What are the most important things to know when interviewing for a job in interaction design?

1 Show your portfolio

One of the first things that any interviewer will want to see is your portfolio of previous or current projects that demonstrate your skills and abilities in IxD. Your portfolio should showcase your design process, your research methods, your prototyping tools, and your evaluation techniques. It should also highlight your role and contribution in each project, as well as the outcomes and feedback you received. Be prepared to explain your design decisions, the challenges you faced, and the lessons you learned from each project.

2 Solve a design problem

Another common task that you may encounter during an IxD interview is to solve a design problem on the spot. This could be a hypothetical or a real scenario that requires you to apply your IxD knowledge and creativity to come up with a solution. You may be asked to sketch, wireframe, or prototype your idea, or to present it verbally or visually. The main goal of this task is to assess your problem-solving skills, your communication skills, and your ability to work under pressure and with constraints. Be ready to justify your solution, to consider different alternatives, and to incorporate feedback.

3 Answer behavioral questions

Besides testing your technical and creative skills, an IxD interview may also include some behavioral questions that aim to evaluate your personality, your work style, and your fit with the company culture. These questions may ask you to describe a situation where you demonstrated a certain quality, such as teamwork, leadership, initiative, or empathy. They may also ask you to share your strengths, weaknesses, goals, or motivations. To answer these questions effectively, you should use the STAR method, which stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result. This means that you should provide a specific example of a situation where you faced a challenge or an opportunity, the task that you had to accomplish, the action that you took, and the result that you achieved.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?