Leobit
Design is a new model of user-digital interaction. Through it, customers gain an exciting experience, remember the brand and decide to return.
Accordingly, every tech business requires experienced designer services and aesthetic comprehension of digital products. However, finding the right candidate and hiring is quite tricky.
So, in this article, we will talk about designer hiring platforms, choosing design specialization and services, and job interviewing. We will also try to understand how to provide comfortable onboarding to make the designer an integral part of the team.
Design Differences → Bussiness and Product Needs → Job Description → Searching and Portfolio → Job Interview → Offer → Onboarding
Step 1. Realizing the Difference
Design is a complex thing that is constantly evolving along with technology development. Accordingly, there are different specializations in this area.
So, let’s talk about them to understand who exactly you should hire for your business needs.
Web Designers
As the name implies, a web designer is someone who develops good user interfaces for websites. Such a specialist can create a design from scratch or use CMS and pre-built templates.
What is essential to consider when looking for a web designer?
- Extensive experience and knowledge of digital design specifics.
- At least minimum specialized coding knowledge.
- Ability to customize ready-made templates and themes (if the designer works with CMS such as WordPress, etc.).
- Web designers often work closely with developers, especially if the product has extensive functionality and complex infrastructure.
UX/UI Designers
It is worth hiring a UX designer if you need to find the “magician” of the user experience who knows where the user wants to “travel” before deciding to do so. UI design is about creating intuitive and user-friendly interfaces according to the functionality and needs of a digital product.
What are the requirements for such specialists?
- A clear understanding of business needs and user psychology.
- Research skills and ability to find unique approaches.
- Experience creating really user-friendly interfaces.
UX designers often work closely with business analysts and create prototypes following the results of joint research. Basically, these people are responsible for how much time users spend on your site and whether they return.
Read more about the impact of UX design on digital product development
Graphic Designers
A graphic designer is a person who is responsible for digital product appearance. You can hire this specialist to create logos and brand guides, branding in general, digital infographics, and other interactive features.
What are the requirements for a graphic designer?
- Unconditional aesthetic taste.
- Understanding brand values and voice.
- Understanding user psychology.
Also, such specialist can develop printed product designs and presentations.
Step 2. Defining Design Requirements
Because there are different types of designers, you should understand your product requirements before hiring someone. Defining a clear list of needs will help you get specific design services as a result.
So, first of all, it’s necessary to determine what fields the designer should cover: logo and brand style, user interface, user roadmap, etc. Based on this, you can choose the specialization of the designer.
It’s also good to clearly understand employment details and workload. It may be enough for you to hire a specialist on a part-time basis for particular needs. Or you may need a whole design team to design and scale different products.
And, of course, you shouldn’t forget about the budget framework.
Product Management System designed by Leobit UI/UX team
Step 3. Creating a Proper Job Description
This is a frequent theme: suitable candidates pass vacancies because the job description doesn’t allow them to form an idea of the proposal. So, a detailed and concise description must include:
- specific job responsibilities;
- list of hard and soft skills;
- bonuses and perks;
- approximate workload.
Tell candidates why they should like working with you and what makes your company unique. Maybe you offer corporate training or exciting projects. All this is important.
It is equally important to set salary limits. The rate depends on the performer’s location (in the US, design services are more expensive than services of the same-level specialists from Eastern Europe), experience, and specialization.
Step 4. Searching for Candidates and Portfolio Assessment
The easiest way to find a good designer is to use social media and specialized platforms.
In the first case, you can post a vacancy description on your website and on LinkedIn. Use the search to find suitable candidates. If they have filled in their profile correctly, you should be able to see their skills, work experience and links to the portfolio.
Professional platforms are needed to evaluate the designer’s work. Options such as Behance, Dribbble, ArtStation, DesignRush, etc., are the platforms where designers can place their portfolio and contact information.
Contact our UI/UX team to get a user-centered design approach to your product.
Step 5. Interviewing Candidates
Once you have reviewed the candidates’ portfolios and resumes, you can schedule job interviews. Just choose the best of those you have seen, and gradually move on.
What is essential during the interview? In addition to the standard questions that HRs ask everyone, regardless of profession, it’s worth noting a few points:
- Company presentation. You should show your company’s opportunities to the candidates and tell them why they should work with you.
- A brief description of the project that the designer will work on, as well as a few words about the responsibilities.
- List of questions regarding the candidate’s experience and skills. Such a universal list should be made before the interview. This way, you will be able to get information about all the critical nuances and discuss all the crucial points (web design and development, UX design requirements, etc.).
The proper interview allows candidates to show all their strengths and demonstrate their awareness. For his part, the employer can assess the designer’s communication skills, experience, technical skills, etc.
Step 6. Making an Offer
After the interview and test task review (if the technical team provided it), it’s time to make a formal proposal. Writing a special letter that could formalize everything that was negotiated during the interview and hiring process is good practice.
In this way, you will collect needed data and clearly define the terms of cooperation. After that, the candidate can decide whether to accept your offer or not, make comments or suggest changes to the conditions.
Most offers include the following key points:
- work responsibilities and requirements;
- salary amount and terms of payment;
- the first working day date;
- team structure (to whom the employee is subordinated, with whom he cooperates, etc.);
- list of perks and bonuses (course compensation, corporate training, etc.);
- additional agreements (confidentiality agreement, etc.).
The offer, as well as the description of the vacancy, should be clear, concise, but convincing.
Step 7. Onboarding
Soft and gradual onboarding is the basis for forming a solid team. It’s not enough to hire the best candidate for his work to bear fruit for the company. It is necessary to ensure that employee gets used to the new workplace and can quickly adapt to new conditions.
So, onboarding is the inclusion of a new employee in the company and integration into the team. This stage also includes resolving some administrative issues related to equipment, licenses, software, etc.
Home Security Mobile App designed by Leobit UI/UX team
Why Should You Choose Leobit to Hire Designers?
We offer a wide range of design services from experienced professionals. The list includes research, prototyping, information architecture creation, and even testing. Our design gurus love their work so much and provide such quality services that we’ve recently launched a full-fledged Leobit Design Studio.
We actively practice a client-centric approach, and seven years of experience have shown that this is the right decision. It’s significant for us that your business becomes successful, including due to our work. Therefore, our design team conducts market and product research and finds unique solutions and exceptional approaches for each client.
Leobit design team helps to set up an efficient design process, create proper branding and increase company profit through up-to-time interfaces and unforgettable digital experiences. Still not sure? Then check out our portfolio.
Wrapping Up
Proper hiring process organization is an integral part of successful searching for a suitable candidate, especially when it comes to finding a designer. For your convenience, our UI/UX team visualized the main point of this article that you can also download here.
In the process of hiring, you should pay attention to a few particularly important points, namely:
- type and features of required design services;
- specialization of candidates;
- business requirements and team needs;
- hard and soft skills, etc.
The best place to look for designers is professional social media such as LinkedIn, as well as specialized resources such as Dribbble or Behanсe. Before organizing the interview, it is necessary to evaluate the candidates’ portfolios, make a list of important questions, and set salary limits.
Clear organizing is a good practice in the designer hiring process. It helps save time, resources, and money. And, what is most important, proper organization makes it possible to find the best specialist specifically for the needs of your product.
We, at Leobit, will be pleased to answer all your questions. So feel free to contact us in any convenient way to get a professional consultation.
