What is a UI UX agency?

UX agencies are expert companies that understand their client's requirements first and deliver research-based digital products. UX agencies offer a result-driven user experience to assure their clients' product success. While large B2B or B2C SaaS companies have employed full-time UI UX designers, and UX researchers but small companies prefer to outsource the work to a dedicated UI UX agency. UX agencies help their clients to test their ideas before development via various UX methods and save 10x money and development time.

What are your areas of focus as a UI UX and web design agency?

User experience is more than a capability for us either for mobile or web. It's at the core of everything we do here at Think 360 Studio. We started ten years before as a UI UX design agency focused on mobile apps but quickly expanded our offering to B2B web applications, enterprise software, and emerging technologies such as AR/VR and wearables. The UX projects we take on range from building a new product to redesigning an existing app or legacy business software. We do everything you might need to bring a successful digital product to life: User (UX) Research, Product Strategy, Branding, User Interface, and User Experience Design, Usability Testing, Prototyping, and Development. It's no surprise that our web design clients are often the same companies who hired us for UI UX projects, because who can explain the product better than the people who designed it? We're a top-rated web design company that believes a great website should efficiently convert visitors to customers while providing a delightful branding experience. Good UX leads to higher conversion rates. That's why we have UX designers collaborate with web designers on all website projects.

What separates Think 360 Studio from other UX design agencies?

This question asked a lot from our clients. There are many competent UX agencies in India alone and even more globally. It's hard to be different when the standard is so high. So how do we stand out? First and foremost, it's the quality of the work we deliver. We create easy to use, right looking digital products and interfaces which represent your brand in the best way possible. It's our designers who make your project a reality. We always assign a multidisciplinary team of senior designers, developers, UX researchers, and other specialists led by one of our design directors and overseen by a co-founder. Finally, unlike most traditional user experience design companies, we combine creativity and product design/development capabilities under one roof and on the same project. Imagine a branding firm meets a UX consultancy — that's us.

Can your agency help me with web design and web/mobile app development?

Yes, we not only design but also develop. We're world-famous for creating business websites/mobile apps that meet our clients' goals by merging brand storytelling and award-winning web design with the latest and greatest technologies. Our sites convert well, and people share them like crazy, which helps us get new client's recommendations who are already huge fans of our work. For example, the new Teledentix.com website we recently redesigned has seen a blasting 156% spike in conversion. Yes, that's 2.7 times more. With each new project, we challenge ourselves to try something new, like improving our processes to optimize costs or work faster without losing quality.

Do you do branding, or should I hire a separate branding firm?

Yes, we do. We are a branding agency focused on tech companies, digital products, and direct-to-consumer brands. But that doesn't mean we can't help you create a visual identity for a health app as we did for HealthGuru. Our capabilities include research, brand strategy, brand positioning, logo design, visual identity, communication design, motion design, and style guide development, among other things. However, our clients often provide us with either a brand strategy or even a complete visual identity package. In these cases, we use the current brand foundation as a starting point, not just carefully adopting it, but also we're designing and enrich the brand while staying true to its roots.

How much does it cost to hire you for a UI UX design project?

Our pricing is directly related to the project scope, timeline, deliverables, and team composition. When the scope isn't set in project specification, or the project is very dynamic, we prefer engaging on a time and materials basis where you pay us for the time spent. However, most of our engagements are fixed-price contracts. In this case, we'll give you a detailed proposal after learning as much as possible about your project. All estimates are calculated based on the hourly rates and the number of hours we think the job will take. As a UI UX, a sample project may take ten weeks and cost $50k-$150k. For time and materials engagements, we would create a custom rate card for you based on the team composition. Our rates span from $20/hour for junior designers to $60/hour for our design directors. We also offer special rates for qualified startups. Please email us to get a quote.

Do you work with startups? If so, how can my early-stage company afford you?

We are an India-based globally UX design agency; we partner with startups big and small all the time. What can be better than helping founders bring to life ideas the world has never seen before? We enjoy a fast-moving environment that challenges our skillset and process. The ultimate achievement for us is seeing our startup clients grow and take over the world. We worked with Uber clone when they were a team of ten and helped design such iconic products as Path and SendGrid. We have special discounted rates for startups we believe in. Email our CEO, Prince Pal Singh, to learn more.

Can you help us redesign our legacy enterprise/B2B SaaS software?

Yes, we're up to the challenge. We're one of the few user experience firms specializing in Enterprise UX Design and Digital Transformation of legacy business software. We've perfected our process over the years, modernizing digital platforms for Fortune 100 companies such as Teledentix, EasyBioData, and Juniper Networks. We start each new enterprise UX project with a deep-dive discovery and research to fully immerse ourselves in the industry and project specifics. Our services span from user research and information architecture, UX design, prototyping, and user testing to full-stack development and design systems. Our team acts as an independent entity that moves fast, avoiding the bureaucracy of a large organization, often working hand-in-hand with innovation labs and in-house UX teams.

What process do you follow as a UX agency?

Our lean UI UX design process is based on the design thinking methodology, which allows us to be flexible, adapting to almost any project type and collaboration model. While each engagement is unique, we always go through the following key phases: Discovery & Research We usually start by consolidating all available project documentation and scheduling workshops with your team.During those sessions, we interview key stakeholders, collaborate on requirements, as well as ideate, and plan the next steps.When possible, we 'd want to talk to your current or potential customers to understand their needs and pain points. In some cases, we may need to audit your existing product to identify opportunities for improvements. We will also review competitor products, gather design references, and document best practices. Strategy & Concepts Based on the discovery & research results, we synthesize a strategic direction and define an approach to drive our design process.We explore different concepts to establish such core elements as information architecture, key screen layouts, and visual design direction.We then validate the resulting concept with users and stakeholders.Once the feedback is in , we make necessary updates to proceed with designing the rest of the product. UI UX Design After the concept has been approved, we start designing the UI and UX, continuously conducting user tests, and iterating along the way.The main activities include user flow mapping, wireframing, user interface design, interaction design, and prototyping.We hand off design assets to developers using tools like XD, Zaplin, and provide a comprehensive style guide that includes a UI component library, UX guidelines, and complete user flows. Learn more about our process and deliverables here.

How can I get a proposal for my project?

Please send us an email first with a quick summary of your project or an RFP. We usually reply within 24 hours to schedule an introductory call and ask any immediate questions. During our first call, we will ask a lot of questions about the project goals, audience, budget, timeline, and other essential details. We can sign an NDA if necessary, but we always treat all client conversations as confidential. After the call, we may request various documentation such as a design brief, project requirements, past designs, etc. If we're redesigning an existing product, we'll want to schedule a demo or try it ourselves. We will email you a proposal and can schedule a video call to walk you through it. The proposal will include a detailed description of our approach, project phases, activities, and deliverables, team composition, and relevant case studies.

UIUX 360 / 15-September-2022 / minute read

Cognitive Friction

Cognitive friction occurs when the user faces an interface or ability that appears intuitive but produces unexpected results.

Written by: Prince Pal

Your UI/UX Designer. Consultant. Partner. Over the past 18 years, I designed websites and apps for enterprise-level clients like Stanford-HCI Research, Accenture, Juniper Networks, Gemalto, Virtual Dental Care & much more.

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What is Cognitive Friction?

Overview

Cognitive friction occurs when the user faces an interface or ability that appears intuitive but produces unexpected results. This mismatch between the result of an action and the expected outcome causes user frustration and will worsen if it does not endanger the user experience.

Cognitive friction is a user experience problem that occurs when an interface does not function as expected and requires too much cognitive load to complete a given task.

For example, when shopping online you add items to your cart or bag, just like you do when shopping in real life.

Imagine if you visited an e-commerce site that prompted you to "save" or "bookmark" an item - you would probably be confused or feel uncomfortable, and leave such a site.

To avoid such issues, UX designers try to make an interface mimic the real world as much as possible, making it more intuitive.