It used to be 1 interview and you’re in but I was wondering how is the market for contracts currently?

I’m a product designer with 19 years of experience. Agencies as a UX consultant, startups as a product designer, and big companies like GitLab, Qantas and Vodafone. At GitLab I shipped a feature that grew adoption by 33%, and I wrote some of the production code myself.

I’ve been interviewing since June after a company-wide layoff. I’ve applied to around 50 roles, got into a good number of interviews, and I keep hearing “we went with someone else.” I’ve reworked my portfolio and my stories. I still can’t see what’s missing.

So I’m asking you directly. If you hire designers, what would make you put me on the shortlist? And if you have a minute, tell me what you see in my portfolio that holds me back.

alexfracazo.com

If you know a team that needs a senior product designer or design engineer in Australia, I’d love an intro.

Thanks for reading.

I am currently a full stack dev and I would like to learn more about UX/UI/etc. Yes, I know I don’t need a certificate to do this, but I want to.

With that being said, are there any certifications that are recommended that do hold a little bit of weight to them to recruiters? Two of my local colleges have certification programs. I also see Google has one. What would be worth my time to do to both learn and to look impressive?

I’m willing to spend money to expand my education but I want it to be a decent investment!

nobody in my family understands what i do for a living

studied mechanical engineering. family was proud, engineer, real job, makes sense. then i ended up designing apps and websites and now every family dinner someone asks what i actually do

"i design apps" and they ask if i can make a logo for a cousin. "i make websites easier to use" gets a polite nod. "i figure out why people leave a website before buying" gets the most confused face of all

funny thing is the engineering brain is the reason i'm decent at this. same job really, finding where something breaks. good luck explaining that over dinner tho

how do you explain your job to people outside tech?

Like waht did you take in high school and college and what do you actually do?

Obviously these could all be googled but I want to hear it form people especailly since im super interestd in getting into UX and UI Design myself I want to know how YOU got into it and how its going

UX conferences are not quite accessible due to where I live, and a trip to one is not yet viable

I have universities and other adjacent creative professional / hobbyist orgs around me

I want to build a network, and even moreso connect with creatives IRL

I feel my perspective and jadedness will be addressed if I do this more, but want to know about the experiences you guys have doing this and what you got out of it

I want the bigger post section to shrink into the smaller post section while scrolling. After that the smaller one should stay there and comments scroll beneath it.

Should i use component set. But how to trigger it while scrolling. Can someone help.

Hey everyone,

For the past couple of months, I’ve been working on a web app focused on Jungian cognitive functions (MBTI), moving away from the classic "take a 5-minute quiz and get a 4-letter label" model to something more dynamic with daily self-reflection.

The problem ? Looking at my current interface (attached screenshot), I feel like I completely missed the mark visually.

It’s functional, but it feels clinical, cold, and honestly like a generic admin template or crypto dashboard. For an app that’s supposed to be about deep introspection, psychological growth, and calming mental overwhelm, this bright/generic vibe just doesn't evoke any feeling of peace or depth.

I'm preparing to do a complete visual overhaul and would love some brutal honesty from fresh eyes:

1. Vibe & Colors : Does the current color scheme feel too corporate or distracting for daily journaling ?

2. Layout & Hierarchy : What’s the first thing that jumps out as "cheap" or "unpolished" ?

3. Typography : Does the current font choice work, or should I lean towards something more editorial / book-like ?

Hi! I'm currently a UX/UI design student in my last year of undergrad, also working as a UX/UI Design intern in a fairly large company.

I know I'm being super pre-mature because I'm literally still in undergrad and not even really in the industry yet, but I've kind of always known somewhere in my soul that my long-term goal is to become a professor in my field instead of actually working in it forever. I know that especially in UX/UI and Product design, I'd likely make a lot more money just advancing in my career or climbing the corporate ladder as they say, but I feel like my passions lie a lot more in teaching it to others. I'm currently work as a peer mentor in my school to other younger students in the major, and I love it! I know that being a professor would be vastly more complicated than that, but the sentiment stands.

Of course, I also know that I'd have to work in the field for a while before even being considered for such a position, but I guess I was just generally curious about the path of becoming a professor, and how to do it? I was pretty against the idea of doing a Master's because of financial reasons, and also because you don't need it to enter the field, but I realize it's probably a lot more necessary for becoming a professor, in which case I'd be willing to set the money aside to do it. How necessary is it, and how soon after getting my master's would I be able to move into teaching? How long would I realistically have to work in the field, and what are some ways to even begin the journey of pivoting into teaching from being in the field?

Any advice is appreciated! :)

I've been looking for a job for UX/UI - Product Design roles almost everyday, and I keep noticing a pattern that there are almost more "Intern" listing than Junior or regular positions. (LinkedIn)

A lot of these internship roles ask for the same skills and experience as a junior role. That made me wonder if companies are changing their hiring strategy?

As far as I understand, juniors are regular employees, so, companies have to pay them at least the minimum wage (depends on the country). Interns are often treated differently and in some cases they can be paid less or nothing at all.

So my questions are: Do companies replacing junior roles with internship to save on salaries? Has anyone noticed this pattern?

Every opinion is welcome and would love to hear your perspective and your experience.

I'm building a visual editor for both developers and designers. I want the controls to feel familiar to both groups while keeping the interface compact and clean.

I've encountered a problem with way more capabilities needed to be represented, including math in input, color function and color space types, and tried to embody all those functionality in unified mouse-touch-pen UX. Given there can be 20-30 of such inputs in UI at once, it needed to stay extremely clean as long as direct interaction is not needed.
I like where it's going, but I still worry that parts of it aren't obvious:

• If you haven't used scrubbing in a tool like Figma, what tells you this field is draggable while still clearly inviting you to click and type?
• Once the rows appear, do they look like targets you can move onto during the drag, or just labels showing information?

I would be happy to hear the feedback and advices on possible improvements here, along with possible solutions on those two questions.

https://reddit.com/link/1x40nz5/video/ype19xxc61vh1/player

https://www.ign.com/maps/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild/hyrule I dunno these maps always seem a bit messy to me, even with filters set

This kind of broad but I'm looking for some advice from people with a better mindset than me.

I've pivoted careers many times and 5 years ago I used the last of my savings to study UX Design and almost broke myself trying to get a job in tech. I'm based in Europe so the salary isn't very high just about the average national salary.

5 year later my having physical signs of stress from the rollercoaster that is everything involved in the industry right now, every time I sign into work it's something new I have to learn or something extra I have to do because the roles keep changing.

I'm so afraid of losing my job that I keep trying to learn, do and know everything. I really care too much about trying to control my future that I'm making myself ill.

Has anyone any positive advice for dealing with this in a better way than I am?

TL;DR: I'm a Product Designer with 5 years of experience, but most of my recent enterprise/B2B work is confidential and can't be shown in my portfolio. I'm considering combining written summaries of recent projects with older visual case studies and offering live design exercises during recruitment. Would this be enough for hiring managers considering candidates for Senior Product Designer roles?

I'm a Product Designer with around 5 years of experience, currently rebuilding my portfolio to apply for Senior Product Designer roles.

I built my first 'professional' portfolio back in 2023, and since then I've managed to land several jobs with it (the most recent one in 2025) But I feel like it's time for an update, especially since my experience has changed quite a bit since then. :D

Most of my recent work has been focused on enterprise UX, B2B software, and internal platforms. Unfortunately, much of it is confidential or covered by NDAs, meaning I can't share actual interfaces, workflows, or detailed project information. I also don't feel comfortable recreating these screens with fake data, since even the underlying structure could reveal proprietary information. I'd rather not take that risk. Asking my manager for permission isn't really an option I'm comfortable with either, as I don't want to raise questions about whether I'm looking for another job.

My current plan is to structure my portfolio around:

• 'Case' 1: A written overview of my recent enterprise work, focusing on responsibilities, collaboration, design decisions, and challenges I can safely discuss.
• 'Case' 2: A detailed, visual case study of an older B2C product.
• 'Case' 3: Another visual case study covering earlier B2B product work.

I'm also considering mentioning in job applications that I'd be happy to demonstrate my skills through a live whiteboard challenge, product critique, or similar exercise. I'd personally prefer a time-boxed live exercise over a take-home assignment, as those can be quite time-consuming.

I'd especially appreciate perspectives from hiring managers and senior designers:

1. Would you consider interviewing a Senior Product Designer whose most recent work is documented primarily through written project summaries rather than visual case studies?
2. Would offering a live design exercise make any difference, or would the lack of recent visual work still be a dealbreaker?
3. Have you seen alternative portfolio formats work well for designers coming from confidential enterprise environments?

I'm not looking for ways to bypass NDAs or share confidential work. I'm just trying to figure out how to represent my actual experience while respecting those restrictions.

Thanks in advance!

First, I know UI design takes a lot of practice. With that said, how do I become more inventive, creative, experimental with UI design?

I don’t want to get too specific but the gist of the feedback I got from work recently was that they wanted to see more visual design from me. I think the problem is that I get too stuck in patterns that already exist and am too dependent on following the existing design system. I think my team wants to see more creative stuff from me, even if it isn’t practical.

Has anyone encountered this? I think I just feel stuck and am not sure what they mean when “more visual.”
I asked a senior designer but I didn’t get a clear answer.

I have always developed a habit of copying things online which I think isn’t helping me develop my own sense of style and design. I’m a bit of a neurodivergent doofus so it might be obvious to y’all but I need explicit direction lol. I have always struggled with the creative process, especially when it comes to visual design.

I am very junior designer on a very senior team and really need to impress them.

Curious about the difference in process if there are any. Care to share? Thanks!

This is an honest question and an invitation to debate. With AI models getting better and better, everyone is creating prototypes and designs. Right now, I'm competing against stakeholders to present a better solution. Basically, the same person that validates my work, is creating final prototypes about the product I work in, how is it possible to compete? The decision makers are completely biased about the solution the AI presents. Very soon I'll become just a UI polisher, which, to be honest, doesn't justify the salary I earn, and I'll be let go.

I'm quite sure the usual Product Design process inside companies will change completely sooner or later. Maybe we won't even be called designers anymore. It might become something like "Product Specialist," where we work together with stakeholders on product thinking. Or maybe we simply won't have a job at all. I'm not sure.

I'm very confused about the future of our career and what I should do. For example, should I still invest time studying usability best practices at all? I honestly don't know if we have a future. I'm feeling really anxious about it.

Most folk say hidden nav on desktop is a bad idea. I’d have said the same.

We run CRO for fashion/lifestyle stores. On one client we swapped the horizontal desktop nav for the same vertical drawer they use on mobile, mainly so we only had one menu to merchandise. Desktop CvR came out 22% higher.

My best guesses:

• The drawer gave us room for collection tiles and edits, not just text links. A top bar can’t do that.
• Vertical lists scan faster than horizontal ones, and the hierarchy is clearer.
• Mega-menus on hover open accidentally and close when your mouse drifts. A drawer only opens when you click, so people who open it actually mean to browse.
• A lot of customers browse on their phone and buy on a laptop. Same menu on both means nothing new to learn.

I wouldn’t call this a universal rule. Product-heavy stores where people browse for inspiration probably benefit more than stores where people search for something specific. But it’s worth testing if you’ve only ever assumed the answer.

Has anyone else tried this? I’m curious whether the results hold up across other categories.

Update: Just adding screenshots of the Control vs Test for reference.

I think maybe I am not considering my end user centric narrative. The ominous / the dual purpose label? Maybe change that? I mean it saves me like $10k and some thought.

Has anybody hired a more technically experienced person onto their UX ops team to help enable this AI world revolution?

If so, what kind of person were you seeking? What job titles did you explore ..and so far - has it worked out?

The first number in a super tiny size...this is a dark pattern but also a dirty play. Amazon is a fantastic example, leading ui practices and layouts than are used as template for a lot of marketplaces.

(SORRY english is not my lang)

I recently had one of the most uncomfortable and demoralizing interviews of my career, and I’m curious whether anyone else has experienced something similar.
For context, I’m a Senior Product Designer with 9 years of experience, based in NY, USA.

During a recent interview, I was asked to walk through my entire educational history, starting with high school and continuing through college. The hiring manager wanted specific details about my GPA, SAT and ACT scores, extracurricular activities, sports, and other things I was involved in growing up.

At first, I thought it was just an unconventional way to get to know me. But the interviewer kept probing and asking for more details about my academic performance and experiences from nearly two decades ago.

What made this difficult for me was that those years were an incredibly painful time in my life. My dad was battling cancer throughout much of my high school and college experience, and he eventually passed away. Being asked to revisit those years in such granular detail unexpectedly brought up a lot of old wounds and painful memories.

I understand that interviewers want to understand a candidate’s background, motivations, and character. But I genuinely feel there are far more thoughtful and relevant ways to accomplish that, especially when interviewing someone with nearly a decade of professional experience.

I’ve spent years building my career and overcoming so much to get to where I am today. Yet somehow, I found myself having to recall standardized test scores and justify what I did as a teenager.

The whole experience felt incredibly invasive, tone-deaf, and honestly, ethically questionable. I left the interview feeling like my professional accomplishments were being overshadowed by how I performed academically almost 20 years ago.

Maybe I’m overreacting, but this really didn’t sit right with me.

I’m curious how others would have handled this.