We are receiving some graphic design interns today and I may be given the task to test their web-designing skills.
Because not all graphic designers are web designers, I would want to keep the tasks simple and easy to understand. What tasks or questions you would suggest for such a scenario? I do not want to test their HTML or CSS skills, but their thought process and user interface ideas.
Any input would be much appreciated. Thanks!
How about having them to redesign your website within 1 hr? See how they ask questions and what methodologies, tools they use and see what result they can come up with. Certainly no need to be perfect, but you can have them to continue to work on their initial mock up and see they can come up with in the next couple days/weeks.
Just give them a research work about how they feel about the website and give some feedback. maybe add some test work if you want. Hopefully a responsible & good designer will come up some ideas that you can actually feel the way they proceed their work and thought. A systematically detailed report for this as a result maybe my preference.
I would assign them a task to redesign a brochure or a takeout menu without modifying the actual content and have them talk through their redesign process. Seems moderately simple enough, and gives the designers a chance to express their creativity along with their abilities.
I think it partially depends on the kind of site(s) you're asking them to design. A brand-oriented, marketing site needs a different approach from a app, which might be different again from an portal. Are you looking for someone who's going to create something visually stunning, or is usability most important? (Not that those are necessarily incompatible, but they tend to emphasize different skills.)
What skills are you looking for? usability testing? interaction design? wireframing? content structuring? visual metaphor creation? photoshop? general visual creativity? illustration? etc.? Once you know that, I think you could probably devise a task or sequence of tasks to help probe their skills in those areas.
If you give them something specific to work on, I would make the expectations very clear about what kind and quality of deliverables you want. And I'd lean toward making them as low-fi as possible -- their thought process is probably more important than having them waste time creating a finished product. You can get their sense of polish from their portfolio (hopefully).