Completely agree. I've recently started interviews for US companies and I've had a design challenge where they expected too much in less than a week. In fact, they sent me the challenge on Friday and expected the design on Monday. Good tips, next time I will focus on visual rather than UX, and even use UI Kits to save some time.
That happens, you can always be transparent and say you are busy and need a week for it (I have done this before). I think you got the main message of pay attention to visual, but just make sure UX doesn't suffer haha. Using standard UX components/kits is not a bad idea! Cuz you don't need to reinvent all icons and navigation models.
It is unethical to ask a candidate to spend 3 days to do a design challenge, much less one week. I reject companies that ask for them. If they think so poorly of your time, it is not a good sign for how they will treat you as an employee.
Hiii! I have thought about making that one, so let me add that to the road map. This video might give some clues ua-cam.com/video/gYQVwXtaD7A/v-deo.html
Thanks Justeen for the explanation. I got a challenge where in I was told by the hiring manager to focus on process and they don't want polished UI .In this case what should be done ??
Hello! Thanks for the comment! If they told you specifically, then I think spending more time on the iteration is going to be critical (and have the process ready to present). I don't think that means UI is completely out of the challenge, maybe instead of spending 20 hours on the UI, you spend 5-10 hours on it. Another thing to do is to draft up a few different mockup with different fidelity and just ask the manager what level they are looking for. Does that help?
I think it's totally fine, as long as your solution solves the problem/challenge. The template won't do that for you, but to speed things up. If it helps you save time and allocate that time on iteration and polish, I think that's a win!
Hey, the company that I applied to few weeks ago sent me a landing page assigment (I failed the interview). Anyway, they asked for the figma file I did, the figma file only had the landing page. I'm applying for their next in-take, so my question is do I need to include a design system, wireframe, persona to the figma file when I am sending them? Answering this would be helpful to crack the interview.
Hi Azran! Thanks for the comment. Typically in a design exercise you will hand in everything you work on. If you worked on design system, wireframe, persona, user research, include those in your deliverable. Also, what you complete would be presented nicely and professionally. It's not much different from a portfolio piece showcase. Clean up the figma file before sending it over since if the figma file is a mess, that's the impression that the interviewer will receive. Does that help?
They are more of less the same actually across any level IMO. If anything, the strategy and product thinking will need to shine through a little more. However, if you are so senior and lead of a designer with good design project track record, companies shouldn't really give you a take home exercise to begin with. If anything, they want to see how you tackle a similar problem to ones they have in the company.
@@Justeen15 Thanks for the reply. I was recently interviewing for a company for Sr designer position. They are (as per my perspective) a mid-level UX maturity org, so senior level would be almost same as that for FAANG companies. They gave an elaborate exercise, requiring coordination b/w 3 user types on 3 different systems/UIs. Plus wanted visual design for atleast few screens. this was the trigger for my Q. Now i'm wondering what this signals about the org - Are they really a mid-level UX maturity org? Are competency matrices well defined? Do they have unrealistic expectations from the hire? Would love to get your thoughts as well :) Cheers mate
@@abhinavgupta2435 I would take a look at a few things: - is the exercise particularly related to that specific role? or just a general one? - does your portfolio show similar things to what they ask for in the exercise? - ask them whether the exercise is necessary or whether they can assess you in other ways, a live 1hr whiteboarding session for example - is the exercise something they can steal your idea and implement into their product? - will you be compensated for this? Their request can reflect something, including the points you mentioned, but you won't find out until you dig deeper with the hiring team. As far as I know, Google got rid of their design exercise, Facebook does not have one from my knowledge. I see less and less nowadays.
Hi Justeen, thanks so much for sharing your insights! I'm wondering, if the company sent me a take-home task but specifically mentioned that it is a written task (I may use wireframes but not required) and that I shouldn't spend more than 1 hour on it, should I still deliver the UI visuals? Would it make too obvious that I spend more than 1 hour?
Hi! Thanks for the question. What role is this if I may ask? I personally have not done any written tasks for a design exercise. There are many ways to look at the time aspect: 1. There will always be candidates spending more time on it, so when the hiring manager looks at all exercises, their work stand out and catch their interests. 2. This is not an exam where the hiring manager is sitting in front of the classroom and policing the 1 hour limit. Honestly, hiring mangers don't have time to care and get involved in how the exercise is done, as long as it's completed, presented well, and solved the problem outlined in the exercise. 3. Combining 1-2, if there 10 candidates, 1 spent more than 5 hours on it and the rest spent only 1 hour top. The difference could be drastic and easy to tell. But would it discourage the hiring mangers from looking at their work? I don't think. If I were the hiring manger, I would be curious what this person came up with when they spent more time on it. Another scenario, 10 candidates, 9 spent 5 hours, and 1 spent 1 hour. Then it would look like that 1 hour person didn't do enough work because it's all relative. Then, is it better to be that 1 person or 1 of the 9? 4. The hours are more or less a guideline and expectation. I think of them as the "minimum time" rather than "max time". If they don't have a time, the expectation is too vague. Having this time is not perfect, but it gives just a bit more clarity. 5. Design is always iterative and never ends. It can always be better. Unless the task is really specifically about giving a time constraint and see how candidates perform, the UX exercise doesn't really have a time bound. If that's actually the task, doing the exercise remotely doesn't help reinforce the requirement. If the requirement they are not looking for is not reinforce-able, the exercise loses its purpose, and then it falls back on the company. It's self-conflicting. 6. If the end goal is to do the best design exercise you can, then I think you need to spend more time on it until you are happy sharing it. 7. It's possible that in 1 hour, a senior designer can get a lot of great work done and ready to share it, but not for a junior designer. In order to deliver a level of work that is on par, you might need to spend more time to even the game. I honestly think I can spend 1 hour today in 2022 to do 3 hours worth of work for the design exercise I did in 2015. There are just many variables. If I get another exercise (I hope I don't), I would just spend enough time on it to ensure it hits the quality bar I would like. Does that help? Let me know! Happy to answer questions.
@@Justeen15 Hi there, thank you so much for the thorough answer, I really appreciate it! The task asked me to explain how I would approach the process of updating one of their pages to increase user engagement rate. I did end up spending a few hours on it and deliver some UI materials as well, so fingers-crossed that all goes well 😅 And honestly so glad I came across your channel, it's been so helpful!
@@TamTran-mj4si It sounds like a design exercise so it makes sense to include UI materials for storytelling and showcase. Something to note here: typically, a company won't give out a design exercise about their own product because it's a conflict of interest. There are companies out there just to use design exercise to get free design and improvement, which really hurts the design industry and culture, so I would be careful of that. Just something to think about. When I do get questions about critiquing their products, it's about verbal feedback, "I think the landing page is missing a call-to-action button", or "I think the text here doesn't have enough contrast so the audience can miss it". I never mock things for other companies for their products.
In this case, if the original prompt is "JUST WRITING", then it might be okay since you are not doing a full service for them. I might take screenshot of their website and point things out of where I can change things. In that case, you can prove you know UX by pointing out their UX issues without really doing significant design work for them.
Completely agree. I've recently started interviews for US companies and I've had a design challenge where they expected too much in less than a week. In fact, they sent me the challenge on Friday and expected the design on Monday. Good tips, next time I will focus on visual rather than UX, and even use UI Kits to save some time.
That happens, you can always be transparent and say you are busy and need a week for it (I have done this before). I think you got the main message of pay attention to visual, but just make sure UX doesn't suffer haha. Using standard UX components/kits is not a bad idea! Cuz you don't need to reinvent all icons and navigation models.
It is unethical to ask a candidate to spend 3 days to do a design challenge, much less one week. I reject companies that ask for them. If they think so poorly of your time, it is not a good sign for how they will treat you as an employee.
Yeah I don’t like design challenge either but many big companies have them, Apple, Tesla, Google, Airbnb, etc.
I want to see video on “what qualities should UX inters have?”
Hiii! I have thought about making that one, so let me add that to the road map. This video might give some clues ua-cam.com/video/gYQVwXtaD7A/v-deo.html
Thanks Justeen for the explanation. I got a challenge where in I was told by the hiring manager to focus on process and they don't want polished UI .In this case what should be done ??
Hello! Thanks for the comment! If they told you specifically, then I think spending more time on the iteration is going to be critical (and have the process ready to present). I don't think that means UI is completely out of the challenge, maybe instead of spending 20 hours on the UI, you spend 5-10 hours on it.
Another thing to do is to draft up a few different mockup with different fidelity and just ask the manager what level they are looking for.
Does that help?
@@Justeen15 Yes , Thanks a-lot for the advice. Not only your videos but you answering queries is really helpful.
@@ShrutisWanderingPants Great to hear! Out of curiosity, anything specific in the video that you find the most useful?
@@Justeen15hey , what really helped me is the process you showed.
And is it okay to use templates from figma for design in challenge??
I think it's totally fine, as long as your solution solves the problem/challenge. The template won't do that for you, but to speed things up. If it helps you save time and allocate that time on iteration and polish, I think that's a win!
Are you Singaporean?
No I’m not
THANK YOU! This is GREAT!
NP! Thank you for watching the video haha! Out of curiosity, what in the video you find the most helpful?
Just coming across your channel and I have subscribed to it, amazing content!
Thank you Ikenna! Let me know if you have any questions!
@@Justeen15 you are welcome justeen, I will come back to this thread once I think of any question to ask. Thanks justeen🙌🏻
very funny and useful!
Thank you!
Thank you for sharing!
Thank you! Let me know if you have any questions!
Amazing Justeen!😁
Thank you hope that helps!
Thank you ❤
Thank you! Let me know if you have any questions or topics you want to see in future videos :)
Hey, the company that I applied to few weeks ago sent me a landing page assigment (I failed the interview). Anyway, they asked for the figma file I did, the figma file only had the landing page. I'm applying for their next in-take, so my question is do I need to include a design system, wireframe, persona to the figma file when I am sending them? Answering this would be helpful to crack the interview.
Hi Azran! Thanks for the comment. Typically in a design exercise you will hand in everything you work on. If you worked on design system, wireframe, persona, user research, include those in your deliverable.
Also, what you complete would be presented nicely and professionally. It's not much different from a portfolio piece showcase.
Clean up the figma file before sending it over since if the figma file is a mess, that's the impression that the interviewer will receive.
Does that help?
How do these factors change (expectations of output from design exercise) change for Senior or Lead designer IC roles?
They are more of less the same actually across any level IMO. If anything, the strategy and product thinking will need to shine through a little more. However, if you are so senior and lead of a designer with good design project track record, companies shouldn't really give you a take home exercise to begin with. If anything, they want to see how you tackle a similar problem to ones they have in the company.
@@Justeen15 Thanks for the reply. I was recently interviewing for a company for Sr designer position. They are (as per my perspective) a mid-level UX maturity org, so senior level would be almost same as that for FAANG companies. They gave an elaborate exercise, requiring coordination b/w 3 user types on 3 different systems/UIs. Plus wanted visual design for atleast few screens. this was the trigger for my Q.
Now i'm wondering what this signals about the org - Are they really a mid-level UX maturity org? Are competency matrices well defined? Do they have unrealistic expectations from the hire? Would love to get your thoughts as well :) Cheers mate
@@abhinavgupta2435 I would take a look at a few things:
- is the exercise particularly related to that specific role? or just a general one?
- does your portfolio show similar things to what they ask for in the exercise?
- ask them whether the exercise is necessary or whether they can assess you in other ways, a live 1hr whiteboarding session for example
- is the exercise something they can steal your idea and implement into their product?
- will you be compensated for this?
Their request can reflect something, including the points you mentioned, but you won't find out until you dig deeper with the hiring team.
As far as I know, Google got rid of their design exercise, Facebook does not have one from my knowledge. I see less and less nowadays.
Hi Justeen, thanks so much for sharing your insights! I'm wondering, if the company sent me a take-home task but specifically mentioned that it is a written task (I may use wireframes but not required) and that I shouldn't spend more than 1 hour on it, should I still deliver the UI visuals? Would it make too obvious that I spend more than 1 hour?
Hi! Thanks for the question. What role is this if I may ask? I personally have not done any written tasks for a design exercise.
There are many ways to look at the time aspect:
1. There will always be candidates spending more time on it, so when the hiring manager looks at all exercises, their work stand out and catch their interests.
2. This is not an exam where the hiring manager is sitting in front of the classroom and policing the 1 hour limit. Honestly, hiring mangers don't have time to care and get involved in how the exercise is done, as long as it's completed, presented well, and solved the problem outlined in the exercise.
3. Combining 1-2, if there 10 candidates, 1 spent more than 5 hours on it and the rest spent only 1 hour top. The difference could be drastic and easy to tell. But would it discourage the hiring mangers from looking at their work? I don't think. If I were the hiring manger, I would be curious what this person came up with when they spent more time on it.
Another scenario, 10 candidates, 9 spent 5 hours, and 1 spent 1 hour. Then it would look like that 1 hour person didn't do enough work because it's all relative. Then, is it better to be that 1 person or 1 of the 9?
4. The hours are more or less a guideline and expectation. I think of them as the "minimum time" rather than "max time". If they don't have a time, the expectation is too vague. Having this time is not perfect, but it gives just a bit more clarity.
5. Design is always iterative and never ends. It can always be better. Unless the task is really specifically about giving a time constraint and see how candidates perform, the UX exercise doesn't really have a time bound. If that's actually the task, doing the exercise remotely doesn't help reinforce the requirement. If the requirement they are not looking for is not reinforce-able, the exercise loses its purpose, and then it falls back on the company. It's self-conflicting.
6. If the end goal is to do the best design exercise you can, then I think you need to spend more time on it until you are happy sharing it.
7. It's possible that in 1 hour, a senior designer can get a lot of great work done and ready to share it, but not for a junior designer. In order to deliver a level of work that is on par, you might need to spend more time to even the game. I honestly think I can spend 1 hour today in 2022 to do 3 hours worth of work for the design exercise I did in 2015.
There are just many variables. If I get another exercise (I hope I don't), I would just spend enough time on it to ensure it hits the quality bar I would like.
Does that help? Let me know! Happy to answer questions.
@@Justeen15 Hi there, thank you so much for the thorough answer, I really appreciate it! The task asked me to explain how I would approach the process of updating one of their pages to increase user engagement rate. I did end up spending a few hours on it and deliver some UI materials as well, so fingers-crossed that all goes well 😅 And honestly so glad I came across your channel, it's been so helpful!
@@TamTran-mj4si It sounds like a design exercise so it makes sense to include UI materials for storytelling and showcase.
Something to note here: typically, a company won't give out a design exercise about their own product because it's a conflict of interest. There are companies out there just to use design exercise to get free design and improvement, which really hurts the design industry and culture, so I would be careful of that. Just something to think about.
When I do get questions about critiquing their products, it's about verbal feedback, "I think the landing page is missing a call-to-action button", or "I think the text here doesn't have enough contrast so the audience can miss it". I never mock things for other companies for their products.
In this case, if the original prompt is "JUST WRITING", then it might be okay since you are not doing a full service for them. I might take screenshot of their website and point things out of where I can change things. In that case, you can prove you know UX by pointing out their UX issues without really doing significant design work for them.
👏👏👏👏👏
Thank you thank you! hope that's helpful :)
今日主管叫我幫手睇啲人嘅題，特登返來comment😂😂！
由於返工仲有其他嘢做所以真係懶得認真睇😅其實大家都做得幾好差不多，除非有啲真係好有亮點，唔係的話睇嘅都係一個完整性、認真程度。（個人意見，btw真係ridiculous!!!!!!!
@@hoiian It's really a visual and basic UX pass. Portfolio should already show that.
you're talking too fast
Thanks for the feedback! Is there a part of the video that goes too far or the whole video is fast?
@ddeathable - You can slow-down the video playback speed if you can't quite follow along at 1x ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Haha good workaround! :)