Digital designers are a crucial element for every company that wants to get visible. Whether you only run a website and a Facebook page, or you are present on all possible social media as well as using real-life ads, digital designers can build for you a brand look that will grab the attention of prospective customers across all channels.
How exactly digital designers may be of help to your business? They can...
- Design the website, its company identity and branding, with the help of your web developers.
- Prepare an unforgettable mobile experience by designing your phone or tablet app.
- Improve the conversion rate of your website or app by following the best UX and UI design practices.
- Create unique content for your social media, such as tailored posts and infographics.
- Work with your marketing team to release eye-catching digital and real-life ads.
- Design templates for your email campaigns.
- Create concept arts for game or movie projects.
- Build 3D models or simple animations.]
But how to hire digital designers who will really fit your company and achieve the results you need? Follow the rules below to get the best digital designers on the market to join your team.
Why do you need digital designers?
The exact list of digital designers’ duties depends on the company they have been hired at. In most businesses, they are responsible for multiple aspects of digital marketing, including establishing the identity and branding of the company’s website, as well as working on its social media and other marketing materials. However, some businesses look for more specialized digital designers — those, who except working in the marketing field, will also be able to build 3D models or short animations.
Because of this, before you decide to start looking for digital designers, you should identify your exact design needs. Of course, many of the best digital designers try to experiment in every possible field, however, a lot of them are more specialized. It’s up to you to clarify your requirements and find a candidate who will be matching them. In other words, you have to establish a product fit — an exact match between what your digital designers are able to do and what you need them to work on.
Hard skills of top digital designers
To deliver results fast and of the highest quality, digital designers must possess a specific set of hard, technical skills. Once again, the exact skills you should be looking for in your candidate will depend on your company’s design needs, but the best digital designers are usually knowledgeable in…
- Web design
Web design is the most common area of work for digital designers. Most often, they build the design of a website which is later implemented by a front-end developer. However, multiple digital designers are also capable of building simple websites by themselves, using popular content management systems (like WordPress). That’s why they are often proficient in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.
- UX and UI best practices
In the last few years, UX became a new big thing, especially in web and mobile design. The idea is to build the digital product in a way it’s user-friendly and leads the prospective customer exactly where you want them to go. According to one research, approximately 96% of users visiting a website are not yet ready to buy the product or service highlighted on the site. Digital designers, by working according to the best UX and UI practices, are able to change this.
- Channel differences
The requirements for good content differ — even between relatively similar social media platforms. To build great ads and posts that sell, your digital designers have to understand these differences and work according to each channel’s best practices.
- Data analytics
Data analytics can support a digital designer in understanding the target customer of a product — and this, in the end, leads to improved user experience. Relevant data can be delivered by professional data scientists, but a digital designer should also be able to run their own research, for example by running A/B tests and reading web heatmaps.
- 3D design
The knowledge of 3D modeling and animation differs between digital designers. Not all of them will be able to create high-fidelity assets for games or movies, but if you do plan to involve your new hire in some kind of 3D work, make sure they have already worked on such projects commercially.
- Relevant software
Pen and paper are still used even by top digital designers, but powerful software is what allows them to create digital pieces of art. Your candidates should be knowledgable in relevant Adobe software (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, XD), however, tools from other companies are also useful for specific tasks. For example, MockFlow or Wireframe.cc can be used for creating web wireframes, Figma for collaborative work between designers, and 3ds Max for various 3D projects.
Soft skills of best digital designers
Hard, technical knowledge is important, but as artists, digital designers should also possess specific soft skills to create unique and creative works. Our go-to list of such skills includes…
- Great communication skills
To cooperate well with other digital designers, developers, and marketing teams.
- Understanding of customer’s perspective
To build products easily understandable for the target customer.
- Curiosity
To always include research in the design process.
- Adaptability
To be ready to change what a designer thinks is good when circumstances call for it.
How to assess the portfolio of digital designers?
A portfolio is a key to assessing not only your candidate’s skills but also how well they match your specific business needs. When assessing a portfolio of digital designers, we recommend to remember the following rules:
- Always ask for as many types of a portfolio as possible — from PDFs and PowerPoints to Behance profiles and personal websites. The more content to review, the more insightful your assessment.
- Don’t be afraid of subjective assessment, even if you are not a design expert yourself. If you don’t like the work of a specific designer, your cooperation probably won’t go well in the later stages.
- Ask another designer for an expert assessment on your candidate’s craft.
- Make sure your candidate has already worked commercially. There are multiple self-taught digital designers who have mainly worked on personal projects to build their portfolio, but you need a professional with commercial experience so they can easily adapt to your company’s workflow.
Assessing company fit
To get the best match for your business, you should also consider the three areas of company fit: product fit, industry fit, and company culture fit. The first two can be done with the digital designer’s portfolio in hand — for the last one, however, you will probably need to wait until the interview stage.
- Product fit
Look for candidates who have worked on projects similar to what you want them to work on at your company. To get the job done fast, they need to have relevant experience.
- Industry fit
If possible, hire digital designers who have previously worked for businesses in your field. Such experience makes it easier for them to understand your target audience and their expectations.
- Company culture fit
Consider your company’s values, such as project management style, working hours flexibility, approach to remote work, or whether your work environment resembles more a startup or a huge corporation. Hire digital designers who share similar values to you to improve the cooperation within your business and make it easier for your new hire to blend in.
Digital designer job interview — what questions to ask?
You can gain an additional understanding of your digital designer candidate by running a technical interview with them. If you are not a design expert yourself, consider asking another designer or an IT Project Manager to help you run the interview.
Some of the questions that you can ask a digital designer are…
- What is a hamburger menu in digital design?
- What are personas in design? What are their pros and cons?
- How would you design the UX of an elevator in a building with thousand floors?
- Think of an app you use daily. What would you improve in it design-wise?
- What are your go-to tools for web design?
- What’s your favorite CMS and why this one?
- Tell us about a project that went wrong. Why didn’t it work out and what lesson did you learn from it?
Beyond great design
Digital designers are only part of a team behind great products. To really thrive in the digital world, you still need expert front-end and back-end developers, IT Project Managers, data scientists, and more. But how to hire all these professionals fast?
We can help! At Ideamotive, we run a leading network of IT talents ready for new challenges. Whether you are looking for creative designers or skilled machine learning engineers, we can connect you with the people perfectly tailored to your business, matched with you according to your company’s profile, project specification, and other requirements you might have.
Reach out to us and start building your dream team.
