Where is the best place to find freelance UX/UI designers?
Historically companies I've been at have had someone on staff, but we're a small startup and looking to get some UX/UI support. All of my googling has lead me to "gig" websites like Upwork or Fiver and talking to friends in industry (granted salaried UX/UI folks) have lead me to Linkedin or Indeed. Neither feels like the right place for what we're looking for. Does anyone have an suggestions for finding freelance designers we could work with iteratively? Thanks!
Context: Our company is rolling our a new platform out to beta users and are looking to refine some of our platform's interface. Mainly we're hoping to polish up some of the more amateur design elements across the platform and get help designing layout for tools/data presentation. We have done a good amount customer research on what folks are looking for, will be getting active feedback after pushing the changes, and are hoping to iterate with said feedback.
I feel like I'm in the same boat as you, but looking in the other direction. My wife is a designer at a faang company with a lot of experience but has recently been pretty disillusioned by all of the layoffs in the industry. With the threat of layoffs that can come without warning, she wanted to start looking into freelance stuff on her own. I've been helping her try to find a good place to get started.
It is just as difficult to find out where you can go as a designer that isn't one of those gig sites like you mentioned. Everything feels like either a scam or flooded with low cost foreign competition.
Everyone says to go with word of mouth, but that is really difficult to get started with. It's difficult to find an agency or something similar that doesn't feel super sketchy
Well, if you find a place, let me know too. I'm a graphic designer and I definitely need a job. Indeed, linkedin, ziprecruiter, they dont work. Hell, even that niche website I found a while.back doesn't work.. ytjobs.co. yeah... turns out they all either want "samples" for specific videos they're about to make 🙄😒 or they tell you to do a one way loom interview video and just never even look at it. (I can see how many views the video has... it's still at zero).
It seems like a little bit of the missing middle that seems to be plaguing so many different industries. If I find any other platforms or for lack of a better word job boards I'll send over an update!
Those salaried people in UX on LinkedIn might have a button on their LinkedIn page offering their freelance services. So maybe that's what you want to look for? "UX research freelance" might get you closer to what you need - I'm not sure if you're using the recruiter side of linkedin but that should help if you haven't checked it out yet.
I'm also not 100% sure what you're looking for exactly? Because UX researchers can do panels/AB testing etc.; UX designers can actually help you adjust the web page. They're usually mutually exclusive (i.e. usually a UX designer does not have experience in the research part, and a UX researcher usually has no real graphic design experience). It sounds like you just want minor tweaking of the UI, but a UX researcher can do UI tweaks usually. If you want an actual overhaul and want to test your audience's response to changes in-house, I recommend searching for a UX designer freelancer specifically (incidentally, there's a lot more of those out there so it shouldn't take you long to find someone suitable).
Lastly, you can always go with a consultancy company like Capgemini, EY Global etc. Those are pricey but will get the job done in a jiffy.
Feel free to ask followups if you want, it's (adjacent to) my field (Market research / data analysis / UX research).
Edit: I misread your original post and see now that you're clearly asking for a UX Designer, apologies for my earlier confusion hah. The relevant parts of my comment still stand of course :p
Wow, thanks for the advice! That really helps we narrow my search!
No problem! If you decide to go with a consultancy firm, feel free to shoot me a PM with names of whom you're considering - I was a Technology Consultant for a specific platform that all these consultancy firms use (being vague for privacy, but don't mind sharing in a PM if asked), so I got to know quite a lot of them and how they work. Happy to give you a personal opinion if there's a few names you're considering.
I have been approached by people looking for freelancers on /r/technicalwriting - so I would suggest looking through UI/UX subreddits, check for people who seem like they know what they are talking about in comments, and then DM them seeing if they are looking for freelance work
That is a great suggestion. I'll take a look! Thanks