Design Exercise Overview
Design exercises, design challenges, whiteboard challenges, all refer to a process in which the interviewers ask you to solve a hypothetical design problem usually during the interview although some may assign it as a take-home exercise. They are frequently used to assess your problem-solving skills, design process, and communication skills.
Setting up the scenario
Strategy
There's no way to know which design challenges they will ask you to solve. Some companies may choose scenarios relevant to their product, others will pick unfamiliar, novel design problems to accurately access your design process. So, the most effective way to prepare is by having a strategy and practicing using it.
Remember the design process: Discover, define, develop, deliver. If you prefer using a different design process, use that! Some people outlined more specific steps for design whiteboard challenges, but the general design process doesn't change just because it's an interview. You should be completely comfortable with the design process by now so there's no reason to panic.
If you're looking for a more structured approach, I recommend this article https://uxdesign.cc/5-steps-to-master-a-whiteboard-design-challenge-6ecbe9ec38b7.
Keep track of time. While it's important to ask questions, get to the "boxes and arrows" part before you run out of time.
Discover
Break down the problem. Start by taking a couple minutes to clarify the scenario. If they start you off with a design, scan for details and ask questions about them. Make sure you understand the basics like the intended user, constraints, business goals, primary user goals, etc. Write down your questions and answers as you go.
- User
- User Goals
- Business goals
- Constraints & Technical limitations (devices)
- Context & Environment
- Things to note
Define
Some designers are deliberate thinkers and list out all of the tasks before beginning to draw. Others are explorers — they’ll uncover tasks as they play with ideas. Both ways are fine. Either way, you should clearly communicate user tasks and goals.
- Use cases & tasks
- User Story/Flow
- Potential challenges
- Specifications
- Requirements
Before you start designing screens, make sure you at least clearly outline the user flow for the primary use case. Outlining the steps organizes your thoughts and process while acting as a reference to keep you on track while you wireframe.
Develop
Great design requires generating lots of ideas and then picking out the best ones. Find several different approaches to the design exercise and talk through each one. If you get stuck, brainstorm your way out by breaking the problem down until it feels manageable. If you feel yourself being indecisive, just pick a direction to explore.
- Important UI & screens
- Potential solutions
- Interactions
- Feedback
Remember that you’re not trying to actually come up with the best solution ever. In fact, some interviewers prefer if you come up with several creative solutions. You’re showing how you think, work, and overcome challenges.
Design is an iterative process. If you find that your current design isn’t solving the problem, or ignores a constraint, or whatever, explain your reasoning for why it fails and go back to a previous step and continue from there. This demonstrates you're comfortable throwing away ideas and you can recognize when you’re off track. Go back to your outline and adjust the flow.
Deliver
When time's up, pick the best solution and explain why. Go back to your specifications, requirements, limitations, use cases, and tasks to test your solution. Criticize your work, look for flaws, and explain what you could have done better.
If you’ve hit a wall and you don’t have much time left for the challenge, you can still say “now I don’t think this would be the best design because XYZ, so if I had more time I’d go back to this stage and try something else.” Or “with more time I think this could be improved by…”
Practice
Design challenges can be overwhelming at first. The best way to overcome this is to get a whiteboard or pen and paper and just start solving problems. Use a design challenge generator like https://designercize.com/ for prompts. Set up a scenario, fill in some constraints and use cases. Set a timer and start. You might find that design challenges can actually be a lot of fun.