Customers come to your site for a product, but it is the experience they have gained that affects whether they stay on it or not. On average, 8 out of 10 customers are willing to pay more for a better service. So who is improving the customer experience on your site? Of course, a UX designer, and this article is about how to hire the UI/UXer of your dreams!
Top 13 things to consider
Determining UX/UI design freelance service requirements
In the first step, you need to pick a project or product that your new UX designer should work on and make a list of all UX requirements and results. This step is predominant to getting what type of UX designer you want to hire and provides a clear picture for finding the most suitable candidate.
Study and discovery
List your requirements early in the development of your project. Your list may include different requirements. For example:
- user experience research,
- brand positioning,
- product discovery,
- user-behavior analysis, etc.
Result and development
Once you are done with collecting the initial requirements, move on to determining the actual results. Think about prototypes and testing times. Some of these might include defining custom paths, wireframing, usability testing, interaction design, and more.
Explore and override
The next step is to redefine, examine the results and expectations of your project. Now that the initial results of research, production, and design iterations are highlighted, think about the intermediate points, which include improving usability, UX auditing, overriding, and introducing custom functionality.
Completion of work on requirements
Determine the scope of your project, estimated timelines, specifications, and legal documents before moving on to the hiring phase. At first glance, all of this may seem difficult, but it is important to make sure that the freelance UX researcher you hire can work without any problems.
Defining skills
The next step is to determine what characteristics and skills should be present in your UX designer. This is an important step because once you have an idea of the skills you need, you can easily select the best candidate for your company.
Problem solver
When working on a problematic design or user experience, strategic thinking is the key to success. In this case, the UX designer plays the role of the product manager. Hence, a clear idea and understanding of problem-solving techniques is a must for a UX/UI designer.
Creative thinking
Creativity is the key to modernization and genuine design. A designer should be a researcher of their own work and be able to think outside the box. For ideological prosperity, designers must always do their best in relation to the product they are working on. Such thinking allows you to constantly look for new projects, ideas, and all kinds of solutions for specific activities.
Leader researching user behavior
The UXer must be able to take responsibility for the product from time to time. If you want your company to grow, then leadership skills are one of the most important skills for the UX designer you hire. Oftentimes, UXers need to steer the product in the right direction, which is impossible without team management skills.
They must also be explorers. Qualitative and quantitative research skills enable designers to conduct high (or basic) requirements analysis, user understanding, and usability testing.
Agile-oriented coordinator
A freelance UX designer wants their work to be respected. But they often refuse to share trade secrets, fearing that other people will use them to achieve their own goals. They often defend their ideas and works. This is natural, but this is what can damage the project and the team as a whole.
An experienced UX designer always welcomes feedback and is open to sharing their work, skills, and experience with their team members. These pros often run workshops, support and educate talented newcomers. They are always looking for ways to share knowledge and do not feel threatened by healthy competition.
For small businesses and startups, flexibility is the path to prosperity. A UXer must be able to work in a flexible system. The worst thing for a UX designer is to feel outdated on a fast-paced project that requires quick editing and results. A decent UX designer must be able to adapt to such a situation in order to keep up with the team.
Portfolio, sketch files, previous works
Be sure to research your potential candidate's previous work. Ask about their portfolio, view sketches, projects, reports, etc. This is necessary to assess their skills, work experience, and style. See if the designer's approach, style, and methodology fit your project and business. Explore the results of previous work to see their approach to the project.
Workflow and tools
This is one of the most important things to consider when hiring UX designers. Find out what tools they used in their workflow to create the previous project. It would be best if you made sure the UX designer you choose has the skills to use the latest design tools. They should also have the skills to work with the tools used by your team and company.
Empathy and teamwork
UX designers work on a project at all stages of its development. Form development, collection of requirements, planning, and implementation. Therefore, their synergy with the partners and customers is also of great importance. To be able to do their job successfully, they need empathy and strong teamwork skills. They need to work well in a team and know how to advocate for their own ideas and those of their users. In addition, they also need to be able to empathize with their customers and users, expecting that interaction with their project and product will ultimately lead to the best results.
Choose our tech talent marketplace
The right decision is to hire a UI/UX designer from a reliable marketplace. Here at Ideamotive, we have dozens of UX/UI designers who provide the best possible quality level. Be sure to get the most attractive and pleasant product design you’ve ever seen.
Let us know about your needs and we will shortlist for you people matched with your product and industry.
