Freelance Projects
I have been a freelance designer since 2022. I realize that when someone says, “freelance”, it is a very general concept and gets people confused in some ways. Here in this article based on my own experience as a freelancer, I’d like to tell you what it really is all about, and not.
1- Freelance is not for one project, but so much more!
Freelance does not mean I work only with one company or person from start to finish, only one project. Nope! It is actually a process of completing variety of projects with a variety of businesses and stakeholders. For example, I worked with a start up pharmacy company to help them brainstorm ideas for their new mobile application. After my first meeting with the stakeholder, I took down my notes, went over them with him to make sure what is needed immediately and what can be focused on later on. I then did a short survey with some users to see what they thought about having an app for a pharmacy. I then talked to 3 people who were already using different pharmacy apps that were similar to the one that my stakeholder mentioned to me of creating. Based on the results, I started ideating couple of ideas- that was after creating some affinity maps, user journey maps and empathy maps based on the research. Because the stakeholders wanted to have the app as soon as possible, I contacted them to see what I had gotten so far. We then carried on working on the sketches, low fidelity apps. This whole process took a little more than one month. I then handed the results to their developers and hired local designer.
While I was working on this project, I was also working on a research project for a mental health app that my client hired me for. If I were not working on the pharmacy app, I was out in the streets or on Zoom calls to complete my research for the mental health app. As you see, a freelancer works on different projects with different people based on their contract.
2- Freelance is quick and easy. You think?
I wish… Simply put, it all depends on the project. What are we working on here? What is the size of the company we are working for? What are the deadlines? How many people are working on the same project?
Some projects I worked on took two weeks when others took more than 6 months to complete. As a UX Designer, if I am working on a research for an app or a web page, I need to do the followings first:
Find an audience
Select certain people from that audience
Create data or excel sheets to keep up with the research
Research the market to understand what kind of questions to ask
Get questions ready, print or make templates of them to send as emails
If the products already exist, download and check before testing them on users.
Things are so much different if I am hired as a Freelance UI Designer, which means to take into account all the research plus so many other things that the stakeholders expect from their app. Here are some of the steps to give you an idea:
Are we designing based on a research?
Check the research results and gather some data.
Is there certain design systems in place for this specific app?
Are we creating a design systems/ library from scratch? This one is doable alone but let me tell you this: It is the part where all the time spills into. However, it’s always good to have it in place, so then later on it saves so much time for any designer who will be working on the same app.
Meet with developers, discuss the project constantly with them. Believe it or not, I have met so many developers who were using templates rather than code. Therefore, it’s always crucial to be in touch with your developers.
Start the design process with ideating with the stakeholders, such as sketching the ideas on paper together. Most startups have great ideas for their apps but when it comes to working on it screen by screen, page by page they definitely appreciate all the help they get from UX Designers. Believe me on this! I have so many emails from my freelance clients telling me how much they appreciated my help throughout the project.
One of the other steps to design a mobile app or a web page as a freelancer is without doubt the research and inspiration process. I collect all my inspirations from similar apps to not very similar apps, colors to fonts, images to icons etc. because only then, I choose the ones related and useful to the one that I am designing. This process is one of my favorites. Love it!
3- You can showcase your Freelance Design Files to everyone all around the world. Wrong!
Most of the projects that I worked on were actually all about hiding their improvements, innovations and new updates from their competitors until it was published publicly. You might not have heard this before, or maybe you have but I sign NDAs for most of my projects, hence can’t even talk about them. Although, I ask my clients if I can share some parts of the screens that I designed on my portfolio, they usually either get back to me saying that I should not or remind me of the NDA I signed.
This is an amazing thing for the companies, startups and business owners because they don’t want their projects to be public until it all comes together. However, for me as a designer, it just makes things hard to showcase my work.
There are so many things that freelancers do but not share. So many projects they complete but not mention. There are so many clients who choose the same freelancer designer over and over again because they like working with them, but lack the social media accounts or Linkedin.
From a sketching session after meeting with my client
As a freelancer myself, I might not be able to share all my work with you due to the signed NDAs, but I can tell you that I am so very proud of my clients’ and my own work to improve the lives of so many people. I hope to become part of a company culture one day to have some stability in my work but until that day comes and the tech world realizes my true passion for UX, I will be honored to help all my clients as a freelancer.
Contact me if you are hiring a UX Researcher or a UX Designer. I’d be happy to help out!
-Elif
Email: elifz.ux@gmail.com
A freelancer works with people to serve people
