Interviewing UI/UX Designer

Are you preparing to hire a UI/UX designer to make your website clear, practical, and modern? UI and UX are distinct design areas, each with its own tasks and responsibilities. While this distinction helps to avoid monotony in the job, it requires a generalist approach.

Essential skills required for candidates for this profession include

Knowledge of Vector Graphics Editors: Proficiency in programs like Figma, where you can create wireframes (sketches of the product structure), design buttons and other interface elements, and add simple animations.
Knowledge of Color Theory: Selecting colors that work well together and create the right context can be challenging. Colors can help draw the user’s attention to critical elements (such as a call to action) and convey a certain mood. For instance, changing a button color from green to red can significantly impact conversion rates, as seen in a marketing case where this change increased conversions by 21%.
Eyesight: Developing an eye for style and aesthetics is crucial. This involves looking at photos, illustrations, fonts, and examples from the niche to understand the visual language and apply it effectively.
Creativity: The ability to generate ideas consistently is essential. According to the World Economic Forum, creativity will be one of the top three most important skills for any job by 2025. In LinkedIn and Udemy’s ranking of popular soft skills in 2020, creative thinking was ranked first. UI/UX designers need to maintain creativity daily to meet project deadlines and avoid project failures.
Ability to Work with Content: Selecting appropriate photos, illustrations, and icons from stock sources like Unsplash, Pexels, Freepik, and Icons8 is often necessary. Familiarity with Figma plugins that offer ready-made graphics, icons, and illustrations is also beneficial.
Ability to Quickly Understand the Product and Ask the Right Questions: Understanding the unique characteristics of different projects and asking insightful questions is crucial. Whether designing an online store or developing a mobile app for a cinema chain, it’s important to grasp the client’s needs and target audience.
Ability to Dig Deep and Delve into the Context: Context is key. For example, the launch of the new Ukrainian police website faced significant criticism, highlighting the importance of understanding the context and potential user reactions.

UI/UX Designer Interview Structure

Hiring UI/UX designers is not a piece of cake; you need to put considerable effort into finding the right talent. This requires a well-structured interview process. You can divide your interview into four rounds:

Round 1: Portfolio Meeting and Initial Screening (30 minutes)
Assess the candidate’s previous work and overall design style.
Round 2: Technical Skills Assessment (1 hour)
Evaluate the candidate’s capabilities in using design tools and their design thinking skills.
Round 3: Design Exercises and Problem-Solving (1.5 hours)
Understand the candidate’s design process and ability to tackle complex UI/UX challenges.
Round 4: Cultural Fit and Team Collaboration (45 minutes)
Assess the candidate’s ability to work within the company culture and collaborate with cross-functional teams.

Interview questions for UI/UX Designer

Can you give a specific example of a project that didn’t go as planned? What did it teach you?
How do you keep yourself updated with recent trends and technologies in UI/UX design?
What is your approach to balancing aesthetics and user experience in your designs?
Tell me about an instance where you incorporated user feedback into the design process.
How do you start creating user personas? Can you provide an example?
What happens during the wireframing and prototyping stages? Which tools do you use for these processes?
How do you measure the success of usability testing using metrics?
How do you ensure the accessibility of your designs?
Differentiate between UI and UX design with examples from your work.
What does success mean to you in a UI/UX project?
Tell me about a time when you had to design for someone with special accessibility needs. What was your strategy?
How have design constraints, such as budget or time limitations, affected your work?
Given a basic wireframe, how would you improve it based on user feedback?
Explain how you would design for different screen sizes and devices.
How would you approach building information architecture for a complex website?
How do you define design success?
How do you collaborate with developers and other stakeholders?
How do you handle negative feedback on your UI/UX work?
What drives you as a designer?
How do you get inspired and stay creative?
Can you describe your ideal work environment?

Conclusion

It is important to hire an expert to create a website that is both visually stunning and user-friendly. To kick-start the interview process, you should focus on understanding both UI and UX from their respective roles and emphasize core skills such as design tools, color theory, innovation, and empathy that UI/UX professionals need.

Follow a structured approach to identify the best fit for your team, which includes:

Portfolio reviews as the first stage
Technical assessments and design exercises (candidates work on these at home)
Culture fit evaluation

The hiring process requires a significant investment of time and effort to find a person who can enhance your website and improve the user experience.