As a UX/UI Designer at United Airlines, you play a pivotal role in shaping the digital travel experience for millions of passengers worldwide and streamlining complex operational workflows for airline crew members. From booking a flight on the mobile app to navigating terminal kiosks and utilizing internal flight deck tools, your designs directly impact customer satisfaction, operational safety, and brand loyalty. This role requires a balance of sophisticated visual design and robust system thinking to solve problems in a highly dynamic, fast-paced travel environment.

Working at United Airlines means designing at an immense scale where minor design optimizations can result in significant improvements to boarding times, customer anxiety levels, and overall flight efficiency. You will collaborate closely with product managers, engineers, and customer service teams to translate intricate aviation logistics into clean, accessible, and intuitive digital interfaces. It is a highly collaborative environment that challenges you to think deeply about service design, accessibility, and real-time user needs.

This position is ideal for designers who thrive on complexity and want to see their work implemented in real-world environments. Whether optimizing the seat-selection flow or redesigning digital tools for gate agents, your contributions will help define the future of travel. The hiring team looks for designers who are not only technically skilled but also deeply empathetic to the diverse needs of global travelers.

The questions you will encounter during the interview process are designed to evaluate your end-to-end design methodology, technical capabilities, and collaboration style. They are drawn from real candidate experiences and are structured to assess how you perform under pressure and how you structure complex design narratives.

Portfolio & Design Process

These questions evaluate your ability to articulate your design decisions, handle constraints, and demonstrate user-centered methodologies.

• Walk us through a recent project where you had to balance complex user requirements with strict technical constraints.
• How do you validate your design decisions when access to direct user testing is limited?

Preparing for an interview at United Airlines requires a strategic approach that balances technical portfolio preparation with behavioral storytelling. You must be ready to demonstrate not only your design craft but also your ability to navigate a corporate environment with multiple stakeholders.

Domain Knowledge – You must demonstrate a clear understanding of the aviation ecosystem. This includes understanding passenger mindsets, operational constraints, and the collaborative nature of airport environments.

Technical Design Execution – Interviewers will closely evaluate your technical skills, including your command of layout, typography, design systems, and interaction design. High-fidelity prototypes and clear documentation are highly valued.

Cross-Functional Collaboration – You need to show how you partner with engineering, product management, and business analysts. Showing that you understand common deliverables and developer handoff processes is critical.

Resilience & Adaptability – The interview process can be intensive and highly detailed. Demonstrating that you can maintain high energy, accept constructive feedback, and adapt your presentation style to different audiences is key to success.

The interview process at United Airlines is designed to evaluate both your practical design skills and your alignment with the company's collaborative culture. It typically consists of multiple stages, combining remote conversations with in-person interactions to give you a comprehensive view of the team and the day-to-day work.

The journey begins with a recruiter screen, followed by a conversation with the hiring manager that focuses on your technical background and past projects. From there, you will move into deeper technical discussions and a portfolio presentation. While the process is structured to be thorough, candidates should remain flexible as timelines and scheduling can occasionally experience delays due to team availability and operational demands.

The timeline shown above outlines the standard progression from the initial recruiter outreach to the final decision. Candidates should use this timeline to pace their preparation, ensuring their portfolio is polished early in the process and their presentation skills are sharp before entering the final stages.

To excel in the United Airlines interview process, you must understand the core competencies the hiring team evaluates at each stage.

Portfolio Presentation & Case Studies

The portfolio presentation is the cornerstone of the final round. You are expected to present one or two case studies that demonstrate your end-to-end design process, from initial research to final high-fidelity designs and implementation.

Be ready to go over:

• Problem Definition – How you identified the user need and aligned it with business objectives.
• User Research & Synthesis – Your methodology for gathering insights and how those insights directly shaped your design decisions.
• Iterative Prototyping – Showing your wireframes, low-fidelity concepts, and how user testing guided your iterations.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Multi-modal interfaces, accessible design systems at scale, and designing for offline-first states.

Example scenarios:

• "Walk us through a design decision that you had to completely change after conducting usability testing."
• "Show us a case study where you had to design for a highly complex, multi-step user flow."

Aviation & High-Stress UX

Designing for an airline means designing for users who are often distracted, stressed, or in a hurry. The hiring team looks for candidates who can design intuitive layouts that reduce cognitive load during critical travel moments.

Be ready to go over:

• Cognitive Load Reduction – Visual hierarchy techniques that make critical information (like gate changes or boarding times) instantly recognizable.
• Accessibility (WCAG) – Ensuring designs are highly usable for travelers of all abilities, including those with visual or physical impairments.
• Service Design Mapping – Understanding how digital interfaces interact with physical touchpoints like airport signage and gate agents.

Example scenarios:

• "How would you redesign the mobile boarding pass to display real-time gate changes and flight delays clearly?"
• "Describe how you would approach user research for a tool used by flight attendants mid-flight."

Technical Execution & Deliverables

Your ability to deliver clean, production-ready designs and collaborate with development teams is highly scrutinized. You must show that you understand design systems and technical constraints.

Be ready to go over:

• Figma Mastery – Building clean component libraries, utilizing auto-layout, and maintaining design system consistency.
• Handoff Documentation – Providing clear specifications, redlines, and interaction states for engineering teams.
• Responsive Web & Mobile Design - Designing fluid layouts that perform seamlessly across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.

Example scenarios:

• "What is your process for ensuring your design intent is perfectly preserved during the engineering implementation phase?"
• "How do you manage and contribute to a shared design system across multiple product teams?"