Top 32 Ui Designer Interview Questions You Must Prepare 19.Mar.2024

If not describing personal experience, your prospective UI designer should, at least, tell you in his or her own words what Participatory Design is and what it is used for.

Essentially, this term means having everyone (employees, partners, customers, stakeholders, end-users) involved in the design process to make sure that the end product matches their needs, expectations and can be freely used by them.

There is always one area where a UI designer is comfortable and really good at it. The kind of client and the kind of media they work the best is like the mobile app or websites. Rather than mentioning only one area of expertise, it is good to discuss the past experience or projects where the work was new and was able to reach the desired results. These days employers are looking for versatile employees who can multi-task and has the capability to crack the difficult project. Hence, it is best to share your knowledge but best not to restrict yourself. Share what is close to your heart and what keeps you interested the most.

As a UI designer, they are one of the crucial members of a team built by UX designer, developer and much more. While answering this question, one needs to mention how a day begins with discussing with the team about the work, problem, and key areas to focus on. This will provide an idea that a UI designer is a team player and is in constant touch with their team to build an effective design.

They need to mention about how they visualize the idea and how to plan to achieve it. Understanding the limitations and the concerns in the design, especially after discussing with the UX designer. How they plan to tackle these issues with an effective result. Also, don’t forget to allot some time in your day, to read about the newer developments happening in the industry.

CTA is one of the most important, if not the most important, element of why websites, platforms, applications and digital interfaces are created. In short, it’s an element that will prompt a user to take a certain, desired action; actions such as buying products, downloading reports, sharing content, donating money, and so on. Part of the UX designer’s wireframe and prototype should identify the Call To Action that, ideally, will persuade users to engage.

A good UI designer should always notice CTA indications and should make sure that it gets a lot of attention when designing this element. Most of the time, it requires a specific and, more prominent color styling, different size, typography, placement and alignment, all of which UI designers control.

Any UI designer, who has worked long enough on various, unique projects, will have developed areas of expertise, or at least, preferences.

The designer’s answers should revolve around preferred client types or around certain type of platforms: Designing websites, mobile apps, backend dashboards, for instance. Professional UI designers would also cover the journey itself, describing how they arrived at these areas of expertise and experience.

Ideally, your candidate will explain that when Responsive Web Design (RWD) was introduced and gained popularity, Mobile-First Design practice was created to make the designer’s job more effective and efficient.

In this practice, designing starts from the smallest anticipated screen size and only then follow with enhancement on larger screen sizes. This approach saves time and increases a designer’s efficiency; when the design process starts with a large screen, designers tend to get into difficulty later trying to place elements onto smaller screens.

Sometimes an employer can ask about your opinion on a bad design instead of asking about the good design. One must need to know about the bad UI design in their opinion. The UI designer should have a strong opinion as to why they think it to be a design which is not user-friendly.

This question answers two very important aspects about the designer, firstly, how a UI designer thinks and what are the important aspect for a designer to know the value of the button, scroll bars, signs and process involved in the design. Letting know the employer about how a designer perceives the problem. Secondly, how the designer thinks about the user. Reasoning with the issues as to why the end user will not be able to work through it effectively will show your problem-solving capabilities.

  • Just like Call to Action (CTA) and Color Theory, Visual Weight is part of the fundamental knowledge a UI designer should have. Visual weight means giving a design element “power” to stand out and get user’s attention.
  • Not all elements have the same amount of “heaviness”. For example, CTA elements are more important than a simple label or an abstract image. Giving higher levels of “heavy” to certain elements are usually achieved by using contrast.
  • This isn’t necessarily a contrast of colors; it can be contrast of placement or size, too. A CTA button might look larger (or heavier) simply because it is designed to take up more space than surrounding elements. This puts more visual weight (more importance) on the CTA button.

This question should reveal how effectively a designer works with deadlines and project timelines. The candidate should be able to tell you about estimation tools and techniques encountered during his or her design career. Ask candidates if they create their own estimated timelines, milestones and deadlines, or if they were provided by another team member.

It is more important to find out if a designer manages to meet these set timelines, milestones and deadlines, or if they negatively affect the creative process.

This question should clarify how a designer thinks as the end-user. First of all, the designer has to identify the elements to be redesigned (colors, shapes, sizes, placement, for example), followed up by reasons, not choices, explaining why these elements require a redesign.

Finally, the most important part of this question should reveal the changes the designer would like to apply to the user interface. Again, backed up by reasons rather than choices, the designer needs to explain why the proposed changes would look better and how these changes would contribute better to the user experience.

  • There is always a better solution to an existing design and at every given step it has the possibility to improvise and make it better. Taking an example of an existing popular user interface with the issues and concerns a designer sees in it. Listing out those concerns and then mentioning the possible solution to make it far better than the existing design. More than a designer it shows the business acumen of a designer who can think from the perspective of an end user.
  • The answer and changes mentioned should have a proper and relevant reasoning to it rather than just the desire and interest of the designer. A good designer is the one who can think from the perspective of the end user and understand what the best solution for the user is. Ultimately it is the result what everyone is looking for and a beforehand idea of the final output always comes handy.
  • The opportunities as a UI designer is endless and the future is extremely bright in the field of a user interface. Despite being the high competitive and ever changing market where survival of the fittest is the mantra, there is work for everyone from a fresher to an experienced. Only those who are truly passionate about the user interface in all its aspects, from designing the layout, making simpler and effective and highly communicative interfaces. The only surviving kit in this industry is to work towards the goal of achieving the best and keeping up to date with what is happening in the industry.

Many design experts continue to argue over whether intuition-driven user interfaces are a myth. Those who are advocates say learning that the end-user describes your user interface as “intuitive” is the highest praise you will ever receive.

This is a thought provoking question for any UI designer and it will allow you to find out whether the designer also thinks it’s a myth or not. More importantly, if the designer does not believe it is a myth, what would she or he consider the most intuitive user interface created.

Your prospective user-interface designer should feel comfortable answering this question, mainly because both UX and UI designers are design focused, so quite often they understand each other without much explanation.

When UI designers need to adjust, change, add or remove something provided by UX designer, they should focus their communication on wireframes, UI elements, personas and on how it will affect the entire user journey. UI and UX designers should also test the product and give feedback to the developer during development stages.

This is the simplest question and a crucial one to answer. With this question, the employer will get to know the motivation and the drive for you to be in this area of work. As a UI designer, what are the crucial aspects you like about it from user testing to designing new layouts and creating interesting visual language, anything which can hook you up in it will be the best answer.

UI design is not an art; it requires not only design acumen but a business mindset to deliver the best results. While answering this question, ensure to back them up with relevant and strong examples and reasoning as to why a specific part of UI design attracts you. Include how you ensure to keep up to date on it and how you intend to improvise on to make it better day by day.

The future of UI design is immense as the world is shifting more and more towards internet life, from computers to mobile phones. Each day new technology is coming up which is making the life easier for the people. As a UI designer, this question is important to answer as to how do you see yourself in coming future. This is another question for the employer as they can learn about it if you are planning to switch jobs and companies or for how long you intend to be part of the employer.

The clarity of your future gives a clear idea to the employer about your dedication, hard work and efforts you are willing to put in your work and how much of a risk taker you will be.

Answer this question mentioning about the apps which have specifically caught your eye and it is not necessary that they are to be popular. What is special about it, what are the features, colors, the design aspect you like in it and justify with the logical reasoning as to how all of it works for the best. What will be your opinion on it and mentioning the synchronicities of all those elements that makes it the best visually.

This answer should tell the employer as to what kind of feature and attributes are your personal style and how as a designer you will be incorporating it into the work while maintaining the individuality of the brand.

Digital design is always changing; its standards are always improving. So, the worst mistake your prospective designer could do is be out-of-date with the industry s/he represents.

A good answer to this question would include the candidate’s favorite resources, books, blogs, podcasts or YouTube channels s/he keeps an eye on for the latest industry information. It would also be useful to hear of designers that inspire the candidate.

Every professional UI designer should have as much information as possible about the user experience (UX) and user journey that the team intends to create. This UX experience is usually planned out based on gathered data, including user surveying, usability testing, and so on.

So, the foundational information a UI designer needs before starting will revolve around the end-user needs and some business goals. It would also be wise to discover the designer’s reasoning behind any UX information s/he feels is necessary prior to commencing work on the project.

Keep yourself up to date with the upcoming trends in the user interface field before answering. Because it helps the employer to know how truly dedicated, passionate at work and knowledgeable you are in the field and how proactive you will be in your approach to stay ahead of the competitors. Therefore, learn about all the interesting buzz and hot trends in the market.

Best is to read about micro-interaction, layered interface and agnostic information flow, from what it is, how it works, what is its significance and what are their future implications. Let the employer know the level of commitment and interest you have in a user interface and how your approach as a designer is different from others.

Every good UI designer will design elements considering their shape, form, size, color, location and alignment. This means that your candidate should understand that element mapping is a crucial part of the design work.

Simply explained, mapping is the implied relationship between controls and their effects. If an element creates an effect that the user expects, then the element has good mapping.

For example, think about a set of images aligned horizontally that can be moved to the left or right. Underneath should be controls or buttons indicating that these images can be moved to either side. To move the images to the left side you would expect to click on the button aligned with the left side. Therefore, actually aligning this button to the left would, indeed, match the user’s expectations, which means this element has good mapping.

The answer needs to mention the core concerns that a UI designer faces in day to day work. UI design is quite a challenging time because every day something new is coming up in the web world and keeping up with that regularly requires immense attentiveness to the information. A new button, link, scrolling, icons which keep the user interested. Knowing what will attract the user and keep them hooked to it regularly is one of the biggest challenges they have. A UI design talk never goes without talking about web forms.

Understanding what will work best is of utmost important. The client differences is a challenge which every designer face. Talking about how these differences are bridged keeping in mind the client requirement along with the design value and aesthetics of the product.

UI design is a team-based work and cannot function best on its own. Before beginning the work, the designer should know what is the information they might require from a UX designer since UX and UI designs are integrated to each other and one cannot function without the other. The user experience data is based on research and analytics, including surveys, usability test. This data helps for a UI designer to know the problems faced in the interface interaction focusing on the key areas and resolving those issues.

This answer will provide an edge to the UI designer during the interview as the employer will learn about the designer as a team player who is keen on taking feedback from others in an effective way.

  • Answering this question should never be a problem to a good UI designer. This is foundational thinking. Color theory is, basically, a set of guidelines and laws that are intended to trigger emotions, set moods and guide someone’s attention by using colors in very specific ways.
  • Essentially, color theory and psychology consist of two color groups: warm colors and cool colors. Warm colors, such as orange, yellow and red, are known to awaken enthusiasm, energy, positivity and happiness. Cool colors, green, purple and blue, create a trustworthy, calm, relaxing and peaceful environment.
  • Individual colors, too, have their own inherent abilities to awaken certain emotions. For example, red conveys the suggestion of danger, caution and hazard.
  • All in all, a good UI designer will always use the power of color theory and color psychology to strengthen the desired message.

Every team or even no two people can have the same opinion about something. As a UI designer, it is crucial to work in a team and be a strong team player, but it is natural that differences crop up in a team. Generally, the differences tend to come up a lot between a UI and UX designer in a team, since both have a different perception of their work and they want to be the alpha in the team.

Therefore, it is important for the employer to know how the designer will manage the differences that will come up. The process of effective communication with the team matters the most. So as not to hamper with the result and finding the best solution for the problems.

  • Sometimes, designers create ego-centric work. It happens when all the UX requirements are met by the UI designer, but s/he continues adding design work to use his or her creativity, or to test out new practices, or to add elements that the designer feels are necessary, based on taste and preferences.
  • MVP works the opposite way; it means creating and designing a basic version of a product that early adopters can use or buy. The main goal is to bring the product to the market as soon as possible without any non-essential features.
  • Additional features and design elements are added based on the feedback of real users rather than a designer’s ideas and assumptions. Many of the world’s most popular products have been developed using MVP practice; Twitter is an example.

Ideally, this question should be answered by referring to a project where a designer used UI micro interactions to enhance the “feel” part of the “look and feel”.

Professional UI designers understand that a design can have beautifully designed features and elements, but if there is not enough attention to detail, the end-user might be put off. Therefore, employing UI micro interactions is a good way to take care of these little details.

By answering this question, a designer should reveal a lot about his or her preferences of processes, orders and setups. You should be able to find out how much of a team player the applicant is, and how much does s/he expect from other team members: Developers, UX designers, and Information Architects.

A good UI designer should mention how important it is to communicate with UX designers about changes in prototypes or wireframes. Another good sign is if the designer mentions keeping end-user goals in mind when designing each element, as well as how s/he is aware of any technical limitations.

And finally, a great question to determine if your new designer knows how to make good design decisions. Ask the candidate to look at his or her portfolio, or a live product, website or application that s/he designed, and walk you through while describing different aspects and elements.

Ideally, you should expect to hear the designer’s reasons for why s/he decided to give buttons a certain size, shape, color, placement and alignment. All design thinking should be revealed by this question. It would show that everything s/he designs is intentional, not experimental or accidental.

The post The Vital Guide to User Interface (UI) Design Interviewing appeared first on webdesignledger.

This is a fairly recent, yet widely recognized methodology introduced by Brad Frost in 201@Atomic Design was created to design interfaces that focus on designing elements and their combinations, rather than designing web pages one by one. This is a basic explanation of what this methodology was created for. Knowing all five of its components should give your prospective designer some golden bonus points.

Atoms: These are the smallest and most basic building blocks. These are applied to web interfaces as labels, input fields, text boxes, buttons, etc. They can also contain color, palettes, fonts, etc.

Molecules: When atoms are combined, we get molecules: groups of atoms, bonded together that are the smallest fundamental units of a compound. Molecules can take on their own properties, too.

Organisms: Organisms are formed by using molecules as our building blocks. When molecules are joined together, it becomes a relatively complex and distinct section of an interfaces that has been created: an organism.

Templates: This stage should already make sense to clients. Understandably, templates are mostly groups of organisms put together to form pages. This is the stage that allows us to see things, such as layouts, coming together.

Pages: This is used as specific instances of templates to give a precise understanding of what the final output will look like. Pages ultimately become the highest level of fidelity, which allows UX and UI designers, together, to test the effectiveness of the design system.

  • Similarly to wire framing, prototyping is, more often than not, provided by the UX designer. Therefore, any UI designer should be aware of why prototyping takes place, and how to utilize it, in the workflow.
  • Put simply, prototyping is for design exploration and time saving purposes. To make sure UI designers don’t waste their time designing and redesigning specific user interactions, prototypes are used to create mockups of how design elements will be used.
  • Prototypes allow UI designers to identify any potential issues that might come in conflict with what the UX designer or architect has intended.

While just a few years ago Photoshop was the number-one choice for every designer, today things have changed. The majority of professional UI designers prefer to design interfaces using Sketch, which was developed specifically for user interface creation, but not for logos, illustrations, or anything else graphics-related.

Still, it is beneficial to hear why UI designers think Sketch has gained so much popularity in such a short time. Some of the features that Sketch is known for are 100 percent vector support, code-friendly designs, robust export features, customizable grid systems, and so on.

This is a phenomenon that states that a good-looking design will always be perceived as more usable than one that is less appealing, even though that might not be the case.

This phenomenon was demonstrated by two researchers, Kaori Kashmir and Masaki Kurusu, in their study at Hitachi in Tokyo. They asked test participants to rate the beauty and usability of interfaces. The final study results proved that even when trying to evaluate the interface in its functional aspects, the user would still end up strongly affected by the aesthetic aspect of the interface.

A good UI designer will keep in mind that this effect might easily influence a user’s opinion more than expected. This, in turn, might affect a user’s behavior and their perception of how easy it is to use the designed system.