Ask HN: What steps should I take to find a front ender? (And not be ripped off)

7 points by montooner 16 years ago | 11 comments

Front end/graphics has always been my Achilles heel. This project that I'm working on (www.mgxcopy.com) is long overdue for a design refactoring, and I want to find someone/some-firm whom will (a) generate programmatically clean code that I can work with and be seo friendly and (b) I may be able to call upon for further work on the site.

I want to up the visual quality as well as the usability/functionality of the site tremendously, and I'm new to beauty in the front end. Basically, just graphics as well as cross-browser, seo-/programmer-friendly code would be great. But ideally, I'd get some snappy js-animation to the user experience.

I have already checked out Crowdspring, but am satisifed neither by the quality nor the prospect of getting good code. And in my mind the other options are Craigslist, and iterations of Google searches. I'm also considering posting on the 37signals Job Board or the Smashing Magazine Board, but I'd rather not spend the money till I'm sure I have no other options.

So: what are some venues you have used to find front end developers or--as a front-end developer--you use to find jobs? And as a bonus question: what can I expect for a budget of $3-5k?

japanesejay 16 years ago |

Start with writing a job description for your deal candidate, post on a few boards, and start looking at resumes and portfolios. I would advise not overloading it with irrelevant keywords. you dont necessarily need a designer experienced with java, php, python who can write you iphone and android apps while being able to answer how many marbles can fit in a school bus.

I would try posting your job description to design centric sites. there are a bunch out there. At least you can target your audience. Spend a little money on it if you have to.

Ive posted on CL and other free sites and i'll get back too many resumes with a bunch of overhyped nonsense buzzwords.

Have someone who knows design/ui help you look through portfolios. Ive scoured through hundreds of designer's sites and portfolios over time and i can see their trends, styles, methods. If they do dev, ask them what theyve actually developed, theming, js/jquery, etc.

Things to pay attention to: - the person's education/background in design. if they're not designers by nature... would you hire them? - Avoid an engineering centric person too. Engineers are typically not designers. (please dont get mad for that statement) - take a detailed look at their portfolio. Do you like what you see? do they have a certain "look" that you like? or do their sites look sloppy, too much like some template, etc. - if you care about ux, does their site provide good experience? is it at least usable, logical and consistent? - Avoid flash designers. Most flash guys know little about seo. Content management will be difficult too.

I think you'll have a hard time finding a designer who can design, code and do seo. There are smaller web shops out there that can help. Make sure you know what you're buying into and ask for references.

One thing i warn you is to becareful with eye candy. There are a lot of tutorial mongers out there who will run through psdtuts, create some variation and add it to their portfolio.

i agree with andres, use a cms. im a fan of drupal.

k. hope that help. -jay

andreshb 16 years ago |

I currently have an excellent front-end development team with an entrepreneurial background based in Latin America.

I was able recruit and partner up with the best in the region because I run blogs, communities and events around tech and entrepreneurship and by actually meeting them at conferences.

My suggestion would be for you to

1. Network and meet your developers personally OR 2. Try your luck at elance.com, freelancer.com, rentacoder.com or odesk.com; be very careful though, many bidders will say they can do everything by tomorrow, and end up not delivering. It is very trial-and-error process to find the right provider

Finally for your budget, you can easily have the whole site redesigned and put in a CMS

If you'd like more help send me an email andres.barreto * socialatomgroup * com

montooner 16 years ago | |

Redesigned to what level? As for CMS, more than willing to do that myself.

andreshb 16 years ago | | |

You need a visual overhaul

sushi 16 years ago |

I just checked the design and I do think that it needs improvement. For instance, the navigation at the left is quite old-fashioned and also not good for usability. It should ideally be pushed on the top.

The edges and border radius of certain elements is just not complementing well enough with the rest of the page.

Now coming to your problem, I think you can take the help of http://sortfolio.com/ which has listing of really good web designers.

On a sidenote, I am a designer myself. Just in case if you need any help you can reach me at sushaantum@gmail.com

montooner 16 years ago | |

Thanks- sortfolio looks amazing. This was one of the things I was looking for. Also appreciate the tips.

Cheeese 16 years ago |

Find someone that cares about UX... and actually knows what that is. Its also important to for the designer to understand what it is you are tying to communicate and what the mechanics of the idea are. What is it that makes users come back? Who are you focussing on?

I guess I am not really answering you question :) But I find crowd sourced design very hit and miss. You don't get any real thinking, you also don't get any solid UE stuff... and that's where it counts. let me know if you need a hand. oneintenthousand@gmail.com

mbrubeck 16 years ago |

http://www.authenticjobs.com/ is another front-end/design job board (run by Cameron Moll).

montooner 16 years ago | |

Sweet. I'll add that to my list and start doing the legwork.

eliot_sykes 16 years ago |

Never used it but might help? collabfinder.com

montooner 16 years ago | |

Thanks- I think I'll start digging around there to see if I can find anything.