How to Tell the Difference Between a Designer & an Experienced UI Web Designer

Sometimes I see a beautiful new website design mockup and it almost makes me sick. Graphically it is typically very pleasing but I see things as web designer that I instantly recognize as being un-needfully complex and design features that will possibly make the website less flexible for the client down the road. Often these designs are done by former print designers turned "web designer" who are very talented in the use of color and illustration but because they don't know code they do things in such a way that it sometimes ends up costing the client down the road.

A good web User Interface (Aka UI) designer has the skill to design in such a way that it makes the website flexible, it helps drive conversions through good navigation, designs in such a way that saves time on development, wisely uses different affects to enhance the user experience and creates highly visually pleasing site with good performance.

A great website UI designer users their years of experience and analytics to make subtle use of colors, navigation and layout to create user experiences that can have a more than subtle impact. I've seen were a few changes to some different homepages increased conversion rates from 7 to 22% on websites.

When searching for a website UI designer ask them about the following:

• How their design will influences user flow off of the homepage and deeper into the website to reduce bounce rates?
• How the designer will use color to increase conversions
• How the design will consolidate navigation and messaging so that a site visitor can quickly find what they are looking for
• How the design will meet your end goal
• How the design will incorporate the "big red button." The big red button isn't necessarily big and it isn't necessarily red, but it a focal point(s) on the page that makes it obvious as to where the users would go. On a web page heat map, these items should be glowing red.
• Ask how the UI will solve problems for the user. Present solutions that answers the user's ultimate purpose for visiting the site.

One reason Pixo only employs UI web designers that are also developers is because we find they are the best designers. Honestly it isn't easy to find these left brain, right brain types who have years of experience under their belts, but when you do find them they do amazing work. That is why we call them website artisans, because they can use their skill and experience to do great work for you that can increase conversions and save you money.

That is part of the value proposition that a great designer brings to the table. How much business are you leaving on the table? Let us know what our website artisans can do for you.