It’s not easy to find a suitable job. While we don’t know the answer to every question an interviewer will ask you before the interview, here are some common UX design interview questions that you might want to prepare for. Of course, just staring at these answers won’t guarantee you a job offer, but it can improve your interview chances. Just memorize them and incorporate them into each interview based on the company’s job description.

Here I’ll summarize and share seven basic UX design interview questions, along with some tips and tricks for answering them.

1. What is UX design? Why is it important? How would you explain the UX design process?

With these questions, interviewers are trying to find out: Do you have basic UX design knowledge?

Although this is a general question, there is no uniform answer. Just focus on the definition and answer as a designer. Your explanation should be clear and easy to understand. (Imagine explaining it to a 10-year-old.)

The question “Why is it important?” is your chance to show that you believe in the company’s design philosophy. At the same time, you can tell the back story from your own design perspective and emphasize the importance of human design.




TED: Human design


In response to the question “How would you explain the UX design process?” Please pay attention to the following aspects:

  • User research
  • availability
  • Information architecture
  • User interface Design
  • Interaction design
  • Experience strategy

Tip: You can define your UX design around empathy, with a strong understanding of the audience you are addressing. This usually means that as a UX designer, you should focus on design research and design based on user data.

2. Describe your design process and describe the design approach you followed?

The interviewer wants to know: Can you give a full account of your work experience?

In explaining your design process, you can describe your understanding of a potential design approach for a good project, or explain what has been better done in the past on other projects. Let the interviewer know about projects you’ve worked on by telling a story:

  • Follow a typical story line: setting, opportunity, process, twists and turns in the project, and the end result.
  • Describe your entire process from design approval to completion.
  • Determine your design context: Different UX approaches are appropriate for different UX design contexts. One of your highlights will be explaining what works best for a particular situation, based on your current design background.

Don’t worry if the process you’re describing isn’t the same as another designer’s. All you have to do is explain clearly the reasons for doing so.

Tip: It’s a good idea to talk about a user-centric design approach that shows how well you understand your users and business goals. Interviewers will appreciate it more if it’s in the context of a specific project.




Usabilla

Perhaps you should also include the following techniques in the project context:

  • User research: What methods did you use? Why choose to use them?
  • Personas: How do you create personas? How many “user avatars” have been created? How did they help you?
  • User Experience Map and User Flow: What does your user experience map include?
  • Prototypes and Wireframs: Describes improvements from low-fidelity prototypes (such as a sketch on a piece of paper) to high-fidelity prototypes (such as Adobe XD interactive prototypes). How many iterations are there in prototyping? What are they? What challenges did you face?
  • Metrics measurement and analysis: Based on your design decisions, illustrate the growth of registrations, sales rates, or other conversions based on data.

Describe a process in which you worked with other designers, developers, or product managers.

By asking this question, the interviewer is trying to find out: Would you fit into the company’s organizational culture?

Your interviewer wants to know how you work. Design is very much about teamwork, and as a UX designer, how you communicate effectively with your team about design decisions from the start of the project to the implementation phase is extremely important.

Keep in mind that each member of the team may come to know the same given project from a different background, so you need to communicate with all of them in a timely manner to quickly spot any problems or clear up misunderstandings.




MelissaPerri

Empathy is also crucial for designers. Developers, PMS, and other designers all have their own specific needs and goals, and it will be appreciated if you can demonstrate that you understand their needs and goals:

  • Developers – In order to collaborate effectively with engineers, you can try to understand the technology stack and explore constraints or opportunities for development.
  • PMs – In order to work with the product manager, remember to convert prototypes to appropriate specifications. Usually you can present detailed requirements in a table.
  • Designers – Designers usually work in continuous tie-in cycles, followed by structured review sessions. Therefore, demonstrating flexibility through self-awareness is the key to success.

Tip: In answer to this question, ask the interviewer to describe the current team’s structure, roles, and existing processes, and ask them what problems they are currently facing. You can bring your experience to the problem solving table, which not only shows the interviewer your skills and experience, but also shows the value you can bring to the company.

4. How do you decide what features to add to your product?

The interviewer wants to know: Can you test or reject a hypothesis to come up with a new solution?

This is a difficult question to answer because it depends so much on the context of the product’s development. If you ask this question during the process of building a new product, you can talk to your interviewer about how to develop MVP (minimum viable product).




Brainhub

If asked in the context of an existing product, you should focus on talking about the product’s strategy. Before delving into specific features, you need to have a clear picture of your business goals and user needs, and be prepared to answer the following questions:

  • Who are our users?
  • What are the goals of our users?
  • Why do users care about this feature? What problem does this feature solve?

Tip: This is also a good time to show that you are using user research to validate design decisions. Often, when faced with a challenge, collecting large amounts of user-generated data can help designers move forward with projects. Once you’ve collected enough data and validated your users’ goals, you can determine which new features best fit your business goals and ultimately prioritize them.

5. Tell us about the project you are most proud of.

In this question, the interviewer is asking: What are your strengths and weaknesses?

This is a tricky question because it puts the interviewer at ease, which in turn leads to follow-up questions. By delving into the job process and thinking about interactions with other team members, the interviewer is able to assess a candidate’s overall qualities and skills. Therefore, it’s best to keep your answers truthful and clear, and don’t exaggerate your contribution to the project.

6. Tell us about a UX project that didn’t go as planned.

Do you take a critical view of your work?

First, don’t pretend you’ve never had a project like this before. Mistakes are a normal part of everyday life, but what matters is how you deal with them. So, you need to find an honest example:

  • What went wrong?
  • Why did it go wrong?
  • What did you do to deal with the mistake?
  • What did you learn from that?

Tip: The key is to acknowledge your weaknesses and then offer a reason why you can turn failure into success next time. Learning from failure is what we should all do.

7. What do you see as the next big trend in UX design?

The interviewer wants to know: How do you see the future of UX design?

This is your chance to showcase your passion for UX design and its potential for the future. Here are a few topics you can focus on: The rise of the latest prototyping tools that will save developers and designers time by converting design into code. Accessibility design makes your UI easier for users to understand and use.

Hint: This question is also a good opportunity to discuss vr/AR.


Easter Egg Question: Where do you go to get your design ideas? Who in the industry do you follow and subscribe to?

This Easter egg question will let the interviewer know: What motivates you?

You can talk about the blogs and books you like to read, the conferences you’ve attended, and the big names in your industry that you follow.

Here, in no particular order, I share some of my favorite industry blogs:

  • Alistapart
  • Designmodo
  • UX Booth
  • UXMastery
  • Digital Telepathy
  • 52 Weeks of UX
  • UXMatters
  • UX Myths
  • Usabilla
  • Intercom blog
  • UserTesting blog
  • Nielsen Norman Group blog
  • Smashing Magazine

List of amazing people I follow:

  • Jared Spool
  • Luke Wroblewski
  • Karen McGrane
  • Oliver Reichenstein
  • Don Norman
  • Peter Merholz
  • Julie Zhuo

For anyone who wants to learn more about UX design, here’s a list of books to read:

  • The Psychology of Design by Don Norman
  • About Face: The Essence of Interaction Design by Alan Cooper
  • The Shape of Design by Frank Chimero
  • 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People by Susan Weinschenk
  • A Practical Guide to Information Architecture by Donna Spencer
  • Don’t Make Me Think and Rocket Surgery Made Easy by Steve Krug
  • The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for The Web and Beyond by Jesse James Garrett
  • Designing for Emotion by Aarron Walter
  • Designing Interactions by Bill Moggridge
  • Getting Real and Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson (Basecamp)
  • Prototyping A Practitioner’s Guide by Todd Zaki Warfel

Problem of omission

You may be wondering why, of all the questions in this article, I didn’t mention the common interview question, “Why hire you?” That’s because you have to figure it out for yourself. The only thing I can say is: be honest with yourself. Figure out why you want to work for this company, because ultimately that’s where your passion will come from.

Thank you for reading.

Note:

  1. The copyright of this article belongs to the original author and is only used for study and communication.
  2. If you need to reprint the translation, please indicate the source information below, thank you!

英文原文 :
The 7 Questions You’ll Be Asked at a UX Design Interview


The author:
Nick Babich


Translator:
IT application lion


Translation Address:
www.jianshu.com/p/312c4f7c0…