Hire the Top 3% of Freelance UX Designers

Demand for UX Designers Continues to Expand

As companies increasingly recognize the pivotal role of user experience in the success of their digital products, demand for skilled UX designers is on the rise. In fact, according to the latest research conducted by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment for web developers and digital designers, which includes user experience designers, is projected to grow 16% from 2022 to 2032, significantly outpacing the 3% average across occupations.

Experience designers play a crucial role in creating intuitive, enjoyable digital experiences for users. Their expertise can help companies attract and retain loyal customers, improve their brand reputations, and increase sales. Yet talented designers can be challenging to find and hire UI professionals for, not only because of the complexity of the services they offer—designing the websites and mobile app design solutions that serve as a front door to businesses and their product offerings—but also because of the rare skill sets they possess. Excelling in the field requires a blend of empathy, creativity, and problem-solving skills, along with technical expertise in information architecture, user testing, ux research, typography, and prototyping. The scarcity of well-rounded user experience designers can lead to a protracted and competitive hiring process.

Hiring a designer benefits all types of companies, from startups, entrepreneurs, and small businesses to midsize and large corporations. This hiring guide provides a roadmap to inform your search. It includes an overview of relevant skills and attributes, job description tips, interview questions, and suggested answers to help you identify top-notch candidates for your company.

What Attributes Distinguish Quality User Experience Designers From Others?

The main task of an experience designer is to create seamless interactions between digital products and end users. By paying close attention to user habits, industry trends, and consumer feedback, a talented designer can enhance user satisfaction with a product, while improving its functionality and visual appearance through strong graphic design and interface choices.

When searching for an ideal fit for your company, it’s essential to seek out candidates who consider the design process holistically: From the earliest stages of user research to its culmination in shippable, user-centered software, design experts are committed to serving the needs of a company and its clients. Operating across a wide range of industries, including healthcare, finance, and public service, top designers leverage expertise in visual design, programming, behavioral psychology, and interaction design to build exceptional products.

In your selection process, look for user experience designers who are passionate about their work and show the following attributes:

User-centered Approach

UX design is a human-centered practice. While working to fulfill project requirements and strengthen a brand’s identity, designers should never lose sight of user needs. They should take steps to improve the user journey by shepherding users across key milestones and touch points in a product experience. By prioritizing the needs and preferences of end users, experienced freelance designers ensure digital products and services are functional and easy to use, ultimately building customer loyalty.

Toward this end, qualified candidates should be able to empathize with users—especially around perceived pain points—and be proactive in implementing user feedback in design decisions. Skilled designers understand the importance of embracing criticism to make iterative design improvements. Giving users a voice in the product development process leads to better products and more satisfied users, which, in turn, benefits a company’s reputation and social media presence when those experiences are shared publicly.

User Research and Testing Skills

Experience with user research and testing is a hallmark of top-tier designers. Look for candidates who have experience conducting polls and surveys, evaluating competitors’ products, interviewing users and stakeholders, and conducting A/B testing and usability testing to gather insights into user preferences and behaviors. The best candidates will structure interviews and tests so they are rigorous, free of bias, and yield qualitative and quantitative insights.

A candidate should also be familiar with discipline-specific research methods such as persona development, card sorting, journey mapping, and contextual inquiry. While most candidates are unlikely to be experts in all these techniques, they should understand their purposes—for instance, profiling a target audience to understand their content preferences or organizing information in a way that best serves business goals.

Collaboration and Communication Abilities

As with any client-facing position, the ability to communicate effectively with external stakeholders is a requisite skill for a user experience designer. At the same time, designers must be able to work well with in-house teams, which may include marketing leaders, SEO experts, product managers, and software engineers. Knowing how to prioritize and integrate diverse viewpoints is essential to create exceptional products. It is also key to maintaining a positive and productive work environment as shared decisions are made.

When hiring, recruiters should seek candidates who exhibit a collaborative spirit, which can be crucial during the onboarding process when they need to adapt and integrate into various team dynamics quickly. This might also be evident in how they tailor presentations to the communication styles and preferences of diverse stakeholders or show respect for their colleagues by listening actively, carefully managing deadlines, and working to reconcile oppositional views and resolve conflicts.

Mastery of UX Design Methodologies and Tools

Design is about more than the beauty of the visual elements that appear before users on a screen. Top designers excel at creating seamless user flows and navigation elements, organizing information logically, and developing clear and consistent design guidelines—including principles of typography, layout, and color hierarchy. Look for candidates who are exceptionally creative and have the vision to convey complex ideas in a simple, evocative way.

Qualified designers will show proficiency in the use of tools such as Sketch, Figma, Adobe XD, UXPin, and Freehand that can help translate their ideas into tangible designs. In addition, they will be familiar with fundamental design patterns and input and selection controls for macOS, iOS, and Android, and have a working knowledge of commonly applied heuristics for user interface design, including making a system’s status visible through appropriate feedback, preventing errors, and giving users freedom and control in their navigation choices.

Although not necessarily a requirement, basic HTML and CSS knowledge can help designers communicate more effectively with engineers, a tremendous asset during the development process. Candidates with these technical skills deserve additional consideration.

Wireframing and Prototyping Experience

Experienced designers use wireframing and prototyping techniques to communicate design concepts in constructive, methodical ways. Successfully visualizing a digital application allows stakeholders and developers to feel confident about the direction of the design project. Animations may also be incorporated at this stage to demonstrate interaction and flow. A dedicated designer will present these concepts during design reviews and team meetings to prompt meaningful discussions around product use, development, and implementation.

Understanding the Importance of Business Goals

Talented designers understand the importance of executing their design ideas in alignment with business goals. A designer who faithfully attends meetings, asks thoughtful questions, and takes the time to review and internalize marketing strategies is likely to deliver mobile app and web designs that drive growth and profitability.

In selecting candidates, look for those who situate user needs in the context of broader business objectives, and rely on empirical data to inform decisions. The candidate’s previous design decisions should be well vetted, thoroughly documented, and tied to specific and measurable outcomes, such as user acquisition rates, customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores, or the average purchase price per customer. You may also want to clarify expectations regarding availability, project scope, and hourly rate to ensure alignment with budget and timeline constraints. This will lay the groundwork for high-impact software products.

How Can You Identify the Ideal User Experience Designer for You?

To find the right designer for your company, it’s important to decide whether you need a junior, mid-level, or senior professional. This decision will hinge on a range of factors, such as your project goals, budget, long-term vision, and workplace culture. To make the most of the screening process, keep in mind the following distinctions:

Junior UX Designers

Junior designers typically have up to two years of experience and possess foundational knowledge and skills in user experience design. They have usually acquired a formal education in experiential design, human-computer interaction, or a related field and may have completed internships or bootcamps. While junior designers are proficient in user experience tools and techniques, they often require the guidance of more experienced colleagues to understand complex projects and ensure alignment with best practices and business goals. However, they may bring a fresh perspective to established teams and generally have the skills to develop wireframes, conduct basic user research and usability testing, and assist with documentation. They are also likely to have a keen awareness of new and emerging technologies, such as generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) and gesture-based interfaces.

Mid-level UX Designers

Mid-level designers usually have at least three years of experience. Most have a solid grasp of user-experience principles and have honed their skills through professional projects. Highly skilled in using UI/UX design and prototyping tools, they typically have a strong grasp of interaction design, information architecture, and visual design principles. They are capable of independently managing projects and may be particularly useful as additions to a young, growing team because they are able to apply their knowledge to mentor junior colleagues. Look to mid-level designers for complex projects that require oversight of the design process, including conducting user research, creating personas, developing user flows, and producing high-fidelity prototypes.

Senior UX Designers

Senior designers are experts in their field, offering a wealth of experience and a deep understanding of user experience principles and best practices. They have typically been in the industry for at least five years, and have a portfolio of successful, high-impact projects to demonstrate their work.

The core difference between senior designers and less experienced colleagues is the strategic mindset they lend to projects. In addition to being adept at creating complex design systems and ensuring consistency across touch points, they contribute to high-level discussions, influence product roadmaps, and advocate for user-centered design at the organizational level. With extensive project management experience, many oversee design projects from inception to launch. They lead design teams, mentor junior and mid-level designers, and set best-practice standards to ensure that all design work supports the overarching business strategy and delivers seamless, intuitive user experiences.

Many companies find that the best hiring strategy is to build a diverse team with talent that spans experience levels. By combining the enthusiasm of junior designers with the technical expertise of more senior professionals, user experience design teams are better equipped to deliver a product that meets or exceeds user expectations.

Strategic Factors to Consider

When evaluating candidates, several strategic considerations are worth noting. First, knowledge of UI/UX design principles is an integral part of a designer’s skill set. While UX focuses on the overall experience a user has with a product, UI design deals with the specific look and feel of the interface. Designers with knowledge of fundamental UI design concepts, such as applying visual hierarchies to organize information, tend to be the strongest candidates. They understand how to capture users’ attention and direct it toward key messages and call to actions (CTA) that advance business goals.

Second, it is hard to overstate the importance of creating responsive, mobile-friendly designs. The data analysis firm Statista reports that approximately 59% of global web traffic is generated through mobile devices (excluding tablets). To meet the needs of this massive audience, a capable experience designer should be comfortable developing responsive layouts that remain legible, intuitive, and visually appealing across a range of devices and screen sizes. Knowledge of fluid grids, media queries, and performance optimization strategies allows a designer to generate dynamic digital products.

Finally, it’s important to keep in mind that accessibility and inclusivity are key components of user experience design. A thoughtful designer will be committed to implementing protocols for alternative text, color contrast, and semantic markups into their work in alignment with project requirements and the World Wide Web Consortium’s (WC3) latest accessibility guidelines.

How to Write a UX Design Job Description for Your Project

An expertly written job description doesn’t just attract the right candidates; it also sets clear expectations for the role, ensuring a smoother hiring process and better alignment between the designer and your company’s goals. Begin by describing your company’s vision and culture to give candidates a sense of what it’s like to work there.

Next, clearly define the role and its significance within your organization. Outline the core responsibilities and expected outcomes, along with the desired years of experience. Provide a detailed list of requirements and responsibilities, focusing on technical skills, experience, and educational background. Clearly state the types of projects the candidate will work on and the impact their role will have on the team and the organization. You should also specify whether you are looking to hire a full-time designer or a freelance specialist for a specific project. Conclude the post with a succinct call to action, encouraging qualified candidates to apply.

Consider the following requirements and responsibilities as a starting point, and consult Toptal’s job description template for more extensive guidance:

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in product design, human-computer interaction, or related field
• Desired years of experience in digital design
• Proficiency with UI/UX design and prototyping tools (Sketch, Adobe XD, Figma)
• Strong portfolio showcasing user-centered, high-quality design solutions
• Excellent communication and teamwork skills
• Solid grasp of user-centered design (UCD), planning and conducting user research, user testing, A/B testing, rapid prototyping, usability, and accessibility concerns

Responsibilities:

• Facilitate the client’s product vision by researching, conceiving, sketching, prototyping, and user-testing experiences for digital products.
• Design and deliver wireframes, user stories, user journeys, and mock-ups optimized for a wide range of devices and interfaces.
• Collaborate with product managers and developers.
• Ensure consistency and usability across all platforms.
• Make strategic design and user-experience decisions related to both core and new functions and features.
• Stay current with industry trends and best practices.
• Design and document digital products that meet specific and measurable performance outcomes.

What Are the Most Important UX Designer Interview Questions?

To help you have productive conversations and make well-informed decisions during the hiring process, consider asking the following questions:

Describe a project in which you had to ensure that the user experience was accessible and inclusive for all users, including those with disabilities. What steps did you take to identify potential accessibility barriers, and how did you address them in your design?

An ideal candidate will be well-versed in the relationship between accessibility and the digital experience. Listen for responses that clearly articulate research and product testing conducted with users who have disabilities. Strong responses may also mention accessibility audits of existing designs; the integration of accessible design principles, such as semantic HTML or ARIA screen readers; and efforts to stay abreast of evolving legal requirements and the World Wide Web Consortium’s latest accessibility standards.

Please walk me through the design certifications and courses you have taken. How do these learning experiences contribute to your skill set and demonstrate your value as a designer?

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to learning and professional development, particularly in the fast-moving tech sector. An ideal candidate should show evidence that they have pursued certifications and courses from reputable organizations, but their educational background is likely to vary by geography, experience level, and career path. It’s important, however, that candidates can clarify why they chose to pursue a user experience specialization, and that the decision stems from genuine passion and aptitude.

A few esteemed certification programs include the Google UX Design Certificate, the UX Master Certification from Nielsen Norman Group, and the UX Design Bootcamp from Springboard. While university degrees and certificates can be a valuable part of the learning process, so is hands-on application. In evaluating candidates’ responses, look for answers addressing how their learning experiences informed real-world projects included in their résumés and design portfolios.

Share a project that shows how you focused on the needs and perspectives of users. How did you build empathy for users, and how did this understanding influence your design decisions throughout the project?

While user experience design is centered on human-computer interaction, it is the human side of the interaction that tends to be the hardest to predict and satisfy. Skilled designers have a keen understanding of human psychology and take pains to empathize with user needs through interviews, surveys, and user research. Above all, building empathy with users requires the commitment to talk to them about their experiences, listen actively, and evaluate digital artifacts that provide insight into their pain points and goals.

Listen closely to how candidates describe the project they share. Strong responses might describe gathering user feedback from interviews, user tests, customer support tickets, product reviews, or in-app analytics. Qualified candidates should have a method for filtering and prioritizing information before implementing it in design decisions. They may develop personas to profile target users, or create user journey maps to represent customers’ interactions with a product at key touch points. Give preference to designers who can clearly articulate how they prioritize features and make site organization decisions based on insights into user needs and motivations.

How do you work with cross-functional teams to ensure successful project outcomes? Can you provide an example of a situation in which you had to advocate for a particular design decision? How did you handle any disagreements?

In evaluating candidates’ responses, listen for answers that emphasize a collaborative spirit. Is the candidate open and receptive to feedback from team members? Do they show a preference for clear, concise, and inclusive communication? Is there a willingness to compromise when consensus can’t be reached on a single best design choice? Do they use platforms like Asana, Figma, and Jira to communicate and manage workflows?

Also, pay attention to how the designer advocates for their personal viewpoint. Do they show the fortitude to speak candidly when they believe doing so is in a project’s best interest? Can they rally stakeholders around their viewpoint and think creatively to present their ideas in a way others will appreciate? While a strong response should highlight successful project outcomes, evidence of soft skills—such as the care and compassion the candidate extends to colleagues and stakeholders—is equally important.

How do you ensure your designs meet both user needs and business goals?

Look for responses that emphasize collaboration with stakeholders to ensure alignment on project goals and tools to measure success, such as key performance indicators (KPIs), A/B testing, or user satisfaction surveys. Concrete examples of successful past projects, supported by specific metrics or case studies, will demonstrate a candidate’s competency and ability to think strategically.

Why Do Companies Hire UX Designers?

Donald Norman, a former vice president at Apple, popularized the term “user experience” when he applied it to describe the work of his three-person User Experience Office at the company in the early 1990s. By now, his user-centric approach to software design, once a novel way to develop products, has become a business imperative. Companies hire skilled experience designers to generate products and services that place a premium on frictionless interfaces and user satisfaction. UX designers’ expertise in understanding user behavior, combined with their exceptional design skills, ensures that products and services are not only functional but intuitive and user-friendly. This translates directly into increased customer loyalty, reduced churn rates, and higher earned revenue.

As more of our experiences happen in digitally rendered spaces, designers also play a crucial role in bridging the gap between users and technology. They apply research methodologies and user tests to gather insights, which guide design and product development decisions. Their wireframes and prototypes lay the groundwork for intuitive products that make it easy for users to navigate interfaces, find important information, and take desired actions. And by prioritizing user needs and pain points in the product development process, designers help companies develop features and software updates that resonate more deeply with their target audiences. Their knowledge and skills are crucial for fostering brand loyalty, improving accessibility, and achieving a competitive edge in the marketplace—all compelling reasons to hire a top designer.