Seven Recommendations For Your Design Job Interview

January 4, 2026 · Website Design

A design interview is rarely just a chat about your portfolio – it’s a live test of how you think, communicate, and collaborate. The goal of the meeting is to reduce risk for the team hiring you, so your job is to make your process and decision-making easy to trust. The recommendations below focus on the small, practical moves that help you present like a working designer, not just a person with nice screenshots.

1) Curate your portfolio for the role you want

Most candidates lose points before they speak because their portfolio feels “general”. Pick 4–6 projects that match the job description and the company’s product maturity (early-stage, scale-up, enterprise, agency). Then build a short story for each piece:

Context: what was being built and why it mattered
Your role: exactly what you owned (and what you didn’t)
Constraints: time, scope, stakeholders, platform, brand rules
Approach: how you explored options and made trade-offs
Outcome: what shipped, what improved, what you learned

If the role is product design, emphasise product thinking, iteration, and measurable impact. If it’s visual/brand, show systems, consistency, and craft. If it’s UI/UX in a web team, show accessibility and practical handoff patterns.

2) Tell a clear process story, not a “perfect” story

Interviewers don’t need a fairy tale where everything went smoothly. They want evidence you can solve messy problems without drama. When you present work, include one or two moments where something changed – new stakeholder priorities, technical constraints, a wrong assumption, a failed first attempt. Then explain how you responded.

This is where you show maturity: you can disagree respectfully, you can incorporate feedback without losing the goal, and you can choose the right level of detail based on time and risk. A simple phrase like “Here’s what we tried first, why it didn’t work, and how we adjusted” immediately signals real-world experience.

3) Walk through one case study in depth

Most interviews include a portfolio review and then deeper questioning. Prepare one “hero” case study you can take to a high level or down to pixel-level detail depending on the room. Structure it like a mini project post-mortem:

Problem framing: what success looked like and how you knew
User and business needs: who you were designing for and why
Exploration: sketches/wireframes, alternative flows, decision points
Validation: quick testing, stakeholder reviews, analytics, QA findings
Delivery: final UI, design system choices, handoff and iteration plan

If you can, include one slide or section that shows a before/after and one that shows your rationale (e.g., why you simplified a flow, removed a feature, or changed information architecture). That’s where the hiring team sees your judgement.

4) Practise explaining your decisions in plain language

Design interviews are communication interviews. You may be speaking to a designer, a product manager, an engineer, and someone non-technical – sometimes all at once. Avoid jargon unless the interviewer uses it first, and link choices to outcomes:

“We reduced the number of steps because drop-off was highest here.”
“We used this layout to improve scanning on mobile.”
“We added this state to prevent errors and support accessibility.”

A useful habit: for any design choice, be ready to answer “Why is this better?” and “What did you trade off?” The trade-off question is a gift – it lets you demonstrate that you can balance speed, scope, usability, and technical constraints.

5) Bring receipts: artifacts that show you can ship

Beautiful screens are great, but teams hire designers who help them deliver. Bring a few supporting artifacts that fit your discipline:

Product designers: user flows, wireframes, experiment notes, metrics, iteration snapshots
UI designers: component specs, token usage, states, accessibility notes
Brand/visual designers: guidelines, grid/typography decisions, system logic
UX researchers/designers: scripts, synthesis, insights to actions mapping

You don’t need a massive deck. One or two examples are enough to prove you understand handoff, constraints, and quality. Bonus points if you can show how you work with engineers (clear naming, states, responsive notes, edge cases).

6) Prepare for the “collaboration” questions with real examples

Many interview questions are really about teamwork: “Tell me about a conflict”, “How do you handle feedback?”, “What do you do when engineering says no?” Don’t answer these hypothetically. Pick two true stories and tell them using a simple structure:

Situation: what was happening
Action: what you did (and how you communicated)
Result: what changed, what shipped, what improved

Strong answers show you can protect the user experience without being rigid. For example: you proposed options with different effort levels, you involved engineering early, you aligned on success metrics, and you documented decisions so the team could move forward.

7) Ask high-signal questions that show good judgement

At the end, you’ll almost always get “Any questions for us?” This is not a formality – it’s your chance to show you know how design works inside a team. Pick 4–6 questions and choose based on who you’re speaking with. Examples:

On success: “How do you define success for this role in the first 90 days?”
On process: “How are design decisions made when there’s disagreement?”
On collaboration: “How do designers, PMs, and engineers work together day-to-day?”
On quality: “What does your design QA look like before release?”
On systems: “Do you have a design system, and how is it maintained?”
On constraints: “What’s the biggest product/design challenge the team is facing right now?”

These questions help you evaluate the role while signalling that you’re thinking like someone who will join, improve the workflow, and ship responsibly.

Quick checklist for interview day

Have a short intro ready (30–45 seconds): who you are, what you do, what you’re looking for.
Open with your strongest, most relevant work.
Use large text and clear labels if you’re presenting a deck.
Keep links handy: portfolio, one hero case study, and any supporting artifacts.
Be ready to describe one thing you’d improve if you had more time.

When you combine a curated portfolio with a calm, clear explanation of your process, you make it easy for interviewers to imagine working with you. Aim to be memorable for your judgement and communication, not just your visuals.

Internal link suggestions

portfolio case study structure – Suggested target topic: How to write a strong design case study (problem, process, outcome)
UI design QA checklist – Suggested target topic: Practical QA checks for web UI before release
design presentation tips – Suggested target topic: How to present design work clearly to mixed audiences