Parvessh Agarwal
Founder & CEO
An entrepreneur at heart. He links business analysis, strategy, clear goals and ROI to practical technology.
LinkedIn →Hire UI/UX designers
who research before they draw.
A dedicated UI/UX designer, or a small team, who tests your interface with real users, not just styles it. They work inside the design system you already have. You meet the designer who would open your Figma files before a contract is signed.
Interview before signing · Scale monthly
14-day trial
Try before you commit
Start Your 14-Day Risk-Free Trial
Work together on a real brief for up to 14 days, then decide whether to scale.
What you get
Hiring a UI/UX designer through PixelCrayons gets you a vetted product design specialist inside your team. They start from research and a clear structure for your content. They test flows with real users where scope allows, and work inside your existing design system. A named coordinator and regular reviews back them. You interview the designer first and scale monthly.
- Vetted on live product workEvery designer has worked on live product files to our standards, checked in structured design reviews.
- Cover when a design review cannot waitA named coordinator, an escalation contact and a backup designer who picks up files without a slow start.
- Working inside your teamThey work in your Figma, design reviews and project tools, with your email domain if you want it.
Our work
See what we've built
and the results it brought.
Real projects for real clients, with results we can show.
2004
Established
500+
Agencies served
4,500+
Projects delivered
340%
Revenue growth · 7 months
eCommerce
+127%
Organic traffic · 5 months
SaaS
85%
Faster delivery · backlog cleared
via agency partner
Where the work happens
Monthly rate for this hire
From $3,200per month, 160 hoursSenior specialists from $4,000, quoted per person.
Direct prices for brands and companies buying for themselves.
What they cover
UI/UX design skills
that make your product easier to use.
This is not someone who just picks nice colours. Their job is whether people can use your interface. They prove that before it ships.
Research and UX
- User research: interviews, watching people use the product at work, and survey design
- Information architecture: how your content is organised, grouped and labelled
- Usability testing, with or without a moderator in the session
- Journey maps and service blueprints that show each step a user takes
- Expert reviews of an existing product against proven usability rules
Interface design
- Figma files built from components and ready for developers
- Design systems and component libraries
- Interaction and motion design
- Accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA, the common web accessibility standard, as the default
- Interfaces that work across screen sizes and platforms
Handover, reviews and quality checks
- Developer handover: specs, redlines (measured spacing) and marked-up states
- Working inside your existing design system rather than replacing it
- Presenting to stakeholders and running structured design reviews
- Checking the shipped product against the design
- Documentation your team can build on without a designer in the room
In practice
How a UI/UX designer
spends the time between screens.
What the work involves beyond Figma, how to judge a candidate, and where this role hands over to others.
What the work looks like week to week
A typical week has three parts. First, research: a few user interviews or a usability session on the current flow. The notes become findings the team can act on. Second, design: rough flows first, then screens built in Figma from existing components. The empty, error and loading states are included. Third, delivery: notes for developers, answers to their questions during the sprint, and checks on what shipped. The balance shifts with the roadmap. But a designer who spends every day on polished screens is skipping the parts that decide whether those screens work.
What to look for in the interview
Ask them to walk through one project, starting from the problem, not the final screens. Strong designers talk about what they learned from users and which idea they dropped and why. They also say what changed after launch. Give them a screen from your product and ask what they would test first. Ask how they decide when a new component belongs in the design system and when a one-off is fine. Ask how they handle a stakeholder who wants something the research argues against. Listen for evidence, not just preference. Polished visuals matter, but you are really hiring the reasoning behind them.
Before the first session
Give them edit access to your Figma files and libraries. Add logins to the live product and staging. Share the analytics that show how people move through your key flows. Share support tickets or sales notes that describe where users get stuck. Line up a small group of customers willing to talk, or agree how to recruit people for usability sessions. Finding participants is the most common reason research slips. Name who signs off on design decisions. Invite a developer to the first design review, so technical limits come up early rather than at handover.
Where UI/UX ends and other roles begin
A UI/UX designer decides how the product works and looks at the interface level. If the question is what your brand stands for, you need a brand strategist. If you need a logo, campaign visuals or sales material, you need a graphic designer. If the designs are settled and the gap is building them accurately, hire a frontend developer. The designer hands over marked-up files and stays involved through the build. They check what ships against what was designed. If you have both roles, pair them from the start rather than passing files over at the end.
How it works
How hiring works,
from brief to first day.
Start
Brief and a call
We sign an NDA and you talk us through your product, your existing files and the gap.
Once the brief is complete
Proposal and interview
We confirm when your proposal will arrive and name the designer whose product work fits. You interview them before anything is signed. If the fit is wrong, we propose someone else.
Your decision
You sign off
You confirm the scope, the payment and the access we need. Nothing starts before this.
Typically 2 to 3 business days later
The designer starts
With Figma access in place, they review your existing design system and join your design reviews.
Every month
Scale up or down
Add a second designer when the roadmap grows. Step down when it does not. Each month you can add or reduce design capacity, with no hiring decision needed.
You make requests, give approvals and see the weekly review in your Prism workspace. Each decision is written down with the result it was meant to bring. See how Prism runs the work →
Get a Proposal
Meet the people who will do the work before you sign
Why through us
Why hire through us:
the designer and the design reviews behind them.
Hiring a designer on your own gets you their skill. Hiring through a company that delivers this work every day adds structured reviews and cover. That keeps your design system consistent when more than one person works on it.
Vetted on live product work
Every designer in our team has worked on live product files before yours. That work met our own delivery standards. It was checked in structured design reviews and held to the same accessibility standard you will see. A polished case study looks good in photos. A component library that worked on real screens is much harder to fake. It is the only kind we trust.
Cover when a design review cannot wait
Behind the designer sit a named coordinator, an escalation contact and a named backup. The backup is briefed on your product from day one. They follow the open files and review notes as they change. If the first designer is on leave or leaves, the backup picks up the file without a slow start. A lone freelancer cannot offer this, and an in-house hire needs a whole team to cover it. You get a designer and the review process behind them.
Working inside your team
Your Figma, your design reviews, your project tools, your email domain if you want it. Dedicated means working the way you already work. Files are not thrown over a wall for someone else's queue to open eventually.
Design checks you can see
Design reviews are written down. Usability findings are written up, not summarised from memory. A design system decision log means nobody has to guess why a component looks the way it does. If you ever question the fee, the review notes and decision log answer before we have to.
Side by side
Hiring on your own,
compared with hiring through us.
A full-time in-house hire is worth it once product design is a permanent, central job for you. We will tell you plainly when that is. This page covers every other case.
| Hiring it yourself | Through PixelCrayons | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to a working specialist | A full recruiting cycle: sourcing, portfolio review, interviews and notice periods | Eligible work can typically start two to three business days after scope, payment and required access are confirmed |
| Vetting | Portfolio review and interviews: you find out the truth on real screens | A track record on real product work, held to our own standards and checked in structured reviews |
| Fit with your design system | A new hire tends to reach for their own patterns first | Briefed to extend what exists before proposing to replace it |
| Management work | All yours: goals, review routine, career growth and leave cover | A named PM and escalation path are included; you review the files instead of managing a hire |
| Scaling | A full recruiting cycle either way: months to fill a seat, an awkward exit to empty one | Resize monthly: add a designer or step down after a conversation |
Who is accountable
The people responsible
for your work.
Saundaraya Gupta
Technical Manager
Brings technical work, client updates and project management together, so work moves smoothly from brief to launch.
LinkedIn →Every engagement
A named coordinator and escalation contact
Know who coordinates your engagement, who owns the work and how to escalate an issue.
All engagements. Roles may be combined and vary with your engagement.
Before you sign
Our commitments
Each one says where it applies and links to its full terms.
14-Day Risk-Free Trial
For eligible managed specialists. Up to 14 calendar days or 80 logged working hours, whichever comes first. End within the trial and pay nothing for eligible trial hours. Continue beyond it and those hours are billed at the agreed rate. Unpaid trial work remains ours if you stop.
Eligible managed-specialist roles only, one trial per customer. Not offered for AI, chatbot, prompt, automation, API-integration or QA work. Brand and graphic designers, brand strategists, video editors, content writers, copywriters and content marketers start with a paid pilot.
Full termsTime-zone overlap
At least four hours a day inside your core working hours. Two hours plus a daily written handover for the US West Coast.
Managed specialists only; not a staffing promise for project teams.
Full termsClear IP & Ownership Terms
Your materials remain yours. Bespoke deliverable rights, licences and handover are agreed before work starts.
All engagements.
Full termsClear Delivery & Escalation Ownership
Know who coordinates your engagement, who owns the work and how to escalate an issue.
All engagements. Roles may be combined and vary with your engagement.
Full termsWhy not just hire a freelancer?
A freelancer can be the right choice for a single, well-defined task. We are set up for work that needs an accountable team: a named coordinator, delivery reviewed by QA and a senior lead before release, and continuity arrangements written into the engagement. Confidentiality, ownership and escalation terms are agreed in writing before work starts.
How does time-zone overlap work?
Your engineers work at least four hours a day inside your core working hours. We set the window with you before the engagement starts and hold it for as long as the engagement runs. For the US West Coast the live overlap is two hours each morning, with a written handover at the end of every Indian day. We do not run night shifts: engineers who work nights leave quickly, and keeping the same people on your team matters more to us than a longer overlap.
Can we try you before we commit?
For eligible managed specialists, yes: up to 14 calendar days or 80 logged working hours, whichever comes first. Stop within it and eligible trial hours are free; continue and they're billed at the agreed rate. Unpaid trial work stays ours. Project work and other roles get a paid pilot with scope, acceptance criteria, duration and fee agreed first.
What if we want to stop?
Cancellation, notice and any renewal terms are written into your proposal or statement of work before you accept it. If an engagement ends early, we hand over completed, paid-for work and list any unfinished work separately. For an eligible specialist trial, you can stop within the trial window and pay nothing for eligible trial hours.
How we handle claims, credentials and your data: group credentials, dated ratings, how case figures are signed off, client permissions and data handling.
How we vet
How we vet a UI/UX designer
and what to ask them.
Polished visuals matter, but you are really hiring the reasoning behind them. So our vetting starts from the problem and the research. It looks at the evidence a designer brings to an argument.
- 01Shortlist on real product workWe put forward the designer whose track record on real product work fits your product, files and gap. That work met our own standards and was checked in structured reviews. Shipped screens from real products are available under NDA on request.
- 02Interview from the problem firstAsk them to walk through one project, starting from the problem. Strong designers talk about what they learned from users, which idea they dropped and why, and what changed after launch. Give them a screen from your product and ask what they would test first.
- 03Test evidence against preferenceAsk how they handle a stakeholder who wants something the research argues against. Listen for evidence rather than preference. Ask when a new component belongs in the design system and when a one-off is fine.
- 04The trial: inside your design systemIf you take the trial, it runs on a scope agreed before it starts. Expect your design system to be reviewed and written up, not second-guessed. Then flows are sketched roughly before Figma, with empty, error and loading states included.
Questions
Frequently
asked.
Eligible work can typically start two to three business days after scope, payment and required access are confirmed. Once we have a complete brief, we confirm when your proposal will arrive. You interview the designer before signing. Shipped screens from real products are available under NDA.
It starts with an NDA, then access to Figma and your product. The designer reviews your current design system and writes up what they found. Then the first month's priorities are agreed. They join your design reviews from week one, so onboarding runs inside your process, not off to the side.
They work inside it, by default. The brief is to extend the patterns, tokens and components you already have, not to arrive wanting to start over. If something in the system holds the product back, they will say so. They give a specific reason and a proposed fix, not a full rebuild pitched on day one.
Yes, one is the normal start: a single product designer covers most roadmaps. A second, such as a researcher or a motion specialist, joins when the scope needs it. The monthly resize works both ways.
Tell us early and we will propose another designer; that is standard. The new designer gets the system notes, research findings and decision log. So the switch costs days, not a restart. The proposal names a second product designer. It also makes clear whether cover for the first is in the monthly rate.
Interview your UI/UX designer
before you sign anything.
Tell us about your product and the gap, and meet the actual designer before anything is signed. If you really need a project rather than a person, we will say so on the first call.
Interview before signing · Scale monthly
Last updated