Product Design Expert

What you would do

• Use Figma, Sketch, or Adobe tools to complete design projects alongside AI agent outputs, comparing results
• Evaluate AI-generated designs for usability, visual hierarchy, and adherence to design principles
• Document where AI tools succeed, where they need human refinement, and what professional designers do that AI misses
• Provide detailed feedback on tool performance, design quality, and areas for improvement
• Help identify patterns in what types of design work AI handles well versus poorly

Who they want

• 1+ years of professional or agency experience with Figma, Sketch, or Adobe Creative Suite
• Strong grasp of UX design fundamentals and how actual designers approach their workflow
• Native or near-native English fluency for communication and documentation
• Availability for minimum 10 hours per week on an hourly basis
• Portfolio or work samples demonstrating design capability and design thinking

Main skills

What the interview asks about

1. 1.Evaluating AI design quality against professional standards

   You need to articulate why something works or fails from a UX perspective, not just personal preference - this is how the research team improves AI systems.

   For example: “An AI tool generates a mobile onboarding flow with 7 large text fields on a single screen. Why would a professional designer reject this and how would you fix it? What does this tell you about AI understanding of mobile constraints?”

2. 2.Recognizing gaps in AI design capabilities

   The most valuable feedback isn't about what the AI got wrong, but what it fundamentally doesn't understand about how designers work and problem-solve.

   For example: “The AI creates a dashboard that's technically correct but ignores information hierarchy and scanning patterns. How would you restructure it, and why does the AI miss user-centered thinking?”

3. 3.Demonstrating real design workflows

   You're showing the AI research team what professional design actually involves - not just tool commands but iterative thinking and user-centered reasoning.

   For example: “Walk me through how you'd approach a redesign request from a client who says 'make the homepage more modern.' What information do you need first, and how does that differ from an AI jumping straight into visual changes?”

4. 4.Assessing tool proficiency and output consistency

   Knowing whether AI performs consistently, which design patterns it handles reliably, and which ones it botches repeatedly helps identify AI system gaps.

   For example: “Over five design tasks, you notice the AI consistently struggles with typography scale and spacing but handles color palette generation well. How would you document this pattern to be useful to researchers?”

A task you may get

Design a mobile settings page in Figma, then compare it to an AI-generated version. Assess hierarchy, usability, visual consistency, and accessibility. List three improvements needed for AI to match professional work.

How to prepare

• Review 5-10 examples of well-designed interfaces and poorly-designed ones, noting specific UX principles that make the difference
• Prepare 2-3 design projects from your portfolio that show your thinking process and design decisions, not just final visuals
• Research current discussions about AI in design and where professionals see AI adding value versus causing friction
• Practice articulating design decisions in terms of user needs and UX principles, not just aesthetic preferences

The facts

Pay

$75–85/hr

Hours

Hourly, 40 hours a week

Where

Remote

Project name

mercor

Posted

9/14/2026

We wrote this page from the public Mercor listing. It may be out of date, so read the full posting before you apply.