Six question sets for employers hiring a web designer: core craft, portfolio walkthrough, responsive and handoff, accessibility, freelance terms, and a 1-to-5 scorecard. Every question comes with what a good answer sounds like. Download as DOCX.
The first web designer I ever hired showed me a portfolio I could not evaluate. Every screen looked good, and I had no idea whether any of it was good work. I asked a few polite questions about inspiration, liked the person, and hired on that. The site he built was beautiful on my monitor and close to unusable on a phone, which is where almost all of our customers were.
The fix was not learning typography. It was learning which questions separate a designer who solves a business problem from one who produces pictures. At FirstHR, we build for owners who make this hire themselves, so this page gives you six question sets written for the employer side, each question paired with what a good answer sounds like, plus a scorecard.
TL;DR
Interview a web designer on four things: visual craft, process and reasoning, responsive and technical judgment, and accessibility. Run a portfolio walkthrough on two real projects, ask what the candidate personally designed and what the site produced after launch, and open their live work on your phone. Score all six areas from 1 to 5 the same day.
What to Assess in a Web Designer
Assess four areas: visual craft, process and reasoning, responsive and technical judgment, and accessibility. Craft is the one owners try hardest to judge and are least equipped to judge. The other three are where a non-designer can form a reliable opinion, and they predict far more of what the hire will actually be like to work with.
Process is the most revealing of the four. A designer who opens a redesign conversation by asking what the site has to produce, who the customer is, and what is failing now is showing you how the whole engagement will run. One who opens with a style opinion is showing you that too.
Visual craft
Typography, spacing, and hierarchy hold up
Consistent across a whole site, not one screen
A defined type scale and color system
Process and reasoning
Starts from the business goal
Explains every choice in plain language
Asks about customers and content early
Responsive and technical
Designs the phone layout as the main case
Tests on real devices and browsers
Knows what makes a page slow
Accessibility and usability
Checks contrast with a tool, not by eye
Labels, focus states, keyboard paths
Alternative text written for meaning
Web Designer, Web Developer, or UX Designer?
A web designer decides how a site looks and how a visitor moves through it. A web developer writes the code that makes it run. A UX designer works upstream on research, information architecture, and testing. The three overlap, and posting for the wrong one is the most common mistake I see at this stage.
Typically owns
Web Designer
Web Developer
Layout, typography, and color system
Page structure and visitor flow
Builds in a page builder or CMS
Writes production HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
Integrations, databases, and server work
The overlap row is the one to settle before you interview. Many web designers build the entire site themselves in a builder and never involve a developer, which is often exactly right for a small business. Others hand files over. Ask where they stop, write the answer into the scope, and use the web designer job description to describe the slice you actually need.
Which Question Set Should You Use?
Pick the sets that match the hire, then ask the same questions of every candidate for that role. The core set works for every web designer hire. The other four are add-ons, and the scorecard pairs with any of them.
Core Questions
Every hire
Process, tools, deliverables, and where their skills stop. Each question carries a note on what a good answer sounds like, so a non-designer can judge it. Start here.
Portfolio Walkthrough
The most useful hour
Eight questions that turn a screenshot tour into evidence: what the client wanted, what the candidate personally did, and what the work produced after launch.
Responsive and Handoff
Phones, speed, files
Whether they design for the small screen and an average connection, how they test, what makes a page heavy, and exactly what you receive at the end.
Accessibility and Usability
Contrast, labels, keyboard
Whether accessibility is part of their craft or an extra they expect someone else to bolt on. Includes forms, focus states, and alternative text.
Freelance and Contract
Scope and ownership
For a project hire: pricing structure, revision rounds defined by number, asset licensing, post-launch support, and a clean handover if you part ways.
Scorecard and Red Flags
Rate and compare
A six-area rubric scored 1 to 5 with space for written evidence, a nine-item red-flag checklist, and the practical checks to run before you decide.
Match the Sets to the Hire
Every candidate gets the core set plus the portfolio walkthrough. Add Responsive and Handoff whenever the site matters commercially, which is almost always. Add Accessibility if your site is open to the public. Add Freelance and Contract for any project engagement, agency, or contractor. Use the scorecard with all of them. Two sets asked well beat six asked in a rush.
6 Free Question Sets to Download
Download all six as one Word document, or copy individual sets. Each follows the same structure: when to use it, the questions with good-answer notes, what to listen for, and space for notes. The last file adds the rubric, a red-flag checklist, and the practical checks to run before you decide.
Download All 6 Web Designer Question Sets
Core, portfolio walkthrough, responsive and handoff, accessibility, freelance terms, and a scorecard with red flags. All in one DOCX.
Set 1: Core Web Designer Questions
Process, tools, deliverables, consistency, and where their own skills stop. Every question carries a note on what a good answer sounds like, so you can judge it without a design background. Start here for every candidate.
Core Web Designer Interview Questions
CORE WEB DESIGNER INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Candidate: __
Business: __
Interviewer: __
Date: _
HOW TO USE THIS SET
This is the starting set for most small businesses hiring a web designer, whether
for a marketing site, an online store, or a full redesign. Ask 6 to 8 of these
questions and use the good-answer notes to judge craft even if you have no design
background yourself. Ask the same questions of every candidate, then score them
on the rubric in Set 6.
QUESTIONS
1. Walk me through how you would approach a redesign of our current site.
(Good answer: asks what the site is for and what it has to produce before
talking about visuals. Starts with goals, audience, and current problems.)
2. What would you need to know about our business before designing a screen?
(Good answer: business goals, target customer, competitors, content, budget,
timeline, and who signs off. A candidate who asks nothing is a warning sign.)
3. Which tools do you design in, and what exactly do you hand over at the end?
(Good answer: names real tools such as Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, Webflow, or
WordPress, and describes the deliverable: source files, a clickable prototype,
a style guide, or a built and launched site.)
4. How do you decide a layout is finished and ready to build?
(Good answer: ties the call to the goal and to review or testing, not to
personal taste or to how long they have stared at it.)
5. How much HTML and CSS do you write yourself, and where do you stop?
(Good answer: honest about the line. Some web designers build the whole site
in a page builder; others hand files to a developer. Either is fine when the
scope is agreed in writing before the work starts.)
6. Tell me about a site you designed where the result did not perform, and what
you changed after launch.
(Good answer: names a real metric that disappointed them and a specific fix.)
7. How do you keep a site visually consistent as pages get added over time?
(Good answer: a style guide, reusable components, a defined type scale and
color palette, documented so a non-designer can follow it.)
8. What do you need from us to do your best work on this project?
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
•Starts with the business goal, not with a visual preference
•Names specific tools and specific deliverables, not categories
•Honest about where their own skills stop and a developer starts
•Explains design decisions in plain language a non-designer can follow
•Asks you questions back, especially about customers and content
NOTES
__
__
Set 2: Portfolio Walkthrough Questions
Eight questions that turn a screenshot tour into evidence: what the client wanted, what the candidate personally designed, what constraints they worked under, and what the site produced after launch.
Portfolio Walkthrough Questions
WEB DESIGNER PORTFOLIO WALKTHROUGH QUESTIONS
Candidate: __
Project reviewed: __
Interviewer: __
WHEN TO USE THIS SET
The portfolio walkthrough is the single most useful part of a web designer
interview, and it is the part most owners run badly. Do not scroll through
screenshots and say that looks nice. Pick two projects closest to your own
situation, ask the candidate to present each one for about ten minutes, and use
these questions to find out what they actually did and what it produced.
QUESTIONS FOR EACH PROJECT
1. What was the client trying to achieve with this site, in their words?
(Good answer: a business outcome such as more inquiries, fewer support calls,
or higher checkout completion. Not "they wanted a modern look".)
2. Which parts of this did you personally design, and who did the rest?
(Good answer: a clean, unembarrassed split of credit. Watch for candidates who
say "we" for every decision and never "I".)
3. What did the site look like before, and why did you change it?
4. Walk me through one screen and tell me why each major element sits where it
does. (Good answer: reasons tied to what the visitor needs to do next.)
5. What constraints did you work under: budget, brand rules, an existing
platform, a legacy content management system, a stubborn stakeholder?
6. How did you know whether it worked after launch?
(Good answer: names something measured. Traffic, conversion, bounce, form
submissions, support tickets, or at minimum a client verdict with detail.)
7. What would you do differently if you started this project again today?
(Good answer: specific and self-aware. "Nothing" is a weak answer.)
8. Is this site still live, and can we look at it on my phone right now?
(Good answer: yes, or a clear reason why not. Then actually open it.)
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
•A story that runs goal, constraint, decision, result
•Clear ownership of their own contribution
•At least one measured outcome, not only aesthetics
•Comfort being questioned about a choice without becoming defensive
NOTES
__
__
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Set 3: Responsive, Performance, and Handoff Questions
Whether they design for the phone and an average connection, which devices they test on, what makes a page heavy, and exactly what you receive at the end of the project.
Responsive, Performance, and Handoff Questions
RESPONSIVE, PERFORMANCE, AND HANDOFF QUESTIONS
Candidate: __
Business: __
Interviewer: __
WHEN TO USE THIS SET
Most visitors will meet your site on a phone, on an average connection, in a
browser you did not choose. This set tests whether the candidate designs for that
reality or only for a large monitor. Use it for every web designer hire, whether
employee, contractor, or agency, and keep the answers next to the portfolio
review.
QUESTIONS
1. Walk me through how you design for phones, tablets, and desktop.
(Good answer: designs the small screen first or in parallel, not as a squeeze
of the desktop layout at the end. Mentions breakpoints, flexible grids, and
images that scale.)
2. Which devices and browsers do you test in before you call something done?
(Good answer: real devices plus browser testing, not one machine.)
3. What makes a page slow, and what do you control as a designer?
(Good answer: oversized images, too many fonts and scripts, heavy video and
sliders. Names compression, image formats, and restraint as the fixes.)
4. How many typefaces and weights would you use on a site like ours, and why?
(Good answer: few, with a reason. Every extra weight is another download.)
5. How do you design for content we have not written yet?
(Good answer: designs to realistic content lengths, not to filler text, and
asks for real copy early.)
6. If you hand off to a developer, what do they receive from you?
(Good answer: organized files, named components, spacing and type rules,
states for buttons and forms, and assets exported at the right sizes.)
7. Who owns the source files and the assets when the project ends?
(Good answer: expects you to own them and says so without prompting.)
8. How would you hand this site to us so we can update it ourselves?
(Good answer: a page builder or content management system we can run, plus
documentation and a short training session.)
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
•Small screens treated as the main case, not the afterthought
•Concrete testing habits across devices and browsers
•Understands that design decisions drive page weight and speed
•Plans the handoff before the project starts, not after
NOTES
__
Set 4: Accessibility and Usability Questions
Contrast, form labels, keyboard paths, focus states, and alternative text. This set tells you whether accessibility is part of the candidate's craft or an extra they expect somebody else to add later.
Accessibility and Usability Questions
WEB DESIGNER ACCESSIBILITY AND USABILITY QUESTIONS
Candidate: __
Business: __
Interviewer: __
WHEN TO USE THIS SET
The Department of Justice has long taken the position that the Americans with
Disabilities Act applies to web content, and an inaccessible public website is a
real exposure for a business open to the public. You do not need to be an expert
to ask these questions. You need to hear whether the candidate treats
accessibility as part of the craft or as an extra someone else handles later.
This is general information, not legal advice.
QUESTIONS
1. What does accessible web design mean to you in practice?
(Good answer: usable by people with vision, hearing, motor, and cognitive
differences. Mentions the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines by name.)
2. How do you choose colors so text stays readable?
(Good answer: checks contrast ratios with a tool, does not rely on color alone
to carry meaning, and knows light gray on white is the classic failure.)
3. How do you design forms so they are usable for everyone?
(Good answer: visible labels rather than placeholder-only fields, clear error
messages, large touch targets, logical order.)
4. Can someone use the site you designed with a keyboard and no mouse?
(Good answer: yes, with visible focus states designed in, not stripped out
because the outline looked untidy.)
5. What do you do about images and video?
(Good answer: alternative text written for meaning, captions for video, no
text baked into images where it can be avoided.)
6. Have you ever tested a design with a screen reader or with a real user who
relies on assistive technology?
7. A stakeholder wants a low-contrast layout that fails a contrast check. How do
you handle that conversation?
(Good answer: presents an alternative that keeps the intent and passes.)
8. How do you keep a site accessible after launch, when we add pages ourselves?
(Good answer: a short written standard and a checklist we can follow.)
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
•Treats accessibility as design work, not as a developer task
•Names the guidelines and at least one concrete check they run
•Can explain the business case, not only the legal one
•Gives us something we can maintain after they are gone
NOTES
__
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Set 5: Freelance and Contract Web Designer Questions
For a project hire: pricing structure, revision rounds defined by number, asset licensing, ownership of source files, post-launch support, and a clean handover if you part ways.
Freelance and Contract Web Designer Questions
FREELANCE AND CONTRACT WEB DESIGNER QUESTIONS
Candidate: __
Business: __
Interviewer: __
WHEN TO USE THIS SET
Many small businesses do not need a full-time web designer. A freelancer or an
agency designs the site, launches it, and stays on for occasional work. That
changes what you have to ask about: scope, ownership, revisions, availability,
and what happens the day something breaks. Ask these alongside the core set.
Worker classification is a separate legal question; confirm it before you sign.
QUESTIONS
1. How do you scope and price a project like ours: fixed fee, hourly, or phases?
(Good answer: a clear structure with what is included and what is extra.)
2. How many rounds of revisions are included, and what counts as a new round?
(Good answer: a specific number and a written definition. Vagueness here is
the most common source of a project going bad.)
3. What is your typical turnaround, and how many clients do you carry at once?
4. Who owns the finished design, the source files, and the fonts and images?
(Good answer: transfers ownership on final payment, and is precise about
stock assets licensed to us rather than to them.)
5. Which licenses do you buy for photography, icons, and typefaces, and are they
transferable to us? (Good answer: knows the difference and says so plainly.)
6. What happens after launch: do you offer support, and at what rate?
7. If we part ways, what do we receive, and how long does the handover take?
(Good answer: everything, quickly, with credentials and documentation.)
8. Can you work inside our existing platform, or do you only build on your own?
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
•Written scope with revision rounds defined by number
•Ownership and licensing settled before work starts, not after
•Honest availability rather than a promise to be always on
•A clean exit plan that leaves us holding everything we paid for
NOTES
__
Set 6: Web Designer Scorecard and Red Flags
A six-area rubric scored 1 to 5 with space for written evidence, a nine-item red-flag checklist, and the practical checks worth running before you commit. Use it with any set above.
Web Designer Scorecard and Red Flags
WEB DESIGNER INTERVIEW SCORECARD AND RED-FLAG CHECKLIST
Candidate: __
Business: __
Interviewer: __
Date: _
HOW TO SCORE
Score each area from 1 to 5 immediately after the interview, while the answers
are fresh. Anchor every score to something the candidate actually said or showed.
If more than one person interviews, each scores independently before anyone
compares notes. Use the same rubric for every candidate for the same role.
Rating scale:
5 = Strong, specific evidence 4 = Solid evidence 3 = Some evidence
2 = Weak or mixed evidence 1 = No evidence or red flags
SCORING AREAS
Visual craft: typography, spacing, hierarchy, consistency across a real site
Score [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ]
Evidence: ______
Process and reasoning: starts from goals, explains choices, ties them to users
Score [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ]
Evidence: ______
Responsive and technical: phones first, testing habits, page weight, handoff
Score [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ]
Evidence: ______
Accessibility and usability: contrast, labels, keyboard, alternative text
Score [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ]
Evidence: ______
Collaboration and feedback: takes revisions well, presents to non-designers
Score [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ]
Evidence: ______
Results orientation: measured outcomes, not only screenshots
Score [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ]
Evidence: ______
RED FLAGS (WEIGH CAREFULLY)
[ ] Portfolio is all unbuilt concepts and no shipped, live sites
[ ] Cannot say which parts of a project they personally designed
[ ] Talks only about looks and never about what the site had to achieve
[ ] Has never opened one of their own sites on a phone in front of a client
[ ] Dismisses accessibility as something the developer deals with
[ ] Defensive when a single design choice is questioned
[ ] Will not confirm who owns the source files and the asset licenses
[ ] No definition of a revision round or a scope boundary
[ ] Cannot name one thing they would change about an old project
PRACTICAL CHECKS BEFORE YOU DECIDE
[ ] Opened two portfolio sites on your own phone during the interview
[ ] Confirmed the candidate designed the work they presented
[ ] Called at least one former client and asked about revisions and deadlines
[ ] Agreed scope, ownership, and revision rounds in writing
Run the portfolio as a structured interview, not a slideshow. Ask for the two projects closest to your industry and site type, give each about ten minutes, and question the decisions rather than admiring the output. This is where a non-designer learns the most in the shortest time.
Pick the two closest projects
Ask ahead of time for the two projects nearest your industry, budget, and site type, and give each about ten minutes. Two deep walkthroughs beat a scroll through twelve thumbnails.
Open the live site on your phone
Do it in the room. A designer whose own portfolio pieces are awkward on a phone has told you more than any answer about responsive design will.
Ask what they personally did
Agency and studio work is collaborative, and that is fine. What is not fine is a candidate who says we for every decision and cannot name their own contribution.
Ask what happened after launch
Inquiries, checkout completion, support calls, bounce rate: any measured outcome separates a designer who ships results from one who ships pictures.
Open at least one live site on your own phone during the conversation. It is the fastest honest test in the whole process, and it turns an abstract question about responsive design into something you can see. If a portfolio piece is no longer live, ask why, and accept a good reason without letting it slide unexamined.
Concepts Are Not Shipped Work
A portfolio full of unbuilt concepts, redesigns of famous brands nobody commissioned, and mockups that never launched tells you the candidate can produce an image. It does not tell you they can work with a real client, real content, a real budget, and a stakeholder who changes their mind in week three. Ask for shipped, live sites. One real launched project with a measured outcome outweighs ten concept pieces.
Judging Design Skill Without a Design Background
You do not need to grade typography; you need to tell a reasoned answer from a decorative one. The pattern holds across every question: strong answers start from the goal, name specifics, and reference something measured. Weak answers stay on taste, on trends, and on adjectives.
Walk me through how you would approach a redesign of our site.
Strong answer: Asks what the site is for before saying anything about visuals: who the customer is, what the site must produce, what is failing now, what content exists, who signs off. Only then does the answer move to structure, then to layout, then to look. A strong candidate treats the redesign as a business problem with a visual solution.
Weak answer: A weak answer opens with a style opinion, a favorite framework, or a promise to make it modern and clean, and never asks what the site is supposed to achieve.
How do you design for phones, tablets, and desktop?
Strong answer: Designs the small screen first or in parallel, and can name the mechanics: flexible grids, breakpoints, images that scale, touch targets sized for a thumb. A strong candidate also says which real devices and browsers they test in before calling anything finished.
Weak answer: A weak answer treats mobile as a squeeze of the desktop layout at the end of the project, or claims the page builder handles it automatically and leaves it there.
What does accessible web design mean in practice?
Strong answer: Names the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, then gives concrete checks: contrast ratios verified with a tool, meaning never carried by color alone, visible labels on form fields, keyboard paths with visible focus states, alternative text written for what the image conveys.
Weak answer: A weak answer calls accessibility a developer concern, treats it as a compliance box someone else ticks after launch, or has no examples of a check they actually run.
Two habits help more than any single question. First, follow every answer with some version of what happened as a result. Second, ask the candidate to explain one choice as if you were a customer, not a client, because a designer who can do that will be able to justify their work to you every week after the hire.
If you want more confidence than an interview alone provides, add a small paid exercise and a reference check that asks former clients specifically about revision rounds and deadlines rather than about talent. Those two questions surface the problems that portfolios never show.
Accessibility Questions Worth Asking
Ask about accessibility in every web designer interview, because an inaccessible public site is both a lost customer and a real legal exposure. The Department of Justice states that it has taken the position since 1996 that the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to web content, and it lists poor color contrast, color-only information, missing alternative text, uncaptioned video, unlabeled forms, and mouse-only navigation among the most common barriers.
Businesses currently have latitude in how they achieve accessibility, and federal guidance points to existing technical standards rather than mandating one for private business. Those standards are the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and the Section 508 standards, which federal agencies follow. A candidate who names them unprompted has been doing this work seriously. This is general information, not legal advice.
Color contrast
Light gray text on a light background is the barrier the Justice Department lists first. Ask how the candidate verifies contrast, and whether any information is carried by color alone.
Forms with real labels
Forms without labels or clear error indicators lock people out of the exact page that makes you money. Ask how they label fields and how errors are announced.
Images and video
Missing alternative text and uncaptioned video are two of the most common barriers. Ask who writes the alternative text and what it says, not just whether the field is filled.
Keyboard only
A site that needs a mouse excludes people who cannot use one. Ask whether their designs keep visible focus states rather than stripping the outline for looks.
The most useful follow-up is asking what they will leave behind. A designer who hands you a one-page written standard and a checklist has protected the site for the years after they stop working on it, which matters more than any single launch.
Fair, Legal, and Structured Interviewing
A fair interview and an accurate one are the same interview. Asking every candidate the same job-related questions, scored on the same rubric, keeps you within the law, reduces bias, and produces better hires. Design interviews drift into personal territory more easily than most, which makes structure worth the effort here.
Ask about the work, not the person
Federal anti-discrimination law prohibits basing a hiring decision on protected characteristics, and casual questions that probe them create risk even when they are meant as friendly small talk. Do not ask about age, race, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy or family plans, disability, or genetic information. In a web designer interview the trap usually arrives through the portfolio: a graduation year on a project, a personal site, or a client in a religious or political field. Keep the follow-up on the work itself. You may always ask whether the candidate can perform the essential functions of the job. This is general information, not legal advice.
Use the same core questions for everyone
Asking every candidate the same core questions and scoring them against the same rubric is the definition of a structured interview, and it is the single highest-leverage habit for a small business. It is fairer, it produces a written record of why you chose the person you chose, and it stops a charming portfolio presentation from overshadowing weak answers about testing, accessibility, or handoff. Write the questions before you meet anyone, ask them in the same order, and score them the same day. The downloadable sets on this page are built to make that easy.
Score independently, then discuss
When two or more people interview a designer, have each one fill in the scorecard alone before the group talks. Design attracts strong opinions, and a single confident voice in the room will otherwise set the tone for everyone else. Comparing six written scores with evidence attached turns an argument about taste into a comparison of what candidates actually demonstrated. For an owner interviewing alone, the same discipline stops a great first impression from carrying a candidate past a weak portfolio walkthrough.
Pay for any test project
A short paid exercise is the most reliable signal you can get from a web designer, and it is far better than an unpaid spec project. Keep it small, a single page or a section, pay a fair rate for the hours, give every finalist the same brief, and agree in writing that the work belongs to you. Asking for free speculative work narrows your candidate pool to whoever is least busy, and it starts the relationship on the wrong footing. If you cannot pay for a test, use the portfolio walkthrough questions instead.
Same Questions, Same Rubric, Better Decisions
A structured interview, where every candidate answers the same questions and is scored against a consistent rubric, predicts on-the-job performance more reliably than an open-ended conversation, and asking the same job-related questions of everyone keeps you within the EEOC rules against basing decisions on protected characteristics. Structure is both the fairer approach and the more accurate one.
Keep every question anchored to the work. The questions you cannot ask tend to arrive through the portfolio in this role, because a personal site or a dated student project invites personal conversation. Redirect to the work and move on. This is general information, not legal advice.
Scoring and Red Flags
Score every candidate on the same six areas the same day, while the answers are fresh, and anchor each score to something the candidate actually said or showed. Written evidence is what lets you compare a strong portfolio presenter against a quieter candidate whose answers were better.
Scoring area
What a 5 looks like
Visual craft
Typography, spacing, and hierarchy hold up across a whole live site
Process and reasoning
Starts from goals, explains every choice in plain language
Responsive and technical
Designs the phone case first, tests on real devices, controls page weight
Accessibility and usability
Names the guidelines, runs concrete checks, plans for after launch
Collaboration and feedback
Takes a challenged decision calmly, presents well to non-designers
Results orientation
Points to a measured outcome, not only to screenshots
Weigh the red flags carefully rather than mechanically. A portfolio of concepts with no shipped sites, an inability to name their own contribution, and dismissing accessibility as the developer's job are the three that most often predict a bad engagement. Record the scores, then run a short feedback round before deciding.
If two people interview, each should complete the evaluation form alone before the group talks. Design attracts confident opinions, and one strong voice in the room will otherwise anchor everybody else to a single impression.
Web Designer Pay
Web designer pay spans an unusually wide band, so use federal survey data as the anchor and adjust for your market and scope. The occupation covers everyone from a marketing site designer at a small company to a senior product-facing designer at a technology firm, which is why the top and bottom sit so far apart.
Median $104,000 a Year (BLS, May 2025)
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), web and digital interface designers had a median annual wage of $104,000, about $50.00 an hour. The lowest 10 percent earned under $53,750 and the highest 10 percent over $201,550, with quartiles at $73,290 and $158,820.
Occupation (BLS, May 2025)
10th percentile
Median
90th percentile
Web and digital interface designers
$53,750
$104,000
$201,550
Web developers
$48,100
$92,650
$162,290
Graphic designers
$39,520
$62,960
$104,910
Most small businesses land nearer the lower quartile than the median, especially for a marketing site rather than a product interface. A contractor or agency is billed by project or phase and only while working, which fits irregular design volume better than a salary plus benefits and overhead.
Interviewing a Web Designer Without an HR Department
Without an HR department, the owner runs the whole process alone: writing the questions, judging a craft they do not practice, and negotiating scope with a specialist. That is a real disadvantage, and preparation is the only thing that closes it. These are the three problems that come up most often at this size.
You are judging design taste without a design background
Most owners hiring a web designer cannot grade typography, and they know it, so they fall back on whichever portfolio felt prettiest. That is the wrong instrument. You do not have to judge the craft directly; you have to judge the reasoning behind it. Ask why an element sits where it does and listen for an answer tied to what the visitor needs to do next. Ask what the site produced after launch. Ask what they would change now. A designer who can explain choices in plain language to a non-designer will also be able to explain them to you every week after you hire them, which is worth more than a slightly better layout.
The site is a sales channel, so a miss here costs revenue, not just pride
For a small business the website is often the main way a customer decides whether to call, book, or buy, which makes this hire commercial rather than cosmetic. That is why the question sets here push on measured outcomes, on phone layouts, on page weight, and on accessibility, instead of on visual preference. It is also why the freelance set spends so much space on scope, revision rounds, and ownership. The projects that go wrong rarely go wrong because the design was ugly. They go wrong because nobody wrote down how many revision rounds were included or who owns the source files.
You are the founder, the hiring manager, and the only interviewer
At a larger company a web designer runs a panel loop with a design lead grading the portfolio and a recruiter keeping the scorecards straight. At a small business the owner does all of it between everything else. The fix is preparation rather than headcount: pick the two sets that match the hire, ask the same questions of every candidate, open their live work on your phone in the room, and score the rubric the same day. Once you choose someone, FirstHR handles the people side: the offer for e-signature, the new hire paperwork, and an onboarding workflow, with everything stored on the employee profile. FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a design tool or a website builder, so pair it with those. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
The practical version is short. Decide the slice of the role you need, pick two question sets, ask the same questions of everyone, open their live work on your phone, and score the rubric the same day. That process takes an hour of preparation and turns one founder's judgment into something closer to a hiring team's.
From Interview to Onboarding
The interview is step one. Once you choose someone, a web designer needs more setup than most hires: brand assets, hosting and content management access, font licenses, and a written scope, alongside the standard new hire paperwork or a signed contractor agreement. Collect all of it before day one rather than trickling it out over three weeks.
Send the offer or the contract
For an employee, confirm role, pay, and start date in writing with e-signature. For a freelancer, sign a scope of work that names revision rounds, ownership, and the handover.
Set up access deliberately
Hosting, domain registrar, content management system, analytics, and the brand asset library. Grant what the designer needs and keep an owner-level account of your own.
Hand over the brand inputs
Logo files, fonts and their licenses, photography, tone of voice, and any existing style guide, collected in one place before day one rather than trickled out over three weeks.
Store the records
Signed offer or contract, asset license transfers, the interview scorecards, and the standard new hire paperwork, all filed where you can find them later.
For an employee, the offer letter and an onboarding template cover the first week. For a contractor, a written scope of work does the same job, and it should name the revision rounds and the ownership terms you agreed in the interview.
FirstHR connects the offer, the confidentiality agreement, e-signature, paperwork, and the onboarding workflow in one place, and stores the signed documents and interview records on the employee profile. FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a design tool or a website builder, so pair it with those. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
More hiring templates for this kind of role sit in the hiring templates library, including question sets for adjacent hires such as graphic designers. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR, so for now sourcing stays outside the platform while the offer and the onboarding run inside it.
Key Takeaways
Assess a web designer on visual craft, process and reasoning, responsive and technical judgment, and accessibility.
Judge the reasoning behind the design rather than the pixels, since that is what a non-designer can evaluate reliably.
Run the portfolio as a structured walkthrough on two projects, and open the live sites on your phone in the room.
Ask what each project produced after launch; a measured outcome separates a designer who ships results from one who ships pictures.
Settle scope, revision rounds, source-file ownership, and asset licensing in writing before any freelance project starts.
Federal survey data puts the median for web and digital interface designers at $104,000 a year (BLS, May 2025).
Frequently Asked Questions
What questions should I ask a web designer in an interview?
Ask questions that test four things: visual craft, process and reasoning, responsive and technical judgment, and accessibility. Strong openers include how they would approach a redesign of your site, what they would need to know about your business before designing a screen, which tools they design in and what they hand over, how they design for phones as well as desktop, and what makes a page slow. Then run a portfolio walkthrough on two projects closest to your situation and ask what the client wanted, which parts the candidate personally designed, and what the site produced after launch. Finish with accessibility: how they check contrast, how they label forms, and whether the site works with a keyboard alone. Every question in the six sets on this page includes a note on what a good answer sounds like, so you can judge the responses without a design background.
What is the difference between a web designer and a web developer?
A web designer decides how a site looks and how a visitor moves through it: layout, typography, color, imagery, page structure, and the flow from landing to action. A web developer writes the code that makes it run, including templates, integrations, databases, and performance work. The two overlap in the middle, and many web designers build directly in a page builder or a content management system without a developer involved. That overlap is exactly why you should ask a candidate how much HTML and CSS they write themselves and where they stop, then write the answer into the scope. A UX designer is a third role, focused on research, information architecture, and testing rather than on the finished visual surface. Small businesses often need one person who covers a slice of all three, so define the slice before you interview.
How do I judge a web designer portfolio if I am not a designer?
Judge the reasoning rather than the pixels. Ask the candidate to present two projects closest to your own situation, and for each one ask what the client was trying to achieve, which parts they personally designed, why the major elements sit where they do, and how they knew whether it worked after launch. Then open the live site on your phone in the room and see how it behaves. A strong candidate tells a story that runs goal, constraint, decision, result, names their own contribution without embarrassment, and can point to something measured such as inquiries or checkout completion. Weak signals are a portfolio of unbuilt concepts with no live sites, an inability to say who did what, answers that stay entirely on aesthetics, and defensiveness when a single choice is questioned. The portfolio set on this page gives you the full question list.
Should I give a web designer a test project?
Yes, if you pay for it and keep it small. A short paid exercise, such as one page or a single section against a real brief, is the most reliable signal you can get, because it shows how the candidate works rather than how they present. Give every finalist the same brief, cap the hours, pay a fair rate, and agree in writing that the output belongs to you. Avoid unpaid speculative work: it narrows your pool to whoever is least busy, it damages your reputation among designers who talk to each other, and it produces rushed work that tells you little. If a paid test is not possible, run the portfolio walkthrough carefully instead and add a reference call that asks specifically about revision rounds and deadlines. This is general information, not legal advice.
What accessibility questions should I ask a web designer?
Ask what accessible design means to them in practice, how they check color contrast, how they design forms, whether their sites work with a keyboard and no mouse, and what they do about images and video. A strong candidate names the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and gives concrete checks: contrast verified with a tool rather than by eye, meaning never carried by color alone, visible labels rather than placeholder-only fields, focus states designed in rather than stripped out, and alternative text written for what an image conveys. The Department of Justice has taken the position that the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to web content, so an inaccessible public site is a real exposure for a business open to the public. Also ask what they will leave behind so your team can keep new pages accessible. This is general information, not legal advice.
How much does a web designer cost?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), web and digital interface designers had a median annual wage of $104,000, about $50.00 an hour, with the lowest 10 percent under $53,750 and the highest 10 percent over $201,550. The quartiles sit at $73,290 and $158,820, which shows how wide the band is inside a single occupation. That range covers everything from a marketing site designer at a small company to a senior product-facing designer at a technology firm, so anchor to your local market and to the scope you actually need. A freelancer or agency is billed by project, by phase, or by hour and only while working, which suits businesses with irregular design volume better than a full-time salary plus benefits and overhead.
Should I hire a freelance web designer or an employee?
Hire a freelancer or an agency when the work is a defined project with an end, such as a new site, a redesign, or a seasonal campaign, and hire an employee when there is continuous design work every week across a site, a store, email, and ads. Most small businesses start with a freelancer and only move to an employee once the volume is steady. If you go the freelance route, spend your interview time on scope, pricing structure, the number of revision rounds and what starts a new one, who owns the source files and the asset licenses, post-launch support rates, and how fast a handover happens if you part ways. Worker classification is a separate legal question with real consequences, so confirm how the engagement should be classified before you sign. This is general information, not legal advice.
What questions are illegal to ask in a web designer interview?
Avoid any question that probes a characteristic protected under federal law, which the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission enforces: age, race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy or family plans, disability, and genetic information. In practice that rules out asking how old someone is, when they graduated, where they are originally from, whether they plan to have children, or about their health, even as small talk. Design interviews create a particular trap because the portfolio invites personal conversation: a dated student project, a personal site, or a client in a religious or political field. Keep the follow-up on the work itself. You may ask whether the candidate can perform the essential functions of the role and whether they are legally authorized to work. Asking every candidate the same job-related questions is the simplest protection. This is general information, not legal advice.
