Design is the cornerstone of your business, and it’s vital to hire a designer who can bring your vision to life. This UI Hiring Guide aims to help startup owners find their perfect UI designer match. When you hire a UI designer, they will be responsible for designing every aspect of the interface design, product design, and graphic design.
Challenges in UI Designer Hiring: Solutions from Design Match
You must hire someone who has both the skillset and personality to work well with your company culture. Design Match can help you find top-rated talent within your budget range. This article will discuss what a UI designer is, how they can help you, the challenges you need to expect, and a guide on how to find top-notch UI Design talent.
What is the meaning of UI design?
UI is an acronym that stands for User Interface. A UI design is an aspect of graphic design that focuses on the layout and interactivity of screen-based media. UI designers are responsible for the overall theme of the website or application.
A UI designer will look at the graphics, navigation, menus, text, icons, animations, and overall page layouts of the website or application. UI designers also often take part in wireframing before coding begins. In general, anything that a user sees and interacts with when using an app or a website is part of the UI design.
What’s the difference between UX and UI design?
As established in the above section, UI stands for User Interface. Another common design term often interchanged with UI design is UX design. UX design is a shorthand term for User Experience Design.
The following bullets can help you discern these two design terms:
- UX Design: The practice of user experience (UX) design focuses on how a customer reacts to goods, brands, and layouts. A UX Design may include developing a framework for a website or app. A UX designer uses data, competitive analysis, and consumer input to produce wireframes to create an excellent digital experience. These designers often utilize usability testing and user feedback. A UX designer creates a design for a user interface that correctly answers the customer’s wants and preferences.
- UI Design: In contrast, UI design brings the UX framework to life. UI designers create the interactive component of the framework to amplify the user experience. These designers are responsible for the visual aspect of the product, application, or website. A UI designer focuses on your website’s functionality and overall visible components.
What does a UI designer do in the design process?
The UI designer’s primary role is to reflect the UX framework accurately. A UI designer optimizes the interface for an optimal customer experience. They do this by designing and refining each page or screen that users interact and improve usability through a smooth navigation process.
A UX designer will conduct background research for your product, website, or app. Moreover, these designers will also develop the information structure and identify user persona. Once this information is collected, they will create a framework and design a prototype.
The UI designer’s job will start at this point. They will collaborate with UI developers to bring your design aspects to life. A UI designer’s task is to ensure that everything in your design aligns with the company’s branding.
Challenges in hiring a UI designer
Hiring a UI Designer can pose multiple challenges. It’s vital to understand what hurdles you might face before you launch into hiring your first UI Designer. Here are some of the well-known problems you might encounter when looking for a UI Designer.
- Misunderstanding what a UI designer does: As established above, UI Designers are more of an engineer than an architect. These designers can help you bring a framework or a blueprint into life. However, they can offer limited help to build a framework or conduct background research. If you are looking for someone to help you establish a blueprint, you might need a UX Designer.
- Miscommunication: This is another common mistake when hiring your first UI Designer. Communication is vital in almost every field of work. With UI Designers, you must provide feedback and keep in touch with them throughout the project duration.
- Not setting a realistic budget for a designer: Most startup owners hire UI Designers without providing reasonable compensation. A designer’s pricing varies depending on several factors. It’s crucial to identify first how much you can set aside from your finances to pay for a UI Designer.
- Not expanding your horizon: Most people limit themselves to a single website or group when looking for a designer. Designers are scattered throughout the internet. Do not restrict yourself to a single source when hiring a UI Designer.
- Not allowing your designer to access necessary statistics: UI Designers require data and statistics to produce excellent output. They need to understand what most users click on your website and the most used features. Having this information can help them improve your app’s or website’s usability.
UI Designer Hiring Guide: How to hire a freelance UI Designer online?
Here are some of the most helpful tips you can utilize when looking to hire your first UI Designer:
UI Designer Hiring Guide #1: Write a compelling job post.
It might seem obvious, but an applicant will need to understand what you are looking for in a UI Designer. When writing a job post, be as specific as possible. It would be best to remember that UI Designers often work on multiple projects simultaneously.
To appeal to UI Designers from different fields, try advertising your company or business with several keywords. Your UI Designer must know the type of work he is applying for based on the title and content of your ad. This way, you can attract the perfect person for the job. If you need to hire freelance UI animation developers, specify it in the job post. They are different from other UI designers.
UI Designer Hiring Guide #2: Identifying Skills and Experience Level
Identify first if a UI Designer has what it takes to produce excellent work before hiring one. UI Designers vary in their skills and abilities depending on their experience. You need to look at the following items when looking for a UI Designer:
- Portfolio: All UI Designers need to have portfolios. You will need to check several UI Designers’ portfolios before hiring one. Some designers are more specific with what they can do, while some are more versatile. Hence, you will need to identify UI Designers that specialize in the type of project your company is undertaking.
- Experience: Try asking UI Designers how much experience they have with your chosen field of work. A UI Designer might be skilled at creating wireframes but lack knowledge of designing mobile apps or websites. Or a UI animation developer is more adept at animations than regular UI designers. Ask questions first before settling.
- Skills: UI Designers usually possess a variety of skills. The most common UI Design related skills are UI Wireframing/Prototyping Skills, Visual Design Skills, and Interaction/Animation Design Skills.
UI Designer Hiring Guide #3: Sample interview questions you can ask a UI design applicant.
Here are some great interview questions you can ask your UI Designer applicant during the interview:
- What is the importance of wireframing? What’s your process of creating a wireframe? In most cases, the UX Designer’s task is to create a wireframe. However, UI Designers need to know how to read or understand a wireframe.
- How collaborative are you with UX Designers or Developers? UI Designers will often work closely with UX Designers or Developers. A UI Design applicant needs to be cooperative with the different people in your team.
- Can you define Call To Action (CTA)? What do you think is the importance of CTA in a UI Designer? If you are building an e-commerce business, call-to-action functions are necessary for your website.
- Can you provide insight on UI Design style guides? If your applicant can answer this question, they know UI Design style guides. A style guide is needed to improve a product’s or a business’ branding.
UI Designer Hiring Guide #4: Assess the skills of your applicants
Aside from evaluating their portfolio and asking an applicant critical design questions, there are various ways you can verify their qualifications. When hiring a UI Designer from a freelance marketplace, you must read testimonials from their previous clients. This is a vital precaution that you must not skip.
A UI designer’s skill is one thing. However, it would also be helpful if you considered their personality and ability to collaborate.
UI Designer Hiring Guide #5: Establish a reasonable offer to your talent
Before you start your search for UI Designers, you must identify how much money is available in your company’s budget. UI Designer pricing depends on several factors such as experience, skillsets, and portfolio quality.
Do your due research and provide reasonable compensation to your talent. Design Match can help you find the perfect UI Designer for your budget range.
Why do you need a UI designer?
UI Designers work on how a product or website appeals to your targeted customers. A compelling design can help persuade users to take action. UI Designers can help you improve your website and boost your customer’s confidence and trust in your brand.
Good UI design can be the key differentiator between one business and another, especially if you have competition in your industry. If your competitors have a better UI design than you, users will likely try out your competitor first because their UI looks better than yours. The lack of engaging UI can prevent customers from purchasing with your business.
Design Match can help you find the best UI designer online!
Design Match is a platform to find and hire talented UI Designers. Our team of carefully vetted UI Designers has the necessary experience and skill set to help you create the best user interface for your platform. Find your perfect UI Designer match now with Design Match. Click here to start your matching process now!