Quick Summary:  The hiring process can be one of the most important parts of creating your ideal product; if you hire bad employees, they will not only fail to do their job well, but they will also drag down the rest of your team’s morale and performance. There are several things to keep in mind when looking to hire designers to ensure you get the perfect people for your project. Here are 10 tips to help you hire UI/UX developers for your project.

Recognize Your Needs

To design a great product, you need to create a strong foundation.  So before you get too excited about finding and hiring your dream design team, make sure you’ve clearly identified your needs. That’s probably obvious—but it can be easy to get swept up in all of those beautiful design portfolios out there.

Usability is a crucial step in making sure users can successfully navigate your website. If your site is difficult or confusing to use, you’ll struggle to build a loyal customer base and generate repeat business. The easiest way to determine whether a website is usable is by conducting some research into common usability issues (and their respective solutions). Knowing what you’re looking for before talking with designers will help ensure you don’t hire someone who can’t do anything to help fix those problems.

Look at the Portfolio

A portfolio is an in-depth look at a UX designer’s capabilities, approach to design, and professional experience. A well-designed UX designer portfolio should highlight your talents and skills and give anyone who is considering working with a UX designer insight into how they work and what they’ll deliver.

Designers often use their portfolio as a kind of online resume. It can help both the clients and prospective employers see what type of skills they have and the kinds of projects they have worked on in the past.

Designers Should Have Latest Skill Sets

One of the main skills required by UX/UI designers, aside from their graphic design chops, is their proficiency with wireframing and prototyping software. While just about every designer worth their salt these days can use tools like Sketch or Photoshop for this purpose, it’s important to ask if they know applications like Adobe XD or Sketch.

Create a Sheet Containing the Necessary Hard and Soft Skills 

One of the most important things to consider when hiring a new UX designer is whether they have the right skills and experience for the job. In particular, you’re going to want to look at their soft and hard skills. The problem is that many applicants don’t include these specifics on their resume.

Hire designers who deliver quality work 

There are two main factors to consider when evaluating a designer’s portfolio, and each area requires you to think about what you value in design. The first is the quality of the work, and the second is the quantity of the work. By evaluating portfolios side-by-side with these two factors in mind, you can learn to quickly distinguish outstanding portfolios from average ones.

Make sure they have the right software 

Knowing the software your designers use is important, but enabling them to use it effectively is even more so. While many designers are proficient in enough of the tools they use that their office could be a bare room with just a laptop and a coffee maker, not all of them are as comfortable working remotely. In order to avoid slowing them down, you’ll want to make sure they have all of the software they need to do their job. At some point in their careers, most designers will use Adobe Creative Suite (including Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign), Axure RP Pro, or Sketch, but it’s not enough just to know what tools they use.

Look for an Experienced Designer 

While it’s important to find a designer that is skilled, it’s equally as important to find someone who is a good fit for the business. Many designers have years of experience behind them and are able to offer services in a range of industries. Be sure to take the time to talk with several designers and ask about projects they have worked on that are similar to your own business. While portfolio pieces may vary greatly, there will usually be common themes or styles that connect them all together.

Agile/Lean UX is Vital 

Agile development is more than just a method of software development. It’s also a mindset that provides a number of benefits, including fostering transparency with customers, making iteration a core part of your strategy, and focusing on quality. Agile UX design is an essential component of the overall agile process, allowing you to iterate your ideas quickly and often.

Support and Maintenance are Essential

UX design is more than a pretty face. It’s about making sure your product is simple, easy to use, and easy to navigate. It’s all about the end-user experience. You’ll notice what I said about “your” product. That’s because UX design isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition. Yes, you can have a great idea and still deliver a terrible user experience. However, support and maintenance are essential if you want your customers to continue using your product.

Check the Communication Skills of Designers

When hiring a user experience designer, it’s important to ensure they communicate and express themselves clearly. Their work should be well presented with an eye for detail and a feel for the user. When assessing a UX designer’s skills, it is best to explore how well they communicate both visually and verbally and how well they work in teams.

Conclusion  

Finding a great UI/UX designer who fits the project requirements can be very difficult. Some freelancers are just inexperienced, others are overpriced and others still are only good at graphic design, but not at interface design. To find an experienced UI/UX designer with high-level expertise, you may need to spend at least a month just searching and interviewing. Furthermore, you have to verify the skills of your potential candidate, but if you come from a non-design background, it would be challenging indeed. Brain Inventory is an online service that connects you to top Designers from around the world. You can browse and verify profiles of UI/UX Designers working in professional agencies, check out their hourly rates, and partner with us to help you hire needed specialists in less than a week. Brain Inventory was built by folks experienced in hiring and evaluating UI/UX Designers. We have experts who evaluate the Designers, screen them, and present them to you. We’re not like other services because we don’t hire based solely on a number of years of experience. We’ve developed our own process to find great designers who are right for your project. Use us for evaluating, screening, and hiring the best Designer for your project’s budget.