What kind of designer I need?

Always ask yourself this questions before starting your search. Narrow the pool as much as possible. What’s important for your current position? UI/UX? Graphics? or a Website Designer?

 

Craft a Good Job Description to avoid costly Confusions & delays

Take as much time as you need when preparing a well thought out job outline. Depending on the extent of your design needs, the preparation can take from a few minutes to a couple of hours.

Yes – it will take time and effort on your part, but it’s a thousand times better than paying for something you don’t want. A nasty game of finger-pointing and blame-assigning is never pleasant. This is because your designer or developer should have a good understanding of what you want and how you work.

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What Technical Skills should I look for?

This the easier part, because it is just a checklist you want your designer or developer to have.

There are basic technical skills any designers or developers must have. If they do not possess these skills or they are not very well versed in them, take a pass on these candidates.

Graphic Designer Skills:

• Adobe Photoshop​

• Adobe Illustrator

• Corel

Video Making Skills:

• Adobe After Effects

• Adobe Premiere Pro

• Apple Final Cut Pro

Website Designer Skills:

• Adobe Photoshop (or any image editors) and/or Adobe Illustrator

• CSS / CSS3HTML / HTML5

• jQuery (this is a bonus if you are using a drag & drop website builder. If you are not using a drag & drop website builder, then jQuery is a must)

• PHP (if you are using WordPress)

Developer / Coder Skills:

• CSS / CSS3

• HTML / HTML5

• jQuery

• PHP (if you are using WordPress)

• JavaScript (a bonus, but not a must if you are using drag & drop website builder)

 

How to Judge Whether a Designer or Developer is Good?

It is easier to judge the technical skills for a designer or a developer, but it is much harder to judge the soft skills like design talent and project management skills.

Again, even if a designer checks all the boxes, it is still possible that he/she may not be the right person for the job.

Ask for examples of previous projects:

You need to see what each applicant has done in the past. See if the type of work the designer or developer had done matches your job requirements. This will also give you a sense of what each applicant is capable of.

Ask the designers to discuss their own design styles:

To get a better sense of the designer’s design taste, you can ask for websites or images that represent the designer’s personal style. You can also ask what websites they visit to get inspirations. Ask what is his/her favorite past project and why.

These questions are to help you gauge whether a designer’s own interests align with what you are looking for. It’s always better to hire someone whose personal style matches yours. This increases the designer’s job satisfaction, which can ultimately benefit you.

 

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How Much Do Website Designers, Graphic Designers or Developers Cost?

Pinpointing how much it costs to hiring website designers, graphic designers or developers is always difficult and often confusing. Honestly, there are no exact numbers, because the prices vary from:

• Skill levels

• Experiences

• The size and complexity of your project

• Which job search portal you are using (where are you sourcing these designers)

• Where the designers are located (developed vs developing markets)

 

For example, any designers from a developed market country (such as the US, Canada, the UK, etc.) will be more expensive than another candidate from developing countries (such as India, the Philippines, eastern European countries, etc.), even if their skill levels are the same.

So be aware of this when you post a design job, as the quotes you receive from applicants may have a very wide range.