Buying UX/UI designs - what are the options?
Hey everyone,
I created an online video editor app and it is starting to gain some traction. I want to improve the UI/UX of both the landing page and the editor itself, because currently it was made by me - a non-designer developer, and it shows... :)
Do you guys have any experience in buying designs? Just yet I can't afford thousand of dollars each month to hire a full-time designer, but I would definitely want to invest some money in it.
Fiverr, some productized design services, any recommendation is more than welcome.
Trending on Indie Hackers
For the landing page we have many indie hackers use https://versoly.com/
For the editor look into https://flowbite.com/ or https://tailwindui.com/
What are the pros and cons?
I think that a lot of devs are wary of these kinds of solutions because they fear that their product will end up forced into a certain look-and-feel and certain product layout or behaviors. That it’s like a curated garden path: if you stay on the path, it’s nice but your product feels unoriginal and, if you try to leave the path, it becomes an impenetrable jungle.
Pros are you ship a product that people use, cons are you ship it fast 🤣
All the best designed products look similar for a reason. Users understand them better and as such conversions are higher.
I use Draftss but there's also ManyPixels, both of which are startups on this board.
These are art firms that charge you a flat monthly fee ($400 - $500/month) and you "share" a project manager and their pool of full-time artists. They will create whatever art that they have time for and it's custom art and you own it.
I've used them, off and on, for years. The benefits are that (1) your costs are known and capped; (2) they'll do any art you want; (3) over time, they get to know you and what you like so you get the art that you want cheaper and faster; (4) it's all original (if you insist) and you own it and can even resell it if you wish and they can't; and, (5) you can pause the service when you have no art. It's really the most inexpensive way: buying per-piece-of-art or hiring a part-time artist will quickly cost you more.
They offer usually a 1-week free trial but this actually shows the service in the worst light. It takes a month or two for you and them to really know how to work together. Before that, you will say, "Make me an awesome icon!" and, in one week, all you'll get is their guess at what "awesome" means. You've really got to do your part: you need to follow up quickly and give huge amount of detail (like sending them images you found on the Internet with notations "this style" or "with this over here" or "let's try this").
There's a lot more to this but post additional questions here and I'll answer them.
Hey thanks! I looked into it, however ManyPixels seems interesting, although they seem to be focusing more on creating assets, social media ads, etc... Nevertheless, thanks for the input!
Really, any art firm should be able to do any style that you want. When Draftss hadn’t done an artistic style that I wanted, they quickly acquired the skill. (This is common in tech giants; the designers can do any art style.) The key is good communication. You need somebody who you can communicate well with. Art ability is never the issue.
Hey Daniel, you can check out my startup - Slingshot Design (https://www.slingshotdesign.co).
We specialise in UI/UX Design & Webflow Development and have a flat monthly rate plan. I think this would suit your requirements.
Hit me up at -
[email protected]
Let's figure this out! Cheers
I am a founder of a productized design services agency.
https://383Studio.com
Our products are designed to meet you where you’re at in your product’s design cycle. We have flat rate pricing for each phase.
DM here or through the form on the page, I’d love to hear about your users and what you’re doing for them.
We recently started leveraging https://codyhouse.co/, and found it quite useful for us:
I have used Freelancer.com to get designs and people to implement those designs. It's very much an open market situation, usually you get what you pay for, but sometimes not.
Do you have any tips for people who are hiring artists on Freelancer.com for the first time?
Well, I do a lot of hiring in Freelancer, in fact, I have done 898 projects in there as an employer since 2011.
When you hire freelancers, you need to decide whether you want something good or something cheap. The only way one could typically get something good that is also cheap, is when you hire someone who is new in the platform who needs to give you a low price because they need the reviews. But, of course, hiring someone new has additional risks. They could just quit on you (you would get your money back from Freelancer's escrow system, but you will lose time).
Another thing is that Freelancer dot com and the likes are pretty much like an open market and as such, you typically get what you pay for. If someone bids to do a complete website design for $20, it's going to be pretty bad. Then again, if you are aware of the risks and just want a quick and dirty draft done, that might be what you want.
My number one tip for hiring outsourced workers would be this: write as clear instructions using as clear language as you can. While this might seem obvious, this is usually when outsourced projects start to go wrong. Especially if you are a native English speaker, you need to understand that most people in Freelancer dot com are not. They usually do not come from the same cultural background as you so paying attention to instructions and communication is paramount. I don't mean that you should talk to freelancers as idiots, I mean that you need to be very clear on communication. If you want a design look a certain way, show reference designs and say what you like about that and what you don't like.
And when you find a designer from Freelancer that you like and who you can work with, stick with them. I have found people who I work with from Freelancer that I have already worked over 10 years with.
Wow, that’s great info. Thanks for writing it. It’s similar with flat fee art firms, too.
One thing that I have noticed about non-English speakers is that they don’t understand “to be used to something”. I always substitute “to be accustomed to something” because the verb “use” is so overloaded in English that they can’t seem to understand or even look up the definition of “used to”.
Thanks for the input, I'll look into it!
I also want to mention that design contest websites are an option but I don't recommend them.