Ask HN: How risky is outsourcing design work overseas?

5 points by soneill 13 years ago | 5 comments

I have a startup (www.couchster.com) approaching its public launch. All our CSS is custom, we're not using a CMS, but as the developer who designed all that CSS is not an expert, there are some design issues that need to be resolved prior to launch. I've been getting quotes from a large number of designers to overhaul the site (adapting it to a responsive design and fixing the various bugs we've run across so far), and the gap between the domestic and foreign options is dramatic. I'm typically loath to use foreign developers, simply out of quality concerns, but given the limited scale of work here and the fact they'll be working off an existing set of code, I'm not sure how great the downside is here. So how about it HN, how risky is it to outsource this kind of project to a foreign developer?

mitchellwfox 13 years ago |

In my personal experience, it can be very frustrating to try and collaborate on UI design remotely. This is further exacerbated by language barriers.

I have had recent good experience working with a relatively inexpensive design team based in Kansas City (cremalab.com), which was kicked-off in person but completed remotely.

bobfirestone 13 years ago |

The biggest risk is you get something that is not what you want, are out some money and have to delay the launch.

If you are really concerned about it. A css framework can help your developer eliminate a lot of pain points and make a designers job easier down the road. For example twitter bootstrap is really easy to customize the color scheme, uses a grid layout, and does responsive design. If you don't like bootstrap there are a bunch of other frameworks that do the same thing.

niico 13 years ago |

I have been designing for startups (mostly from SF and Europe) from Buenos Aires (Argentina) for over two years now and I think that if you find a good and talented designer / developer you can get first world quality work at a third world price.

Just to make sure, ask the designer as many questions as you can about their design process and their communication process. Also, make them sign a contract.

smartwater 13 years ago | |

It would cost a lot trying to enforce an international contract. It would provide no more than a false sense of security.

seanmel 13 years ago |

well, risk can depend on where and who your outsourcing like the people I'm hiring for example, they basically not that bad there was this one time that I mistakenly sent the wrong amount as payment instead of the peso for my Filipino workers in the Philippines I sent dollars which was a big difference. but in the end they returned the amount so honestly, if you want their number let me know I think some of them have no jobs yet. they're cheap you can pay $400 lease for 4-5 pages website they also do HTML and CSS coding with great designer. I love their work, check out www.terminaltractorsales.com