Podcast
Finding the Right Designer for Your Plug-in w/ Nataliia Hera (Voger Design) | Ep 22
Nataliia Hera of Voger Design explains how matching designer personalities to project needs, using test tasks, and understanding the three designer types can help audio developers avoid costly mismatches and deliver successful plugins.
Choosing the right UI designer for your audio plugin can make or break your project, but it's not just about finding someone with a great portfolio. Nataliia Hera, co-founder of Voger Design, shares insights from delivering over 250 audio interfaces over the past decade. The key is understanding both your own creative style and the designer's working approach. Nataliia identifies three designer types: chaotic creators (innovative but hard to manage), technical designers (detail-oriented and reliable), and optimizers (balanced between both). The secret to success lies in matching complementary types rather than similar ones. Creators work best with technical designers, and vice versa, while matching two creators often leads to conflict and project delays.
Before searching for a designer, define your vision and goals clearly. Are you prioritizing sales, creative expression, or efficient execution? Start by evaluating portfolios, but look for the worst piece rather than the best, as it reveals average performance during that period. Test tasks are essential for vetting candidates and understanding their workflow. For audio plugin design specifically, industry experience matters tremendously, as designers from other fields often struggle with unique requirements like rotary controls and hardware-inspired interfaces. Whether you involve designers early in the concept phase or after features are locked depends on your project type: innovative startups benefit from early design involvement to create compelling prototypes for investors, while established products often need solid UX before polishing the visual design.
Originally recorded on August 24th, 2022.
