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.

UX Design / 16-April-2019 / minute read

What Is User Research? How Do It, When You Can’t Talk To Your Users? - Tips And Tricks

Great UX journeys begin with great user research. User research keeps people at the center of the design process and products. It is meant to inspire your design, to analyze your solutions and to evaluate your impact.

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.

What Is User Research?

Putting Users in UX: Research Methods For Strategy

So, user research comes into play when we set out to understand user’s needs, behaviors, experience, and motivations by way of qualitative and quantitative methods to conduct the process of solving user’s problems. If we talk of quantitative research tools, surveys and formal experiments are used so that user behavior is studied in a manner that can be quantified and taken for statistical analysis.

UX Methods

In qualitative research tools, interviews and to some extent, usability tests do the deed as it involves more exploration and detailed understanding of the experiences and day-to-day lives of different users or user groups.

Top UX Research Methods
Discover	• Field study • Diary study • User interview • Stakeholder interview • Requirements constraints gathering
Explore	• Competitive analysis • Design review • Persona building • Task analysis • Journey mapping • Prototype feedback testing (clickable or paper prototypes) • Write user stories • Card sorting
Test	• Qualitative usability testing (in-person or remote) • Benchmark testing • Accessibility evaluation
Listen	• Survey • Analytics review • Search-log analysis • Usability-bug review • Frequently-asked-questions (FAQ) review

Then deciding where to start or what to focus on first, use some of these top UX methods. Some methods may be more appropriate than others, depending on time constraints, system maturity, type of product or service, and the current top concerns. It’s a good idea to use different or alternating methods for each product cycle because they are aimed at different goals and types of insight. The chart below shows how often UX practitioners reported engaging in these methods in our survey on UX careers.

User Research The most frequent methods used by UX professionals, from our free UX Careers survey report. Percentages refer to the proportion of respondents who said they use each method at least every year or two.

Some designers tend to overlook user research; below are three good reasons why designers must include user research-

Apt Designs

The most basic reason for conducting user research is that it’s the sole method to understand the users of your design. If you are well versed with your users only then you can create designs that are relevant for them. If you fail to know your users, you have no source of knowing if your design is apt or not.

A design that is irrelevant to its target audience is a mere failure. When it comes to design thinking, the first and the foremost step is to empathize with your users. And user research clearly fits the bill.

How To Conduct User Research?

Taking interviews and observations of people in the environment where they will be experiencing your design is a popular method of doing this type of user research. Such research is kept at the start to pilot an overall direction of the project for prospective customers and users.

To keep a track of the relevance of the project, always match your ideas with potential users on a regular basis. Talk to them about their views on your design and the way they will use it, or include them directly in the process, to make sure of your approach.

Easy And Delightful Designs

High usability is the key to perfect UX. People these days want products that are easy to learn and use. They expect the products to function the way they hope, not the way they are. If the user experience is not satisfactory, people might shift to another product.

The first secret of great design | Tony Fadell

Unless you are in a zone of zero competition, a high level of usability is required to achieve commercial success. Not to forget that your users will be completely swayed for creating such an amazing user experience.

Even if there are no alternative options for your users to switch to, products with enhanced usability will surely make processes quick, convenient and smooth.

Always keep the users’ perspective on priority when it comes to feature and functionality. Learn to separate the understandable from the not-so understandable.

Return on Investment (ROI)

Even though the importance of good design has gained exposure, still UX designers and researchers struggle to find resources in order to proceed with their work. Executives and shareholders doubt their investment in user research and UX design.

What Is The ROI of UX? and Why Some Organization’s Don’t Get It?

Considering the ‘look and feel’ concept of design, underestimating its value is not a big deal. It is seen that whenever resources suffer, UX is one of the first areas to be compromised as the effects are not immediately witnessed when you cut down on the development and other similar areas.

If you reduce in software development, ill effects can be seen in features or buggy software whereas cuts in UX, don’t backfire immediately until the product reaches your users. UX can only be valued if we show its importance.

If you succeed in projecting that the changes your design undergoes creates more sales, increases customers or adds to the efficiency of the work processes, you make a much stronger case of investing in UX. Your focus on customer experience should be consistent throughout the entire customer journey.

By now, one thing is clear- user research helps to unfold valuable insights about the user and their needs, emotions, feelings, and struggles. But what if you can’t approach your users? How will you perform UX research if there isn’t direct access to your users?

This could happen if you fall short of budget or span to run user tests, stakeholder interviews or card sorts. Yes, the very core of UX is shaken, i.e. talking to your users. In such a case, companies that are startups or have a limited digital footprint can function from mediums like forums or competitor reviews to understand the preferences of the users in the market.

For well-established firms, customer service logs and app reviews can benefit from getting users’ viewpoints about specific products. Without a doubt, first-hand research is the best way to be for user insights, but fortunately, there are other techniques to churn out qualitative data of your users which involves going beyond the regular lightweight guerrilla user testing options.

Here are some to widen your horizon-

Customer Service Logs

Customer service and help center departments come in direct contact with your users, resolving their grievances with the usability of your products. Being on front lines, they are aware of how users view the product and go ahead with its usage.

As user information is to be handled with care, the first task is to ask if service calls and contacts are being logged. If the answer is yes, inquire if it is possible to get hold of the records for user research purposes.

If there aren’t any logs or if they are inaccessible, find out whether a few short stakeholder interviews with the customer service team can be of any help. Study the interviews to find out the types of problems and complaints they commonly face.

Considering the working of customer service and the aim of help centers, there are greater chances of a large ratio of negative feedback. Still, these logs can furnish outstanding data.

On a specific note, the feedback can highlight policies and business practices that are degrading the user experience and just not that, but also the points at which they happen in the user journey. After all, your UX is much more than the design of your app and website.

App Reviews

When products have a mobile app feature, one should read the reviews present on the App Store or Google Play. The trick, with regards to user research, is to pay attention to the stuff that the user expresses as against the rating (i.e. one star to five stars).

Try to judge whether the user is simply dissatisfied or are they asking for value addition to the product. The review will surely tell if the user is delighted with some part of their experience of using the app or are they just brand worshippers.

Yes, reviews can be biased too, but remember that users tend to leave feedback as a result of an emotional reaction to the product. These emotionally triggered reviews – be it positive or negative- give a real picture, so make sure you gather all those reviews and get a peek into the wants of your users.

That said, a general reaction on the app, as a whole, might not be practical and worth acting upon.

You need to ask some questions – Is it about missing features that users want? Is the UI confusing for the users? Is the complaint about bugs or other issues that are making the app unstable? Is there a hidden feature that deserves to be in the front for the love it is receiving from people? Is the usage of app confusing and needs a tutorial on first open?

Further, don’t forget that the feedback on an iOS app might not necessarily be relevant to an Android app (or mobile web experience).

Industry Forums

Online forums like Reddit and 4Chan have undoubtedly questioned the authenticity of it all, but the truth is that there are many reliable online forums that serve as brilliant sources of information on how digital products function, how certain products and trends dominate as a whole in the market.

The research results might not be apparent but are easy to determine if you are on the lookout. If we look at the Apple TV apps section of Mac Rumors we can see that many users of the 4th generation Apple TV faced the issue with the YouTube app not disappearing video titles when a video is playing.

Also, a glimpse of the Delta Airlines thread on FlyerTalk reveals that people have posted questions from Economy Plus seating to the Delta and American Express credit cards. Evaluating such concerns could help Delta reframe the content strategy and information architecture of their mobile apps to deal with such questions upfront.

Many forums are irrelevant as they are pertaining to a particular industry. But there are numerous kinds which deal in varied industries. Ars Technica spans across almost any traditional tech product.

There is IGN for video games that talk anything and everything from game length to storyline to controls. Remember, not every forum unfolds detailed discussions on apps, companies or websites, but each proves to be a valuable source of knowledge on what inspires and satisfies consumers in a vertical market.

For nutrition and exercise, Bodybuilding.com’s BodySpace forum is a top online destination for users to discuss nutrition and exercise. Of course, not every forum offers in-depth discussions regarding specific apps, websites, or even companies, but each provides great sources of information about what motivates and interests consumers in that industry vertical.

Multiple topics in forums can be searched for companies or even particular product threads. Reddit (ignore the reputation) showcases growing, interactive communities of real users discussing on valuable topics. Quora gives a scholarly touch to the format with many users having strong subject matter points to substantiate their expertise.

Contact Form Emails

‘Contact Us’ forms and messages can prove to be a treasure house of information with direct data from your users. Of course, the first thing to notice is a complaint about any particular component of the website.

For instance, are users facing the issue with a feature or getting lost on a specific page on the site? On a broader scale, the forms themselves delve into areas of the user journey that are posing problems.

If a brand or company does not possess this option for accumulating site visitors’ opinions, it is best to include a contact form to boost development. Take note that if you keep a contact form on your site, there should be someone who should actively manage it and revert back to the users.

Competitive Reviews

Let’s say that your brand or product is new in the market and there isn’t sufficient data from the related sources to act upon. Now, what to do? Ask what your potential users think about the competitors.

If you are about to set up a car service, find out what users think about Lyft and Uber on the App Store. Want to enhance the performance of Jet? Go through reviews of Amazon Prime.

Take Away

Whatever is the case, there is no match of talking to your users, be it initial process in the form of stakeholder interviews or testing design iterations, but suppose that fails as an option, there is no justification for not approaching and collecting feedback from your users. Excellent UX design grounds on user insights, not on assumptions of standard practices or what is deduced from other products and industries. It all starts with the user.Go talk to your users and know their say. In platforms like Yelp! or Glassdoor or for that matter App Store Reviews, consumers are open to sharing their choices and reviews on businesses and different industry verticals. Just find out what they want. Remember, UX without users isn’t UX.