Well designed UX and UI can drastically change how users perceive a website or an app. But great UI/UX designers take more than just the user’s need into consideration. It’s also about creating the new look and interface for a site or app that focuses on the needs of the business itself, leading customers to look at specific products or making them more keen on buying these products.
But how do you hire UX/UI designers who will really fit your company and will deliver what was asked for quickly with high quality always in mind?
See our guide below or contact our Ideamotive experts who can deliver a tailored selection of the best professionals on the market.
Define your exact UI/UX designer needs
Yes, the term user experience is incredibly important in today’s design world. But too often it is said as only a buzzword that’s supposed to solve everything.
UI/UX designers are not always experienced in the same areas of graphic design. In fact, the best of them focus on specific specialties that they can perfect and become experts in. This means that before you actually start looking to hire UX designers, you should define your exact needs by answering the basic question: What do I actually want to achieve by having the user experience of my site/app taken care of by a professional?
Types of UI/UX designers
To help you answer the question, we’ve created a short cheat sheet that briefly describes different types of designers who are usually linked with work on user experience, and the cases when you might need them.
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UX Designers
This broad term is usually used by generalists who work on small projects, making them more interesting and easily understandable for users. They usually work by themselves on the UX part of a site/app, doing everything from research and design to providing updates when the final product is launched.
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UI Designers
UI (User Interface) designers are responsible for the small details in the overall design, such as the look of buttons, their placement and what they do. To put it simply, they work on making sure that the user’s journey in your app/on your site is smooth and clear, even for a non-tech-savvy person.
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Visual Designers
Visual Designers expand the user experience into new territories. Their work is to build the visual identity of a brand, making sure it’s aligned in all types of marketing materials, from the main app/site to posters, social media or physical products.
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Information Architects
IAs work before UX designers, creating wireframes and simple mockups of the final product. Their main point of interest is the navigation of a site or app — what comes first when the user is invited to interact, how to keep the site simple and clean while still having all the necessary information. Nowadays, this kind of job is often done by UX designers, but bigger companies sometimes still hire Information Architects for more complicated projects.
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UX Strategists
Being more researchers than creators, UX Strategists often guide teams of designers, or even entire companies, in taking a more user-centric approach to how they sell and showcase their products. They usually work on bigger projects for brands that want to be considered customer-friendly and innovative.
Which of the above is the best choice for your company? It really depends on the project you are running. While most businesses will be just fine hiring an all-in-one UX designer, others might prefer to look for a specialist. If an app relies highly on interactions with the user, a UI Designer might be needed, as they will know how to make a visual interface that is easily understandable by a target customer. On the other hand, a company whose product offering consists of a variety of different solutions and uses multiple promotional channels might go with a Visual Designer who can keep the whole brand unified visually.
UI/UX Designers for mobile and web
One of the most important things to consider when you want to hire a UX designer is whether your focus is more on the web or mobile. If you have both in mind, you should assess which one is more important. For example, most companies have their own websites, but sometimes these are just simple landing pages promoting a mobile app.
At the same time, however, you should also consider the fact that over 50 percent of online traffic comes from mobile devices. This means that even if you have a web app planned, your UX specialist must still be able to design it in a way it looks great on tablets and smartphones.
How to review portfolios of UI/UX designers
When reviewing your candidates' portfolios, you should focus on looking for product similarities. If the UI/UX designer being considered has experience with your industry or apps/sites similar to yours, it might be easier for them to create a really good quality user experience for you and deliver it faster.
For example:
- UI/UX designers who worked for banks, cryptocurrency companies and other kinds of financial institutions will be the perfect fit for a fintech startup.
- People with experience in designing sites based on popular e-commerce platforms (e.g., Shopify) are a great choice for online marketplaces.
- Previous work on apps for children makes a UX/UI designer a great fit for educational projects.
Also look for apps/sites with functionality you might want to include in your product. Finally, when interviewing the UI/UX designer, ask about their projects you liked, focusing on assessing how much content (buttons, illustrations, other graphic elements) they created by themselves and how much is third-party stock designs.
How to consider company culture fit when you want to hire UX designers
We’ve already talked about the industry/product fit, but how about the company culture at your workplace? When you want to hire UI or UX designers, the main things to consider in regards to this area are:
- Freelance vs. full-time
The basic rule is: when you want to hire a freelance UX designer, hire one who already has experience working remotely for multiple clients. Not everyone performs as great at home as in the office, so it’s important not to force anyone to do something they are not comfortable with. It also goes the other way around: if someone worked for years as a UX designer for specific companies, they might not be that good at delivering projects fast from home.
Also be aware of people who work both full-time and freelance as a side job. Some of these UI/UX designers, due to lack of time, might simply not be able to deliver what they are asked for within the deadlines.
- Startup vs. corporate environment
The culture of work is usually different in startups and corporations — the differences are easily seen by those who have worked for both. Startups usually pay less, but many people feel more motivated working for them as the team is smaller so each member has a bigger impact on the final product. If you run a startup, make sure your candidates understand exactly what you can offer and what vision of the future you have for your company so there are no misunderstandings in the later stages.
- Agile vs. other approaches to software development
Most software development teams work with the agile methodology nowadays — but these teams don’t always include UX designers. If your aim is to have a UX specialist who works very closely with the devs, you should hire one who is already experienced with agile and supporting processes (Scrum, Kanban, etc.).
Top UI/UX designer questions to ask during a job interview
Do you already have an interesting candidate to hire and want to know how to run an interview that will assess their skills well? Here are our favorite UI/UX designer questions to ask during the interview:
- How often do you create your own content for design? How often do you use stocks? When do you choose to create something by yourself?
- What, in your opinion, are the most important UI/UX designer skills one should have to create a great user experience?
- Which of your projects are you most proud of? Why?
- What, in your opinion, are the trends that will truly revolutionize UX in the near future? Why them?
- When your client/employer/manager says, “I don’t like this project” — what do you do?
- How would you convince someone who doesn’t understand digital media well that having a good UX designer is necessary for their project’s success?
- What made you become a UX designer?
- What kind of research do you do to understand the customers’ needs? Can you give some real-life examples based on one of the projects you’ve worked on?
- How would you change the UX of our current website/app?
- How would you approach designing the UX of an elevator in a 1,000-floor building?
- What are personas? What are their pros and cons?
- Tell us about a time when you had to convince a manager to have your design idea implemented.
- Think about one of your favorite apps, one that you use (nearly) every day. What would you improve in it?
Turning great designs into real products
A UX or UI designer, even though a great addition to your project, is only a part of a bigger team. To make sure you can overcome all the difficulties on the path to your product’s success, you will also need a set of experienced developers, data specialists, an IT project manager and even some more “regular” designers.
To get all these necessary people assembled at your company fast, reach out to us at Ideamotive. Thanks to years of experience in the startup industry, we have established an extensive network of unicorn-class IT experts from all over the world with experience in every type of industry and every type of product.
Contact us today to start hiring top talent.
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