8-Week Project
Figma
Technical Writing
WCAG 2.1 Guidelines
Heuristic Evaluation
This section sets the stage. Instead of just stating the project, frame it as a business problem.
Standard Entry: “The project was to redesign the user dashboard.”
Senior-Level Upgrade: “Our user retention was declining by 15% quarter-over-quarter, and customer feedback indicated the existing dashboard was a major point of friction. The business goal was to reduce churn by improving the user’s ability to find value within the first 30 days. I was tasked to lead the design strategy for this initiative.”
Key Senior Elements:
Connects the project to a specific business metric (e.g., retention, churn, conversion).
Clearly defines the problem from a business and user perspective.
Establishes your leadership role from the outset.
his is where you define your specific responsibilities and the scope of the challenge. A senior designer’s tasks are broader and more strategic.
Standard Entry: “My task was to create new wireframes and mockups for the dashboard.”
Senior-Level Upgrade: “My primary task was to define the end-to-end user experience strategy for the new dashboard. This involved not only the UI/UX design but also aligning cross-functional stakeholders (Product, Engineering, Marketing) on a unified vision, scoping the MVP, and establishing success metrics, such as increasing the daily active user (DAU) to monthly active user (MAU) ratio.”
Key Senior Elements:
Highlights strategic ownership (“define the…strategy”).
Mentions cross-functional collaboration and alignment, a core senior competency.
Includes scoping and metric definition, showing you think about feasibility and measurement.
This is the core of your story. Focus on why you did things, not just what you did. Describe your leadership, influence, and the strategic rationale behind your design decisions.
Standard Entry: “I started with user research, then made personas, user flows, and wireframes. I conducted usability testing on the prototypes.”
Senior-Level Upgrade: “To ensure we were solving the right problem, I initiated a mixed-methods research plan, combining qualitative user interviews with a quantitative analysis of existing usage data. The key insight was that users couldn’t find our ‘aha!’ feature. I facilitated a workshop with product and engineering leads to map out a new information architecture that prioritized this feature. I then mentored a junior designer on the team through the wireframing and prototyping phase, ensuring our design system was applied consistently. To de-risk the launch, I championed an A/B testing plan to validate our new design against the old one, focusing on a primary success metric of a 10% increase in feature adoption.”
Key Senior Elements:
Shows initiative (“I initiated,” “I facilitated,” “I championed”).
Explains the rationale behind your actions (“To ensure…,” “To de-risk…”).
Demonstrates mentorship and delegation.
Mentions influencing process, like introducing A/B testing.
This is the most critical section. Quantify your impact with metrics. Tie the results directly back to the business problems you outlined in the “Situation.”
Standard Entry: “The new dashboard was launched and users liked it.”
Senior-Level Upgrade: “The redesigned dashboard launched successfully in Q3. In the following quarter, we saw a 12% decrease in user churn, exceeding our 10% goal. The A/B test confirmed our hypothesis, showing a 25% increase in adoption of the key feature. Customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores related to the dashboard improved from 3.5 to 4.7. This project directly contributed to a projected $200K increase in annual recurring revenue (ARR) by improving customer retention.”
Key Senior Elements:
Uses hard numbers and metrics (churn, adoption, CSAT, ARR).
Directly links design work to business outcomes.
Compares results against initial goals.
Show you are reflective and always improving. Discuss challenges, trade-offs, and what you would do differently. This demonstrates maturity.
Standard Entry: “I learned that user feedback is important.”
Senior-Level Upgrade: “A key learning was the challenge of aligning technical constraints with the ideal user experience. Early in the process, our engineering team flagged a potential performance issue with a proposed data visualization. In retrospect, I would involve engineering even earlier—during the initial ideation phase—to co-create solutions. This experience highlighted the importance of establishing a shared understanding of technical feasibility from day one to avoid late-stage compromises and ship a better product faster.”
Key Senior Elements:
Discusses specific, complex challenges (e.g., technical constraints).
Shows self-awareness and identifies concrete process improvements.
Demonstrates an understanding of trade-offs and cross-functional dynamics.