Anyone recommend searching on odesk or elance for a good Web 2.0 UI designer? Any particular companies I should consider? What are some good attributes I should look for?
Thanks!
Nick Leung
There are some (not many) UI designers on HN, like me for example.<p>/shameless plug<p>I would stay away from Elance type sites unless cost is your only factor. 37signals job board will attract the exact opposite candidates as Elance (read: expensive/overpaid)<p>Ever think of hiring local?<p>Attributes to look for would be experience not only in creating the 'web 2.0 look' but also solid experience in eccomerce and application development. Too many designers only know how to make something look good, and fail to consider that you're doing business on the web. Avoid designers who rely on wiz-bang features, even a boring business like portfolio is better than one filled with tons of Flash and AJAX.
I've done some posting on elance before and I will suggest to start with the smallest job (i.e. cheapest) first to get used to working with bids and vendors. Start with a logo + business identity for $300-$500, go with only 5-star people with 6+ months of feedback. Once you have that, do a 3-5 page website for $300-$500. By now you should have a good feel for (1) the process, and (2) the people so now's the time to bump it up to a $1000 or $2000 project.<p>Those places really aren't the place for $2000+ projects IMO.
I would say odesk is is good for 1 reason only.... you can see snapshots of what the UI developer is working on as they do it. So you should be able to see if they are going down the right track early before they finish!<p>It depends if its pure GUI or UI ... I think you should split up the project into 2... GUI is to get design and colour scheme. UI is to get the interactions you want and the flow...<p>We have used odesk, and we found that we can get GUI design done, but UI is really dependant on your target user market... This is difficult to outsource unless you really direct what you want done...
I am in the same boat as you and am actively seeking a UI designer. We are willing to pay up to $5000 or maybe even more for this service, but it has to be good and the chance of someone getting it wrong or asking for double the money is what's keeping us from taking the plunge.<p>But I digress, the point of this comment is to try out 99designs.com. I've seen some really good designs on that site if you know exactly what you want.<p>We plan on experimenting with 99designs once we have our site up and running with UI we can come up with as developers and hope to get lucky!
I'd recommend a listing on the 37signals Job Board (<a href="http://jobs.37signals.com/" rel="nofollow">http://jobs.37signals.com/</a>). It costs $300 for a 30-day job listing or $100 for a gig listing, but it'll get you by far the highest quality crop of applicants.
also if you have the design in a psd... you could try <a href="http://www.psd2html.com/order-now.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.psd2html.com/order-now.html</a>