What sort of skill test should a UX Designer expect during a job interview?

As a UX designer interviewing anywhere, you can be expected to: Discuss your work at an appropriate level Clearly articulate project goals that were balanced with user needs Identify design opportunities on a product or feature (basically, come up with ideas) on the spot Solve interaction or interface problems on the fly Communicate well (talking to the interviewer, listening, responding, etc) It's not limited to just those, but those are the highlights. From interviews I've conducted, it's fairly easy to get an understanding of whether a person is an appropriate fit culturally, but it takes some solid questions around the topics above to really evaluate one's skills and talents. In short, be prepared to talk about your work, potential work should you have the job, and have big ideas. If you can do that, you're set.

Here are some specific approaches I've found useful when interviewing UX designers. Look over their portfolio, pick a couple of the more interesting ones, and ask questions like: - Layout general: Why did you choose this layout? What alternatives did you consider. The point is to figure out how much thought went into deciding the layout; whether it was "instinct" or whether there were some cognitive/gestalt/other principles used. There are no "correct" answers - but the candidate needs to be able to talk intelligently about choices and articulate the decisions. - Layout specific: What would happen to the design if I shifted this element here? Would it be worse? Why? - Info Design: Ask about how he/she chose what should be on the screen and what shouldn't. Was a process followed? Were users consulted? Were alternatives tested with users? Why or Why Not? Basically you're looking to see if they just crammed in as much functionality as possible based on gut feel, or whether there was prioritization based on some reasonable/reproducible process. Ask them what would happen to a particular design if the screen size were halved. What would remain? What would go? Why? - Affordances: Read up on affordances a little bit yourself before the interview. Then check if the candidate seems to understand those concepts. If candidate has done at least a first cut of visual design then ask them about there affordance that are there, or missing. Why is there is or isnt there a shadow for a particular element? If candidate has not done any visual design then ask what guidelines they would give the visual designer in terms of affordances. - Colors: Ask about why the given colors were chosen. There should be reasons for every color choice - other than "they looked good". Why is something dark? Why is something light? etc. I am a software person - I don't really understand design, but by going through stuff like this with candidates, I get a pretty decent idea of whether they understand their own designs or not quite. I also like 's suggestions, and plan to try them out the next time I get an opportunity.

I work with the team at Smarterer (http://www.smarterer.com), a skill assessment platform that provides over 900 tests to quantify any skill in minutes. We see recruiters use some of the following tests to assess UX Designers: http://smarterer.com/tests/balsamiq http://smarterer.com/tests/user-experience http://smarterer.com/tests/axure-rp-rapid-prototype-tool http://smarterer.com/tests/photoshop Hope this helps! Sarah

Don't get fooled by designers that talk the talk but can't walk the walk. Have the candidate design an interface based on a brief you provide. Keep the task limited in scope so they can produce a solution in just a few hours. When he or she comes in, take a look at what they've done. Ask yourself: Is this something we could take to a product review with Steve Jobs? This means the design is clean, clear, clever and all aspects are flawlessly rendered. The person has thought in 4D and paid attention to how elements or steps are transitioned from one to the next as the person moves through the process. If it's not at a Steve Jobs level of polish you should either move on, or, if the person is young, see if they seem to have potential and can be teamed up with a senior designer who can mentor them. Do not settle for a bad designer. They will do more harm than good. If the process is taking too long, search on Quora for topics about good design firms that can help you while you find someone to hire in-house.