A better question might be what do people who hire interaction designers want to see. And depending on the kinds of clients/jobs you're looking for this will change.
On the full-time job end, I can tell you as someone who has interviewed dozens of designers for full-time positions, portfolios are limited, especially if I'm interviewing for interaction design. First, they're not interactive. It's like a snapshot from a movie: it's missing a dimension. A URL to a website they've worked on, even their own, leads to much better exploration of how they think about design. Second, it's hard to know as an interviewer exactly who did what from looking at a portfolio. Not that a candidate is lying (though it does happen), but a website or product represents ideas from dozens of people and contributions from dozens of people - hard to figure out exactly why it ended up as it did or who deserves credit for what. The best use of an hour interview with someone, with the goal of evaluating their interaction design ability, is to have them design things in the interview, with the interviewer as a mostly friendly collaborator. Portfolios can help here as they lead to questions like "What would you do differently now? What went wrong? What if your users suddenly aged 30 years, or I doubled your schedule - how would you redesign this? Go show me on the whiteboard..." etc. Design is an activity, and portfolios and most conversations they lend themselves to are passive. In an interview I want active, since the job is active. A good interview should give candidates a chance to show what they'd do in the job, rather than just describe what they've done in the past. A portfolio and proof of basic skills (wireframing, prototyping, etc.) should be covered in 10-15 minutes of a 60 minute interaction designer interview. They're basic requirements, not hiring credentials. I have never heard anyone say "These wireframes are amazing! End the interview - I'm hiring you now!" Unless of course their job was to spend 90% of their time just making wireframes - but so far, I haven't seen a job title for UI Wireframe enginner. But who knows. Unless the designer is working in isolation (note: this never happens), their ability to talk about design, to debate and explore issues with other people, and to be persuasive is just as important as their design talent. If I don't get a candidate up on the whiteboard designing something, debating with me on different alternatives, even if it's just redesigning my office, my chair, their house, *something*, I'm failing them in not giving them a chance to show their real stuff. Frankly they could have the most amazing portfolio in the world, but unless their job consists of showing their portfolio to developers, markerters and clients, it really should not be the central focus of a job interview. For clients, something I have less experience with, it's about credibility and proccess. As a client, I want to know the designer is credible, and that comes from references and how much good work they can show that is like the work I need. Flow diagrams, workflows, wireframes... that's all stuff I don't care about - why would I? Those are the designers tools, they're the means, not the ends, I wouldn't ask an architect, a catereer or a hair stylist to show me their tools, or interview them based on their tool knowledge - instead I'd care primarily about the results they're capable of, how reliable they'll be and if it's personality match. -Scott Scott Berkun www.scottberkun.com -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jen Randolph Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 1:19 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [IxDA Discuss] IxD Portfolios @ Interviews: What Do You Do? I'm curious as to how other interaction designers display and speak to their work on job interviews, and what techniques, devices, layouts, methods, etc. resonate with those hiring them. ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
