I had the opportunity to present my design assignment to three designers as part of an interview process for a UI/UX designer position at a design studio. Post interview, I followed up with the designers and were fortunate in receiving feedbacks from all three (If you are reading this, thank you!). Here, I try to digest my experience and learnings from the experience.

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The design walkthrough was thoroughly enjoyable. I was well prepared and got to learn about the employer and the position I was applying for. Although I presented my materials decently, I can improve by considering the following.

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Answer “What were your challenges and how did you overcome them?”

Assume this question will be asked and address them during the presentation! This is an opportunity to showcase problem-solving skills and also adds a story telling qualities to the presentation, keeping it all the more fascinating.

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Discuss potential features for future iterations.

This is certainly one of the best opportunity to demonstrate the value as a designer by identifying potential concerns or opportunities.

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Appeal to the end-audience.

The design team that is interviewing a participant is evaluating whether one can do their work and do it well. So if it is a design team in an agency, it may be suitable to present your design walkthrough as if it is a client presentation. This means presenting to non-designers, and people who most probably don’t care about the same things as you do as a designer.

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One discrepancy that exists between designers and non-designers is the understanding of what makes a good design. Although good aesthetics is often an indicator of quality, us designers know that there is more to good design beyond the pixels. In this situation, (perhaps unfortunately,) agency clients in Thailand often associates aesthetics with quality. Because of this, it is the designer’s responsibility to deliver good design by meeting their expectations of good aesthetics, while communicating how the design seeks achieves the big picture objectives.

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Anticipate client’s concerns and address them.

Understand that clients are highly attuned to anything that may introduce risks to the project. This means any major or radical changes must be well reasoned to gain buy in. When presenting, one can also acknowledge any limitations or potential concerns.

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For example, introducing X is expected to improve the usability of this feature. However, we also acknowledge the greater bandwidth X requires on page load. To maintain short page load time and minimize page bounce rate, we have optimized Z solution to only display preview information that are most relevant, where more information can be loaded when prompted by a user interaction. (Edit: example may be too jargony.)

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Exude confidence

Presenting work to client means positioning oneself as an expert, and with that, requires some level of assertiveness. I certainly should not be second guessing myself during a presentation. Of course, the caveat here is when presenting to clients. I presume when presenting designs to in-house design teams, a discussion driven presentation could be more valued.

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I left some comments during/post interviews that made me happy as well!

• Tailored my presentation to each employer!
• Keep audience engaged with supplemental slides
• Keeping a pulse on the audience
• Keep up the good work 😊