Acing App Critiques
A normal part of most design teams process is critique. It helps designers hone their craft, keeps teams involved and up-to-date on the latest design progress, and improves product quality overall. It's also a common way in which designers from across a team or an organization interact.
This makes it a perfect format for a Product Design interview. During the interview, a smartphone app is chosen on the spot. Your task is to provide thoughtful critique, reverse engineer key product decisions, and generally provide rationale for and against design decisions.
It is an opportunity for you to show the interviewer signal on core design skills like Product Thinking, Visual Design, Interaction Design, and more. It is also an opportunity for you to show your intentionality and thought process.
So how do you convey all of this in 30 minutes while on the spot, critiquing an app you might not have looked at in a while? This course will outline a strategy for how to approach the interview, provide a walk through using example apps, and help you prepare for common questions.
Steps to Solve the App Critique
- Set Context: Talk about the company, what problem the app solves, or other contextual topics. It shows that you can think holistically.
- Walk Through a Flow: Identify a use case and walk through that flow, analyzing the design and how well it solves the problem
- Evaluate The Flow: Summarize your thoughts on the flow and how well it solves the problem you identified
- Evaluate the Business: How does this app or company make money? What's the business model? What metrics do you think they care about?
General Strategy & Tips
Don't jump into critiquing the app too quickly
Spend a few minutes setting context and talking about the business and human problems. What is unique about the app that differentiates it from it's competitors? What's the business model? How do they make money? These reflections will highlight your product thinking skillset.
Identify multiple use cases beyond just your own
When setting the context at the beginning, and talking about the app generally, identify a few use cases. Of course talk about how you use the app, but also talk through several other use cases. For example, if you're critiquing LinkedIn, you should talk about how you have used it as a professional networking with the community or looking for jobs. You should also talk about how it is a major, daily-use tool for recruiters to find and vet potential candidates.
Use one of the use cases to structure the rest of the app critique. Keep tying back aspects of the app's design back to how well it is solving the user problem you identified. For example, if you're critiquing Google Maps you might say "this 'navigation mode' help the user stay undistracted by UI elements while driving. It is a very effective approach that solves for the use case of getting to your destination safely.
Pay attention to the details
It can be difficult in this interview to convey your ability to craft beautiful, easy-to-use products. After all you're not actually designing anything. So it's important to focus on the details of the visual design and talk about the micro-interactions. Talk about the design system as a whole, and go deep into type, color, and information architecture. Talk about the overall use of motion design throughout the app and go deep into the easing and timing of animations.
Always try to put yourself in the shoes of the app's designer
Any time you critique an aspect of the app, follow it up with some rationale for why it might be that way. It shows great intentionality and self-awareness.
For example, you might say "I think elements are a bit tight, I would add some more padding to improve legibility, scan-ability, and overall improve the visual design". To show self-awareness, and an ability to put yourself in the designer's shoes, you could follow that up with "But I can see why they would design it this way. By adding that padding you are pushing information off the screen. I'm sure they have data to show that increasing the padding leads to a drop in a key metric".
Draw on past experience. Think about situations where you've made compromises and shipped less-than-ideal designs. Was it a technical constraint? Research insights? Or did the team's and companies metrics win out over design? Use those personal experiences as inspiration for why this app or feature might be designed the way it is.
Prepare, but don't come prepared
The best way to prepare for the App Critique interview is the practice. After completing the example critique lessons in this course, practice on your own in the mirror or with a friend. Great apps to practice with include: Uber, LinkedIn, Yelp, Facebook, Airbnb, Instagram, Amazon, and Starbucks. But don't try to memorize exactly what you'd talk about, or worry too much about any specific app. Just use the strategy and tips here, and be prepared to answer certain common questions, including:
- "Before we open up {app name}, let's think about what the world was like before this app or company existed. What was the human problem, and how did this app solve it?"
- "What are some use cases for {app name}?"
- "How does this company make money? What might be some business goals and metrics?"
- "Imagine you were starting tomorrow as a Product Designer at {company name}. What would you want to work on and how would you get started on the team?"
- "How does this feature or flow compare to {competitor app}? If you were a designer on this app, what would you do to compete?"
- "Tell me more about that interaction/visual design element. What do you like/not like about it? Why might the designer who worked on it have designed it that way?"
- "What are your thoughts on the visual design of the app? How is color, typography, etc. used?"
- "What about the navigation and information hierarchy? What does the layout tell you about what the app prioritizes?