UX/UI Design

How to Hire the UX Designer You Need

Need a user-friendly app? Hire a UX designer! Learn the 5 key steps to find the perfect fit for your project.

When it's time to hire a UX designer, here are the must-do's. Brought to you by WANDR, a top-rated product strategy and design firm, who has recruited and partnered with UX designers around the world.

A user experience (UX) designer can help your business deliver a better product. UX designers assist with the process of matching features to the needs of your users.

First, you need to know how to hire a UX designer. Finding the right team is not always easy.

You need to compare options and create a list of UX designer interview questions. You also need to have a thorough understanding of what you hope to achieve by hiring a UX designer.

So, if you want to know how to hire a UX designer, start with these five steps:

  1. Define the scope of your project
  2. Set goals and timelines
  3. Find qualified UX designers
  4. Examine portfolios
  5. Arrange interviews

You should also have realistic expectations and understand the role of a UX designer. UX design is an area that often results in misunderstandings, with many people assuming it focuses solely on the user interface (UI).

User experience (UX) design covers the UI, it also includes responsibilities related to wire-framing, prototyping, customer analysis, testing, execution, and analytics.

After understanding the responsibilities of the designer and what they bring to the table, follow these five recommendations on how to hire a UX designer.

1. Define the Scope of Your Project

Before finding a qualified UX designer, outline the needs of your project. Define the scope of the project to ensure that everyone is on the same page. The scope should include a definition of the problem that you hope to address and the intended outcomes.

When you start interviewing candidates, UX designers may ask you several questions to gain a better understanding of the scope.

These UX designer interview questions include:

  • What type of application or product do you need help designing?
  • What is your budget for this project?
  • Who is your target audience?
  • What type of content will your project use?

Answering these questions before the interview can help provide a clearer picture of what you plan on achieving with your project.

2. Set Goals and Timelines

Along with the scope, the UX designer will likely want to know more about your goals and proposed timeline for the project. If you have a limited timeline or unrealistic goals, you may not get the results that you want.

Goals for UX design often focus on specific metrics, such as sales, customer satisfaction ratings, and user engagement. Measurable goals are useful for evaluating the ROI of the project. However, you should also provide a series of goals for the UX design process.

Examples of common UX design goals include:

  • Meeting the needs of your users
  • Providing easy to navigate interfaces
  • Maintaining a consistent UX across platforms
  • Testing usability with real users

These goals help give UX designers more direction for their efforts. For example, to meet the needs of your users, UX designers may need to complete extensive user research.

Providing an easy to navigate interface and maintaining consistency across platforms are also common goals. However, if you do not explicitly request simple navigation and consistency, you cannot expect the UX designers to focus on these features.

Usability testing is not a goal, but it provides a way to determine if the UX design meets the previous goals. Designers can test the application with real users at every point during the design process to ensure that it meets their needs.

3. Find Qualified UX Designers

After defining the scope of the project and setting goals, start searching for a qualified UX designer or design agency. Websites such as Dribbble, Upwork, and Toptal can narrow your search and help you find your match. In addition, Behance is a website that showcases the work of various designers, which can help you get some inspiration for what kind of design you are looking for.

Next, create a list of suitable candidates. Your list should include basic contact information and website addresses. When compiling your list, also perform background research on the potential candidates.

A simple internet search should help you discover more details about each UX designer or agency. Look for social media profiles and online reviews. You may find feedback from past customers, helping you form an opinion about the overall competency of the candidate.

During your search, you should also visit the websites of the candidates. The websites should include contact information, helping to verify the authenticity of the UX designer or agency.

4. Examine Portfolios and Past Projects

To begin narrowing down your list of potential UX designers, examine portfolios and past projects. Determine if the UX design team has worked on similar projects and has the experience to handle a project of your scope.

You can often find past clients and case studies on the websites for UX designers. This is a good starting point. However, you should also ask about past projects during the interview process.

5. Arrange Interviews with Candidates

During the interview process, you should get to talk with different members of the UX design team, including the senior UX designer and the design lead.

The questions you ask should be related to the role of the team member. For example, you may use different sets of senior UX designer interview questions and design lead interview questions.

The best tips on how to hire a UX designer also require you to ask specific UX designer technical interview questions.

If you need help coming up with questions for the interview process, review the following recommendations.

Common Senior UX Designer Interview Questions

Senior UX designer interview questions are often geared toward the logistics of the project, such as timelines, requirements, and availability. You want to ensure that you work with an agency that can handle your needs.

Examples of senior UX designer interview questions include:

  • Have you worked on similar projects?
  • How will your team communicate?
  • What is your availability?
  • Can you provide an overview of your process?

Senior UX designers are responsible for high-level decisions about the design. These individuals also lead a team of engineers and designers, requiring leadership skills. The questions that you ask should help determine the senior UX designer’s ability to keep the project running on time.

Common Design Lead Interview Questions

When talking to the design lead, you may focus your questions on the specifics of the project, including the tools and workflow commonly used for similar projects.

You may also ask UX designer technical interview questions. These questions help you get a better sense of the designer’s experience and knowledge:

  • Can you provide past examples of your work?
  • What is the biggest UX challenge you have faced?
  • How do you implement a universal UX design?
  • How would you improve the UX design of our product?

Receiving past examples of work is a common request during the interview process. However, you should also learn more about their work methods and techniques. Find out what types of strategies they use. If you are hiring a UX team to work on an existing product, ask how they would improve the design.

Next Steps on How to Hire a UX Designer

Choosing the right UX designer is an important decision, as the UX design directly impacts the success of your application or software. If you want to find the best candidate for the job, you first need to determine your needs.

Define the scope of your project and set your goals before you start your search.

We're here to help. At WANDR, we help companies build short-term and long-term teams that meet your product goals. We can offer WANDR team members to become an extension of your team. With WANDR, a company receives a team of experts for the price of one designer. We also work with companies to identify the right specialists to recruit and bring in-house. Contact us to learn more.

 

What do You Look for in a UX Designer?

Let us know in the comments below.

Talk to us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.

Read Previous
There is no previous post
Back to all posts
Read Next
There is no next post
Back to all posts