Amen to the "don't outsource UI" concept. However, I'd disagree with the common misconception that you can sprinkle magical UI dust once the project is largely

Amen to the "don't outsource UI" concept. However, I'd disagree with the common misconception that you can sprinkle magical UI dust once the project is largely done. For most projects, I think you need a user-experience designer/advocate on the team from day 1... Which, incidentally, is when the best UI guys are looking for jobs-- the idea of coming in and playing design/UX cleanup on an existing app is a helluva lot less fun than being involved from the get-go.