When hiring a designer, it’s easy to be impressed by a beautiful portfolio but harder to know if they can actually deliver technically. A great look doesn’t always mean great execution.

To avoid costly mistakes, here are some practical ways to validate a designer’s technical skills before making a hire.

Start by asking them to walk you through one of their recent projects. Don’t just listen to the story they’ve polished for interviews. Ask specific questions like how they handled responsive breakpoints, if they tested with screen readers and keyboard navigation, or which export settings they preferred. A skilled designer will detail file formats, optimization techniques, and code boundaries. They’ll mention file formats like SVG, WebP, or JPEG 2000.

Request a design file or prototype that you can interact with. If they’re using Figma or Adobe XD, найти дизайнера ask if you can view it in preview mode or even edit it. Verify naming consistency across elements, whether they use BEM or atomic naming, and if components are reusable. These small habits reveal discipline and technical awareness. A messy, unstructured file often signals a lack of experience working with developers.

Ask for a quick design-to-code challenge. Give them a simple layout—say, a card with an image, heading, button, and subtle shadow—and ask them to recreate it in code using HTML and CSS. Basic front-end literacy is enough to assess quality. Look for clean, semantic markup, avoidance of hardcoded pixel values, and fluid layouts that adapt to mobile. This exercise exposes gaps between design intent and technical reality.

Check if they’ve worked with design systems. Ask if they’ve used tools like Storybook, or contributed to a component library. Designers who understand systems know how to create scalable, consistent interfaces. This is a strong indicator of technical maturity.

Finally, ask for references from past developers they’ve collaborated with. Dev feedback is brutally honest. If a designer delivers non-implementable designs, misunderstands technical limitations, or sends oversized images or unminified files, you’ll hear it straight from the source. Engineers who vouch for them are likely to want to work with them again.

Don’t rely only on aesthetics. The best designers are not just artists—they’re problem solvers who understand the medium they’re designing for. Testing capability upfront prevents costly redesigns and delays.