Having a UX designer on your payroll will cost you about $170,000 per year on average in the United States, according to responses gathered by Built In. Plus, if you’re located in a city like San Francisco where the cost of living is higher, you can expect to pay about 30% more.
Like these salaries, the importance of user experience design is only expected to increase. In fact, the UX Trends Report 2025 reveals that as many as eight out of 10 companies believe that it will become more popular in the next 10 years.
84% of businesses believe that UX design will become even more popular in the next 10 years.
Considering this statistic, it becomes a question not of if but when you’ll make the investment. If the cost of hiring a full-time designer is what has prevented it till now, perhaps it’s time to consider the UI/UX design outsourcing strategy. Here’s when to consider going this route and how to make it work for your business.
Source: Built In
Benefits of Outsourcing UI/UX Design Services
User experience design outsourcing is an attractive option for businesses of all sizes across various industries because of advantages like these:
1. Cost-efficiency
Outsourcing your design work is typically more affordable than hiring an in-house team. This is because expenses like salaries, employee benefits, ongoing training, and software subscriptions will be covered by the agency or freelancer. Plus, if you work with UX designers in cities or countries where the cost of living is lower, the cost-saving can be bigger.
2. Access to niche expertise
Outsourcing allows you to widen the talent pool, making it easier to find designers with specific skills.
3. Scalability and flexibility
For each new design project, the number of team members assigned to your project will get adjusted. This means that if you have a big project in the pipeline, you can easily tackle it without having to hire another full-time employee.
4. A new perspective
Your own employees are often too close to the product to see it through a user’s eyes. Outsourced designers bring a valuable outside perspective that can identify usability issues, poor navigation flows, or confusing interfaces which might have gone unnoticed for long. They can also conduct user research and usability testing without bias to create more user-centered design.
5. Access to tech
Outsourced teams usually have licenses for premium design software and tools you need to get the job done, which adds to the cost of sticking in-house. Plus, you won’t have to invest your employees’ time in getting to learn tools like Figma, Miro, or Adobe.
When to Outsource UI/UX Design
UX design outsourcing starts to make even more sense when you find yourself in one (or more) of the following situations:
New product launch
With a new product, the stakes are high. You’re essentially laying the groundwork for long-term customer loyalty. Using UX outsourcing for a milestone event like this will allow you to work with the best talent you can afford to ensure you get it right from the start. As speed is also crucial during a product launch, outsourcing this responsibility allows you to achieve a faster time to market.
Little in-house experience
If your plan is to ask your marketing manager who has been using Canva for the occasional graphic, it’s better to outsource. Full-cycle UI/UX design has many technical aspects involved like mapping a user journey, interaction design, incorporating key UI/UX patterns, and rigorous testing. Plus, working with a strong foundation will avoid costly iterations later, making it wiser to start with an experienced team from the start.
Breaking into a new market
As outsourcing allows you to work with designers across borders, it can be a good strategy to follow when you’re breaking into an unfamiliar market. This way, you can tap into their location-specific knowledge too, ensuring that your website or app will reflect small cultural nuances too.
One-off projects
If you rarely need help with UI/UX design, adding a UX designer to your payroll will be unsensible. Outsourcing gives you the flexibility not only to tackle UX design as the need arises, but it also allows you to adjust the number of team members for bigger projects.
Tight deadline
When you outsource UI design work, you get access to ready-to-go experts. You can skip rounds of interviews and weeks of onboarding. Plus, agencies and freelancers are typically used to working under tight timelines.
Learn more
7 Expert Tips for Outsourcing UI/UX Design Efficiently
While there are many reasons to opt for user experience design outsourcing and situations in which it’s the more sensible route, it must still be approached strategically. Here’s how can (and should) get involved:
Define Exactly What You Need
All the project deliverables should be listed beforehand. This will give the shortlisted candidates the opportunity to verify if they indeed have the skills and capacity for your project.
If you’re struggling yourself to pin down what you need, explain the problem that you’re trying to solve. Perhaps you’re tired of reviews regularly describing your user interface as clunky? Maybe you’ve noticed many users drop off at onboarding?
You might be able to sum up your problem in a sentence, but it will take more than that to define it properly. It’s best practice to create a design brief for this. In addition to defining your needs and requirements, it can also be used to communicate other key details like your target audience, user personas, and business goals to ensure that the result is on point.
The more your team knows about your audience and business, the better they can tailor the user experience. Plus, it helps to set a professional tone from the start.
Clearly Communicate Your Business Goals and Brand Vision to Contractors
In addition to presenting the UI/UX design team with a problem, you also need to share your business goals. Being specific about your business goals and vision upfront will help the agency to prioritize the elements that make the most sense.
For example, do you wish to make the user interface more modern or in line with your branding? There’s a difference.
You can also share design examples that you have in mind. It will make it easier for the team to imagine your brand vision when they have a visual reference.
That said, as you’ll be working with an external team, possibly thousands of miles away, communicating this information will be more challenging. It’s best to set up a video call for this key step in the process and from there on you can use Slack for daily/weekly communication and email for formal or asynchronous updates.
Clarify Your Budget and Timeline Expectations Upfront
Budget and timeline go hand in hand. You can expect to pay more for tighter deadlines. As such, it’s best that these two factors are discussed simultaneously.
When your team knows your constraints in both money and time, they can prioritize features to help you realize your vision. It also gives them the opportunity to withdraw if they feel they lack the resources to deliver on budget and on time.
Even if they’re interested in taking on your project, they’ll need to tailor their team size and UI/UX design process to fit your budget and deadline.
In fact, they’ll be better equipped to help you maximize your own budget. When they have clear constraints, it’s easier to identify the features which will have the biggest impact and see to it that these get designed first.
Being transparent about the budget and timeline also encourages the agency to work within your limits instead of overselling. This helps reduce the chance of conflict or resentment developing during the project.
Understand the Outsourcing Model and What’s Included in the Package
When you’re thinking about outsourcing instead of hiring, you specifically want to ask about how they approach the partnership. The outsourcing model will determine how they will integrate with your internal team.
Some agencies will be happy to work as an extension of your team and use your tools and platforms. Other models operate more independently and deliver work in milestones.
Then, you also need to look at what’s included in the actual package. Some agencies offer full-cycle services that start with an UI/UX audit and ends with testing and iterations. Others may skip the strategizing and focus solely on the visual parts. Even if they offer end-to-end services, you’ll need to ask specifically about finer details like if it will include key UI design principles (like responsive UI/UX design) and revisions.
For example, hourly billing models may offer more flexibility but can quickly balloon in cost if the scope isn’t tightly defined. On the other hand, retainers often provide more support at a capped price but may not be efficient for one-off projects.
Evaluate Potential Partners Based on Their Portfolio and Experience
When you’re evaluating their portfolio, specifically search for projects completed for your industry. You need industry-specific experience to know which features deserve prioritization. Aside from understanding your target audience’s pain points and preferences, they’ll also be able to incorporate industry trends to deliver designs that reflect current styles.
In addition to industry experience, check that they have the technical skills. Effective design is a combination of pure human creativity and tool tinkering.
The nature of UX design means that the portfolio will focus heavily on visuals. However, check that they offer context to their designs. They need to describe the problem, their approach, and the results too.
If all you see are pretty user interfaces and visuals, ask for the story behind the design and their approach. If they can’t explain how they solved the problem, proceed with caution.
Clarify How UI/UX Design Effectiveness Will Be Measured
A common pitfall is to focus all your discussions on the outputs and forget the outcomes. It needs to look and work better. That’s why the focus should also shift from deciding between UI vs UX and realize that you need both for your design to work.
That said, “looks and work better” is still too vague. Better can look differently to you. Your designers might think it’s increased engagement, but for you the real goal is higher conversions.
As such, tie your project to specific KPIs. This will also help your design team to identify which data they should collect.
It depends on your goals, but here are some common numbers you might want to track:
- Task success rate
- Error rate
- Bounce rate
- Time on site
- Sign-up rate
- Checkout completion
- Demo bookings
- Satisfaction ratings
- Onboarding time
Learn about Ongoing Support Opportunities after the Initial Launch
Once the designs are delivered, will the agency or freelancer stick around to offer support during development and implementation? Can you request tweaks based on user feedback post-launch? Is maintenance included?
These are the types of questions you want to ask before you outsource UX/UI design, not when you realise that you need more support.
Without post-delivery support, your development team may struggle to implement designs properly. Or, you may find yourself paying extra for revisions you assumed were included.
Become a client
Before You Outsource: Red and Green Flags When Choosing an UI/UX Design Agency
Cost is likely the main reason why you’re considering outsourcing your project. While agencies are typically more expensive than freelancers, they’re still the most cost-effective option, especially in the long term. They have the breadth of skills and capacity to complete ongoing or complex projects.
That said, their experience won’t come to waste for smaller, one-off projects as they have proven processes that allow them to work more efficiently. Most of the time, they’ll assign a dedicated project manager to oversee the project, a job which would otherwise fall on your shoulders when you work with a freelancer.
Choosing an agency still requires a careful choice and the following list will help when you’re ready to take the next step.
✔️Green flags
The following are positive indicators that show they’re likely reliable and experienced.
Clear communication
From the very interaction, their communication should be timely, professional, and jargon-free. They should also have a process in place for how future communication will take place. Ideally, they should offer you a list of channels, like email, Zoom, Slack, or phone, and ask you which one you prefer.
System for collaboration
With UI outsourcing, you still need to be involved. As such, look for an agency that views themselves as UI/UX partners. They need to be able to work closely with your developer and marketers. Check that they have regular check-ins and schedule time to walk you through wireframes and prototypes.
Long-term clients
While reviews from past clients are great, it’s even better if it’s one from a business that has used them for multiple projects. It speaks to their ability to deliver good results consistently and comfortability with following a collaborative approach.
❌Red flags
The following should be treated as warning signs:
Unclear pricing
Vague pricing structures will lead to unpleasant surprises. Instead of focusing on which design iterations are needed, your attention will go toward questioning their invoicing.
Before you outsource UX design to an agency or freelancer, ask about which extra fees will be added on top of the price you’ve been quoted. You specifically want to ask about tax too. In some countries, it’s common practice for the total to be tax inclusive, while other places quote without tax.
Ideally, you should also receive an itemized breakdown. This way, you can see where your money is going. It can also help to identify costly services which you can possibly eliminate if you’re looking to cut back.
Limited research or testing
User research, testing, and revisions help to uncover usability and accessibility issues before it’s too late. It also gives you reassurance that design decisions are based on data. Without data to drive design direction, your website or app will likely leave your target audience unimpressed.
Negative or few reviews
Negative reviews are one of the most obvious red flags. Social proof like reviews, ratings, and testimonials remain one of the best ways to determine if the agency is as good as they claim. In addition to design quality, it will also give you a first-person account of reliability and availability that a portfolio can’t share.
Few online reviews are more of an orange light. Proceed cautiously as it could point to inexperience.
Make Digital Product Convenient with Duck.Design: Your Proven UI/UX Outsourcing Partner
Duck.Design understands why UX is important and why you’re considering outsourcing such crucial work to an agency. Here’s how we ensure that we deliver on all the benefits outsourcing can offer.
Firstly, we have a huge network of designers that allows us to assign more designers should your project’s scope increase. Aside from the fact that we have enough designers, our skills also stretch across a wide range of related disciplines. This means that we’ll have the specialized skills needed for your future design projects too. In fact, almost all members of our multi-disciplinary team would likely have worked on a product project at some stage.
Then, we keep the costs down and predictable with our subscription plans. For a fixed monthly fee, you’ll receive unlimited design. This pricing model is another way that we make our UI/UX design services scalable. You can start with our most comprehensive and popular package that includes custom graphics, web solutions, UI design, and motion graphics. Then, when you only need graphic designs for your everyday marketing needs, you can switch to a more affordable plan.
