UX Interview Questions

You’ve polished your design resume, applied for a few UX design job positions, and finally got invited for an interview. What’s next? UX designer interviews can be quite intimidating, especially if it’s your first design job or you’re transitioning to UX design from another field. By discovering what questions a hiring manager may ask you and understanding the structure of the UX design interview process, you’ll feel less nervous when entering the interview room. Nail your next interview with these 15 UX interview questions and answers, and take the next step by exploring UX design jobs and other design-related positions on UX job boards.

1. Tell Us About Yourself

Alternative forms of this question:

• Tell us your UX story
• Why are you interested in UX design?
• Tell us a little about your background

This is your chance to give a glimpse into your background. The interviewer wants to hear about how you entered the UX design field, what or who sparked your interest, and how you started your journey in UX design. If it’s your first UX designer job and you don’t have any prior experience, think of the soft skills you have that make you perfect for the position and company culture. For example, mention problem-solving skills, curiosity, communication skills, and empathy.

2. What Are Your Biggest Strengths and Weaknesses?

Alternative forms of this question:

• What are your strong/weak sides?
• What makes you perfect for a UX designer position?

Review the company’s job description to answer this question effectively. When discussing your weaknesses, frame your answers so those weaknesses seem positive from a company’s perspective. For example, if the job description mentions a fast-paced startup environment, say you might get bored without being challenged or need a regular change of tasks to stay productive.

3. Where Do You See Yourself in Five Years?

Alternative forms of this question:

• How do you see your UX design career?
• What are your professional plans?

Provide an overview of your UX designer career goals and describe the steps you plan to take to achieve them. Mention any relevant UX design courses or degrees you are pursuing.

4. How Do You Define UX?

Alternative forms of this question:

• What’s the value of UX design?
• What is UX and UX design?
• What’s the difference between UX and UI design?

Explain UX design by focusing on empathy and a user-centered approach. Define UX design as the process of designing products or services with users’ interests and needs at heart. Bring up the value of user research and the design thinking approach.

5. Describe a Recent Challenge and How You Approached the Problem

Alternative forms of this question:

• Tell me about a time when something went wrong
• How do you face challenges?
• How do you handle stressful situations?

Explain what was unique about this challenging project, the steps you and your team took to achieve the end goal, and the insights you gained from this experience. Mention techniques and research methods used, such as user personas, user interviews, surveys, and task analysis.

6. What’s Your Design Workflow?

Alternative forms of this question:

• Guide us through your design process
• Describe common UX designer responsibilities
• How do you decide which research method to use?

Walk the interviewer through the steps you usually take when starting a new project. Mention important aspects such as competitive and content audits, empathy maps, surveys, user personas, interviews, customer journeys, sketches, and prototypes.

7. What Is the Process of a Design Handoff?

Alternative forms of this question:

• How do you collaborate with developers?
• How do UX designers interact with other team roles?

A successful handoff implies regular discussions and design reviews that involve developers. Mention assets like user flows, prototypes, animations, and design systems. Highlight how these assets help developers understand user needs better and keep things consistent.

8. How Do You Cooperate with Other Teammates?

Alternative forms of this question:

• Describe your ideal work environment
• How well do you work in UX teams?

Demonstrate your enthusiasm to empathize and the ability to put yourself in other people’s shoes. Provide examples of how you communicated with other UX or UI designers, UX leads, developers, business analysts, or project managers.

9. What Are Your Favorite Websites and Apps for UX? Why?

Alternative forms of this question:

• What is good UX for you?
• What does it mean to have good UX?

Talk about your favorite apps and websites and their aspects that demonstrate good UX. For example, mention Spotify for its personalized content or Duolingo for its use of gamification to encourage learning.

10. Tell Us About the Project You’re Most Proud Of

Alternative forms of this question:

• Walk me through your UX portfolio
• What’s your experience as a UX designer?

Describe a successful project that helped you fully exploit your strengths. Mention your contributions to the final product, any setbacks you faced, and how you overcame them. Highlight prototyping tools and visual design software used in your design process.

11. Tell Us About a Time When You Disagreed with Your Teammates. What Did You Do?

Alternative forms of this question:

• How do you handle conflict situations in a team?
• How do you react to criticism?

Disagreement is an essential part of the design process. Describe a case when you found valid arguments to prove your point or how you handled negative feedback and what you learned from it.

12. What Would You Improve About the UX of Our Product?

Alternative forms of this question:

• Tell us about a bad user experience with a product you’ve had. How would you fix it?
• What are the elements of good UX?

Take some time to test the company’s product and think of one or two things that can be improved. Guide interviewers through your thought process and explain what steps you would take to fix things. Be polite in delivering criticism.

13. What Excites You About This Position?

Alternative forms of this question:

• Why did you apply for this position?
• Why do you want to become a UX designer?

Talk about what you genuinely like about the position of a UX designer, such as the company’s culture, people, design challenges, or professional prospects.

14. Where Do You Go for Inspiration?

Alternative forms of this question:

• What do you do when you feel stuck in the design process?
• What is your design workflow?
• What inspires your work?

Prepare a list of your UX design inspiration sources. Include blogs, books, magazines, podcasts, YouTube channels, and UX design gurus you follow. Describe what’s remarkable about them or how they help you in your work.

15. The Whiteboard Task

During a whiteboard challenge, a UX designer is asked to develop a solution on the spot and demonstrate their way of thinking. Show your UX design process by asking questions about end-users, creating a user story, sketching wireframes, and being open to discussion.

[BONUS] 16. Do You Have Any Questions?

This is a common interview question, not just for UX design interviews. Ask about the company culture, describe an ideal UX designer from their perspective, or address concerns about working remotely. Demonstrate your interest and engagement.

By preparing answers to these questions, you’ll be well-equipped to impress potential employers and take the next step in your UX design career. Good luck!

When answering this question, it’s important to show that you are proficient in using design tools such as Sketch, Figma, Adobe XD, or InVision and that you understand their capabilities and limitations. Here are a few key points you might want to include in your answer:

1. Explain which design tools you are familiar with: mention which design tools you are familiar with, such as Sketch, Figma, Adobe XD, or InVision, and explain why you prefer using them.
   
2. Describe how you use them in your design process: Explain how you use the design tools you mentioned in your design process, such as wireframing, prototyping, creating high-fidelity mockups and design systems.
   
3. Talk about their capabilities and limitations: Discuss the capabilities of the design tools you mentioned and how you use them to create efficient and effective designs. Also, mention any limitations that you have encountered and how you overcame them.
   
4. Show examples of your work: Bring examples of your work, if possible, or share a link to an online portfolio that showcases your work and the design tools you used to create them.
   
5. Describe any additional Plug-ins or integrations you are familiar with: Mention any additional plug-ins or integrations that you are familiar with, and how you use them to improve your workflow and achieve specific goals.
   
6. Explain how you stay updated: Discuss how you stay updated with the latest version of the design tools you use and any new features or capabilities.

It’s important to show that you are proficient in using the design tools mentioned and that you understand their capabilities and limitations. Provide specific examples of how you have used them in your past projects, and the benefits they provided. Also, showing that you are able to stay updated with the latest version and features of the tools will demonstrate your commitment to staying current and improving your workflows.

When answering this question, it’s important to show that you have a collaborative approach to working with developers and other team members on design projects, and that you are able to effectively communicate and coordinate with them throughout the design process. Here are a few key points you might want to include in your answer:

1. Communication is key: Emphasize the importance of clear and regular communication with developers and other team members, such as setting up regular check-ins, sharing design updates, and providing detailed design documentation.
   
2. Involvement from early stages: Describe how you involve developers and other team members in the design process from an early stage, such as by inviting them to participate in user research, design critiques, or usability testing, to ensure that their perspectives are taken into account.
   
3. Build trust and relationships: Discuss how you build trust and positive relationships with developers and other team members through open and honest communication, being responsive to their feedback and concerns, and being proactive in addressing any issues that arise.
   
4. Working within technical constraints: Explain how you work within the technical constraints of a project and how you work with developers to find solutions that meet the needs of both users and the technical requirements of the project.
   
5. Utilize design systems and guidelines: Talk about how you leverage design systems, design guidelines and other design resources created by the team, in order to maintain consistency, improve communication, and ensure that designs are feasible and aligned with the company’s design standards.
   
6. Be flexible and adaptable: Describe how you are flexible and adaptable when working with other team members, being open to change, willing to compromise, and always ready to find creative solutions.

It’s important to show that you have a collaborative approach to working with developers and other team members, and that you have the ability to effectively communicate, coordinate and align the design with the technical requirements while still keeping the user’s needs in mind. Showing how you build trust and positive relationships with your team members and how you keep open and honest communication are also key aspects.

When answering this question, it’s important to provide specific examples of how you have used prototyping and testing in your design process to validate and refine your designs. Here’s a possible structure for your answer:

1. Describe the project: Start by describing the project you worked on and the problem you were trying to solve. Explain how you used research and analysis to understand user needs and generate design concepts.
   
2. Explain your prototyping approach: Describe the approach you used to create prototypes, including the tools you used and the level of fidelity. Explain how you used prototyping to test and validate design concepts.
   
3. Show the testing process: Share the testing process you used, such as usability testing, A/B testing, or surveys. Explain how you used testing to gather feedback on the design and make iterative improvements.
   
4. Describe the outcome: Share the outcome of the project and the improvements made to the design as a result of the testing. Provide any metrics or data that demonstrate the success of the design.
   
5. Explain how prototyping and testing helped you improve the design: Highlight how prototyping and testing helped you improve the design, for example, identify usability issues, gather user feedback and validate design decisions.
   
6. Talk about any challenges you faced: Discuss any challenges you faced during the prototyping and testing process, and how you overcame them.

It’s important to provide specific examples and to show how you were able to use prototyping and testing to validate and refine your designs. Additionally, try to mention any tools and methods you have used in the past and the benefits they provided. It is also important to show how the testing helped you identify any issues and made iterative changes based on user feedback, resulting in a better end product.

When answering this question, it’s important to show that you understand the importance of user research and data in informing design decisions, and that you have a systematic approach to incorporating this information into your design process. Here are a few key points you might want to include in your answer:

1. Research is at the core of the design process: Emphasize that user research and data are at the core of the design process, and that they inform every design decision you make. Explain how user research provides valuable insights into user needs, pain points, and behaviors that help guide the design decisions.
   
2. Use a variety of research methods: Discuss how you use a variety of research methods, such as interviews, surveys, usability testing, and analytics, to gather data from a diverse range of users and gather a wide variety of data.
   
3. Analyze and synthesize data: Describe how you analyze and synthesize the data you collect to identify patterns, trends, and insights. Explain how you use this information to inform the design decisions, such as identifying design opportunities, solving design problems, and validating design solutions.
   
4. Communicate research findings to the team: Talk about how you communicate research findings to the team and other stakeholders to ensure that everyone is aware of user needs and how they inform the design decisions.
   
5. Use data to support design decisions: Explain how you use data to support design decisions, such as making data-driven decisions, measuring the success of a design and iterating based on data.
   
6. Continuously gather data: Mention how you continuously gather data throughout the design process, such as using analytics to track usage, or conduct follow-up research to evaluate the effectiveness of the design.

Overall, it’s important to show that you understand the importance of user research and data in informing design decisions, and that you have a systematic approach to incorporating this information into your design process, throughout all design stages, from research to post-launch analysis. Furthermore, it’s also important to show how you are able to communicate research findings effectively, making it easily understandable for everyone, not only designers or researchers.

When answering this question, it’s important to provide a specific example of a design challenge you faced and the steps you took to overcome it. Here’s a possible structure for your answer:

1. Describe the challenge: Start by describing the design challenge you faced, such as a tight deadline, limited resources, or conflicting stakeholder requirements. Explain how you identified the challenge and the specific constraints you were working under.
2. Explain the research and analysis: Describe the research and analysis you conducted to understand the problem and gather information on the user’s needs and pain points. Explain how you used the research to generate ideas and possible solutions.
3. Describe your approach to solving the problem: Talk about the approach you took to solve the problem, including the design process you used, such as user research, prototyping, testing, and iteration. Mention any tools or methodologies you used to help guide your design decisions.
4. Show the solution and the outcome: Share the solution you implemented and the final outcome, and provide any metrics or data that demonstrates the success of your solution, such as improved user satisfaction or increased conversions.
5. Reflect on what you learned: Discuss what you learned from the experience and how you might approach similar challenges in the future. Explain how you will use this experience to inform your future design decisions.

It’s important to provide a specific example and be able to speak to the problem you faced, the research, analysis and the specific design decisions that lead to the final solution. Show how you were able to overcome the challenge while keeping the user’s needs in mind and how you have grown from the experience.

When answering this question, it’s important to show that you have a dedicated and consistent approach to staying up-to-date with design trends and best practices. Here are a few key points you might want to include in your answer:

1. Following design leaders and influencers: Explain how you follow thought leaders and influencers in the design community, such as reading their blogs, articles, or watching their talks, to learn about the latest design trends and best practices.
   
2. Participating in design communities: Discuss how you participate in design communities, such as online forums, social media groups, or local design meetups, to stay connected with other designers and learn about the latest design trends and best practices.
   
3. Continuing education: Describe how you continue your education, such as by taking online classes, workshops, attending design conferences, or earning certifications to stay up-to-date with the latest design trends and best practices.
   
4. Experimenting and Trying new tools: Mention how you keep yourself up-to-date with the new tools and software in the market by experimenting with them, and seeing how they can improve your work process and workflow.
   
5. Staying updated with industry standards: Explain how you stay updated on the latest industry standards and best practices, such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and Human Interface Guidelines (HIG), to ensure that your designs meet industry standards.
   
6. Reflecting and Learning from past work: Talk about how you reflect and learn from your past work, and how you use those learnings to improve your current and future designs.

It’s important to show that you have a dedicated and consistent approach to staying up-to-date with design trends and best practices and that you are continuously learning and growing as a designer. Furthermore, mention any specific books, blogs, podcasts, or newsletters you follow to stay informed.

When answering this question, it’s important to show that you understand the importance of both aesthetics and functionality in design, and that you have a systematic approach to balancing the two. Here are a few key points you might want to include in your answer:

1. Aesthetics and functionality are not mutually exclusive: Emphasize that aesthetics and functionality are not mutually exclusive, but rather they should work together to create an overall positive user experience. Explain how the visual design should help the user to understand and interact with the product more easily, and how the functionality should make the product more pleasurable to use.
   
2. Start with user needs and goals: Explain that you always start by understanding the user needs and goals, and that these drive the design decisions. You should make sure that the design meets the user needs before considering aesthetics.
   
3. Iterate and test: Describe how you use iteration and testing to find the balance between aesthetics and functionality. Explain that you test different design options and make iterative changes based on user feedback to find the optimal balance.
   
4. Prioritizing: Mention how you prioritize the design elements, and which elements take precedence based on the specific project requirements and user needs. And how you balance aesthetics and functionality based on the priorities.
   
5. Follow design principles and guidelines: Talk about how you use design principles, such as contrast, alignment, and balance, to create visually pleasing and functional designs. Also mention any design guidelines that you follow in order to ensure that your designs are aesthetically pleasing and functional.
   
6. Learn from industry standards and best practices: Explain how you stay updated on the latest industry standards and best practices, and how you apply this knowledge to your designs to ensure that they are both aesthetically pleasing and functional.

It’s important to show that you understand the importance of balancing aesthetics and functionality and have a systematic approach to achieving it. And that you are able to balance it based on user needs, business goals, and technical constraints.

When answering this question, it’s important to provide specific examples of how you have improved the usability and user experience of a product or service. Here’s a possible structure for your answer:

1. Describe the problem: Start by describing the problem you were trying to solve, such as low user engagement or high abandonment rates. Explain how you identified the problem and the research you conducted to understand user needs and pain points.
   
2. Explain your solution: Describe the solution you proposed and implemented to address the problem, including any design decisions and rationale behind them. Provide details about the design process you used, such as user research, prototyping, testing, and iteration.
   
3. Show the results: Share the results of your efforts, including any metrics that demonstrate the improvement in usability and user experience, such as increased user engagement, conversion rates, or satisfaction scores.
   
4. Provide visuals, if available: If you have any screenshots, wireframes, or other visuals that help to illustrate your example, be sure to bring them with you to the interview, or if possible share a link where the final product can be accessed.

It’s important to have specific examples of past projects, but remember to tailor them to the company where you are applying, and how the skills you used on that specific project can be adapted to the company’s product or service.

Also, if possible try to mention how you worked with the team, any challenges you faced and how you overcame them. This will demonstrate your problem-solving skills, ability to work in a team, and ability to deliver under pressure.