How would you track clicks on headlines and calls-to-action?
This tests DOM event handling and basic telemetry design. A strong answer covers event delegation with addEventListener, data attributes for element IDs, and a payload with timestamp and page context.
How would you A/B test sign-up button copy and measure results?
This tests basic experimental design. A strong answer covers: random assignment, serving variant copy, tracking impressions and conversions, and measuring lift. A red flag is sequential testing or vanity metrics like clicks without sign-ups.
How would you document a destructive API endpoint safely?
This tests balancing legal safety and usability for irreversible API operations. Strong answers use signal words like WARNING, direct imperatives, and distinct formatting. Red flag: vague phrases like 'be careful' or burying warnings in prose.
How would you apply progressive disclosure to UI copy and tooltips?
Tests tiering copy by expertise. Good answers: show plain labels and short tooltips for common tasks; hide advanced settings, risks, and edge-case definitions behind expanders or secondary sheets. Red flag: dumping all help text inline to eliminate clicks.
Outline README sections for a migration CLI and explain persuasion
Tests information architecture and developer persuasion. Strong answers sequence: hook, one-line install, runnable quickstart, comparison table, then config. Front-loads time-to-value and tackles migration pain.
E-E-A-T: Google's Human Quality Bar for Content
E-E-A-T is how Google's human reviewers judge if content is truly helpful or merely optimized. It matters most for health and finance, where bad advice causes real harm.
Trademark Usage: Treat Brands as Adjectives
A trademark is an adjective, never a verb. When writing copy or UI text, use ™ for unregistered and ® for registered marks, and distinguish them from surrounding text. The footgun is treating brands as verbs or implying endorsement when citing third parties.
Qualitative Coding: Turning User Chatter into Actionable Themes
Think of thematic analysis as creating a tag cloud for user interviews. It groups raw feedback into meaningful patterns, turning noise into signal. Used after interviews to make sense of transcripts, the biggest mistake is just describing what users said.
Multivariate Testing: Find Which UI Changes Interact
Multivariate testing finds the best *combination* of UI changes, not just which single design wins. Use it to see how a new headline interacts with a new button on a high-traffic page. The footgun: it requires far more traffic than A/B testing to get a.
Customer Effort Score (CES): Measure Task Friction
Customer Effort Score (CES) measures how much work a customer expends to complete a task. It answers 'How easy was it?' right after a support interaction, purchase, or onboarding.
Desirability Testing: Quantifying User Feelings
Desirability testing quantifies user feelings with a controlled vocabulary, asking them to pick words from a list that describe a design. It measures emotional response to visual appeal or UX, often with just a screenshot.
Tree Testing: Validate Your Site's Navigation Structure
Tree testing validates your site's navigation by asking users to find items in a text-only hierarchy. It's used to test a proposed information architecture before any UI is built. The footgun is confusing it with card sorting, which creates a structure.
Task Analysis: Mapping User Goals to Actions
Task analysis maps the specific actions (tasks) a user takes to achieve their larger objective (goal). It's used to ensure a product actually helps users, not just creates busywork. The key mistake is designing for the task instead of the user's true goal.
User Mental Models: What Users Believe About Your System
A user's mental model is their internal story of how your system works, based on belief, not facts. It shapes every interaction, from predicting button actions to checkout flows.
Open Card Sorting: Map Your User's Brain
Open card sorting reveals how users mentally group your content. You give them topics on cards and ask them to sort them into groups they create and name. It's ideal for designing intuitive navigation.
Semi-Structured Interviews: Uncover User Needs Through Conversation
A semi-structured interview is a guided conversation, not a rigid script, to uncover the 'why' behind user needs. Use it in discovery to define problems before designing.
UX Research Incentives: How Much to Pay Participants
Think of research incentives as an investment in data quality, not just a cost. For a 60-minute interview, budget $75-150 for consumers or $200-500 for specialists. The footgun is underpaying: you'll get poor data and waste everyone's time.
Recruiting from a Customer Research Panel
Think of a customer research panel as your on-call list of users who've agreed to give feedback, making recruiting fast and cheap. Use it for a steady stream of participants for frequent studies.
Pilot Studies: A Dress Rehearsal for User Research
A pilot study is a dress rehearsal for your user research. You run 1-2 practice sessions to find flaws in your study design, not the product. It's crucial for remote tests or high-stakes projects.
UX Sampling: Convenience vs. Probability
Convenience sampling is fast and cheap—ask whoever is easy to reach. Probability sampling is rigorous—ask a random slice of your population. Use convenience for quick usability tests, but probability for high-stakes decisions.