Ask HN: How to Hire a Designer from Dribble?

The homepage needs some work. A change/removal to the flags and maybe just a smaller font size. The job results look fine, though. I definitely wouldn't pay someone over a few thousand dollars.

Thank you. Coming from a designer this is comforting :)

Quick tips:

- Icon in the nav should be 2x the final size and scaled down for high resolutions screens. If possible use SVG as that will scale ad infinitum.

- The search appears broken in Firefox, the culprit seems to be the "v" (down arrow). For testing several browsers I recommend https://www.browserstack.com/

- You are missing the "Apply now" inside each individual job, which is IMO the best place to put it.

- I would make the country flags a bit smaller. Maybe put them side by side in a continuous way in a more compact way.

Otherwise, as others said, it looks perfectly fine for a launch. And it also seems like a really useful service.

Thank you. I'm planning to do blog posts and maybe youtube "explainer" videos on how to apply for and get various work visas.

Finally, I get to be an "expert" on Hacker News :).

I have hired a number of great designers from dribbble some of which went on to work in places like Apple.

First step: Get Dribbble pro for $25. It'd worth it.

Step 2: first search for designers based on a similar project. In my 1st case I used keywords like "music" "Spotify" "player" etc. In yours, you can use "classifieds", "Craigslist" "Job Board" etc. People would charge lower if they are doing similar stuff they've done before, or have sampled similar ideas.

Step 3: Based on budget, filter for

A. Designers from everywhere apart from US and UK. For. Skills, people have to charge based on their living expenses and based on what they can get in their vicinity.

B. Solo Designers Available for work

South Africa, Some of Western and Eastern Europe (Holland, Belgium, Poland, Romania etc) have an abundance of great affordable designers.

Step 3: Open up a spreadsheet for up to 30 designers with style you like and put up their names and email addresses. Follow. Them so you know who you've contacted.

Step 4: Sent out individual messages. Some have their emails listed. Some you need to contact via Dribbble.

The email has to be brief an to the point. People.

My email was like this.

-- Subject : Are you available for Freelance

Message: Hi Name.

Great work on Dribbble. Are you available for freelance? What's your rate? I have a well detailed out project that would need design help.

I hope to hear from you.

(you can add, that you're a developer so working with you will be straightforward)

--

Quotes are high because people budget for project creep. Being clear can reduce your budget by 30%.

Step 5: Based on response rate (expect ~50%) filter out. Thank those who are beyond your budget. Sometimes they ask for the progect scope and their total may be lower. For me, I focused on people that charged max of $40/hour. I usually negotiate by showing all the wire framed pages to be designed and getting my quote.

Step 6 : Rinse and Repeat until you get what you're looking for.

Note: Your site looks very good especially as a v1. Focus on traction first. Like others have said you "maybe" need some UX work.

I'm not a designer and do product for my startup and usually do the recruiting. Feel free to contact me. (email in profile)

PS: Put your website on this thread so people can check it out.