User Experience (UX) Designers help companies optimize their products, applications, and/or websites to create high quality experiences for their users. They do so by leveraging their design skills and their understanding of users’ emotional and functional needs to build products that have intuitive workflows and are easy to use. UX Designers engage in user research and design thinking to learn, build, and test their ideas for product/application/website development. They use design tools to wireframe and prototype their ideas, and they work closely with other teams (e.g., product, web developers) or their clients as they execute their work. Doing so requires them to deeply understand the needs of their teams/clients to design solutions that capture the core product objectives and achieve business goals by providing exceptional user experiences.
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User Research
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UX Design
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Interaction Design
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Design Thinking
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Prototyping
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Teamwork / Collaboration
How to effectively interview UX Designers
While it might seem difficult to figure out whether a candidate will succeed as a UX Designer in your company, a well-developed set of interview questions that tap into the core skills required to perform in a UX Designer role will go a long way in helping you decide.
But where do you start? How do you develop a set of great interview questions?
The best interview questions come directly from a job analysis. A job analysis is an evidence-based method that focuses on assessing key features of a particular role. These features describe both the job itself (i.e., tasks, responsibilities, and performance objectives), and the characteristics required of someone to perform successfully in the job (e.g., knowledge, skills, and abilities). A job analysis forms the basis of many HR practices such as compensation, performance management, and - you guessed it - how to interview and hire candidates.
At Hireguide, we’ve done the job analysis work for you. We’ve used the method to identify a core set of skills associated with the UX Designer role, and we’ve developed and validated a list of behavioral and situational questions with answer guides that tap directly into those core skills. And that’s not all. We’ve compiled these questions and created a UX Designer Interview Template for you that integrates other interviewing best practices. Skills-based interviews will not only help you make higher quality and evidence-based hiring decisions, but research also shows they enhance fairness and reduce bias in your hiring process.
Example interview questions to ask
Question 1
Imagine you are given an extensive list of specifications to prototype. With so much information, which key factors would you need to consider before you start creating your prototype?
Answer Tips
- Defines and confirms the goal of the project (e.g. communication tool, testing)
- Identifies the key features/journey that will create the most value
- Communicates with team/client to clarify expectations for deliverable
- Understands their audience/who the prototype is being created for
- Identify what to prioritize and deprioritize based on prototype objectives
Question 2
Imagine you and a product manager disagree on the placement of a certain feature on the website/app/product. What would you do in this scenario?
Answer Tips
- Utilizes UX expertise to explain their preference for the placement of a feature
- Asks questions to understand the product manager's reason for the placement
- Clarifies objectives of the website/app/product and how feature achieves them
- Understands the PM might be motivated by business versus user objectives
- Ensures a conversation ends with a decision on how to move forward
