If you want to work in any tech field, you should prepare for your job interview. You can expect to find technical, behavioral, and general questions to test your knowledge and see if you’re the right fit for the job. This series of questions will help project managers decide whether your design skills match the company culture and goals.
Whether you want to become a UX designer, visual designer, or graphic designer, preparing for your interview is vital. Every design field asks basic questions to get to know you and your design perspective. Below is a list of common UX designer interview questions and answers that you can prepare for before your interview.
What Is a UX Designer?
A user experience designer, or UX designer, is a type of web designer responsible for optimizing applications and products for users. To determine what works, you need to conduct research to observe how the product operates and how users respond to it. Based on your findings, you can develop and update a website, software, or any technological product that you are working on.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), web design jobs will grow by 13 percent between 2020 and 2030, which is around double the average rate of growth. As well, the BLS reports that these professionals earn an average salary of $77,200. UX designers and other web designers have high salaries and job stability in the tech industry.
Answers to the Most Common UX Designer Interview Questions
An interview can make or break your chances of getting your dream job, so you must be prepared beforehand. In your UX designer interview, there will be technical, behavioral, and general questions that the interviewer will use to test your skills and knowledge in UX design. Below is a list of UX designer interview questions and how to best answer them.
Top 5 Technical UX Designer Interview Questions and Answers
Technical questions test your hands-on skills and knowledge of UX design. You will need to thoroughly discuss your experiences, techniques, and design disciplines to answer these questions effectively. Technical questions give the employer an idea of whether or not you’re qualified for the job.
Can You Describe Your Design Process?
Every UX designer has processes and methods to follow. In answering this question, you’ll want to highlight your best techniques, such as avoiding double pop-ups or putting everything on a single screen for web design. There is no wrong answer to this question because every design decision is individual.
What Are Your Thoughts on Universal Design, and Do You Practice It?
Universal design is a practice in UX design in which a product must be usable to the full extent by everyone, or at least by its target audience. This is an inclusive design principle that nearly all UX designers are practicing these days. This is a common question in the design industry because the hiring manager wants to know if your skills are up to date.
Which One of Our Products Would You Select to Improve, and How Would You Do It?
This may sound like an intimidating question, but you must be honest and ready to give input. You can discuss all of the technical aspects that are causing the product to not reach its full potential and offer suggestions as to how you would fix it. Moreover, your suggestion could end up being your first project in the company when you get hired.
How Do You Conduct User Research?
Although you might not be a UX researcher, knowing how to conduct user research is an important part of your role as a UX designer. Your answer should include how you determine your objective, formulate a hypothesis, establish your methods, gather data, and analyze your findings. This is also a great opportunity to mention past UX research that you’ve conducted.
Why Is Usability Testing Important in UX Design?
Usability testing is an important step in UX design because it is your way to test your product with several users. Through this method, you will learn if your product is functioning as intended through feedback from your participants. According to PayScale, usability testers make $88,000 per year, so you can specialize your position if you want.
Top 5 Behavioral UX Designer Interview Questions and Answers
Behavioral questions are asked by interviewers to understand your strengths and weaknesses, soft skills, and interpersonal skills. Even in a junior position, you’re guaranteed to run into problems and personal differences, and your potential employer needs to know what to expect from you when this happens.
How Do You Deal with Problems in Your Design Project?
The UX design process is not always easy, and you may encounter a challenging design project when working with real customers. Answer this question by showcasing your ability to solve problems and recognize bad user experience. Additionally, it is also important to highlight your openness to seek help and be a team player when necessary.
What Do You Do When a Client Gives Negative Feedback on Your Design?
In UX design, it isn’t uncommon for a client to be displeased with a project you’ve worked on. Your answer to this question tells the interviewer how you respond to and address criticism. You can even discuss a time this did occur and how you handled it. This is not a tricky question because you can be honest and describe your hypothetical process.
How Do You Approach a Revision Request that You Do Not Agree With?
While being open to feedback is important for UX designers, any successful project has its fair share of revision requests that you won’t always agree with. Your answer to this question should highlight the value of client opinions while acknowledging that you must exercise your expertise. Often, a simple discussion is all it takes to compromise and reach an agreement.
How Do You Deal with Deadlines If You Are Working on Several Projects?
Your answer to this question provides insight into how you work under pressure. UX designers almost always take on multiple clients at once, which often results in multiple projects with tight deadlines. It’s important to be transparent about your capacity while ensuring the interviewer that you’re prepared and qualified for this challenge.
Do You Prefer to Work Alone or with a Team?
You should be completely honest when answering this question. Usually, employers will ask this to determine which projects are best to assign to you. In addition to letting them know whether you prefer working alone or in a team, you should also explain your teamwork skills and your willingness to do both.
Top 5 General UX Designer Interview Questions and Answers
General or common interview questions may be related to UX design or an inquiry to your background. You can think of them as starter questions that spark a conversation and ease you into more challenging ones later on.
Where Did You Learn UX Design?
This is a great opportunity to showcase your education, qualifications, and business goals. You should discuss your UX design-related educational background, including any credentials, UX design courses, web design bootcamps, or any other UX design qualifications. Be sure to check the job description for the educational requirements.
Which UX Design Project Are You Most Proud Of, and How Did You Ensure Its Success?
You can expect employers to ask for an in-depth description of at least one of your past projects. It’s a good idea to build and bring a UX design portfolio and choose a project you want to discuss, especially if it was a challenging project. You can talk here about your favorite project, the technological trends you followed, and your biggest challenges.
What Got You into UX Design?
Your answer to this question will entirely depend on why you chose to enter UX design. If you’re struggling to explain your reasons, you can center your answer on what you love most about UX design and why it’s a meaningful job for you. Although not every job has to be your dream job, you can explain your dedication to the role in this question.
How Would You Approach Improving a Website that Has Poor Design?
This is a question that demonstrates your design thinking process. You should start by explaining why you think a website might be poorly designed before explaining what you would do to fix it. This is a common design interview question because it is relevant to all fields of design and highlights your knowledge of the best design practices.
How Do You Determine What Will Capture the Interest of a Consumer?
Aside from UX research and usability testing, you can also mention methods you use, such as using analytical tools to measure engagement. Employers need to understand your thought process and methods for capturing the interest of consumers. Talk about customer feedback, bad design you’ve seen, and basic concepts of user experience research.
Tips to Prepare for a UX Designer Interview
1. Have Your Design Portfolio Ready
During the interview process, there will be several questions that will require you to recall past projects. This is why it’s really helpful to have your UX design projects and portfolio updated and readily available for reference. Whether you’re in a Google interview or applying for a tech startup, you should have a portfolio that matches your target market.
2. Gain Experience
UX design positions often have many qualified candidates, all of whom are set apart by their qualifications and experience. To boost your appeal, you’ll want to gain experience through internships, freelance projects, design blogs, or a hands-on design challenge. This will help you develop dynamic thinking and become aware of current trends in design.
3. Be Transparent About Your Process
While UX designers share many of the same techniques and methods in this field, they also develop their preferences and processes. When you’re preparing for your interview, consider the ways that your processes and techniques make your work unique. The hiring process is about you and your career goals, so talk about your experience and creative output.
What Skills Should I Put on My UX Designer Resume?
When you update your resume, you’ll want to be sure to include UX design techniques, graphic design, and communication skills. There are many different parts of the job, and you want to be prepared for every one of them. Read below to learn more about the skills you should put on your resume for a UX designer job.
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UX Design Techniques
You’ll want to be sure to list the design methods and techniques that you use to achieve desired outcomes. These skills can include conducting UX research and usability testing, measuring key performance indicators (KPI), knowledge of digital design trends, and any other UX design-related skills or techniques.
Graphic Design Skills
Graphic design offers many crucial skills to UX designers, all of which are necessary for creating images, layouts, and video graphics. You should discuss your experience with interaction design and other vital skills. The design interview process is all about specifics, so for UX design, be sure to talk about the ways customer behavior affects graphic design.
Communication Skills
Communication is a huge part of your role as a UX designer, as you will be required to collaborate with colleagues and stay in communication with clients. Having good communication skills plays a huge role in your relationship with clients and other departments that you might work with and helps to ensure a successful project outcome.
How to Find UX Designer Jobs
UX design job openings and listings are available on many online platforms like LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and Indeed. Design communities and design job boards post positions for expert and junior designers. If you’re looking for a job site that exclusively lists UX design positions, the following list provides some of the best resources.
Pathrise
If you want to work as a UX designer for product design, Pathrise has a program specifically made for UX/UI designers. Their services provide you with a career mentor who guides you through the entire process of finding and landing a UX design position. The program is free until you land a job placement at a top tech company.
Krop
Krop has a job board that allows you to look for UX designer positions or post a job vacancy yourself. The listings are paired with thorough job descriptions and can be filtered based on location. You can create an account on the website and directly apply online to companies that have a fast-paced, innovative culture.
Coroflot
Coroflot is known as a leading job board for creative professionals, including UX designers. When you visit the site, you can filter the results by choosing the UX/UI category and the location that you’re seeking employment in. Since Coroflot is a leading job board for designers, many well-known tech companies are posting their vacancies on the platform.
UX Designer Interview Questions FAQ
When preparing for your UX interview, you should make sure your resume is updated and includes all of the necessary information for the position. Build or update your portfolio so that it’s ready to present to the interviewer. It’s also important to research the company you’re applying with to answer any company-specific questions.
To become a UX designer, you’ll need to receive the appropriate education or training. You’ll need to acquire the necessary skills and gain experience through internships, freelance work, bootcamp projects, or other avenues that allow you to complete projects for your portfolio.
There are three types of questions you can expect during your UX design job interview: technical, behavioral, and general. Technical questions help employers gauge your technical skills and knowledge about the entire UX design process. Behavioral and general questions help to assess your soft skills, professionalism, and strengths and weaknesses.
The three most important skills are graphic design skills, communication skills, and skills related to UX design techniques and methods. According to PayScale, people with graphic design skills alone earn an average salary of $54,000. Your learning experiences should also include industry trends.
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