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Ask HN: Where to find UI designers by region or zip code?
This problem keeps coming up on almost every project I work: where can we find good user interface designers? I know a lot of designers, and they know how to make things pretty, but they are not what I am looking for. What I want is specifically designers with experience designing user interfaces. That is, people who can design software (its visual interface), rather than design a website (or a print publication).
And also, I need to find them in my area.
There are sites like http://dribbble.com/ that allow me to find good designers. However, this is a mix of designers who are good at all different kinds of things, not just UI design. And I do not thing I can sort by them by region or zip code.
UI design tends to be the kind of thing where face-to-face communication among developers and clients is important. In the Agile Manifesto http://agilemanifesto.org/ it says "The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation." I find this to be most true when figuring out the interface.
When I was in Florida, my clients asked my recommendation for good UI designers. But I did not know any good UI designers in Florida. When I was in Virginia, my clients asked my recommendation for good UI designers, but I only knew one who was truly good and he was more than fully employed. It was difficult to find anyone else.
Now I am in New York. The people I work with are asking me to recommend someone who is good at UI design. Again, I'm having trouble thinking of anyone. Again, I only know one who is truly good and he is already happily employed at Arc90.
It is easy to find a designer who can take a WordPress or Joomla template and tweak it for a sites purpose and have it look good. It is difficult to find someone who understands the importance of visual information and is also willing to think hard about what a given piece of software is trying to do.
Does anyone know a place, online or offline, where I can find good UI designers, and sort them by zip code, or region?
- kls 16y agoNot that it is ready yet but, I and a few other developers are working on an invitation only site where existing members can invite new developers and designers. They will amass a reputation score based on projects thy complete from project sponsors as well they will have a recommendation score that will be calculated on the reputation score of developers and designers they invite. If it gets too low we assume that their opinion on other talent is not that good and remove their permission to invite people. It is our hope that it will promote a community of the best of the best. Anyway, the reason I post is that we had discussed providing location based searches that listed people based on their reputation. It does not help you know and for that you could use http://www.hnhackers.com/ http://www.hnhackers.com/ . They allow location search and it is a site composed of freelancers that frequent HN. I don't know if that is a substitute for reputation but there are a lot of talented people that frequent this board.