Day 12: Approaching Whiteboard Challenges

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Whiteboard challenges are not about how many ideas you come up with; they are about how you approach a problem and work with others as a designer.

Nothing comes close in demonstrating how a UX designer thinks and behaves than a whiteboard challenge - Zhenshuo Fang

As a designer, I should ask questions to get clarity on a goal; I have to focus on the users and their contexts. I have to make valid assumptions, ask the right questions, go beyond UI and think holistically about a given scenario, understand basic design principles and patterns, and be self-aware to spot weaknesses and improvements in a given space or solution.

5-Step Approach to Whiteboard Challenges

1. Asking questions to specify the challenge.

2. Asking about the users and their context.

3. Writing down the main steps of the story

4. Draw a few critical screens.

5. Summarize the story, and talk about alternatives, improvements, or other use cases

Evaluation Criteria of a Whiteboard Challenge

1. Problem definition.

2. Solution-finding and idea generation

3. Interaction design knowledge

4. Collaboration.

Design is about prioritizing and making compromises, and there is no single correct solution to any design problem.

Key takeaways/learnings

I look forward to taking on a whiteboard challenge when I am on course to landing my first entry-level role. It sounds exciting. I will use prompts to improve and learn more about tackling these challenges.

References

• "My Uber Whiteboarding UX Challenge // How to... YouTube." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MQmYa_zq0g&vl=es.

• "5 Steps to Master the Whiteboard Design Challenge | by Zhenshuo Fang" 9 Mar. 2016, https://uxdesign.cc/5-steps-to-master-a-whiteboard-design-challenge-6ecbe9ec38b7.

• "Crushing the product design whiteboard challenge—UX Collective." 14 Aug. 2019, https://uxdesign.cc/crushing-the-product-design-whiteboard-challenge-c0f5a50b4c0d.

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Thank you for reading my article, have a good one 👋🏽