How to Hire a Web Designer

Why this role matters

Your website is often the first thing a customer, investor or candidate sees, and a web designer decides whether they can find what they came for. A good one turns your goals into clear layouts, readable type and pages that work on a phone, with accessibility built in. A weak hire produces pretty mock-ups that are hard to build, slow to load and confusing to navigate, and you pay for the rework.

Where to find candidates

• Portfolio platforms such as Dribbble and Behance, where you can judge work before you contact anyone
• Awwwards and similar showcases for designers who produce award-standard marketing sites
• Webflow's partner directory, or the equivalent community for the platform you build on (WordPress, Framer, Shopify)
• AIGA chapters and events for designers with a strong graphic and typographic grounding
• Freelance marketplaces such as Upwork and Contra when you need a project-based designer
• LinkedIn and general job boards for in-house roles
• Recommendations from developers and agencies you already work with, who know whose files are easy to build from

Skills to look for

Red flags

• A portfolio of desktop-only mock-ups with no mobile views
• Cannot say what a project was for, who it served or what changed after launch
• Every site in the portfolio looks the same regardless of the client's brand
• Dismisses accessibility or performance as a developer's problem
• Work that only exists as Dribbble shots, with no live sites to click through
• Vague about which parts of a team project they personally designed

The interview process

1. 1

   Portfolio review

   Shortlist on live work. Click through their sites on your phone, check load speed and navigation, and note whether they adapt to different brands.

2. 2

   Portfolio walkthrough call

   Ask them to talk through two projects: the brief, the constraints, the options they rejected and what happened after launch. Listen for the reasoning behind each decision.

3. 3

   Paid page-redesign work sample

   Send a real page from your site, such as a pricing or service page, with a short brief and your brand guidelines. Ask for a mobile and desktop layout plus a note on what they changed and why. A job simulation of this real work is one option if you want every candidate assessed on the same brief.

4. 4

   Critique and collaboration session

   Review the work sample together and give feedback. Watch how they take critique and whether they ask about goals before defending pixels. Include your developer if you have one.

5. 5

   References

   Ask past clients or managers whether the designer met deadlines, handled revisions well and produced files developers could build from.

How to evaluate

• Clarity of hierarchy: can you tell what the page is for in a few seconds
• Mobile layout designed for small screens from the start
• Accessibility: contrast, readable type sizes, sensible focus and link styles
• Faithful use of your brand without copying it mechanically
• Quality of their written rationale and how they respond to feedback
• Buildability: realistic components and a tidy, organised design file

Onboarding

• 1Share brand guidelines, existing design files, analytics access and a list of the pages that matter most
• 2Introduce them to whoever builds the site and agree a hand-off format on day one
• 3Start with one contained page or section so you can align on standards before a full redesign
• 4Agree who signs off designs and how many rounds of revisions are expected
• 5For freelancers, put scope, deliverables, file ownership and revision limits in writing before work starts

Common questions