Whether you own a business, run an agency or work in a team, chances are you’ll need a designer one day or another. The catch? Finding the right person is a lot harder than it seems and while there are plenty of designers who can give good service, finding the right one for your business can be tricky.
In this blog post we’ll talk about what questions you should ask, how to identify potential candidates and how to hire the right designer for your company.
Whether you know it or not, hiring a designer is hard—especially if you’ve never done it before. Here are some insights on what questions you should ask when interviewing designers, as well as several checklists that will make the process of screening designers easier.
What questions should you ask a potential web designer?
When interviewing a potential web designer, you should ask them questions that will help you identify how they’ll interact with your company. You should also consider asking about their experience, what their rate is and ask them for a portfolio so you can see the quality of work they’ve done before. Here are some questions to ask:
Do you use any design software?
What’s your design process?
How long have you been designing for?
How do you feel about colors on a page?
What is your process when creating typography?
Would you be able to create mockups for my website or app before I decide what I want to see in the final product?
How would you handle user-testing before launching a new site or app?
A visual guide to hiring a web designer
When it comes to hiring a web designer, you’ll need to do your homework to ensure that you get the best person for the job. Here’s an easy guide to doing just that!
Before you get started making your list of questions, make some notes on what qualities or skills you’re looking for in a design firm. Once you have that information, it should be easier to find designers who match what you’re after.
Here are some questions that might come in handy:
- What is your one sentence project description?
- How would you describe your work style?
- What is your current portfolio?
- How long have you been designing websites and what kind of projects have they included?
- How long will this take?
- What are the timeline and budget for this project?
- Will I receive weekly updates on my site’s progress?
An audio interview guide
The first step in hiring a designer is making sure that you’re choosing the right type of person to work with. The simplest way to do this is to ask a few questions when you set up an interview, such as, “Can you tell me about your background?” or “What are some of your past projects?” This will give you an idea of the designer’s skillset and the experience they have.
How many years have you been designing websites? How long have you been working as a web designer? Is there anything else I should know about you?
You want to make sure that your chosen designer has enough experience for the project at hand. You’ll also want to determine whether their skills match the requirements of your project; for example, if your project calls for HTML-based design, then make sure they’re familiar with it.
If they don’t have enough experience, then try interviewing them over email before setting up a face-to-face interview (if possible). You can ask them questions relevant to what kind of design they’d like to make under different circumstances and see how well they answer them.
It’s also important that both parties agree on what kind of design they’re going for; if there’s any disagreement in terms of aesthetics or direction before the work begins, then there’s no point in continuing with this process.
Summing up
your interview questions
While the questions you ask in your interviews may vary, here are some of the most common ones:
- What are your skills?
- How did you learn to design?
- What is your favorite kind of project?
- How do you prefer to work with clients?
- How often do you update your portfolio?
- Where can I see examples of your work?
- Do you have an hourly rate and how much will it cost for me to hire you for a project?
The best way for designers to get hired is by giving good answers. The interviewer simply needs to be able to understand what they’re saying. If they’re talking about their skills, then the interviewer needs to know what they mean. If they’re talking about their favorite type of project, then the interviewer needs to understand what type of project that is. This should create a dialogue between designer and interviewer that helps both sides figure out if each party is a good fit or not.
