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Outsourcing SaaS UX/HTML/CSS design

I’m a developer and have no problem coding the MVP. However I totally suck in CSS/HTML/Design. The MVP looks like crap and have had beta testers tell me that although they found it valuable they can’t recommend the app in their company because it doesn’t look “polished” enough.

I’ve tried hard to find UX/CSS folks in the Bay Area (where I’m based) but the folks I found are either web designers (no experience designing for SaaS apps) or are UX only (can only produce wireframes). The ones that are good in UX AND produce HTML/CSS appropriate for SaaS apps are like unicorns.

I was wondering if anyone has experience outsourcing this and what are the “best practices” in landing people like these? Has anyone has a good experience finding experienced talent on oDesk/Elance?

 

  • That’s an excuse, not a real reason to not recommend it

    You shouldn’t take away from this that you need to clean up your ux.

    You should take away that your value proposition isn’t strong enough.

    (Also, use something like bootstrap. You can avoid going ux for a while by just using their framework)

    Reply

  • I saw your post yesterday, and couldn’t answer immediately. My first thoughts were you are out of track, but it wasn’t clear why. First, your unicorn hunt is really strange. Either you are a good developer, as you said it, and you can learn all this stuff quickly, either you are a beginner with limited skills and you are not really capable of developing an MVP.

    I think what you can an MVP is not an MVP. The “V” is for Viable, and you program is not viable. So, you should stop calling it an MVP, because it is more likely a prototype. It may look like a detail, but if you misuse words and concept, you will have great problems in the future. For example, if you call MVP a prototype, you will likely call MMP an MVP, and based on this belief you could invest large amounts of money in marketing, for nothing.

    Other problem: why CSS/HTML for SaaS is different than CSS/HTML for web sites ? Obviously, it is the same thing. I imagine you did something special in your prototype which makes CSS/HTML hard to practice. I encourage you to learn enough about those technologies to know how to make your program fit with them. Once this will be done, any web developer could join your team and your life will be much easier.

    And think again to your value proposition. When value is really high, customers are so eager to buy you can sell them a command line tool. When value is very low, the product must be extremely sexy, pleasant, fun and beautiful to be sold. A good developer with poor UX/design skills can compete with very simple design, at least at the beginning. But his product must be a solid value proposition.

    Reply

    • OP here. I don’t think its as simple to “learn UX/design”.

      Don’t get me wrong. I got CSS/Javascript/HTML down pat. I just don’t have the eye for the intuitive parts of design. Whitespace, color, typography, layout.

      I will challenge anyone that says that design is easy to pick up. Its not. There’s something innate about it.

      However someone mentioned that wrap bootstrap is an option and I think I will go that route.

      You may be right that there’s not enough value in the app.

      Reply

      • Ok, I think I misunderstood where is your lack of skills. I know design is not easy (I have the same problem… when Apple puts black text on a white page, it’s beautiful, and when I do it, it looks like 19th century ads)

        Anyway, I don’t see why a smart web designer couldn’t do the job for your SaaS business, because you can help him on technical parts which are specific. It would be an opportunity to grow for both of you.

        But do not neglect the value proposition. There is no “design-only” viable SaaS business.

        Reply

      • Do like I did for my MVP and go to themeforest.com and drop $20-50 on a great looking theme. It will solve your color, typography,layout problem. My app doesn’t have the best user experience, but visually it looks great.

        Reply

    • One thing that tends to be helpful with the design aspect: DO NOT start thinking about the implementation right away. Force yourself to stop.

      You will be sorely tempted to jump in and (often subconsciously) make decisions based on your underlying knowledge of how those decisions impact the difficulty of the implementation.

      Don’t.

      Force yourself to take a step back. Ask yourself what it is you are trying to build, but further than that, how it will contribute value to your users’ workflows, and how it contributes to their emotional and psychological needs.

      What are they trying to do, and how do they want to feel when they are doing it? If you find yourself struggling to be highly articulate about this, it might be a sign that you may need to pursue an even deeper understanding of the problem you are setting out to solve, or the opportunity you are setting out to exploit.

      This is really, really hard. You will constantly have to be on the lookout for that “temptation”, and consciously squash it.

      Reply

  • This is a six month project.

    It would take about 3 months for you to become proficient at Adobe Illustrator and UI design fundamentals if you work at it full time and have the motivation to see it through. You’re a developer, so you pick up web dev within a reasonable amount of time.

    Add another 3 months of iteration.

    Reply

  • I don’t understand why the two are mutually exclusive. Get someone who is good at one and one good at the other and create a team to get it done.

    Suggesting that you ‘learn’ ux and design in 3 months is silly. Sure you could learn that but in 3 months you will still be an amateur.

    Personally i’m terrible at ux and design so i push this off to wrapbootstrap for templates and then call it good.

    Reply

    • OP again: The reason I want to find one is because i want to outsource UX and design and if its done overseas the communication overhead is amplified.

      As for someone local, again since I’m bootstrapped getting one person involved is an easier task than getting two and having them work together.

      Reply

      • Hi, OP; I’m the guy who write long answers to your posts :o) You need to be aware of something. There are two kinds of employers (and as a founder, you are a potential employer). Either you are “traditional”. It means you need to know your employees, and you will be easy with local employment, people you can cheer and take care of; Either you see employment as a market, and you see an employee as a contract, an amount of work, done by a human being or maybe a machine you will never ever see. You look like the kind of founder who don’t consider people and machines the same. Follow your own path, and don’t listen to advises from people who do not match your values. Their advises won’t be good for you, even if they are proven for their peer. Follow your path, it is definitely the best path for you.

        Reply

  • I’m similiar in that I’m a solid dev but not great at UI.

    For my app I used 99 designs and created a contest and the results were amazing. You would have thought I spent 40k with a ux/ui shop…..but I only spent 800 bucks.

    Reply

    • Hey thanks! My concern with 99 designs is that the contest is out in the public and everyone can know what you’re up to right?

      Reply

  • One thing that tends to be helpful with the design aspect: DO NOT start thinking about the implementation right away. Force yourself to stop.

    You will be sorely tempted to jump in and (often subconsciously) make decisions based on your underlying knowledge of how those decisions impact the difficulty of the implementation.

    Don’t.

    Force yourself to take a step back. Ask yourself what it is you are trying to build, but further than that, how it will contribute value to your users’ workflows, and how it contributes to their emotional and psychological needs.

    What are they trying to do, and how do they want to feel when they are doing it? If you find yourself struggling to be highly articulate about this, it might be a sign that you may need to pursue an even deeper understanding of the problem you are setting out to solve, or the opportunity you are setting out to exploit.

    This is really, really hard. You will constantly have to be on the lookout for that “temptation”, and consciously squash it.

    Reply
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