FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
General
An independent, expert-reviewed assessment of design capability, combining structured evaluation criteria with human reviewer judgment.
A portfolio review reflects one reviewer's opinion. A DCI assessment applies the same documented methodology and criteria to every submission, producing a result that's consistent and explainable.
No. DCI evaluates design capability. Employment, salary, and hiring decisions may follow from stronger capability; they aren't something DCI promises.
Methodology & Review
Ten defined competency metrics: Research, Problem Definition, User Flow, Information Architecture, Wireframing, Visual Design, Interaction Design, Usability & Accessibility, Prototyping & Testing, and Presentation & Communication. See How It Works for the full breakdown.
Structured analysis provides consistency and pattern recognition across every submission. A trained human reviewer provides context and professional judgment a rules-based process alone can't supply. Both are required for the assessment to be credible.
A trained human reviewer, combined with structured analysis, evaluated against the same published methodology for every submission.
DCI doesn't recommend specific courses or resources. Your result includes a breakdown across all ten metrics, so you know exactly which areas are strong and which need development. Where you take that from there is up to you.
Submitting & Process
A title, a short description, a public link to your work, and a mandatory video walkthrough under 10 minutes. Full detail, including the conditions you'll confirm before submitting: see How It Works.
Typically 10 business days from submission.
Yes. Each submission is treated as a new, independent evaluation against the current rubric.
Pricing & Billing
See Pricing. The fee is shown at checkout, sourced directly from live pricing, rather than restated here where it could go out of date.
No. Each submission is an individual, one-time purchase. There's no subscription anywhere on the platform.
See our full Refund & Cancellation Policy for exactly when a charge can and cannot be refunded.
Teams & Organizations
Yes. See For Teams. Individual designers at a company use the same assessment flow everyone does; some teams distribute a code that covers the fee for their designers.
Yes. DCI's rubric doesn't require in-house design expertise to use: you receive an independent, expert-reviewed score for the candidate, the same standard used by larger design teams. See For Teams.
Yes. A DCI profile is a public, shareable link, the same way a portfolio or case-study link works. You can add an optional field to your own application form for candidates to include theirs if they have one, with no integration required on your end.
Privacy
See our Privacy Policy. We don't use your data for marketing, and we don't sell or share it with third parties for their own use.