UI UX design agency for San Francisco businesses

For a live product, an incremental redesign suits users who dislike sudden change. You can review parts of the experience as the work progresses, keeping the existing product in view. A full redesign suits a product whose structure no longer fits the way people use it; it gives you room to rethink that structure across screens.

The right research also depends on what you already have. For a new product or a high-stakes flow such as checkout or onboarding, interviews and usability tests with real users help you see where people struggle. For an existing product, analytics and support tickets give you evidence of current problems, including when the schedule is tight.

Start structural decisions with low-detail wireframes. When you need people to try a flow or want to show it to investors before writing code, choose a clickable prototype. We learn about your business, audience and goals, then agree the scope with you so the work fits the decision you need to make.

For a business open to the public, US Department of Justice guidance says the ADA covers goods and services offered on the web, and identifies WCAG as helpful guidance. We design for checks such as text contrast, usable tap targets and form labels that remain visible instead of appearing only as placeholder text.

State and local government websites and mobile apps have a separate requirement to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA. For those projects, we set that standard as a design requirement for the website or app screens from the outset.

Bring information that shows how your customers use the product today.

• Your main user types and their tasks, marked where they bring revenue or cause support calls.
• Analytics, session recordings, support tickets or sales call notes showing where users get stuck.
• Your front-end framework, existing component library and current back-end limits.
• Products your users already know, with notes on what works and what annoys them.
• Customers or staff willing to try a prototype and talk through what confuses them.

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  Polishing screens too early

  Agree the flows first, so attractive visual work does not need restructuring afterwards.

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  Ignoring development limits

  Check the chosen front-end framework and existing component library before designing components that are difficult to build.

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  Settling debates by opinion

  Put the prototype in front of real users and use what you learn to make the decision.

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  Walking away at handover

  Keep the designer available during development so questions do not get answered by guesswork and the built product stays aligned with the design.