Hire the Top 3% of Freelance UI/UX Designers

Working with a UI/UX designer is an exciting stage of a digital product’s journey. All the components are starting to come together, and all the intangibles are beginning to materialize.

But finding the ideal candidate can be challenging, especially when it comes to defining a UI/UX designer’s job description. To a large degree, the role is a blend of a user interface (UI) designer job description and a user experience (UX) job description. However, the roles can get confused, and the project’s deliverables and its optimum outcome may end up being hard to define.

Understanding the UI/UX designer’s role and how they do their work is key for hiring managers and design agencies to get the most out of the hiring process and find the right designer. Let’s take a deep dive into what a UI/UX designer is and how to go about hiring the best UI/UX designer for your project. We’ll cover everything from portfolios and responsibilities to skills and interview questions.

What Is a UI/UX Designer?

The role of a UI/UX designer is a blend of user interface (UI) design and user experience (UX) design. UI/UX designers harmonize visual elements with intuitive interaction patterns to create user-centered digital products that are both attractive and easy to navigate.

Fundamentally, UI designers are concerned with how the information and components in a digital product are laid out, as well as how they behave in accordance with users’ needs and their interactions with their device. This creative role includes aspects of information architecture, interaction design, and visual design all rolled into one.

User interface designers are in charge of designing each screen or webpage with which a user interacts and ensuring that the UI visually communicates the potential task-completion paths that a UX designer has laid out.

Typically, UI designers are also responsible for creating a cohesive design style and ensuring that a consistent design language is applied across the product. Maintaining consistency between visual elements, such as typography and color scheme, and defining interaction-related behaviors, such as how to display error messages, both fall under the purview of a UI designer.

UI designers not only define how to best use layout, visual hierarchy, color, typography, micro animations, and iconography, but are also responsible for designing UIs for special needs and standards such as accessibility. Since UI designers are responsible for making their visions a reality, many UI designers also have a good understanding of front-end development and may even have some coding skills.

User experience designers, on the other hand, strive to understand business requirements and the technical limitations of the project and focus on serving the core users of the product through rigorous and methodical design. In essence, they are responsible for crafting the experience of using your product. UX designers are user-centered—they put the user at the center of everything they do and utilize various design methodologies, frameworks, and processes such as jobs-to-be-done, design thinking, and human-centered design.

Skilled designers conceive, plan, and conduct user research, which may involve interviews, surveys, and contextual observations, and translate them into site maps, information architectures, user flows, customer journeys, wireframes, mockups, and prototypes. Similar to product designers, the UX designer will also be expected to design the overall functionality of the product and iterate on product designs based on several rounds of moderated or unmoderated user testing.

In addition to many essential elements, good design will always take into account a user’s emotional and psychological needs. UX designers not only define the user’s journey with the product but also interpret the purpose and role of the product through persuasive, anticipatory, and emotional design.

What Attributes Distinguish Quality UI/UX Designers From Others?

A good UI/UX designer will have a wide range of skills and experience, including product design strategy, user research, wireframing, prototyping, visual design, interaction design, user testing, and analytics.

The perfect candidate would be proficient in the following:

Strategy and Content

• Competitor analysis
• Customer analysis, customer base, and user profiles
• Product structure/strategy
• Content development
• User personas
• User research

Wireframing and Prototyping

• User flows
• Wireframing
• Prototyping
• Testing/iteration
• Heuristic analysis

Look and Feel

• Interface layout
• Components library
• Design system
• Style guide
• Branding and graphic development
• Interaction design
• Interactivity and animation
• Adaptation to required device screen sizes

Execution and Analytics

• Coordination and guidance with visual and product designers
• UX testing/iteration (moderated and unmoderated)
• Design sprints and UX workshops
• Development of implementation with developers
• Product usage analytics, such as engagement rates and monthly clickthrough rates

How Can You Identify the Ideal UI/UX Designer for You?

Identifying qualified designers for your project—whether for part-time or full-time engagement—requires a diligent hiring process that aligns with your specific project requirements and values the distinct expertise each candidate offers. Hiring managers and design agencies should start by reviewing a candidate’s hourly rate to ensure it fits their budget while reflecting the level of expertise they’re seeking.

Next, assess the track record of the designer for hire, paying close attention to their past web design projects, graphic design skills, and the design services they offer. A skilled designer should not only excel in crafting a user-friendly design concept but also be able to seamlessly integrate into your design team. When examining a designer’s portfolio, look for a combination of user experience designer skills and graphic designer capabilities. This blend will ensure that the overall user interface you end up with is both aesthetically pleasing and functionally intuitive. Choosing the ideal candidate often hinges on their ability to demonstrate versatility and a profound understanding of user-centered design principles.

In making your decision, consider the designer’s capacity to exhibit flexibility across various design disciplines and a deep commitment to user-centric design philosophies. This comprehensive skill set will set apart an exceptional UI/UX designer capable of elevating your project to new heights.

It’s also essential to ensure good chemistry with the design expert and consider how they’ll fit into your design team’s dynamics. Design is a deeply human endeavor, and ideal candidates for creative roles will be team players, have excellent problem-solving and communication skills, and be collaborators within your community of creatives. Remember, a candidate’s adaptability to integrate smoothly into your existing team contributes to an effective onboarding process.

In a professional design environment, soft skills help the UI/UX or product designer understand the problems and people they’re working with. To navigate peer and client relationships effectively, qualified designers will have soft skills that enable role flexibility (the ability to wear many hats and learn unfamiliar tasks), including:

• Listening: A willingness to hear and understand others’ thoughts
• Collaboration: Sharing skills and ideas with others and helping out with tasks that require heavy lifting
• Evaluating criticism: Sorting through feedback and deciding what’s actionable
• Task prioritization: Knowing what to do when and the amount of time it takes
• Persuasion: Helping others see and share in a vision

Since this job requirement entails two skill sets rolled into one, it’s best to look for design candidates with extensive experience who are comfortable wearing the hat of both a UI and UX designer. Whether you are hiring on site or seeking a remote hire, the ideal candidate should easily transition between these creative roles. At the start of a project, they would most likely approach it from a UX designer’s perspective by defining the problem, conducting user research, building prototypes, and doing user testing. Later on, they would adopt the UI designer’s role by focusing on the aesthetic, conceptualizing the visual elements, and building style guides, design systems, and component libraries.

The ideal candidate should have a portfolio of UX design case studies that demonstrate specific strengths and skills with a variety of tools, approaches, and UX deliverables. An experienced designer’s toolkit will include user research, personas, empathy maps, affinity maps, experience maps, user journeys, user flows, wireframes, wire flows, mockups, prototypes, heuristic analysis, user testing, and usage analytics reports.

Also investigate how well the designer understands the concept of an MVP (minimum viable product). MVPs are a way of developing a new product (e.g., a website or a mobile app) with the minimum acceptable features to suit the users. Additional features and design elements are added based on the feedback of real users rather than a designer’s ideas and assumptions. Many of the world’s most popular products have been developed using the MVP process.

Look for a qualified designer with relevant education and real-world experience in UX. They should be explicit about their UX skills, the processes and toolkits they use, and the kinds of projects in which they specialize. A long list of relevant skills, the tools they use, and how many years of experience they have is less important than their user-centered design process—how the problem was solved.

An experienced designer’s UX portfolio should demonstrate their customer focus, understanding of business needs and the context, along with a clear articulation of the role they played in each project.

A potential candidate should employ UX design methodologies in their daily UX design work that include such approaches and processes as design thinking, human-centered design (HCD), and Lean UX. UX design is about following specific methodologies and processes; therefore, the perfect candidate’s portfolio should demonstrate projects where they used one of these or a combination of the above approaches.

UI designers for hire should have relevant backgrounds, such as a degree in human-computer interaction (HCI) or equivalent experience in digital interface design. Look for qualified designers who follow best practices, conventions and standards, and basic usability principles to ensure that the user interfaces they create correspond with user needs.

The perfect candidate’s UI portfolio will demonstrate user-centered design solutions with strong visual and interaction design skills. Look for clean, intuitive designs of interfaces and user interface elements for software programs, responsive websites, mobile apps, video games, or TV. The designs should present a clear structure, an easily understandable information hierarchy, intuitive interactions, visual balance, pleasing aesthetics, and well-structured typography that support usability with clear, consistent visual layouts and content structuring.

Ask the candidate about different UI design styles, such as skeuomorphism, minimalism, maximalism, flat design, and material design, and see if the candidate can elaborate on the pros and cons of using each. Do they favor one style over another, and if yes, why?

When looking to hire UI/UX designers, remember that qualified candidates often bolster their credentials by displaying proof of participation in, and awards from, design contests; this showcases their recognized skills and accomplishments in the field.

How to Write a UI/UX Designer Job Description for Your Project

When you’re diving into the marketplace for freelancers working in UI/UX design, it’s essential to write a job description that accurately reflects your project’s needs. Begin with a clear summary of the job requirements, project details, and expectations. Specify whether you are working with a flexible hiring model and seeking freelance designers or looking for full-time UI/UX designers; articulate if compensation will be structured as hourly or a flat rate. Detail the availability needed, emphasizing the importance of prompt and clear communication channels for collaboration.

Outline the required skills, including proficiency in a certain tool stack and familiarity with popular tools used in the industry. Indicate that the hiring decision will be made after an extensive screening process to ensure a quality choice of candidates who can deliver on the project’s goals. By clearly defining these aspects within your job post, you’ll attract candidates whose experience and abilities align with your project’s specific demands. Emphasize the importance of understanding current design trends and the ability to offer additional services that may be beneficial to the project.

Design agencies should emphasize that the candidate will become part of a community of creatives and talented freelance designers and will undergo an extensive screening process to ensure a qualified designer is found. Detailing these elements will help attract qualified professionals who are not only talented but also a good fit for your project’s unique requirements.

UI/UX Designer Interview Questions

The following questions and answers will help you with your interviewing process for a UI/UX designer.

UI Designer-oriented Questions

What are your thoughts about Google’s Material Design?

Google created Material Design as a visual language that synthesizes classic principles of good design with the innovation and possibility of technology and science. This question is more specific than a general inquiry, and candidates should address it explicitly.

When asked about Google’s Material Design, informed candidates, equipped with a range of technical skills and familiarity with various design tools like Figma and Adobe XD, should be able to discuss how this design language blends classic design principles with modern technological capabilities. Qualified designers who keep their fingers on the pulse of the latest user interface trends and standards will know a lot about Google’s Material Design: its principles, properties, environment, and goals. Hearing the designer’s thoughts should indicate that the candidate is not just following the latest trends because they’re all the rage.

What do you think is the most intuitive user interface ever created?

Many design experts continue to argue over whether intuition-driven user interfaces are a myth. Advocates say learning that the end user describes your interface as “intuitive” is the highest praise you will ever receive.

This question is a thought-provoking one for any in-house or freelance UI designer, and it will allow you to find out whether the designer also thinks it’s a myth or not. More importantly, if the designer does not believe it’s a myth, what would they consider the most intuitive user interface created and why?

How would you redesign a well-known user interface?

This question should clarify how a designer thinks as the end user. First of all, the designer has to identify the elements to be redesigned (colors, shapes, sizes, placement, etc.), followed up by reasons, not personal choices, explaining why these elements require a redesign.

Finally, the most critical part of this question should reveal the changes the designer would like to apply to the user interface. Again, using reasoning rather than personal choices, the designer needs to explain why the proposed changes would look better and how these changes would contribute to a better user experience.

Describe a project where you had to do most of the heavy lifting.

You might ask a UI design candidate to describe such a scenario to gauge their project ownership, initiative, and capacity to manage a complex workload effectively. By understanding how a candidate navigates challenges that require them to take charge, the hiring manager can better assess their potential fit within the team and the added value they could bring to future projects.

A UI design candidate might be required to go beyond their traditional role in scenarios like:

• Small teams or startups: In the fast-paced design industry, limited resources or personnel might require that a UI designer do the heavy lifting, such as conducting user research using design thinking methods, or producing the UX components of the design, especially for a complex graphic design project or app design.
• Tight deadlines: Urgent project timelines could lead designers to utilize project management tools, stepping into a project management role to ensure timely delivery.
• Cross-functional collaboration: Projects requiring synchronization with development, marketing, or other departments may demand that a designer contribute to broader discussions or decision-making, applying design thinking practices across disciplines.
• Conceptual overhaul: Major redesigns or strategic pivots, especially common in the dynamic design industry, could require designers to participate in strategy sessions, which are usually outside the traditional scope of UI design and involve in-depth analysis and planning.
• Team absences: When other team members are unavailable, it’s crucial to vet designers who can manage additional responsibilities temporarily, ensuring project continuity.

In each case, a candidate’s willingness and ability to extend their capabilities can significantly benefit the project and organization, highlighting the importance of versatility in the design industry.

Can you describe an app with the worst-ever user interface?

This is a bit of reverse psychology: You might as well ask, “What do you think a great user interface looks like?” But the trick is not to make the question too obvious, so the prospective UI designer does not give a general answer.

By describing elements of the worst-ever user interface, the designer shares the design value they place on things such as visual hierarchy, typography, color scheme, layout, buttons, input boxes, labels, as well as shapes, sizes, and the positioning of these elements. A qualified designer should always give a detailed explanation of why a particular interface has no chance of pleasing the end user.

Why do you think Sketch has gained such popularity in UI design?

The majority of professional UI designers prefer to design interfaces using Sketch, which was developed specifically for user interface creation, but not for logos, illustrations, or anything else graphics-related.

Nevertheless, it is beneficial to hear why UI designers think Sketch has gained so much popularity in such a short time. Some of the features that Sketch is known for are vector support, a component-based design library system, code-friendly designs, robust export features, customizable grid systems, and more.

What experience do you have with project management tools?

UI designers might need experience with project management tools as these roles often shoulder the heavy lifting of translating client requirements into practical design solutions. In the fast-paced design industry, being proficient in project management tools is crucial for coordinating tasks across various aspects of design, be it a graphic design project or app design. These tools help organize workflows, manage deadlines, and ensure consistent communication, especially when working with role-specific designers on a team. Mastery over project management software allows UI designers to track key metrics, such as monthly click-through rates and engagement rates, which are essential data points for evaluating the effectiveness of design elements and making informed decisions. Furthermore, such tools can aid in aligning the UI design process with the broader business plan, ensuring that project execution stays focused on delivering the key features necessary for product success.

UX Designer-oriented Questions

What does it mean to be a competent UX designer?

The answer will help you discover what kind of UX designer you may be hiring. While there is no right or wrong answer, a good designer should have in-depth UX knowledge as well as a comprehensive end-to-end UX design process they can talk about. They should be willing to walk you step-by-step through the approach that guides them to robust working solutions.

Do they have a cultivated eye for solutions? Are they passionate about creating delightful user experiences and designing products people love?

Listen for answers that include a discussion around empathy—“walking a mile in a customer’s shoes” (customer journeys)—and a user-centered, goal-driven approach to designing products.

Describe your design process and what methods you follow.

UX design is constantly evolving, with designers at varying experience levels seeking innovative ways to solve problems. Seasoned UX designers have likely been developing their own approach to the design process and this will vary from one designer to another. In general, good UX designers will walk you through a particular process or toolkit they follow when approaching a problem or a project. It will likely be a set of steps they will take to improve the customer journey. Listen for both a clear process and the specific steps they take to solve user problems and create engaging experiences.

One overarching theme should be around a user-centric approach to design, so perhaps mention design thinking, which follows a thorough understanding of both user and business goals. In general, this is often an iterative design process that is constantly evolving. Key concepts or methods used to carry out this process may include but are not limited to: competitive audits, stakeholder interviews, user research involving interviews and surveys, content audits, information architecture, user personas, business model canvases, mood boards, storyboards, empathy maps, use case scenarios and user flows, customer journeys, wireframes, mockups, and prototypes. They may also mention conducting user testing—moderated or unmoderated, remote or in person—multivariate testing, eye tracking, click-tracking heatmaps, and other quantitative analytics.

Please provide some examples of your experience dealing with user research and usability testing.

First and foremost, user research is all about understanding your users. A good UX designer will help you design products that work well across a variety of use cases—from mobile to desktop, as well as a wide range of audiences.

A UX designer should be able to elaborate on how they think of and engage in user research. What lenses do they use when conducting user research? These lenses could be ethnographic studies, field studies and contextual observations, focus groups, surveys, and diary studies.

They should mention details of how they set goals for the research and came up with a research plan: How they approached the organizational aspect, the recruiting of representative users, what kind of research questions they asked, and how they analyzed the results. While there is more than one approach to facilitating user research, the designer should have a clear description of the method and the sample size required to gain a meaningful result, and be able to speak to the interpretation of the data.

Look for a UX designer who understands how to measure appropriately by selecting the minimum number of subjects needed to gain an accurate understanding of the research, and who comprehends what they are testing and seeking to understand.

What is your approach to making websites and platforms accessible to all user groups, including users with visual, hearing, and motor disabilities?

Accessibility is a critical issue for qualified mobile UI and UX designers within the UX design industry, especially as screens begin to shrink and we consume and engage with content on the go. Designing digital products that meet industry standards and are usable anywhere becomes a cornerstone of a product’s success in any complex project. When our end user has specific requirements due to sensory constraints, it’s the designer’s role—often that of a graphic designer as well—to ensure interaction is facilitated empathetically, requiring several hours per day of focused work.

It’s essential to identify a candidate match who demonstrates awareness and adherence to the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Have they conducted an accessibility analysis on a previous project? This is a crucial part of the extensive screening process when considering a remote hire.

With accessibility as a priority, mobile UX testing becomes especially crucial and must be thorough. An app or website should be intuitively designed by a mobile UI designer to achieve a clear end goal or user task. Innovative solutions should be implemented so users with disabilities can engage with the product effectively. This might mean integrating voice-over commands to aid those with motor disabilities in navigating mobile UI and websites, introducing video captions for the deaf or hard-of-hearing, optimizing content for screen readers used by the blind, or using large typography to assist users with vision impairments.

What does the term design thinking mean to you?

Listen for the UX designer to describe it as a user-centered design approach, a process. As Tim Brown, Executive Chair at IDEO, a famed global design consultancy, explains it: “‘Design thinking’ is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.”

Design thinking is a method for the generation of solutions and a practical, creative resolution of problems. It’s about uncovering insights into the unmet needs of your target audience. It’s a form of solution-based or solution-focused thinking, with the intent of producing a constructive future result. Most of all, it’s a “people first” approach—a design process mindset that designs products around people’s needs, motivations, and behaviors.

Who are your design heroes? What are your favorite apps for UX? Explain why.

Every great UX designer has at least a dozen books by design legends on their bookshelf, as well as favorite app designs that they appreciate because of the quality of the UX.

Listening to the reasons why they love their design heroes and favorite apps can reveal a great deal about a designer’s everyday approach to UX—their design thinking, sensibility, and taste—and will speak volumes about what kind of UX designer they are.

It’s more important to listen for the “why” than to give credence to names or which design guru it is. Nevertheless, here are a few to take note of: Dieter Rams (German industrial designer at Braun), Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive (Apple), Don Norman (best known for his books on design, especially The Design of Everyday Things), Steve Krug, and Alan Cooper.

This also applies to their favorite apps (maybe they’ll mention Uber, Instagram, Snapseed, Spotify, Facebook, and Netflix). Again, it’s the why that’s important—listen carefully for what in the UX design makes these their favorites.

What role does empathy play in the work of a UX designer?

If you’re looking to hire UX design experts, it’s important to understand the importance of empathy. Empathy is the cornerstone of a UX designer’s work, as it allows them to connect with the users they’re designing for. When hiring for a creative role as significant as a full-time UI/UX designer, you must assess a candidate’s empathetic abilities, ensuring they are able to put themselves in the users’ shoes. This ability often determines how well they can anticipate user needs and translate those insights into effective design solutions.

During the hiring process, we must engage designers in discussions that reveal their thought processes, asking them to reflect on past projects and user feedback, thereby gauging their ability to empathize and address real user concerns.

Determining Project Requirements and Getting Started

At this point, you have defined what you need and whom you would like to work with, so the next and final step is to recap and address the following:

• Scope and deliverables (expected/required)
• Timelines and goals
• Global assumptions (e.g., mobile should be included, exclude testing for IE, etc.)
• Special requirements (e.g., accessibility for the visually impaired, language, etc.)
• Tech and specifications (iOS/Android, REST API, etc.)
• Legal (NDAs, other contracts)

While some organizations do this hiring and recruitment footwork themselves, others engage with an online marketplace that functions as a platform for creatives to connect with potential clients. Designers who work with talent networks regularly may have a broader range of experience due to exposure and access to a variety of projects, ranging from mobile UX and mobile UI design to interaction design, accessibility compliance, and responsive design. Some talent networks also have community features and learning development programs that encourage designers to keep up-to-date on using popular tools and stay ahead of the game in the ever-evolving realm of digital design.

If you choose to partner with a talent network, you should ideally look for one that vets designers for the technical and soft skills and offers expert matching services, making it easier to find a perfect candidate for your specific job requirements.

Why Do Companies Hire UI/UX Designers?

Companies hire full-time UI/UX designers to craft digital experiences that are intuitive, engaging, and user-friendly. A skilled designer is a perfect match for creating interfaces that meld both aesthetics and functionality, ensuring users can navigate and enjoy digital products with ease. These qualified professionals are well versed in translating project details into visually appealing and practical designs. They are adept at using popular tools and integrating a comprehensive tool stack into their workflow, which enables them to deliver seamless and memorable user experiences. Through their expertise, UI/UX design experts help businesses achieve their goal of connecting with users and meeting specific user needs, ultimately driving the success of the company’s digital offerings.