UX / UI Designer Interview Prep
Design how products feel. Figma, user research, accessibility.
General tips for this role
- Have a portfolio. A LIVE portfolio. Not a Behance link if you can avoid it.
- Know Figma deeply. Components, auto-layout, variants. Most teams hire on Figma proficiency.
- Practise a critique exercise. Look at random apps and critique them aloud.
- Read 'Don't Make Me Think' by Steve Krug. Cited in 80%+ of UX interviews.
- Show you understand the business. Design without business context is just art.
Walk me through your portfolio.
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This IS the interview. Pick 1-2 projects. For each: problem, your role, process (research, ideation, testing), the final design, what you'd do differently. Quantify impact when possible. Keep each project to 5 minutes max.
Recruiters skim portfolios. Make the FIRST screen of each case study tell the whole story.
What is the difference between UX and UI?
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UX (User Experience): how the product feels to use overall. Research, flows, information architecture, usability. UI (User Interface): how the product looks. Visual design, components, colours, typography. UX is the skeleton, UI is the skin. Most roles are 'UX/UI' but understand a senior team has specialists in each.
Walk me through your design process.
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Discover (user research, stakeholder interviews, competitive analysis). Define (problem statement, user personas, journey maps). Ideate (sketches, wireframes, multiple options). Prototype (Figma, interactive flows). Test (usability testing with 5 users, iterate). Deliver (developer handoff with documented components). Each step should reduce assumptions, not add them.
What's your usability testing process?
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Plan: define the question (e.g. 'can users complete checkout in under 2 minutes'). Recruit 5 users (Nielsen's rule — 5 users catch ~85% of usability issues). Prepare tasks (action-oriented, not leading). Run: think-aloud protocol, watch for hesitation, frustration. Analyse: rank issues by frequency and severity. Iterate. 5 users + 1 round = often 80% of the value.
How do you handle accessibility in your designs?
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Colour contrast: at least 4.5:1 for normal text (WCAG AA). Use a checker tool. Keyboard navigation: every interactive element reachable by tab. Focus states visible. Screen reader: semantic markup, alt text on images, ARIA labels only when needed. Forms: labels always visible, errors associated with their inputs. Test with VoiceOver (Mac) or NVDA (Windows) at least once a week. Accessibility is not optional — it's law in most countries.
Critique a website (interviewer picks one). What would you change?
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Structured critique: 1) Start with what works ('the navigation is clear'). 2) Identify the user goal. 3) List specific issues with reasoning. 4) Propose improvements with rationale. Avoid 'it looks ugly' — use design principles. Mention accessibility, hierarchy, consistency, affordance.
Show that you can critique constructively. Designers who can only criticise are exhausting to work with.
Tell me about a time you disagreed with a stakeholder.
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STAR. Show: you listened, you brought data or research, you proposed an alternative, the outcome. Designers who only fight stakeholders never get promoted. Designers who roll over make bad products. The right answer is somewhere between — and shows you can navigate it.
Your designer hands you a hi-fi mockup. The dev says it's not feasible. What do you do?
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Get them in the same room (or call). Ask 'what's not feasible — the visual style, the interaction, the data?' Often only ONE thing blocks it; everything else is fine. Negotiate: can we simplify the animation but keep the layout? Can we use existing components instead of custom? Designers and devs should be friends. Frame it as 'we're solving this together'.
How do you stay current with design?
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Specific examples beat generic. 'I follow Refactoring UI, the IxDA community, and recently took Don Norman's Coursera course. I redesign one Dribbble shot a month for practice.' Show ongoing learning, not just past credentials.