What design tools do you use, and how proficient are you with each?
I have used Sketch, Figma, and before them Adobe Photoshop. I’m an expert level in Photoshop, and Advanced for Sketch & Figma.
How do you approach designing an interface from scratch? Can you describe your process?
I start with meeting with the client and asking them questions about what they like, don’t like. What they see in their minds when they think about their request. I document and ask questions about required features, desired features, and if the app/site already exists, what they want removed/reduced on it. This can be done in FigJam, or Miro.
Then I meet with the project manager and business analysis to see if they have any additional notes and to prioritize based on their production schedule.
I create the mocks with the information and meet with the project manager & business analyst again to get their feedback and make any tweaks they may have thought of before we meet with the development team leads.
Once the development team leads sign off, I work with the business analyst to create the stories for the developers and break down the overview mocks to feature specific mocks with a clickable prototype.
When the developers work on the story, I make sure I am available to answer questions and verify they meet the expectations of the UXUI part of the story.
Once they push to stage/test, present the feature to the clients, and have them click through to verify it works how they expect. Getting their feedback, or approval, to move to production.
Have you worked on both web and mobile UI design? If so, can you highlight any differences in your approach?
I have worked mostly on web design. However, I work with the intention being that the design is responsive and being able to scope down to mobile.
The biggest difference is the mobile UI needs to be minimal and big enough to click on/read. The layout prioritizes clicking versus hovering.
Mobile users are focused on getting a task done quickly versus looking at large quantities of information (like dashboards).
How do you ensure consistency in your designs across different platforms and devices?
When designing, I make sure I have base assets such as colors and logos that are designed for each level. I make sure to look at the design at different resolutions to see how it will display before finishing it. Often I will create the entire design in Figma at each resolution to give developers the visual aid for them to develop.
Can you describe a project where you collaborated with UX designers, developers, or product managers? What was your role?
Vizient had very distinct roles and procedures. As a UX Designer I coordinated with the business side (Project Manager, Business Analyst, Project Owner) to obtain the ask and requirements.
I then made the designs that we present to the development team and guide them through the ask, giving them the more technical information we have translated from the client.
How do you handle feedback and revisions during the design process?
I practice AGILE design. So the loop of feedback and revisions are part of that process. It’s part of why you feature design instead of “whole app” design. Focusing on smaller features allows for a quicker feedback loop and clearer requirements that allow developers to build better bug-free apps that are user centric.
What are some key principles you follow to create an intuitive user interface?
Minimal design.
Clear and concise navigation and labeling.
Being user-centric and letting them guide the experience to better design and application they will use.
AGILE Design – Focusing on breaking down the massive design into small bite-sized feature requests that allow for quick prototyping and turn around with developers.
Can you give an example of a time when you used user research or usability testing to inform your design decisions?
Project Owner wanted a feature for intaking potential sales opportunities with existing members. They wanted a complete interview/survey application that allowed them to see statistics meshed with the existing vendor data we had for the client.
I met with them and we mapped out all their requests and requirements.
We asked for access to end users and they weren’t willing to give it at that time.
After we got the feature developed to testing, I reached out and coordinated End User Testing.
Three different users provided excellent feedback on what they were really doing and how they needed the application to work, sending us back to the drawing board with the Project Owner to fix and update the feature. Which led to some key end users being included in the feature request meetings for the rest of that project.
How do you stay updated with the latest trends and best practices in UI design?
I read articles, take online classes, and attend conferences.
Describe a challenging UI design project you worked on. What was the challenge, and how did you overcome it?
We had a project that had several different end users and when they started the project only a subset of those end users attended, giving us all the requirements and requests for their specific needs. We design, develop, and get it all the way through to User Acceptance Testing. A different subset of end users attended the testing, revealing to us that the subset of users only provide us with needs they needed and the rest of the users had different goals and requirements and wanted the same tool to accomplish that goal.
This happened multiple times before the project manager, business analyst, and I informed the Project Manager that features like that will require all signing-off users to attend requirements meetings before we spend development dollars on the feature.
We had to take the feature back to the beginning and ended up having to split into multiple projects to make all the different requirements work and mesh together.
How do you prioritize tasks and manage your time when working on multiple projects?
I write prioritized to-do lists, use Trello, and phone alarms.
I am the type of person who retains information better when I write it down. So I create a “ASAP TODO”, “TODO”, and “BONUS TODO” lists each morning. Carry over tasks that did not get completed the previous day, and I work on them in the order of ASAP, TODO, BONUS for the time allotted.
I use Trello for a kanban style of grouping to have the “achievement” of marking things as done.
I use my phone alarms to timebox work and keep myself from getting hyper-focused on a single task.
What role do brand guidelines and design systems play in your design process?
They are critical if they exist for a client. They are one of the first things I ask for, and I verify I have the correct version for the client before I move forward.
If I find an issue, or notice a non-accessible piece, I bring it up to the client when presenting my design to confirm they accept the changes I made when I deviated from the provided designs and guidelines.
Are you familiar with front-end development (HTML/CSS)? How does this knowledge influence your design work?
I have an extensive knowledge of HTML and CSS and if factors heavily in how I design. Knowing what exists and how it can be made, I am able to talk with developers and use the tools they are using (such as Angular and Material) to create designs.
If my design role requires front-end development I am able to accomplish this task, leaving the back-end development to the developers.
Can you provide an example of a UI design project where you had to think creatively to solve a problem or improve the user experience?
We had a project owner who wanted to create a survey tool plus statistics based on the survey tool. Meeting with the project stakeholders made it clear they wanted to use Survey Monkey, but didn’t want to license the tool for all the users that needed to use it.
We worked and worked with them, gathering all the requirements. We built the complete survey tool with all the variations they wanted to add to questions in prototype and mockups. As the stakeholders did not want to implement standard operating procedures for the end users, allowing them to gather the data how they see fit.
Six months of building the prototype and including all the features, and customizations they requested revealed that their end users would not be able to aggregate, or analyze the data due to all the variation.
We presented the clickable prototype to the end users and project owner before we brought it onto the actual project for sizing and timeline.
With all their features the cost to have a development team create what they asked for by the deadline they held firm on was more than five times the cost of licensing Survey Monkey and Power BI for their tools.
We were able to get access to the tools and design them with our company’s toolkit, only requiring minimal development to implement the security and the data.
The project was delivered four months ahead of requested date. It also revealed to upper management the effectiveness of having standard operating procedures which were implemented with the release of our project.