In a nutshell, test tasks can’t give you enough information about actual skills of the designer.
I also think they are kind of disrespectful. Why? Maybe it’s just my personal feeling but I’m going to give you a list of cons:
1️⃣ Overload
- Specialists have work already. Finding time, energy, and esteem to polish the task could be a problem so the result can be pretty far away from their real abilities.
- For the specialist this can be a 4th task their doing simultaneously.
- Some designers just don’t agree on doing design test tasks. Looks like they are good enough and have options already. Why spending time and energy on such? I’d be afraid of missing such connections.
- For some specialists, it’s hard to switch between projects quickly (which is normal, after onboarding they’ll do just right). So the output won’t display their real potential.
2️⃣ Obscure planning
- Usually it’s suggested not to spend more than X hours. Sounds familiar, right? How much did you actually spend? Yeah, exactly.
- Sometimes as a designer, you need to do extra research, find inspo, benchmark. So the problem looks bigger than you initially planned.
- The employer will give this task to other candidates too. This will take a while for everyone to finish it to make a decision on
3️⃣ Mental blocking
- Allocating time is huge problem. Specialists above 30 probably have families and other responsibilities.
- Specialists keep in mind that there can be a ton of others doing the same. Why spend so much energy if you’re one of 20?
- Candidates don’t know what the exact visual expectations are. They just didn’t get used to the common narrative of the company so they can deliver a great work but will be reject just because of this misalignment.
🤓 Don’t get me wrong, there are good things though:
- It’s nice to see how designers communicate their questions and ask for more information. It’s a glance of a product mindset
- You never know if the work in their portfolio are fully belong to them. Test task can let them to focus on a new problem. There’s definitely a higher chance that no one else has contributed.
- It’s a nice way to learn their presentation skills and how they can defend their decisions
🫠 What’s the alternative?
Schedule a live session where you can have a collective work. Allocate time so there’s no hanging expectations. The yes/no will be obvious so no ones time is wasted.
Remember: Smart hiring isn't about selecting an acceptable candidate - it's about not missing the right one.