
Ask HN: Recommendation for a good UI/UX expert? - richesh
We are an Atlanta based startup looking for an UI/UX expert to help us build for our Beta. We are self-funded and have the budget allocated for this work.<p>After hours of looking on the web, the one thing I've realized is that for this type of work you really need someone who comes with recommendations. So I turn to you guys for help.<p>Thanks!<p>EDIT: We are an angel-funded startup, building a web-based research aggregation tool. We have a budget of up to $5000. We are looking for someone to help come up with a clean design, branding, and layout. We have 4 unique pages, and a bookmarklet that needs the creative touch.  We are implementing using the JEE stack (Struts2, JSPs, etc.), and have been using Blueprint CSS for layout.<p>EDIT AGAIN: We have 3 developers on staff, we have been able to come up with a basic site layout, color scheme, and know how to wire it up.  What we want is someone to give us a new logo, CSS, header, footer, graphics for certain controls on the page, and maybe if they have a better idea on how to present certain data (but this isn't as important).
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alaskamiller
Should leave your email or contact info.

Also, good UI/UX experts would already be busy with ongoing projects, your
solicitation barely registers anything on an excitement scale. Should divulge
a bit more info about your project, or industry, or what you want to do.

~~~
tptacek
There are thousands of competant UI people who will do a small site for $5k.
Most of them don't care about your industry or your excitement scale. On the
flip side of that, your product probably needs to be pretty f'ing awesome to
get Firewheel to do it for $5k.

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tptacek
I'd say Blue Flavor --- <http://www.blueflavor.com> \--- they wrote Blueprint.
I liked them a lot; excellent consultants. They may be out of your price range
though. For the shops that you've heard of, for projects that include IA and
UX in addition to pushing pixels, a small project falls in the 10-20 range.

It does not sound like you want UX --- it sounds like you want a designer. If
you just want to look nice, that's a $1500-$4000 project. My advice, based on
our experience: post to Craigslist and compare portfolios.

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boucher
The best way to find a designer is find something you personally think is
beautiful and well designed (or, if you think you have no taste, substitute
your opinion for someone's you trust).

Contact those people and try to convince them to work with you. Be prepared to
spend a lot (which is going to be worth it if they're good).

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luchandy
Amy Hoy. She's amazing. She made twistori and Color Wars among other things.
She's spoken at lots of conferences, so you can see her thoughts about UI
right out in the open via her slides. Aside from knowing UX/UI, she seems to
be an accomplished hands-on Ruby programmer, Javascript programmer, and
graphic designer. <http://www.slash7.com>

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luxstyle
Are you looking for a designer or a developer? UI folks like myself tend to
come in 2 flavors. One is skilled at the wireframes, architecture and look and
feel and can do pretty mockups and prototypes. The other is a programmer whom
is familiar with the latest AJAX, JSPs etc and implements the design created
by the former person.

Also if the company is important to you as it should be you might want to hire
someone familiar with branding to do your branding. Having a UI person do your
branding is like having a programmer do your UI. They might know a bit about
it but are definitely not the expert.

Lastly, if you're looking for someone with recommendations but don't know
anyone personally try linkedin.com. Check out some profiles, look at their
recommendations and check out their website. You can see my profile as a
starting point.

,Jose Benavides

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tptacek
Jose --- from what I can tell, there are in fact 3 categories:

(1) The look/feel designers

(2) The UX/IA people who spend most of their time in wireframe

(3) The "developers" who hook things up and get things running.

The difference between (1) and (2) is pretty huge. I've been disappointed on
projects that needed strong look/feel but got mostly IA/UX. Here's more advice
to readers: you're going to feel like you're "supposed" to want IA and UX.
Fuck that. If you want to look cool, _clearly communicate_ that that's what
you want.

~~~
luxstyle
1 and 2 can be separate, but there are a lot of people whom can do both well.
That's not to say that there aren't also a lot of people whom are horrible at
one and great at the other. the "look/feel" designers are more of graphic
artists then UX/UI people. A good team should be composed of people from each
of the 3 elements you described.

No matter whom you decide to go with look at the portfolio first. I can't
emphasize this enough. If you don't like what they've done before then chances
are you won't like what they'll do for you. If you want a "cool flashy site"
find a person that builds great "cool flashy sites". Don't go for the person
that loves minimalism.

Whenever I build a UI team I look at the portfolio first. If I like what I see
then I look at the credentials and where they've worked. Otherwise I pass.

Richesh, From reading your updates it sounds like you want a graphic designer
and not a UI designer. If you have a structure and layout that you like and
just need someone to make shiny buttons and give you a good color palette then
a graphic designer is what you're looking for.

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boredguy8
"web-based research aggregation tool"

I personally know of at least two other in-the-works tools like this. I'm
interested to see what the competitive space looks like for this market in the
next 6-18 months.

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richesh
which two are you thinking of?

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boredguy8
"two other in-the-works tools". Sorry.

And I should have said "That fit this description". I have no idea if they're
like your solution.

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guy_davis
Kaaren Schulz at Practical Usability (<http://www.practicalusability.com/>)

Disclaimer: She's my cousin. :)

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izak30
I have a guy.

He did the UX for our CMS, and has just quit his day job to do Freelancing
full time (and work for Servee)

Check out <http://demo.servee.com> for some UX work and
<http://kkellydesign.com> for general Design

(also highlandpr.com/portfolio for branding work)

~~~
izak30
wow. downmodded for answering his question.

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nextmoveone
Hey man I need to find a good one too. Too bad Tony Wright isnt for hire!

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swombat
I hear the guy who does Apple's products is pretty good.

