UX Weekly: Prepping for UX design interviews & creating a portfolio “work journal”
A weekly roundup of UX nuggets to stay up to date in the design industry. Want updates? Sign up for the UX newsletter here.
💎 UX NUGGETS 🔍
[UX learning] Best UX Design Courses on Skillshare
In this guide, Oz hand-picked 10 UX courses unique to Skillshare that cover topics hard to find anywhere else, like:
- Learning how to make presentations as a designer
- Agile UX toolkit
- Microcopy & UX writing
- Inclusive UX design
The course recommendations are ordered from high-level design skills to courses on design strategy + presentation.
If you’re already on Skillshare, check out the recommendations. If you’re looking to explore the platform, Skillshare has provided UXBeginner readers 2 months of Skillshare Premium (!) for free when you sign up.
[article] How to prepare for your UX design interview
After applying to all of those UX job postings, you finally hear back and make it through the initial interview(s). The team is now inviting you in for a design interview. Here are some things to do in preparation for leaving a great impression:
- Expect that you may have to participate in a design challenge or pick a project to speak upon. This may sound scary but the team is looking to understand your thought process.
- Bring an updated resume and have a few copies to share. Usually, they’ve already looked at your electronic submission but you can use it to point out some of your recent experiences.
- Be ready to meet a lot of people from different teams! While it can be overwhelming to keep track of all the new names, this is my favorite part of interviews because you get to see who you will potentially be working closely with.
- Be ready to talk about the programs you use and where you get your inspiration. It’s okay to not be using the programs they’re using if you show a willingness to learn and demonstrate your versatile skills.
- Dress professionally — the article suggests that you should always wear black when presenting to highlight your work (rather than yourself).
- Ask questions to learn more about the team and demonstrate that you’re invested in joining the team’s mission.
[IG post] The most important visual design principle
Visual hierarchy is the principle of arranging elements to show their order of importance. We commonly read from top to bottom and from left to right so when designing, it’s crucial to convey information that way through the usage of size, color, alignment, repetition, proximity, and white space.
[design tool] UX Archive
This library is a collection of screen designs by tasks such as onboarding, registration, etc. You can help grow UX Archive by submitting your screenshots as well!
[podcast] At AIGA: The fastest ways to get your business to invest in design
“Our job as a designer is to create functionality and deliver that functionality through utility, reliably. And if we can also do it beautifully, then we win” — Bobby Ghoshal, Co-founder, and chief design officer, Candid. Although this talk was presented at the AIGA Design Conference in 2017, this idea is still relevant to a designer’s line of work.
[article] Create a work journal to keep your portfolio up-to-date
After starting my full-time job, I took down my portfolio in hopes to spruce things up a bit “when I had time”. Six-months later and I have found myself starting projects and abandoning them part-way due to lack of motivation. So in my case, a work journal would make sense to help me pick up from where I left off on certain projects.
Emma Campbell suggests using Notion or a private blog to digitally document details of your recent work. She even outlines her approach to what to reflect upon in each entry as well as suggests that you write something at least once a week. For this approach to be sustainable, and effort to incorporate it into your daily or weekly routine is very important.
[quote] “Designers may be the true intellectuals of the future.” — Paola Antonelli
[video] Improving the Typography of the iOS time display?
I didn’t notice until Oliver Schöndorfer pointed it out and now I can’t unsee it. When the zero turns into a one on the iOS time display, it shifts the time over to the left to realign the time to be centered on the screen. Check out his recommendations to remove the iOS alignment distraction.
[upcoming event] ACCESS at home (September 14–16, 2020)
Join 3Play Media in their annual ACCESS conference for free and from the comfort of your home! This is an event celebrating video, accessibility, and the people who make it happen at their jobs every day.
[book] Mind Change: how digital technologies are leaving their mark on our brains
Susan Greenfield uses her background in philosophy and neuroscience to explore how technology impacts and changes our brains. This book is thought-provoking and educative about how we are interacting with online and social media.
[design tool] Coolors
Colors palettes can be hard to decide upon but with Coolors, you can explore the latest trending palettes or create your own set of colors to use for any project.
💼 REMOTE UX JOBS 💻
Springboard offers part-time bootcamps that help learners launch their new tech careers.
Requirements: proficiency in topics covered in UI/UX Career Track; 3+ years of relevant work experience and portfolio to demonstrate; available for weekly, 30-minute video check-ins with students
#flexible #part-time #mentorshipopportunity
Mattermost is a flexible, open-source messaging platform that enables secure team collaboration.
Requirements: 5+ years of hands-on design experience in the software industry with a strong focus on mobile and mobile web applications; strong background in interaction design
#friendlycoworkers #greatperks #flexible
Xapo is a fintech start-up that provides a bitcoin wallet combined with a cold storage vault and a bitcoin-based debit card
Requirements: Fluent in Adobe Creative Suite and Figma; confidence communicating with clients and stakeholders; promote design guidelines and best practices
#startup #international #smallteam
Hotjar democratizes site analytics and feedback by making it affordable and accessible to everyone.
Requirements: 4+ years of experience in product design and user-centric practices; solid experience writing component documentation; mastery of Figma and other design tools; natural inclination to always think MVP first
#greatperks #flexible #international
Design Pickle is a graphic design service.
Requirements: 3+ years of relevant experience in front-end product design; portfolio with visual design chops; understanding of HTML and CSS
#greatperks #flexible #bigcompany
Netdata is an open-source tool designed to collect real-time metrics and then display them in live, easy-to-interpret charts.
Requirements: 5+ years of relevant experience creating SaaS B2B products or developer-focused products; experience working with data visualization skills, dashboards, and/or products with a big focus on charts
#smallteam #unicornpotential #startup
SimpleTexting is a web-based platform for SMS marketing and business texting.
Requirements: 3+ years of hands-on experience designing for digital products; bachelor’s degree in design or equivalent practical experience; a portfolio with multiple projects that demonstrate your skills creating usable digital experiences
#friendlycoworkers #smallteam #startup
Remote Senior UX Positions
Senior Digital Product Designer
Momentum Design Lab specializes in human-centric customer experiences across digital product innovation, transformative business processes, and inventive marketing
Requirements: 4–10 years of UX design experience; design using Sketch, Adobe XD, Principle, InVision, Zeplin.io; portfolio demonstration experience in software application design
#contract #flexible
