Maybe this is your first UX interview ever, or you haven’t interviewed in a few years and you want to get a better idea of what to expect… We’ve spoken to our candidates and clients and compiled the most common interview questions that UX Designers have been asked during an interview.
With an ever-increasing amount of competition these days when it comes to securing your next UX role, hopefully these questions will help you prepare so that you can really put your best foot forward when speaking to hiring managers.
With that in mind, the following questions have been asked within a mixture of startups, agencies and in-house brands. They are of course a guideline and not exhaustive, but having succinct answers to these questions will help set you off on the right path.
- How you would you define User Experience?
- What is your knowledge of our brand? (Here, the interviewer is asking you to explain their brand back to them, to gauge your understanding of them/their product). A follow on question could then be, what do you feel you could bring to our app/team/product?
- Who are our main competitors? What do you think differentiates us from them?
- The interviewer describes a current project, this could be a mobile app they are designing for a large e-commerce client. They will then ask you how you would approach the design and what process you would follow.
- Have you got experience working within an Agile process? How so?
- What design tools do you use?
- Give me an example of a usability study you’ve conducted. Briefly talk me through your process and findings.
- Talk me through a complex project you’ve worked on that required problem-solving skills.
- What would you do if you were told there wasn’t enough time and/or budget to conduct user research on a project?
- Do you work better in a team or on your own?
- How do you work with Product Managers/ Engineers/ Creatives?
- Talk me through a time when a stakeholder disagreed with or disliked your design. How did you handle this feedback?
- Extra curricular stuff! Which blogs/books have you read that have most influenced or inspired you? Do you attend UX/industry events? If so, which ones?
- Who inspires you in the UX industry?
- What is your favourite app/website and why?
- Why do you want to work for us?
- What are your reasons for wanting to leave your current role?
- Why should I hire you?
- Talk me through tour design process. Another way this could be asked is ‘talk me through a relevant project that you’ve worked on recently’ – in which case you should describe your UX process. (Quick tip: hiring managers like to hear specific details about the brief/project, your specific role in the project/team, any challenges you had and the UX process you followed. Give context into the design process without just listing the deliverables as this will make it more engaging).
- Be ready for one or two curveball questions, for example:
- Design a swimming pool for my new house
- How would you explain what UX Design is to a 10-year-old?
- Sketch a drawing of a tree
Quick tip
These questions are thrown in not only to test how you react under pressure, but also to see if you have a UCD approach to something trivial. For example, if you’re asked to design a swimming pool ask lots of questions first no matter how silly it sounds. You’ll be better equipped once you know who it’s for, why it is needed, where it will be situated etc. You’ll also show that you always put the user first before putting pen to paper.
Have you had any UX interview questions that you weren’t expecting / prepared for recently? If you have any questions that you think should be added to the list please get in touch.
And finally, assuming you’ve read this as you have an interview coming up soon – good luck!
