Hire a UI designer

Hiring UI/UX designers is one of the most complex tasks in talent acquisition for several reasons. One of the main reasons is that UI/UX designers are at the intersection of creativity, business acumen, and strategic planning and execution. To vet these professionals effectively, you’ll likely need to involve an expert who can identify red and green flags. But what do you do if you don’t have this professional yet and want to hire them? In this guide, we’ll cover the hiring process, how to structure your design interviews, soft skills assessments, what questions to ask, how to vet portfolio and technical skills, and even how to identify if what you need is a UI/UX designer. ## Do you really need a UI/UX designer? The simple answer is yes. We can look at many successful cases of UI/UX revamps helping to drive business success, cut costs, and improve user experience, like AirBnB, which decreased its image processing needs while delivering a better user experience. Most companies, especially B2B startups and scaleups with some form of digital product, will need a UI/UX designer to grow more efficiently. But you first need to understand timing. That is if you need to hire for another role instead of a UI/UX designer right now. ### The role of a UI/UX designer A UI/UX designer is a skilled professional who excels at designing interfaces (UI) and user experiences (UX). In this case, they’re combining the expertise of a UI and UX designer into a single role. It’s common for bigger companies and enterprises to hire experts in both fields instead of one professional skilled in both. The reason for that is they have the resources, and the designers won’t be overwhelmed by their gigantic scope of projects. But for a startup or scaleup, it may make much more sense to hire a UI/UX designer for the following reasons: * Cost-effectiveness: The plus here is obvious, but hiring one person instead of two with the same seniority level will save money on costs. The real equation is to understand if the workload for that person is too much to handle, in which case you’re trading short-term cost for higher long-term cost and a higher chance of dips in quality. * Leadership building: Another aspect to consider is you’re building a team capable of scaling, so having a professional skilled in both fields who knows the ins and outs of your product and processes will make it easier to foster leadership when you decide to hire more people for the UI/UX team. Experimental boost for projects: Many SaaS scaleups and startups thrive in finding experimental projects to bolster their main product. To create these new projects, you’ll need a professional MVP (Minimally-Viable-Product) to realize the experiments in a real-world environment. In that case, having a focused UI/UX designer in charge of experimentation is a great way to broaden your offerings. ### The difference between UI/UX vs UX/UI designers If you’re looking for a professional skilled in UI/UX, you should have run into this conundrum. The reality is that there isn’t much difference between UI/UX and UX/UI designers. Some designers use the first part of the title to showcase their main expertise and the second part to show proficiency in the other field, but that’s not a rule. Some designers simply like the way one sounds over the other, and others haven’t even thought about it. At Awesomic, we use the first letters to indicate main expertise and the other set of letters to indicate proficiency or secondary expertise, simply to organize which designers are more proficient in which field of design. We explore this in more detail on our Hire UI/UX designer page if you want a deeper look into how to choose which designer to hire. ### UI/UX designer vs Product designer vs Developer-designer vs Graphic designer: an overview Let’s quickly go over the differences between each design role so you can ensure that your company needs a UI/UX designer instead of another design professional. The most common design roles that can get mistakenly attributed to the role of UI/UX designers are: * Product designer: This is a professional who is capable of creating products from the ground up and evolving already existing products. They usually have UI/UX expertise, but the key difference is their level of proficiency in other aspects of business and tech. They’re professionals who handle big-picture responsibilities and study market–fit and products’ lifecycles. * Graphic designer: While a graphic designer is adept at creating layouts and creative assets, they focus on communicating messages to users through visual language. This means this role is more appropriate for marketing, branding, product packaging, and print purposes. Their skillset may overlap with some skills for UI/UX designers, but since their focus is on other aspects of design, they can’t replace a UI/UX designer who is a data-driven professional focusing on user experience and interface interaction. * Developer-designer: This is usually a role that tends to fall to freelance designers who can also code. Although, we’d advise against that except in a few rare instances. You’d much rather have an expert in each field working in what they’re best at. An exception to this rule would be CMS developers and designers, like Webflow developers, since they usually can handle both design and front-end development with more ease. So, for a quick summary, if you’re building a website or a product but need a holistic expert or branding, you’re most likely not going to look for a UI/UX designer only. However, if you intend to revitalize your app or website to engage users with more modern design, better flows, custom icons, and an overall stronger experience, then a UI/UX designer is a great choice. A UI/UX designer can also be an integral part of the conception of a product, app, or website. After all, you don’t want to build a house and then have to replace the bricks afterward. The same can be said for an app or digital product. ### Match the UI/UX role to the project requirements To identify what UI/UX role is most suitable for you, you should begin by clearly outlining your specific needs and the challenges your product faces that are stopping growth or customer satisfaction. Here’s how to match roles to project requirements effectively: #### UX designer A UX designer is ideal for projects that require deep user research, usability testing, and experience mapping. These are their main responsibilities: * Conduct user research to understand target audience behaviors and pain points. * Create wireframes, user personas, and journey maps to guide product development. * Test prototypes to ensure functionality aligns with user needs. A company designing an e-commerce app’s checkout flow to reduce cart abandonment would benefit from having a UX designer in their team. #### UI designer A UI Designer is ideal for products needing visually appealing and brand-aligned interfaces. Some of their main responsibilities are: * Develop layouts, select color schemes, and define typography that aligns with branding * Design interactive elements like buttons and menus for seamless navigation. * Ensure visual consistency across devices and platforms. A B2B scaleup building a responsive interface for a SaaS dashboard would benefit greatly from having a UI designer. #### Hybrid UX/UI designer A UI/UX designer is ideal for products that need a unified approach to design elements and experiences. Their main responsibilities may include: * Combine user research with interface design to create intuitive, visually compelling products. * Handle the full design lifecycle, from wireframes to high-fidelity prototypes A scaleup launching an MVP with limited resources to test an idea for growth would benefit greatly from having a UI/UX designer. #### Craft a killer job description Once you’ve matched the role to your project, you’ll need to craft a detailed job description to ensure you attract the right talent. Here is the step-by-step guide for you to take this on. ##### Job Title and Overview * Clearly state the role based on the previous paragraph. * Quickly summarize how this role contributes to your product’s success. * Optional: leave a quick summary of the history of your company at the start. Example: We’re currently seeking a UX Designer to improve the user journey of our e-commerce platform, enhancing customer satisfaction and conversion rates. ##### Key Responsibilities List the core tasks aligned with the role, such as: * Conducting user research and usability testing (UX Designer). * Developing prototypes and interactive elements (UI Designer). ##### Required Skills Include the technical skills (e.g., Figma, Sketch, HTML/CSS) and soft skills you most need (e.g., collaboration, problem-solving). Example: Proficiency in design tools like Adobe XD and experience conducting A/B testing are essential. ##### Qualifications Specify experience level, educational and pr...