Hello I'm looking for Directions!

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Matt Ince

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Hello,
I am in the process of developing a piece of software, the issue I have is that I am a salesperson and the other person involved is a programmer. We really need a designer, however, the software is in development, there is no money and the project may not sell as well as we hope so we may never make money.

I thought I would ask here if anyone knows of a design forum for students, people who are looking for a real world project to work on that MAY pay them money one day but would be able to get something out of it in that they have worked on a live project.

Would anyone be able to point me in the right direction or be interested in hearing more about the project we are working on with a view to getting involved themselves?
Thanks for looking
Matt

PS If I can post links please ask and I will do so via reply so you can see the project we are working on.
 
OK I have read through several posts now, I think some of the work here is amazing but I can see others posting links, my project is called Unity and the website is here <<LINK REMOVED CONTACT OP>> and we are looking for someone to design parts of the user interface and generally "cool" up our software. If you are interested please see my first post.
 
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Is this a paid project?
Sorry I thought that was clear. It should be considered a non paid project but it may pay one day if we can sell the software. It would be remiss of me to say that I will definitely sell the software, however, I can say that based on my personal experience there is no other software that will do as much for content creators as this.
 
Students should be compensated too. They're still bringing a set of skills to the project that you don't possess.

Saying that, you need to hire a UX/UI designer. You require a very particular set of design skills that a student is highly unlikely to have at this stage in their career. You've said yourself that you're not even sure if it will sell at all, and it's even more unlikely to sell with a poorly designed interface. In short I don't think you'll find the skill you need to progress the project without actually hiring a professional. If the software will be as impactful as you say, then surely you can approach an investor or get a business grant to get it completed?
 
Students should be compensated too. They're still bringing a set of skills to the project that you don't possess.

Saying that, you need to hire a UX/UI designer. You require a very particular set of design skills that a student is highly unlikely to have at this stage in their career. You've said yourself that you're not even sure if it will sell at all, and it's even more unlikely to sell with a poorly designed interface. In short I don't think you'll find the skill you need to progress the project without actually hiring a professional. If the software will be as impactful as you say, then surely you can approach an investor or get a business grant to get it completed?

Hi Paul,
I am 42 years old, I was a business owner for 22 years, salesman, professional money maker and then due to an unfortunate accident I found myself unable to work for others. You are presuming that I want to be in business with an investor or that grants actually happen. I am a disabled person and I can assure you, there is no help on this planet that doesn't come with a caveat. I have never given up on anything I started and I don't need financial help to get started, I am more than capable of bringing this project to life with or without a designer. I want to bring the best product to the market that I can though, and that will mean having a designed UI if we want a unique product, there is a wealth of free design work out there we can use but I want something unique. If it transpires that I don't find a designer before launch, so be it, I will pay someone to redesign after the fact but that person will receive a single fee. If someone joins the project there is an untold amount of future in what we are doing.

I have already found a programmer who has begun working on the project in the hope that we can build something fabulous and that we "may" make money from the project. Together we have already produced a substantial amount of the software.

The question I have for you is what makes you think money will be the most important thing to a designer? Maybe the chance to work on an exciting and fresh project, to be able to take the lead and design something from the ground up is just the challenge someone is looking for. I would have relished this opportunity as a young man money or not.

I think you are doing a discredit to people to suppose that everyone wants money first. However, we are building a product who's potential market runs into the millions and with a small monthly subscription of £3.99 per month we expect to have 10,000 subscribers by December of this year. Whilst I am not fool enough to commit to offering money, I am pretty sure there will be plenty for someone to be happy about. The big difference is I am looking for someone who has the right attitude, someone who wants to solve problems, has a can do approach and I hope that someone who sees this has just that attitude, I often find people unencumbered by the "should do it this way" attitude, namely the young generation, get on better and have a much fresher approach to getting the job done, which is exactly why I came here to find out if there was a design forum that students frequent.

Regards
Matt
 
To be fair I've just looked at the project and it's kickstarter page asking for 50k (no backers though) and from what I can see it's just another self promotion tool for social media, there are LOADS of these already and a lot of them are free.

You've got imagery on your site which clearly shows you need a UX/UI person with some experience (copy pasting onto windows 8 metro UI is not enough) but I'd actually say you need a front end web developer because you say it's going to be web based...

Also you're going to run into name issues in my opinion, UNITY is a MAJOR brand in 3D environment/game engines.

As to money, personally I like to get paid so I can pay my bills....I know that working in the hope of a 'percentage' of sales is not a good way to work as I've seen first hand others who have worked for months on a project and they've literally come out with nothing. Also there's nothing stopping you paying a 'reduced price' and percentage of sales if a designer is willing.
 
The question I have for you is what makes you think money will be the most important thing to a designer? Maybe the chance to work on an exciting and fresh project, to be able to take the lead and design something from the ground up is just the challenge someone is looking for. I would have relished this opportunity as a young man money or not.


Because money pays the bills. Clients are always offering 'opportunities' and I've been doing this long enough to know that the vast majority never amount to anything. If the people involved aren't being paid for their time, what's the point of continuing if the project isn't taking off as fast as you'd hoped? You don't owe them anything. Just scrap the project, disband the team and move on.

That's not to say your project will follow the same path, I'm simply saying from the perspective of a designer who relies on my own skills and knowledge to survive, I wouldn't be willing to commit to a project that may amount to nothing. It makes more sense to me to focus on the jobs that are paying, simply because I need that money to live off and keep my business afloat.

By all means continue your search, there probably is a wealth of designers out there that will be eager to help, but my point was their expertise and experience may be far from the professional level you expect and require. I've got friends who have been working on start-up tech projects since they were students, but they were working beneath an experienced designer, and company had funding so was able to pay them.
 
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