Tell us about yourself, what is your background?
You want a candidate to be as relaxed and sincere as possible. So, in order to create the proper atmosphere and connection, start with a casual question. But, you should direct the conversation, so it doesn’t sidetrack and take too much time. Ask additional questions to receive required information.
For example,
- “Why did you leave the previous company?”
- “What did you like the most about your second job?”
Feel free to gently interrupt to nudge the conversation in the direction you need.
What is your professional experience?
You may be confused, “But I already know everything from a resume, don’t I?” Yes and no.
It’s one thing to read an almost sterile carefully planned description. And it’s a completely different thing to hear the person describe their experience on the go. It will help you to understand their career status, professional focus, how they frame their responsibilities, and whether they’re superficial in their view of the job.
If it’s a UX or UX/UI designer, pay particular attention to how empathetic they are towards users’ needs and proficient in mapping the customer experience. If they tend to ignore or gloss over this issue, it may signal a lack of expertise or understanding of the role.
Who was your manager and how would they evaluate your job?
It’s a great question to get a sincere answer as people wouldn’t risk embellishing the truth in case you would contact their manager to get feedback on their work.
What was your best role on the project?
If you want to know what the candidate is the most comfortable with.
It’ll help you to pinpoint their passions and main areas of expertise as well as a deeper understanding of the design process.
How do you stay up to date with the design industry?
Designers should stay up-to-date with the recent trends as well as effective design tools and techniques in the industry. So, ask them where they get their information from?
There are some top resources. For example,
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Baymardinstitute — a top provider of UX research data for e-commerce projects
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Nilsennorman group — a #1 destination for interaction design findings
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NFX.com — probably the best source of knowledge for people that create marketplaces and work with the network effect.
Of course, there are more relevant resources, books, and style guides. So if the designer names a few you don’t know, feel free to check them later.
We also pay much attention to whether designers read books on design. Without it, a professional isn’t likely to efficiently improve. They also show that a person is persistent about learning new things.
What was the last design problem you solved and how did you approach it?
A great question to check how a designer thinks;
It will help you determine whether he or she has a more visual (UI) or analytical (UX) mindset. Pay attention to whether the answer is objective (based on facts and analysis) or subjective (based on feelings and tastes). Most of the time, you want the first kind of person.
How would you do user research for our future market?
Ask the question to evaluate UX designer research skills.
Ideally, first, you want to hear questions in return. For what product should I do research? What is the goal of my research? Who is our market?
As for the research approaches, there is qualitative research (interviews, tests, and cultural background studies) that shows what and why the user wants; and quantitative research (analytics, surveys) to test whether the implemented solutions work well.
What is your greatest professional success/failure?
A tricky but insightful question.
The first variation helps to discover what “success” and “best” mean to the person. Is it about the awards their projects won or about lifting the customers’ engagement by 25%?
The “greatest failure” question reveals their humility and humbleness. Professionals should recognize and own their failures, especially in the era of “making mistakes fast.” Also, ask about the cause to see whether the person tries to shift the blame on anyone or anything but themselves.
There are no wrong or right answers to the questions, but they will help you understand where the person stands.
What are your motivations?
Soft skills and emotional intelligence are crucial for productive collaboration and a healthy emotional atmosphere in the company. No wonder some employers prefer less experienced employers with better soft skills than skilled but “abrasive” professionals.
Not only are emotionally intelligent people more pleasant to be around, but they also minimize conflict and possible burnouts.
Therefore, to check the emotional intelligence, motivations, and personality of the candidates, you can ask some of the following questions:
- What is your motivation in work?
- What makes you irritated?
- What would you do if you couldn’t pursue design?
- Which projects would you decline under any circumstances?
Test Assignment
Usually, you’ll give a junior or middle candidate a big design task that they’ll do in their spare time. Said task mimics your real work and is constructed to test the basic skills of the designer: research, analysis, and actual design.
If the candidate is senior, it’s better to give them a lengthy paid task or a few paid days of work with your team.
However, there are tasks you can give a candidate during the job interview to quickly assess their skills and ability to work under time constraints.
Prepare a few screens with usability flaws to show to your candidates and ask them about their ideas for improvements. The answers will show you the dominant mindset of your possible teammate.
- Newbie designers: in the worst case, you will hear vague, subjective statements: “It's bad, I'd redesign it completely, I do not like colors, icons, the screen is way too dense...” Those are the signs of an inexperienced designer.
- UI-focused designers: If the designer tells you how to fix colors, icons, fonts, layout, and screen density, their main focus is visuals. It is perfectly fine, especially if you need strong UI expertise.
- UX-focused designers: The designer has ideas for new features that can improve the UX. He or she can also tell you how to decrease the number of clicks or scrolls, how to name elements better, and how to improve data visualization.
- Designers with a business-oriented mindset: Some designers will start by asking more questions about design goals and main usage scenarios. If you’re not sure how relevant their questions are, ask how they are going to use this information to change the design.
For example, here’s the screen with a few usability flaws we use.
