UI/UX Designer, What are They and When to Hire
When you start a company, there will be lot of works to do. Creating this and that, hiring people, logo, brand, and much more. UI/UX Designer is also part of it. When a company create a website or an app for Android or iOS, they need to hire an expert in UI/UX field. But before you know when to hire one of them, lets talk about what their jobdesk is.
UI designer is an expert whose their main jobdesk is to decide how the product must be styled, how the buttons on an application or website should appear, what design pattern should they use, what kind of icons should be used and things like that. In a simple word, UI or User Interface is a Visual Designer who design how the website or apps will appear when user interact with our website or apps. Meanwhile UX or User Experience main jobdesk is to focus on understanding user behavior rather than visual appeal. Usually UX designer work closely with product manager team. They design user’s journey on our website or apps. What content should be shown in the main page, how the payment page look like and things like that.
In most case, you as a company can hire one person that can do both UI and UX. But take this as a note. Both of them are two different job with different jobdesk. UI is styling, coloring and pattern. UX is understanding user behavior on our website or apps. Those are two different kind of job. If your company has a proper funding, hiring UI and UX as two different person will be great, but if you are an independent company or a startup who does not have a proper funding, there are several ways to have them work for you in a proper way.
UI designer is usually a one-way job, their jobdesk is to decide style and coloring on our website or apps, so startup with no proper funding should consider hiring a UI freelancers rather than hiring a full-time UI employee. Furthermore, for a startup which does not focus on UI that much, like a company who focus on selling things or services offline based, hiring a one-way UI designer is okay as the company does not have to re-new their website interface every six month. So for a startup, you might consider hiring a UI freelancers for this one-way project. Unless your company will work online-based, than you might consider hiring a full-time UI designer.
Unlike UI designer where you can choose between hiring freelance or full-time employee, you should not hire a freelance UX designer. UX designer usually work together with the product manager team. Because what will be shown in the main page of the website or apps usually changing much faster than the UI. What will be shown on the main page of a website will change weekly or even daily so user who visit the website will not get bored of the content shown inside. A company should hire a full-time employee for UX designer for their company for the best effect at their website or apps.
So now we understand their jobdesk and should we hire a full-time or freelancer type. Now lets talk when we need to hire them. Basically every company has their own focus about this aspect. Not every company need UI and UX expert, most of company nowadays focusing on branding through social media by hiring a social media expert and graphic designer. But there will be time when a company need a proper website or maybe apps for their company as an ‘upgrade’. Customer will not always look at our social media, they will also check the website whether this company is serious or not. Creating a website as soon as you start your company is a good move. By hiring a proper UX designer and hiring UI freelancer to modify your website based on what you need, you probably will reach more audience and traffic through your website.
