UX design is constantly evolving and searching for new ways to solve problems. Our Seasoned UX designers have likely been evolving their approach to the design process and will vary from one designer to another. In general, good UX designers with walk you through a specific process or ‘toolkit’ they follow when approaching a problem or project. This will likely be a set of steps they will take to solve user problems and create engaging experiences. Listen for both a clear process and specific actions they take to solve user problems and create engaging experiences.
Listen for both a transparent process, a deep curiosity, and a constant desire to learn.
One overarching theme should be around a user-centric approach to design and perhaps mention ‘design-thinking,’ which follows a thorough understanding of both user and business goals. In general, this is often an iterative design process that is constantly evolving. Key concepts or methods used to carry out this process may include but is not limited to:: competitive audits, stakeholder interviews, user research involving interviews and surveys, content audits, information architecture, user personas, business model canvases, mood boards, storyboards, empathy maps, use case scenarios and user flows, customer journeys, wireframes, mockups, and prototypes. They may also mention conducting user-testing —moderated or unmoderated, remote or in-person—multivariate testing, eye tracking, click-tracking heatmaps, and other quantitative analytics.
Apart from the above, listen for UX design techniques such as observing interaction design standards, best practices, conventions, and rules-of-thumb known as ‘heuristics.’
By applying these UX methodologies and learning directly from users, each of the techniques mentioned above can play an essential role in the creation of a product that users will love.