Apart from analyzing the top product design agencies, we will help you to understand better who a product designer is, how product design is different from web design, what product design agencies do, and how to find the best product design firm to work with.
In this article, we also aim to answer the following:
- How much it might cost you to hire a product design agency.
- How you can critically analyze the quality of past works.
- What a product design process is and what it is used for.
- What you can do to improve your product’s design.
If you are looking for a product design company, contact UX studio. We are ready to help with any product design and research challenges you might have.
Without further ado, let’s look at the list of top 10 product designing companies to work with in 2022, based on our judgment.
Top 10 product design companies
There are big players in every industry that have made their brands recognizable worldwide. In the design industry, these are multinational product designing companies. However, smaller agencies can often provide more flexibility, attention, and niche expertise to the clients.
These digital product design companies come from all over the world; they are experts in their fields and worked with many recognizable clients.
Here is a list of the top product design companies names that UX studio experts have selected in no particular order.
UX studio
Award-winning European product design company working with companies all over the world.
In April 2020, UX studio became an official Zeplin agency member as one of the fastest-growing product design companies in the world. Besides, we are honored to be among the top B2B business services providers according to the Clutch Global award 2021.
In the past 10 years, we have grown to a team of 30 product design professionals who work with international partners to design outstanding digital products, innovate business structure, and identify the next design priorities.
With expertise in product management, strategic thinking, and agile transformation, we strive to be more than a design agency. We strive to dedicate the most suitable design and research experts to work alongside our partners as a true extension of their in-house team.
We work hard helping our partners design impactful digital products and have fun during our biannual retreats.
If you are looking for a product design agency, contact UX studio. We are ready to help you with any design and research challenges.
Our beloved partners are growing startups and established brands like HBO, Google, Netflix, the United Nations World Food Programme.
As an example, our UX experts have closely worked with the HBO product team to redesign the HBO-Go platform for web, mobile, and smart TV.
If you are looking for the right product design agency, we will be happy to help. Please, send us your details and get a quote. We will be in touch with you shortly to discuss your challenges further, and to come up with a custom solution for you!
Besides offering B2B design and research services, we hold product design courses twice a year, where we teach our proven design process and share our expertise and knowledge with the world.
Some of our students become our beloved team members and excellent professionals.
We also hold personalized UX training for teams, where we teach the basics of UX design processes and explain the business value of UX design.
We have also successfully launched our own digital product: UX folio. It is an online portfolio builder, which is used by over 30,000 designers worldwide.
Is there anything we can help you with at this moment? Contact us and we will set up a meeting with you to discuss your current product design challenges and the next steps.
Aplana
A privately-held software development company that has been on the market for 20 years.
It is one of the first companies that has transferred the clients’ business to the cloud, making it available for end-users.
The company employs more than 500 design and development professionals. Its offices are located in different countries, including the UK, US, and Germany for sales operations, and Ukraine, Russia, Belarus for skilled software engineering teams.
The company’s core services include software and mobile development, blockchain solutions, testing, and quality assurance. Design and consulting constitute roughly 5% of the total service portfolio. Here is how the company defines itself in terms of its services focus:
Aplana could be a solid development partner for various business needs.
Its client portfolio is diverse too. The top projects worth mentioning are OTP bank mobile application testing, Microsoft Sharepoint benchmarking tool development, and mobile application creation for Starbucks Russia.
Wandr Studio
A young product strategy and design company headquartered in Los Angeles, USA.
The founder, Jinny Oh, is also a SAAS UX Expert with over 10 years of business and marketing experience.
Founded in 2016, the product design company in the USA employs a small team of 23 product design professionals from all over the world to work together and build digital products.
As a fun fact, the company claims its employees speak 20 different languages.
Even though the company is relatively new on the market, it has already worked with notable clients such as the World Wide Fund for Nature, Samsung, or Adobe. According to the company’s profile on Clutch, 60% of Wonder’s clients come from big enterprises in the transportation, fintech, and information technology industries.
Its services portfolio is quite wide with a focus on UX design, research, and brand development.
Beyond
A product design company honored at the San Francisco Design Week 2020.
Founded in 2010 as a team of creative designers, engineers, and exceptional strategists who strive to help clients become better versions of themselves.
Beyond is a prominent design and technology agency that has partnered with quite known companies, like Facebook, Google, and Mailchimp.
The company helps businesses critically evaluate interaction with users, plan, design, and build digital products from scratch.
As a competitive advantage, Beyond seeks to maintain a close collaboration with clients to help their businesses overcome challenges, build and release digital products on the market.
Beyond has worked with enterprises and middle-sized companies from the media and IT industries.
Think
Think Company is a privately held USA product design firm established in 2007 in the Greater Philadelphia region.
These days, the company employs over 105 people across three offices in the USA.
The company does not have a strong service focus. Instead, it offers a wide range of services from digital strategy, user testing, research, consulting to product design, software, and CRM development.
Think Company offers a high degree of flexibility for product team setup. Businesses with short-term projects collaborate with multidisciplinary teams within a predetermined scope of time. In case of long-term commitments, designers might spend half of the working week on-site with the clients.
Johnson and Johnson, Transamerica, Bayada Home Healthcare, and JPMorgan Chase & Co are among their well-known clients.
Echo & Co
A product design and development company with the social mission to promote environmental wellbeing across the globe.
The company supports and creates equal opportunities for people of color, members of the LGBT community, and individuals with disabilities. These people work together to create digital products and services that inspire and help others succeed.
The company was founded by three enthusiasts who met at Howard Dean’s Presidential campaign in 2004. Later on, they moved to Washington, D.C, where they established the first branch of Echo & Co. By now, the company has three offices all around the USA: in Washington, D.C, Boston, and New Orleans.
Echo & Co offers a wide range of services, such as research, branding, content writing, storytelling, product design, and development. Its most famous clients are Greenpeace, World Food Program USA, Free Press, and ecoAmerica.
According to the company portfolio, over 80% of clients constitute big organizations and enterprises, in the US alone. The team has worked with clients from various industries, such as education, media, healthcare, social justice, and environmental, to name a few.
Ustvo
One of the internationally recognized product design, technology, development companies.
The company’s vision is to create a world where digital experiences transform people’s lives.
Apart from designing digital products that matter, the Ustvo team creates its own games. Moreover, the company also helps creative minds build strong businesses by investing in startups.
Ustvo started as a small product design company in the UK founded by 2 best friends in 2004. It quickly grew to over 250 talented individuals working from London, Malmo, Sydney, and New York. The team works together to create digital products and services that make a meaningful impact on this world.
Its service portfolio is diverse. The team is skilled in product design, mobile app development, UX, web development, AR/VR development, and wearable app development.
Ustvo works with clients from different industries and sizes. Among their top clients are such industry giants as Google, Facebook, Co-op, Lego, Lush.
Design First
One of the pioneers in the product design industry. The company has been on the market for 26 years and has closed over 750 projects.
It is worth mentioning that these astonishing results have been achieved by a small team of 31 talented individuals.
Founded by a product designer in 1996, Design First has grown to one of Canada’s biggest product design companies.
Based in Ottawa, the company works with startups and enterprises from all over the world. Design First offers industrial product design and manufacturing, branding, web design, and marketing support. It employs industrial design experts, user experience professionals, and engineers to cover every step of the product design process.
The most prominent clients worth mentioning are Lenovo, Ericsson, Stanley, Tablo TV, and We-Vibe.
UPQODE
A digital marketing and product design firm with the headquarter in Nashville and the second office in Lviv, Ukraine.
The company was established in 2016 and collaborated with over 300 clients worldwide. Its talented web designers, developers, marketers, and project managers stand behind the company’s success.
The company has a strong focus on product design and development. Over 70% of its client portfolio consists of startups and small businesses, according to Clutch.
Upqode has a well-established online presence with over 100 testimonials, including such well-known companies as AmeriFreight, DOXO, Lyngva, Blockchainloop, and the Think Tank team.
Fuzzy Math
A product design, strategy, and innovations company based in Chicago.
Founded in 2009, Fuzzy Math unites individuals who aim to create an impactful user experience.
The company has worked on pro bono projects to help businesses in the US combat global social and environmental issues.
The Fuzzy Math team strives to educate and empower the young generation through tech camps and student design apprenticeships.
A team of 15 motivated and thoughtful individuals collaborated with many startups and well-known brands. Among their top clients are Hyatt, Microsoft, GE Healthcare, Allstate, and Expedia across healthcare, fintech, traveling, media, education, telecommunication industries.
As a product design firm, Fuzzy Match offers innovation and strategy workshops, product design, user research, and UX training.
Fuzzy Team is convinced that a good design is the one that makes users feel better about themselves.
Grio
A product design company in California with a focus on web and mobile application development.
Grio is one of the top product design companies in California that aims to create superior software for its clients.
Founded in 2008 by two dedicated software developers, Grio has grown to three offices in San Francisco, Mexico City, and Salt Lake City. A team of 50 developers, designers, product and project managers works across five states and four different countries.
Grio is among the top product design companies in the USA with deep technical knowledge and practical experience in Node.js, JavaScript, React, Angular, Ruby on Rails, and more.
Since 2008, Grio has been working on custom web and mobile applications for startups and established global tech giants.
What does a product designer do?
A product designer is responsible for the user experience of the product. Apart from visual design creation, a skilled product designer can also identify the product’s performance issues such as a low conversion rate or a high bounce rate.
However, the role of a product designer is still changing these days and differs a lot depending on the company.
In some cases, a product designer might be responsible for implementing minimal front-end coding changes.
Some companies might use the term “UX designer” to refer to product design tasks. It is recommended to check the description of a particular company to understand how its design team divides responsibilities.
What does a product design company do?
“We want to hire a designer” — this is a common request we often hear from many companies. However, there is a misunderstanding between what is requested and what a designer can actually do.
Startups often ask for a designer who can design and code landing pages, create banners, do A/B testing, help with the data tracking and conversion optimization. Due to the broad scope of a designer’s role, some companies assume that a designer can do and should do it all.
However, it is a huge misconception. As a product design agency with 10 years of experience, we’d like to clarify this topic.
So, what does a product design company do?
Note that product design agencies are sometimes referred to as industrial product design companies. It is a common misconception to think that every product design firm deals with physical product design. While some agencies specialize in product engineering and manufacturing, we refer to digital product design and development companies.
They can handle the entire product design lifecycle, from ideation, user testing, and prototyping, to UI and development.
Product design firms usually employ UX researchers, UX designers, and front-end developers. It enables companies to cover each step of the product design process and offer a wide range of product design services.
As a thought leader in the UX industry, we have conducted a survey among company representatives (CEOs, PMs, company owners, etc.) to learn more about the impact of UX design across the product life cycle.
According to our survey, working with UX teams and product design professionals is the most beneficial in the product discovery stage and before the product launch.
The survey findings also provide an idea of the most common request types businesses need help with. If you wonder whether a design company can help you with your specific need, here is what a product design firm can do for you:
- User persona discovery and mapping
- Product idea validation through user interviews and testing
- Usability issues discovery for an existing product
- Prototype, design, and build an MVP (minimum viable product) with core functionalities.
- Product features prioritization for an existing product
- A complete website or a mobile app design
- Product development or support depending on your in-house capacities and needs.
- Product design strategy mapping for an existing or a new product.
A typical product design company offers multiple design, research, development, and product design consultancies services at each step of the product development cycle. It is convenient for clients since they can get help with a wide range of problems and outsource the most challenging tasks.
If you are looking for the right product design agency, get in touch with UX studio, and let’s discuss what our experts can do for you.
How much does it cost to work with a product design agency?
Product design pricing is a sensitive topic, and not every product design company publicly reveals its prices. However, as one of the industry leaders, we can share some insights regarding the typical prices charged by product design companies.
One of the most common pricing models is time-based pricing. Companies use it to charge clients based on the number of working hours or days. It means you are requested to pay for the time a product design team spent working on your project.
This approach requires careful planning to estimate the project’s scope. It might happen that your project goes beyond the scope of work due to extra tasks or requested changes.
Some product design consultancies companies might offer a fixed price for your project. In this case, you, as a client, know the budget in advance and have total control over your expenses. However, this pricing model might not always be ideal, especially if you have a big project in mind. You can rarely think upfront. We used to adjust the scope of work according to unforeseen circumstances. We used to adjust the scope of work according to unforeseen circumstances.
At UX studio, you can hire a dedicated product design team of UX designers and researchers at a reasonable price.
Product design companies pricing
Pricing can vary a lot from $50 to a few hundreds of dollars per hour. It depends on the company size (whether it is a small agency or an international enterprise), location, and brand awareness.
Older and bigger companies can charge more, but it does not necessarily reflect the quality of work. Big enterprises might also prefer to pay more and work with older product design companies to entail lower risks and have their familiar corporate approach to work.
Location-based pricing
Pricing differs a lot based on the company’s location too. For instance, product design firms in London or New York will charge more than the same agencies in Berlin or Budapest.
Among the top product design companies mentioned are Ideo, Work & Co, Think, Design First. These companies are quite expensive to work with, which might be due to their location as well.
In fact, there are no free or inexpensive product design agencies if you would like to work with the experts.
UX studio, as a boutique product design company, offers modest pricing, starting from € 335 per day depending on the requested service. We strive to maintain a high quality of work while remaining affordable for our partners.
How to choose a top product design company
Digital product design companies can help you create a product-market fit, optimize your product design and development processes, and design digital experiences understandable by your users.
The internet makes it easy to find the biggest product design companies in a blink of an eye. If you google “top UX agencies,” you will see over 7 million results. However, how do you choose the right product design agency that can understand your needs and help you with your challenges?
At UX studio, we often hear that our clients can’t distinguish between different product design studios. They get in touch with a few agencies and then see who’s the best. You, too, can follow this approach. However, there is a better way to estimate product design companies’ expertise before you reach out to them. It will save you valuable time, resources, and energy.
A top digital product design company should have:
1. Portfolio with former works and client names
Reputable product design companies should not hide their portfolio or request you to sign up first before you get it to your email address. If there is nothing to hide, it should be publicly available on the company’s website.
Before you reach out to any innovative design firms, make sure to go through their portfolio of former works. Here is what you should assess to make a decision about the company’s competency and credibility.
- User interface design examples;
- Former client names and links to their digital products;
- Collaboration types (product design, UX research, expert review, branding, etc.)
- Areas of expertise and industries;
- The business impact of product design.
At UX studio, we list the most successful client collaborations on our case study page. We continuously create new case studies to keep our portfolio updated and display our teams’ expertise. HBO, Netflix, Google, and UN choose to work with UX studio and stand among our most notable clients.
We don’t just hand over the design and leave our clients puzzled on what to do next. Or UX teams closely collaborate with developers, assist with the product design strategies and help to define the next steps.
The main task is not to create an appealing user interface, but to help the client meet his business objectives.
2. The evidence of successful collaborations
When you assess various agencies, pay attention to how they collaborate with clients. These tiny nuances can be crucial in your decision-making.
It is okay to check what digital product design companies do and what services they offer. However, you are most likely interested in the impact of their work. In other words, what they managed to improve and achieve as a result of collaboration.
At UX studio, we are firm believers in the business value of UX design. Our mission is to “design impactful digital user experiences that people love to use.” Everything we do, work on, and display on our website communicates the value we deliver to this world.
One of the ways to check the impact of work is to read former client testimonials. Our partner, a France’ leading travel app, Liligo shared a fabulous testimonial at the end of our collaboration:
“After UX Studio’s implementations, the booking rate for each lead increased by up to 200% in the app. They’re a collaborative and communicative team, making project management easy. They are responsive, and offer valuable ideas and suggestions.”
Testimonials help you grasp how the overall collaboration went and what has been achieved.
If a company has success stories in its portfolio, there is a high chance that it will help you achieve your goals too.
If you are looking for a product design partner, message us, and we will be happy to bring your ideas to life. After contacting us, we will arrange a call with you to discuss your plans and objectives in detail and define the next steps.
3. An established product design process
Solid product design agencies should have a well-defined UX design and research process. These companies won’t rush to create any prototype and user interface until they assess the current state of your product. They always listen to your problems first, ask the right questions, conduct research to define the core problems, and then offer solutions. They design for people and with people in mind.
Although most design firms have their own product design processes, they are flexible and can adapt to the client’s workflows. You should be able to find all related information on the companies’ websites.
At UX studio, we first meet our clients on a call to discuss their challenges and goals. As a next step, we create a detailed plan of collaboration that covers the scope of work, timing, team composition, and costs estimates. Once we agree on the terms and conditions, our UX professionals are ready to kick off the collaboration. If you would like to learn more about how we work, our workflows, and processes in detail, please reach out to us with any questions.
Other helpful questions to ask when you assess your product design partner:
- Are services displayed on the website and communicated clearly?
- Can you see the actual design examples from former works? Are they well-designed and visually appealing?
- Have you already defined two to three preferred agencies that you’d like to contact?
You are the customer. You decide whom to trust and where to invest your budget. Spend a few minutes researching your potential design partners, compile a list of two to three preferred agencies and get in touch with them. It is an effective way to find the best product design partner.
How to improve an existing product design
If you believe your product does not perform as it should, you have to define the problem areas first and then develop the right strategies to address those issues.
UX audit and user experience research can help you assess your current product’s performance and understand how your users interact with it. By interviewing your customers, tracking target actions in Google Analytics and Hotjar, you will be able to discover users’ pain points. After this, we can define the next steps that might require a complete redesign or only minor changes.
If your teams have the right UX knowledge and experience, you can do the required changes in-house, but you can also hire innovative design firms to help you with product design.
At UX studio, we can help you do a holistic overview of your product, the target audience, and the competitive environment. We explore the current state of your product to define the core usability issues, which, if tackled, can improve your product’s business performance.
We conduct usability testing with actual users, prioritize the next steps, and design a brand new solution based on research findings. We would be happy to become your long-term product design partner to show the value of UX design and shape your product design strategy.
If you are looking for a product design studio, we will be happy to help. Get in touch with us, and let’s discuss your current challenges and goals.
What is the product design process?
The product design process can be different at every design company, as it varies depending on the company’s size, the scope of work, client’s budget, and deadlines.
As a customer product design company, we developed our own four-step remote product design process that UX studio professionals follow to design digital user experiences, discuss the progress with our clients, ideate together, and assist in making strategic decisions.
We utilize the Double Diamond product design process with four phases: Discover, Define, Develop, and Deliver.
We kick off the design process with the product discovery phase. Our researchers validate product ideas and conduct user interviews to make sure you invest money and energy in the right things. We embrace agile methodology by working in design sprints, but we also adapt to our client’s working style.
In the second phase, we continue by summarizing the research findings, prioritizing features, and defining the next steps of what should be designed and how. We create user personas and map their journeys to better understand their goals and motivations at every stage of their interaction with your product. This helps us create user-centered designs for our clients.
Magic happens at the third stage of our product design process as our UX professionals design impactful digital products with users in mind. We dedicate the top product designers and research experts to work full-time as an extension of your product team. We meet with you every week to update you on our progress, share the design and research findings and discuss the next steps. We always stay in touch with our clients through Jira, Zeplin, Slack, or any other collaboration tools.
Design is never finished until someone is using it! We test solutions with actual users, define areas for improvement and iterate the product design to ensure it meets your users’ needs and your business goals.
Searching for the right product design company?
UX studio has successfully collaborated with over 250 clients worldwide. Is there anything we can do for you at this moment? Let’s get in touch and discuss your current product design challenges.
Our experts would be happy to assist you with product design, UX strategy, user research and testing, and expert training.
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