer and thinking a moment or two before answering questions.

This is also a great time to show how you could use user research to validate your design decisions and exactly why this is so important.

Due to the fact that mobile design is constrained by the small size of mobile devices and their displays, it’s of vital importance that we present the information properly, and adequately prioritize content. It is very important to make sure this is done at this stage, before we proceed to mockup design, because that’s a matter of UX rather than UI design.

It’s also important to decide which information we provide first and which one will remain hidden. In order avoid hiding content, we can use different patterns like tabs, filters, and so on, while still providing the user with the most important information at the time. It’s a bad practice to use hamburger menu even though sometimes we are forced to use it due to the massive amount of data that needs to be displayed. Based on research, we can conclude that the hamburger icon easily gets “lost” in the design, because many users tend to start scrolling immediately. It’s in our nature to scroll and that why it’s important to make sure everything important is presented to the user at a glance.

According to a study by Nielsen/Norman Group, a global leader in user experience research, training, and consulting, hidden navigation patterns (like hamburger menus) decrease content discoverability by 21% and increase the amount of time it takes to actually use navigation by 2 seconds on average.

Our goal should be to provide as much relevant content on the front page as possible, without hiding it behind another layer of navigation. It’s more likely that users will scroll rather than click on the navigation button.

Unfortunately, this is not the best solution for navigation due to the fact that the idea behind guidelines is to have only one function that handles that action. Otherwise, the user can be confused. You need to avoid inconsistency in your UI. Elements that have similar functions should also have a similar appearance. People often assume that there must be a reason behind design inconsistencies they notice, and they’re apt to spend time trying to figure it out.

As technology advances, designers have to deal with fewer and fewer restrictions, and can employ a variety of new solutions to enhance user experience. The new iOS 3D Touch gesture poses some physical challenges for users. Designers should take advantage of it to enhance user experience by making pages previewable and supporting quick access to frequently used features.

There are two main actions supported for now: Peek and Pop.

Peek and Pop allow apps to let users preview content and perform related actions within the app, before deciding if they want to view the full content. For instance, peeking can be used to provide live, content-rich previews. Ideally, peeking gives enough information about an item to augment the current task or helps you decide whether or not to fully engage the item. For example, preview a link in an email before deciding to open it in Safari or share it with friends. Peeking is often used in tables to view detailed row information before the row is selected.

3D Touch is an emerging technology, and is not supported by pre-2015 Apple devices. However, as older devices are phased out, it will be available on most, if not all, Apple platforms. In addition, Force Touch technology is coming to Android devices as well, and other platforms are bound to follow.

Working at a fast-paced startup, you’ll inevitably be thrown assignments or tasks that you won’t initially know how to approach (If this doesn’t happen, you might not be really working at a startup). Think about a time you took on a difficult task head first and struggled through ambiguity to eventually arrive at some conclusion. It doesn’t have to necessarily be a triumphant story as long as you show your willingness to explore, test, (fail), and iterate and demonstrate a commitment to learn and adapt going forward.

One example that comes to mind is the first time I conducted (guerrilla) user interviews. I found myself clueless with a script in my hand, an iPhone camera, and 7 strangers to find and interview on the street. I failed pretty hard at first — approaching people on the go, waiting too long to make an introduction (awkward…) and rushing my questions. I studied my footage, observed patterns of when people could most likely be approached (lunch in the park), and upped my confidence with the support of a friend designer and tried again. This time, a little bit better.

Your interviewer wants to get a good sense of how you work and engage with others. As a UX designer, it’s crucial you know how to effectively communicate design decisions with the team from the beginning of the project right through to implementation.

Remember, each team member will come at a project from a different angle and different experience level. You’ll be dealing with multiple interpretations of instructions, varied problem-solving approaches and understandings of the goals of the project. You should be able to communicate with each of them and quickly spot any gaps in knowledge or misunderstandings.

When responding to this question, ask your interviewer to describe the current team structure and any issues they are facing. After listening closely, explain how you can help. As you establish rapport with your interviewer, you will likely begin to stand out from the other applicants.

How do you create effective wireframes?

- Do they talk about consistency, simplicity, elegance, delightfulness, efficiency, proficiency, productivity and other principals?

- Do they talk about the audience?

- Do they talk about appropriate level of detail – visual, widgets, controls, instructions, interactions, etc?

- Do they talk about whether it should be a story versus site map or catalog?

- Do they talk about neatness, attention to detail and presentation?

- Do they talk about how to prepare and deliver them?

What elements make for a good design concept to include in a project?

- Do they understand what design concept is?

- Do they talk about reusability, consistency, flexibility, or accessibility?

- Do they talk about information architecture, patterns?

How would you approach simplifying the display of complex information?

- Do they talk about tradeoffs between information displayed and interactions to reach a conclusion?

- Do they talk breaking up the display of information into understandable pieces?

- Do they have a strategy for helping the user navigate the information space?

- Do the talk about reusability, consistency, flexibility, accessibility?

What are the elements of a usable and useful user experience?

- Do they talk about a distinction between different designer roles?

- Do they focus on experiences versus interactions and elements?

- Do they mention related design directions like persuasive design, service design, or responsive design?

- Do they talk about physical objects, environments, or sounds versus mentioning clicks and buttons?

How do you use design principles?

- Do they talk about a distinction between different designer roles?

What considerations do make for designing for the enterprise vs consumer environments?

- Do they talk about the difference between As Designed and As Deployed?

- Do they talk about the difference between customer (buyers, managers) and users (role using software)?

- Do they about frameworks, platforms, consistency or other needs?

- Do they talk about learnability vs efficiency or other trade-offs where business objectives are more important than desirability?

How do you work in an Agile environment?

- Do they talk about the need for strategic design - through means such as Sprint 0?

- Do they talk about making sure that user stories are user and not functionally focused?

- Do they talk about the time needed to coordinate for for meaningful usability?

☛ What attracts you to research?

☛ What is your experience with qualitative research methods? (ethnography, focus groups/group discussions, one-on-one interviewing, contextual inquiry, observational research, etc.)

☛ Since your experience is primarily in qualitative methods, how do you feel about quantitative research?

☛ What skill do you possess that you think you do better than 99.9% of the entire population?

☛ What do you excel at (your superpower) and what can you improve on (your kryptonite)?

☛ What is your research process?

☛ How do you choose which method(s) you’re going to use for particular projects?

☛ Which methods and approaches do you think are the most useful or effective?

☛ What is the value of doing contextual research over facility-based research (e.g., focus groups, interviews)?

☛ How do you incorporate theory into your research?

☛ What are your favorite social science theories?

☛ How do you approach qualitative data analysis?

☛ What tools do you typically use for analysis? (e.g., affinity mapping, coding, Excel, etc.)

☛ How do you analyze ethnographic data?

☛ Have you used any qualitative data analysis software?

☛ At what point in the design process should user experience come into play?

☛ Talk about a time when you had to change your plan or approach.

☛ Our company hires heavily from our own user base. How would you balance the perspectives of internal users versus external users?

☛ What is your experience working in Agile environments?

☛ Have you ever used a Lean approach in your research?

☛ How do you visualize data?

☛ How do you visualize results for designers and developers?

☛ Give me an example of a project you worked on for which you had to translate research data into insights.

☛ Do you have experience with videography or video deliverables?

☛ How would you sell the value of User Experience research to a VP of Product versus a VP of engineering?

☛ How do you advocate for usability in your organization?

☛ What would be the most difficult personality for a coworker to have? How would you deal with this?

☛ What would be the most difficult type of client to work with? How would you deal with this?

☛ Have you ever faced a situation in which your feedback/recommendation was not taken? How did you handle the situation?

☛ How do you form positive relationships with teammates or stakeholders?

☛ How do you work with others?

☛ What best practices do you use when working with engineers?

☛ How do you approach working with designers?

☛ How do you approach working with developers?

☛ How have you provided guidance to your clients in the scoping of projects?

☛ How do you deal with stakeholders (e.g., marketers) with really strong perspectives?

☛ What do you do when a stakeholder disagrees with the results of your research?

☛ What is your experience working with people who are unfamiliar with User-Centered Design?

☛ Have you played more of a lead or support role on projects?

☛ What phases of research were you most often involved with?

☛ Have you worked with recruiters?

☛ What is your experience with project management?

☛ What is your experience with project scoping?

☛ Have you managed external research vendors?

☛ What is your ideal work day as a UX designer?

☛ Where do you see yourself in 5–10 years?

☛ How have you previously worked with product managers and engineers?

☛ What are you looking for when it comes to a workplace?

☛ How do you feel about working for a small agency versus a large corporation?

☛ Can you describe a time when the requirements changed in the middle of a project, and how you handled that?

☛ What’s your biggest pet peeve when engaging on a UX project?

☛ Have you worked in a Lean or Agile process before? How so?

☛ Do you have a side project you’d like to talk to us about?

☛ What books/exhibitions/conferences or communities do you attend or admire?

☛ Where do you go for inspiration?

☛ How do you keep on top of current design trends?

☛ How do you define UX design?

☛ What is your design process? Describe what methods you follow?

☛ What is visual hierarchy?

☛ Can you speak to the difference between information architecture, interaction design, usability and user research?

☛ How do you get into the mindset of a user and anticipate their needs and actions?

☛ Describe to us a basic user experience process. Would that process be different depending on the type of project, for instance responsive website versus mobile app?

☛ How do you know that what you’re designing works for the user? Tell us a bit about personas and your approach to research and incorporating research in your work?

☛ What are the basic philosophies or principles that inform your designs

☛ How do you incorporate usability into the design and testing process?

☛ How do you balance business needs and technical restrictions with good design?

☛ Do you have a technical/data-influenced background?

☛ What tools and applications do you use?

☛ What is the most important thing on a page/wireframe? Why?

☛ Do you specialize in wireframing and functionality design, or graphic design? Which do you prefer?

☛ When an engineer says, “Hey, I don’t like this design”, what do you do?

☛ What are the advantages and disadvantages of following a web style guide?

☛ Can you explain the process behind each (or a specific) design piece in your portfolio? What research or testing did you do to validate your design decision?

☛ What are your favorite apps? Why?

☛ What is your approach to making websites and platforms accessible to all user groups, including users with visual, hearing, and motor disabilities?

☛ What would you say will be the next big trend in the UX Design industry?

☛ What design trend can you not stand? Why?

☛ How would you design an interface for an elevator in a 1000-floor building?

☛ How would you design an ATM?

☛ How would you design a microwave?

☛ Can you estimate how many traffic lights there are in the United States?

☛ Imagine we’re designing a kiosk at a transit stop. Its purpose is to let regular commuters refill their transit cards. We have an engineer coming in 20 minutes and he needs a spec. How would you explain how the kiosks works in that time?

☛ How would you describe the Internet to someone who just woke up from a 30-year coma?

☛ What are the advantages and disadvantages of contextual inquiry/field studies when designing an application or website?

☛ How would you walk me through a brief analysis of our home page?

☛ What is an example of a site you think has bad user experience? Why?

☛ What are 3 examples of online products that have a great user experience?

☛ If you had the power to change one feature for a website or application, what would you change?

☛ What do you think makes a great UX designer vs. an average one? What makes you a great UX designer?

☛ What are your thoughts on designing the user experience of a startup vs. a more established brand?

☛ Are you familiar with the idea of a minimum viable product (MVP)?

☛ Is UX only for huge agencies and global brands or can the little guys & gals get involved?

☛ Why should business owners and/or marketing people care about UX?

☛ Now let’s say that after 6 months, there is no jump in sales. What is at fault? Normally, sales and/or marketing gets blamed for having the wrong message, appealing to the wrong audience, not enough of this, too much of that. What if the reason for flat-lined sales had to do with user experience?

☛ What’s the best way for UX and Marketing teams to work together

☛ What’s the downside to omitting UX from the discussion?

☛ Does your UX end once the website or app launch?

☛ Is UX work expensive?

☛ Does it make sense when people say something like “Looking for a UI/UX designer”?

☛ Show me a design example where you set out to solve a business problem.

☛ How do you balance design aesthetic with revenue-generating activities on a website?

☛ How do you balance the goals of the end user with those of the business.

☛ What kind of data have you used to validate a design?

☛ Have you created personas before? How did they help you?

☛ Do you have any experience with e-commerce?

☛ Do you have experience with mobile software or hardware?

☛ What is your experience working with web analytics?

☛ How would you do a competitive analysis of two websites?

☛ How would you measure the success of a launched product?

☛ What would you consider a UX Design failure on the newly launched project?

☛ What questions do you need answered before you start designing an experience?

☛ How do you estimate the timeline of your own design process?

☛ You’re under a tight deadline and not all features in the project scope can be met in time. How would you decide which features to keep and which to cut?

☛ What is a recent project that you were challenged by, and tell us how you approached the problem?

☛ You want to redesign some part of a website but the client says they don’t want to spend the time or money to make the changes. What would you say?

☛ How do you stay current on UX innovations?

☛ Given a situation where there’s not enough time to research, what do you do?

☛ What would you do differently if you had more time for research?

☛ What is an instance where you delivered something exceptional, made you really proud of the result?

☛ Not running: The app has not been launched or was running but was terminated by the system.

☛ Inactive: The app is running in the foreground but is currently not receiving events. (It may be executing other code though.) An app usually stays in this state only briefly as it transitions to a different state.

☛ Active: The app is running in the foreground and is receiving events. This is the normal mode for foreground apps.

☛ Background: The app is in the background and executing code. Most apps enter this state briefly on their way to being suspended. However, an app that requests extra execution time may remain in this state for a period of time. In addition, an app being launched directly into the background enters this state instead of the inactive state.

☛ Suspended: The app is in the background but is not executing code. The system moves apps to this state automatically and does not notify them before doing so. While suspended, an app remains in memory but does not execute any code. When a low-memory condition occurs, the system may purge suspended apps without notice to make more space for the foreground app.