How to get a UX internship in 2023
There are more UX, UI, content, and research internships popping up for students pursuing their Bachelor’s, Master’s, and even Ph.Ds in various fields.
More companies re recognizing the need and the value of talented interns, so how do you get a UX, UI, or UX research internship in 2023?
Decide on a path
It’s important to understand where you think you would like to chart your path, and if you’re not 100% certain yet, that is ok! Internships are exactly for this purpose- to let you discover what you enjoy and which part of UX you feel the most excited about.
A few professional paths you could undertake:
🖥️ UX research- a field focused on discovering insights from users through methods like interviews, surveys, field studies and many more. A great profession for curious, methodical, analytical thinkers who like to play detective and search for valuable insights into human behavior, pain points, goals, and needs and how those will affect the future of the product.
🧰 Helpful links :
👩💻 UX design- "User experience" encompasses all aspects of the end-user's interaction with the company, its services, and its products. (NNG) UX designers will work closely with researchers to synthesize data points, find a path from the insights, and create the skeleton for the product via wireframing. UX is a great field for problem-solvers who enjoy thinking through the strategy of the product.
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📱 UI design- Design focuses on anticipating what users might need to do and ensuring that the interface has elements that are easy to access, understand, and use to facilitate those actions. UI brings together concepts from interaction design, visual design, and information architecture. (Source) User interface design focuses on digital visual design which includes creating a uniform design system, utilizing brand colors and fonts, focusing on creating a look & feel true to the company but one that also communicates with the user. UI is a terrific field for anyone creative with a graphic design background.
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What’s important is to distinguish which profession you might enjoy the most. It’s difficult to be terrific in all 3, so traditionally you wouldn’t see jobs expect you to be a master in all of the skills.
If you are not certain about what kind of internship you might want to pursue, we suggest creating different versions of your resume that will speak to different skills you might have and line you up for internships that are rigid in who they are looking for.
Common job descriptions for interns
A great way to understand what to add to your resume and portfolio before you start applying to internships, is to take a look at existing internship postings on LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and our Ideate Labs job board. Some examples of common UX, UI, UX research, and content strategy internship descriptions include:
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Define the scope of user research on a project basis with stakeholders.
Coordinate and execute research projects using relevant methodologies (e.g. observations, interviews, surveys, field visits, social-media communities, online desk research) and combine qualitative and quantitative data to understand the needs of multiple stakeholders over time.
Make the user insights actionable, inspiring and accessible so other disciplines can and want to use them in projects and for thought leadership activities.
Convey your findings effectively using journey mapping, storytelling, presentations, etc.
Help develop approaches and tools to support cross-disciplinary collaboration, integrating capabilities, views and methods to maximize the impact of people insights
Work in partnership with our Product and Design teams to conduct qualitative and quantitative research (user studies, interviews, ethnography, surveys, etc.)
Plan, and implement practical research that meet partner objectives and needs
Synthesize and communicate research findings to drive understanding and user insight across the organization
Demonstrate strong analytical and problem solving skills
Collaborate with a diverse group of cross-functional product, design, engineer, and product marketing customers to align across and impact
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Assisting User Experience Designers, with User Experience testing tied to First Banks Digital Banking project
Work with e-banking platforms including web, android and iOS APPS
Researching and documenting requirements for User Experience
Recommending, scheduling, performing, and coordinating software improvements and upgrades
Seeking training and development activities related to the industry
Design, conduct, and analyze results from 1-3 studies including usability lab studies, remote research, field studies, and survey design.
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Work closely with Engineering to ensure a high-quality implementation
Create flows, prototypes, and high-fidelity visuals for your features
Keep abreast of competitor products and industry trends
Collaborate with service lines, markets, and corporate enterprise services to target products that strategically align to capabilities, customer opportunities, and internal corporate needs
Generate buy-in for product vision with both senior leadership and customer stakeholders
Maintain familiarity with current trends in technology, innovation, and salient challenges in the federal government
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Create and edit content as needed for digital projects; this individual will write mostly non-marketing content including user interactions, instructional content for digital tools, and transactional messaging scripts
Develop a universal content taxonomy to be standardized and implemented across systems
Create and manage a digital content style & standards guide
Act as content management system expert consultant with internal teams, educating on processes and best practices
Responsible for conducting digital content audits, gap analysis, and optimizing content
Collaborate closely with the Brand Strategy & Integrated Marketing Team to ensure all digital content meets marketing and brand standards
Understands principles of optimizing content for search; builds and leads approach to SEO and provides actionable channel insights to drive long-term results
Develop digital content calendar and manage implementation to ensure pipeline of approved content
Establish messaging framework for transactional digital push messaging (i.e., notifications, alerts, outages, etc.)
Ensure available content is properly leveraged throughout the organization
Perform keyword research to identify content opportunities by vertical segment
Analyze content performance to identify trends and insights to optimize content strategy
Identify key metrics required to evaluate content performance
Assess and report the effectiveness of content efforts by channel
Works with stakeholders throughout the company to create product plans, and roadmaps.
How do I get a UX internship with no experience?
What your future employer might need to see is character, potential, and zeal. We teach our students to think of moments or times where they “acted” like UX designers or researchers without even realizing it. Have you ever—
conducted a survey for class
designed a website for friends, family, your student organization
conducted interviews for a project or for information finding
collected data like website traffic, sales performance, conversion rates and so on
re-thought the process at your summer job, student org, etc
If any of these sound familiar, you can make case studies to demonstrate your experiences and familiarity with research, UX, UI, and/or service design.
How do I find UI UX projects for my portfolio?
If you do not have any relevant experience whatsoever, it would be helpful to take on the entrepreneurial approach and find new projects to learn through and add to your portfolio.
Where can I find projects for myself?
Approach your career counselor at school and inquire if they know of any volunteer orgs that need digital help.
Create a website for a student organization you participate it (you don’t have to launch it. You have to utilize Figma to design it, perhaps conduct research, etc)
Visit a local boutique, small shop, non-profit, etc., and inquire whether you can work alongside them to learn more about their customers via user experience research
Attend a hackathons. Find them on:
Eventbrite - various events
TopCoder — www.topcoder.com
HackerEarth — www.hackerearth.com
Hackathon[]com — www.hackathon.com
UltraHack — https://ultrahack.org/
Microsoft Imagine Cup — annual
Devpost Hackathon — https://devpost.com/hackathons
Attend events and connect with people to collaborate and find projects. Find great events at:
How many portfolio projects do I need to land an internship?
We suggest 3-5 case studies. These do not need to be very long, but instead need to show your zeal, your enthusiasm for design / research.
How do I prepare for interviews?
Each company will run their interviews differently, but typically you will have two to three rounds with different team members that will ask you about your technical & soft skills, your work experience, and your interest in the job .
A common UX interview process will look something like this:
Round 1. 30 minutes - screening call with the recruiter or HR professional
The recruiter will typically be someone who works for the company but doesn’t have a design experience. Their questions might be:
Tell me about yourself.
How did you learn about UX and what made you pursue the profession?
What skills would you like to hone (whether its in the company or in general)?
What about that company stood out to you? Why do you want to work there?
Any questions you have?
Round 2. 45 minutes to an hour - interview with the manager
After the recruiter green-lights you to go to the next round, you will speak (potentially) with the hiring manager who is going to be looking for a character/personality fit, an eagerness to learn, and for excitement over what the company is doing.
It’s incredibly important to research the history of the company, the current projects they might be working on, and understand direction they’re heading in terms of their tech development.
Before speaking with a manager:
Look up “[Company name] press release” to understand what news the company has broadcasted
Look through the company’s website to understand what they do
Write down questions you have for the manager
Consider which of your projects might be the most fitting to bring up while interviewing
The manager might focus on your holistic experience including your soft & hard skills, where you’d like to go, and what have you already done to meet those goals. Questions might be:
Can you walk me through your favorite portfolio piece? (Or they can ask about a relevant piece, such as research, design, etc)
What is your favorite app? Why? What would you improve?
Round 3. 45 minutes to an hour - portfolio review with senior designers
This is going to be a similar round to the manager, but this time you will meet with senior designers instead. In this round, it’s important to highlight your most fitting, most relevant case studies for the internship you’re applying to.
When presenting your case studies, you can either show them in a slide presentation (Keynote, Figma, PowerPoint, etc) or you can pull up your portfolio and guide your audience through the story. There are lots of free templates on Figma community if you need a guide on how to structure your case study —
In terms of the presentation itself, have a structure to your story. An easy to follow structure could be something like
Context- Take a step back and describe the industry, the extent of the problem, the possibility for opportunity. Etc.
Problem - What was the important problem that you were working to solve, or improve on?
Approach + Process - What did you decide to do? Did you create a plan / brief? Did you conduct interviews? Did you create wireframes? A few sentences about the process.
Key Findings - From the hard work that you’ve done, what specifically impacted the end result? Key findings are crucial for a good story because they allow the audience to learn through your learning.
Result - So? What happened at the end? How did you combine all of this work?
Impact - Did you learn something? What would you improve on if you had more time, more resources, or for when you’re going to work on the next iteration of the project?
Where can I see other design interns portfolios?
There are lots of really good examples to choose from! We love :
Cofolios - great database of talented interns’ work
Bestfolios - Resumes, portfolios, and other resources for designers
🧭 Ideate Labs is proud to have a mission to introduce more women, minorities, and POC to UX design and make the field more inclusive and diverse. If you need our help with your career, here are some resources from our team:
Giant list of UX/UI/research internships we update on a weekly basis
Create a career in UI/UX design with our e-book. Over 80 pages of insights on career paths, salaries, UX interviews, portfolio review prep, and a whole lot more