Read my rant here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1859460 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1859460 You need to find someone with some training in HCI,

Read my rant here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1859460 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1859460 You need to find someone with some training in HCI, it does not have to be formal training, but they should be studied in the state of the art. If they are not, they are a hack and you are wasting your money on trial and error. As for the designer (the I make it pretty guy). Find one who you like his style of art, it is as simple as that. Sometimes you can get lucky and find it all embodied in one person. Many times you will get a designer naively representing themselves as a HCI / UX professional, there is a lot of misinformation and blatant misrepresentation in this space.