UI Designer

A UI Designer designs the visual appearance of a digital product's screens. They organise typography, colours, spacing, icons and components to make the interface clear and consistent. Working from a brief and the product's visual identity, they produce screen designs and, depending on the project, prototypes that show screens and their interactions.

Their work concerns the appearance of interfaces and how it supports their use. They apply the visual identity across pages, screen formats and planned interaction states. Where a design system exists, they use its reusable components and specify any variants needed. A micro-interaction can, for example, show the result of an action. Such details depend on the product and are not part of every role.

The UI Designer works with the people who define user journeys and those who build the interface. Depending on the organisation, they may also work with art direction or project management. Their autonomy includes organising their design work within the brief, the product's constraints and the decisions assigned to each discipline. The role may be specialised or part of a broader position. Before hiring, establish who decides on user journeys, visual identity and final approval.

UI Designer, UX Designer and Product Designer: who does what?

• UI Designer: designs the visual appearance of screens and components and, where needed, the interactions shown in screen designs.
• UX Designer: works on user journeys using needs and usage data. The two roles coordinate so that visual choices support the chosen journey.
• Product Designer: may cover a broader range of product design responsibilities. The title alone does not establish which decisions belong to them; compare the actual responsibilities in the Product Designer job profile.

User research remains distinct from visual design, even if a team or a role combines several of these tasks. Equally, a UI Designer does not necessarily lead all design work. The role's actual scope is defined by the expected deliverables and the decisions entrusted to them.

Hiring a UI Designer addresses a specific need: giving interfaces a consistent visual form that people can understand and developers can build. The main risk is seeking someone to “improve the design” without specifying which screens are involved, what has already been decided and what remains open. An appealing portfolio is not enough if the role requires applying an identity across several formats or preparing reusable components.

Consistency comes from repeated decisions. Typography, colour, spacing and iconography need to work together clearly from one screen to the next. If each page is designed in isolation, component variants become difficult to share with the teams building them. Where a design system exists, it provides a framework for reusing those choices. It does not remove decisions specific to the product: a new use case may call for a documented variant.

Hypothetical example: a team has a visual identity and several screens, but each feature uses different buttons and status messages. It could ask a UI Designer to review the visible components, specify their variants and provide screen designs for the intended screen formats. The expected outcome is a set of decisions that can be handed over to developers, rather than simply a collection of visuals.

Preparing to hire also means assigning responsibility for research, user journey design and visual approval. If one person must take on all three, the brief and assessment should cover that broader scope. Depending on its organisation and the decisions already made, a team may seek a versatile designer or someone with focused interface expertise. Team size alone does not settle the choice.

Visual quality also calls for attention to accessibility. The contrast of relevant visual cues is one concrete example, but accessibility extends beyond contrast. When hiring, ask how the person handles a readability constraint, explains a trade-off and passes the decision to the team building the interface. These points help distinguish repeatable skill from personal aesthetic preference.

• Turn a brief and visual identity into screen designs.
• Compose interfaces using typography, colours, spacing and iconography.
• Adapt screens to the planned formats and devices.
• Define visual variants of reusable components where a design system exists.
• Represent interaction states and, depending on the product, useful micro-interactions.
• Produce prototypes, depending on the project, to make interface choices observable.
• Explain visual choices to UX colleagues, technical colleagues and art directors.
• Hand over screen designs and their variants to the people building the interfaces.

Several routes can prepare someone for the role. Onisep cites, among others, the French DN MADE qualification in graphic or digital design, French licences professionnelles (vocational bachelor’s degrees) related to design or digital technology, art or design schools, and a master's degree in digital creation. These are examples, not a single entry requirement. A French titre professionnel in interface design can also attest to the production of screen designs and prototypes. Its curriculum, however, covers activities beyond visual design alone, so the qualification's name does not define the role.

Beyond formal training, useful skills include turning a brief into clear screens, applying an identity across the intended formats and, depending on the role, designing component variants or prototypes.

To assess a UI Designer, start with the screens they will design and the decisions they will make in your team. The following steps are recruitment advice to adapt to the role and the expertise available in your organisation.

1. Set criteria linked to the role

List the essential abilities before meeting candidates: visual composition, applying an identity, adapting to screen formats, using components and handing work over to developers. Link each criterion to a deliverable or an observable explanation. If your product uses a design system, specify whether the person will use it, extend it or only propose variants. Do not require user research or art direction without corresponding responsibility in the role.

Before interviews, the team clearly defines the decisions it will entrust to the future UI Designer. A warning sign is an assessment based solely on claimed proficiency with software: that says nothing about the quality of the interfaces produced.

2. Explore past work

Ask candidates to discuss a project for which they can explain the brief, constraints and their exact contribution. Ask to see several related screens, along with a variant for another format or an interaction state if the project included one. Discuss their choices of typography, colour and spacing. Ask what came from visual guidelines, an existing system or their own decisions.

Look for an explanation linking visual choices to clarity and the context of use. Be cautious of a portfolio that credits a candidate with a team's work without identifying their contribution. If candidates have no public project to show, they can present anonymised work or complete a suitable exercise.

3. Offer a practical exercise close to the real work

Provide a short brief, a screen or a component, together with the known constraints. Ask for a visual proposal and an explanation of useful variants, without expecting a complete redesign. Hypothetical example: a form needs to work on mobile and show a confirmation state. Observe the visual hierarchy, component consistency and how the candidate represents feedback after an action.

Also ask how they would check the legibility of important visual cues, particularly their contrast. A reasoned choice open to revision is a better indicator than a polished result without explanation. If the exercise requires user journey decisions you have not defined, assess that skill separately or adjust the brief.

4. Examine collaboration and communication

Invite the candidate to describe a disagreement with a UX colleague, developer or art director. Who decided what? Which constraint changed the screen design? How was the decision passed on? Observe whether they distinguish feedback about needs, a technical limitation and a visual preference.

A positive sign is the ability to explain an alternative and its consequences for the screens involved. A warning sign is a response that presents every trade-off as a personal decision when several disciplines were involved. For a more autonomous role, ask how they would organise their work stages within the project constraints.

5. Cross-check observations and references

Compare what you have learned against the initial criteria. If you contact a referee with the candidate's consent, ask about their actual contribution, the quality of the deliverables handed over and how they respond to feedback. Do not use a reference to attribute outcomes to the candidate that you have not been able to verify.

If your company has no in-house UI expertise, ask someone competent in interface design to review the screen designs and exercise. The hiring manager can retain responsibility for assessing the expected scope, collaboration and autonomy. Document strengths and uncertainties before comparing candidates.