UI/UX & experience design
Research, interface design and design systems built to be implemented — with the states, edge cases and accessibility already thought through.
Experience design is the work of deciding what a product should do and how it should feel to use, before anyone writes the code that makes it real. It spans research into what users actually struggle with, the flows that resolve it, the interface that expresses it, and the system that keeps it consistent as the product grows.
The failure mode we're most often called in to fix is design that was never designed to be built: beautiful screens showing only the happy path, with no empty states, no error states, no loading behaviour and no answer for what happens on a narrow screen. Engineering then invents those decisions under deadline pressure, and the product drifts from the design within a release or two.
So we design the unglamorous states as deliberately as the hero screen, and we hand over a system rather than a picture.
Being clear about which you need saves both money and a frustrating engagement.
| UX — experience design | UI — interface design | |
|---|---|---|
| Answers | What should this do, and in what order? | What should it look and feel like? |
| Core activities | Research, journey mapping, flows, wireframes, testing | Layout, typography, colour, iconography, motion, states |
| Output | Flows, wireframes, a validated prototype, findings | High-fidelity screens, a design system, assets |
| You need it when | Users drop off and you don't know why | The product works but looks dated or inconsistent |
| Skipping it costs | Building the wrong thing beautifully | A capable product that feels untrustworthy |
Most engagements need both, weighted differently. A rebuild leans UX; a refresh of a product that already works leans UI.
Six services, bought individually or as one engagement.
User research
Interviews, usability testing and a hard look at your analytics and support tickets — usually the cheapest source of truth already sitting in your business.
Product & interface design
Flows, wireframes and high-fidelity screens covering the real states: empty, loading, error, permission-denied, and the awkward middle sizes.
Design systems
A component library with tokens, usage rules and behaviour specified — handed over in Figma and, where we're building, implemented in code to match.
Prototyping
Clickable prototypes to test a flow with real users before committing engineering budget. The cheapest place to be wrong.
Accessibility audits
WCAG 2.2 AA review with a prioritised remediation list — separated into what's a legal exposure, what's a usability problem, and what's cosmetic.
Design-to-code handover
Specs engineers can build from without guessing: spacing, breakpoints, interaction states and the rules for what happens when content is longer than the mockup.
Four layers. A file full of components is only the third one.
Tokens
Colour, type scale, spacing, radii, shadow and motion as named values — so a rebrand is a variable change rather than a redraw.
Primitives
Buttons, inputs, selects and surfaces with every state defined: hover, focus, active, disabled, invalid, loading. Focus states included, not an afterthought.
Patterns
Composite pieces — forms, tables, navigation, empty states, dialogs — with rules for when to use each and, importantly, when not to.
Governance
How a new component gets added, who decides, and how the code and the design file stay in sync. Without this layer every design system decays within a year.
If we're also building, the system ships as real code alongside the Figma library — the two are versioned together rather than drifting apart.
Cheaper, and it produces a better product for everyone.
Contrast and type at design time
Colour pairs are checked against WCAG contrast ratios as the palette is chosen, not flagged in an audit six months later when the brand is locked.
Keyboard paths
Every flow is walked with the keyboard alone. If it can't be completed without a mouse, it isn't finished.
Content structure
Heading hierarchy, labels and error messages designed as content, so screen readers get a coherent document rather than a soup of divs.
Motion and preference
Animation designed with a reduced-motion alternative, because vestibular disorders are more common than most teams assume.
Three shapes, depending on where you are.
Design sprint
A focused burst on one problem: research, flows, a prototype and a test with real users. Ends with a decision and evidence for it, not a deck.
Product design engagement
End-to-end design for a product or a major area of one — research through to a build-ready design system and specs.
Embedded designer
A designer working inside your team on your roadmap, monthly. Suits products shipping continuously where design can't be a project.
Yes. Plenty of our design work is handed to a client's in-house engineers or another agency, and we specify it accordingly — with states, breakpoints and behaviour documented so it doesn't need us to interpret it. If we are also building, the handover is tighter, but the deliverable is the same standard either way.
Start a project
A link to the product and a sentence about where users get stuck is enough. We'll tell you whether it's a research problem, an interface problem, or neither.
- Reply within one business day
- Free scoping session, no obligation
- You keep the scope document either way