Questions to Help You Prepare For UX Interviews

The interview process can be daunting. It is an important part of the process to practice, but it can sometimes be hard to know where to start.

I would start by looking up some common interview questions. There are a lot of resources out there to help with this step. But as a way to help, check out some of the common ones I think are important below.

1. Tell me about some of your favorite examples of good UX

What they really are asking is to see if you understand elements of a good user experience. In other words, your skill levels with UX best practices. Think about an app or website you have been on that stood out to you. You should be able to explain what the experience was, and why it was a good one.

2. Can you walk me through your workflow?

What they are really asking is to understand your thought process and to see how you solve problems. To best answer this I’d suggest using a past project (client or passion) to talk through your steps. This way it will help you structure it more easily.

3. What kind of research methods do you use?

What they are really asking is to understand how you validate your design decisions. Similiarly to the question above, I’d suggest answering this question through a past example. Use one of your case studies to explain which methods you used.

4. Where do you find inspiration?

What they are really asking about is your passion level for UX. It is a way to guage if you stay up to date with current trends and if you are a constant learner. There is no wrong answer to where you pull from. Rememeber it doesn’t have to be digital!

In my opinion though, it is not just about knowing which questions will be asked, but also about the way in which you prepare for them.

Often times I notice the go to way to prepare is to rehearse answers to the common interview questions found online. Now, this does help to make sure you cover all your talking points. But, it also takes the human piece out if it.

The reason I call this out is twofold.

The first is the fact that especially with our industry, empathy and interest in others is super important. It is in the name at the end of the day!

The second is the fact that culture fit is a huge part to the interview process. In the case of these rehearsed answers, I find personality often gets lost. This is due to the focus on remembering all of what was practiced.

So if you can’t rehearse verbatim answers, how else do you prepare for an interview?

It’s less about remembering full sentences that you repeat, and more so about making some notes to each of these answers.

By only having bullet points for the question responses, you still prepare yourself to know how to answer it, but it leads to more casual answers. You get your brain thinking about relevant information, but you don’t formulate the answer fully then. This allows for you to still understand what to say but it makes the interview flow more!

Would you try this method to prepare for your interview next time?