How to hire a UI/UX designer: how to read a portfolio, what a fair paid test looks like, the interview questions that separate designers from decorators, and when a freelancer, an in-house hire or an agency is the better choice.
Key takeaways
- Read portfolios for process and outcomes, not just finished screens.
- A short paid test on a real problem beats any number of interviews.
- Ask about states, edge cases and handoff: that is where weak designers show.
- Choose between freelancer, in-house and agency by the kind of work, not by the day rate.
Decide what kind of hire you need
A single landing page, a product first release and a mature product with a steady flow of features are three different jobs. The first suits a freelancer, the second suits an agency or a senior contractor, and the third is where an in-house designer earns their salary.
Write down what the designer has to deliver in the first three months before you look at a single portfolio. It will change who you should be talking to.
| Freelancer | In-house designer | Agency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | A small, defined task | Continuous work on a mature product | A first release or a redesign |
| How you pay | Hours or a project fee | Salary, benefits, tools | A fixed project price |
| Research and design system | Depends on the person | Builds over time | Included |
| Time to start | Days | Months to recruit | Days |
How to read a portfolio
Beautiful screens are the easiest thing to fake and the least useful thing to judge. Look for case studies that explain the problem, the research, the options considered and what changed after launch. A designer who can explain why a screen looks the way it does can repeat it on your product.
Look for the unglamorous states: empty screens, errors, loading, a user with no data. Most portfolios skip them, and most products break there.
Related: US UI/UX design agencies worth a shortlist.
- The problem and the research behind the design
- Options considered, and why one won
- What changed after launch
- Empty, error and loading states, not just hero shots
Run a short, paid test
Give shortlisted designers a small real problem from your product, such as redesigning one confusing flow, and pay them for a few hours of work. Ask for their thinking as much as their screens: what they would ask users, what they assumed, what they would test.
Unpaid test work signals that you do not respect the craft, and the best designers decline it. A paid test is cheap compared with a wrong hire.
Interview questions that work
Walk me through a design decision you got wrong and how you found out. How do you design for a user with no data yet? What do you hand a developer, and what questions do you usually get back? How do you decide when research is enough?
Listen for specifics. Good designers talk about users, constraints and trade-offs; weaker ones talk about tools and trends.
Related: hiring a UI/UX agency instead.
- A decision you got wrong, and how you knew
- Designing the empty and error states
- What you hand to developers
- When research is enough
Red flags when hiring a designer
Portfolios full of concept redesigns of famous apps and no shipped work. Case studies that show only final screens with no problem or research behind them. A candidate who cannot say what they would do differently on a past project. Talk of tools and trends rather than users and outcomes.
None of these rules a designer out on its own, but each is worth a direct question. The answer usually tells you whether the designer has shipped real products to real users.
- Only concept redesigns, no shipped work
- Final screens with no process behind them
- No mistakes they can talk about
- Tools and trends rather than users
Check how they work with developers
Design that cannot be built as drawn is not finished. Ask to see a real handoff: a design system with components and tokens, annotated specifications, and how the designer stays involved during the build.
The most reliable results come when design and engineering sit in one team. It is the main reason we design and build together: nothing is lost between the two.
Set up the first month for success
Whoever you hire, the first month decides how useful they will be. Give them access to analytics and real users, a named person who can approve decisions, and one clear problem to solve first rather than a list of everything that is wrong.
Ask for something tangible within two weeks, such as a flow map or a first prototype. Early, visible output is the best sign that the hire is working, and the cheapest moment to correct course if it is not.
An agency project follows the same logic in a fixed shape: research in the first week, wireframes and a prototype in weeks two and three, high-fidelity design after that, and a design system at handoff.
What it costs
A freelancer charges by the hour or by the project, and the range is wide. An in-house designer costs a salary plus benefits and tools, every month, whether there is design work or not. An agency quotes a fixed project price.
Our websites are designed and built for one price, $1,599 for up to five pages and $1,999 for up to eight with a full design system, fixed in writing before work starts, with the Figma files delivered in your own workspace.
