Block One - Social Media Interview Test

I recently was poached online here for a job opportunity for Block.One to relocate to Blacksburg VA. While currently happily employed in Sunny SoCal I always entertain new opportunities and value where they can take you, what they can offer and what they can do for your career path.

Preface

That said, as a Sr / Dir of User Experience already for many years as well as being in my UX/UI/IA/IXD/VD/QA world for over 16 years, there's always room to learn, educate, be educated and teach along the way. I was interviewed by a team of millennials that must have been right outta college, I couldn't believe it. There were leaders at the forefront with very little experience governing the helm it felt to me. I could see in the background stand up portable tables with soft drink cases laying about, your typical boiler room setup. I was waiting for Giovanni Ribisi and Vin Diesel's characters to come waltzing in the background doing crosses. Needless to say it felt extremely disorganized and very startup. Environments like that are always exciting when you are the ones to help sculpt the process and workplace. A most definite for any self-proclaimed Director of UX fresh out of college interviewing you with little to no real experience but I march forward in the interview none the less.

After the initial phone screen, and the google hangout call with my interviewer as described above, I was poached for a 2nd line item, a test. As anyone knows in the creative world for any career role, a test is another way of getting a few things out of the candidate.

Test Pain Points

1. Frustration that the interviewer cannot determine the skill set of the candidate based on their portfolio link.
2. A cheap and easy way to "steal" ideas for the real build they are trying to solve at the expense of placing someone through an exercise where they don't want to do the work themselves nor have any "real" interest in hiring you but to fill a mandatory quota of interviews before rendering a decision. (employers do this)
3. An actual fun assignment that I can do on the side to increase portfolio versatility while handing over the secrets of the DeathStar.

When an employer sends me a test it always raises RED FLAGS tells me the person either doesn't know what they want, expects high fidelity work for free, doesn't actually know what UX really is.

Anyway, I decided I would do the test because not only was it a fun activity on the side but equally a way to help better tool in Sketch Software and become more engaged in it. Sometimes the hardest parts of being a UX/UI and hands-on is the idea creation of what to build next to create something you can be proud of.

The Test

1. Design a hi-fidelity blog landing page wireframe or mockup for a fictitious company "BlockShare" like the Verge.com or Vero app. The logo can be text only to keep things simple. Shoot for native ios only as the device target.

2. Design an interior article layout including photo/video, text, and comments.

3. Include a few notes describing your UX choices and inspiration.

4. Feel free to get experimental and express your unique design style.

If anyone knows the best social media apps on the platform are easily duplicated and relied on. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, all have 10 years of metrics, color heuristics, button size and placement along with haptic touch placement and ease of use. You want me to use an inferior app like VERO as the test subject... OH GAWD! Millennials LOL (Shaking head)

I sketched out a few ideas on scratch paper to gather my thoughts for an already FAILED MISSION before I started. The only thing that came to mind is watching "Faramir ride out to get slaughtered". How do you build an app based on a reference that already is failing.

Most people have to understand that when someone gives you a test, you have to budget your time on it. You are not getting paid for it. I always set aside 2 -4 hours. Thats all you get from me. If you aren't paying me for my time on this and stealing my IP from it, thats all you get.

Sketches

Prototype Mock Ups

Here I took the sketches and rebuilt the app to feel similar to the ask of Vero without all the muddiness as well as some of its functionality. In addition I used a lot of what Instagram does well and included that in the design. Since there was NO color palette or style guide to pull from, I picked ambiguous colors and blue tints. Blue is the most desired tints for clickable touch areas did you know that. I bet not. Now you wonder why facebook, twitter, linkedin all use blue hah.

Home Page

Home Page Expanded - Showing video page, image page, comments

Comments View - Side scroll right roll out

Overall the test I felt was a success. It met the requirements, and satisfied the objective. The color scheme I wasn't totally pleased with and the instructions were vague. I think that's part of the draw these days to leave less requirements. It sat within in my 2-4 hour time segment anything more and its robbery at that point lol.

In the end for me this is a few things.

1. I accept these design challenges to keep me sharp in the software.
2. It gives me a gauge or where companies are at with their interviewing skills, processes, or lack there of.
3. When an employer reviews your test and makes NO COMMENTS for 4 hours of work you provided thats an instant sign of "WTF" "why would i want to work under a leadership like that"?
4. It allows me to think creatively in ways to solve problems faster.

Most employers think you need to impress them to get the job. I think it's the other way around. You should impress me why I'd want to work for you!. You already know my skill set, interviewed me in person or over video chat. You know if Im the right cultural fit or not. These tests are sometimes meaningless in my opinion, hence Faramir riding to get slaughtered mentality.

Why do I do it?

Why not? It sharpens your skills, allows you to size up your opponent, and identify what you're value is to yourself and to others.

Would I do it again?

Absolutely. With the same time allotment in mind. I think tests help sharpen your abilities, allow you to solve problems more effectively, create some pretty good concepts, and prove what you're worth. People that do hackathons and meetups donate their time because they love what they do. so do I.

Conclusion

Overall the interview process was severely lacking. Leadership was completely misplaced. The test though fun was loosely assembled and the direction very minimal screaming lack of experience. Would I work for Block.One? Based on the assessment and treatment of the process, likely not. Too startup, too misaligned, too all over the place, leadership roles given without experience, Inexperienced teams lacking process. When things are not built properly at the top it can only be disaster at the lower levels. Lots of money wasted, process not in place, budgets blown, production halted, and ultimately you grow too far wide when you should be growing high. It was a fun experience and these things always get you ready for the next one. I think of these like auditions for getting a role on a tv commercial or film. You cant be in everything. but you have to continue to perfect your craft if you are to land anything. So just continue to use these interviews as ways to improve and get better at what you do best. As a poker player in the WSOP its always about learning new information and problem solving. This is no different.

Thanks for reading.
@theUXyeti

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