UX/UI Design
We run UX audits, redesigns, and design sprints as their own engagement — research, flows, and validated prototypes — so you get a design your team can build from, whether or not we're the ones who build it.
- UX audits
- User flows & wireframes
- Clickable prototypes
- User validation
- Design system handoff
UX/UI design is a standalone engagement covering research, user flows, wireframes, and validated interface design — delivered as a design artifact your team can build from, independent of who writes the code afterward. North Tech Labs offers this separately from its build services for companies that need product and design expertise now, but either aren't ready to commit to a full build or already have an engineering team in place.
Business challenges this addresses
- An existing product has usability problems no one can pin downUsers are dropping off, support tickets keep repeating the same confusion, or the interface has grown feature by feature without a coherent structure, but the team lacks the dedicated design capacity to diagnose why.
- A product idea needs to be validated before committing to a buildCommitting engineering budget to an unvalidated concept is a real risk — testing the flow with real users first is cheaper than discovering the problem after development starts.
- Design and engineering are tightly coupled with no separationA previous vendor treated design as a byproduct of development, leaving no reusable design artifact and no way to change design direction without also renegotiating the build.
- An in-house engineering team needs a design partner, not a builderThe company can build the product itself but doesn't have dedicated UX/UI capacity, and doesn't want to hand the entire build to an outside vendor just to get design work done.
Capabilities
- Heuristic and usability audits of an existing product
- User research and interviews to surface real behaviour, not assumptions
- Competitive and pattern analysis for the product category
- Analytics review to identify where users actually struggle
- Information architecture and user flow mapping
- Wireframes through high-fidelity interface design
- Clickable prototypes for stakeholder and user testing
- Design systems and component libraries for consistency at scale
- Moderated or unmoderated user testing of prototypes before build
- Accessibility review against WCAG considerations
- Developer-ready handoff files, specs, and redlines
- Design documentation an engineering team can build from independently
Typical solutions
Examples of the kind of systems this service can build — not a list of completed client projects unless stated otherwise.
- UX auditA structured review of an existing product's usability, surfacing specific friction points with prioritized recommendations, rather than general feedback.
- Product redesignA full redesign of an existing product's interface and flows, grounded in research rather than a visual refresh alone.
- Design sprintA short, focused engagement to explore and test a specific product idea or feature direction before committing engineering resources to it.
- Validated clickable prototypeAn interactive prototype tested with real users, giving a concrete, de-risked design to build from instead of a static mockup.
- Design systemA reusable component library and set of design standards so new screens and features stay visually and behaviourally consistent as the product grows.
- Field or mobile interface designInterface design for staff working outside an office — drivers, technicians, on-site teams — accounting for outdoor visibility, gloved input, and interrupted connectivity.
Delivery approach
- 1Discovery & researchWe review the existing product (if any), talk to real users or stakeholders, and identify the specific problem the design needs to solve before sketching a single screen.
- 2User flows & wireframesWe map the structure and flow of the experience at low fidelity, so structural problems get caught before visual design time is spent on them.
- 3PrototypingWe build a clickable, high-fidelity prototype that behaves close enough to the real product to be tested meaningfully.
- 4User validationWe test the prototype with real users before recommending it as a basis for development, and revise based on what actually happens in those sessions rather than opinion.
- 5Design handoffWe package flows, components, specs, and assets into documentation your engineering team, or another vendor, can build from without needing us in the room.
Architecture & engineering considerations
- ConsistencyA component-based design system so new screens stay visually and behaviourally consistent as the product grows, instead of every feature reinventing its own patterns.
- AccessibilityInterfaces reviewed against WCAG considerations — contrast, focus states, and screen-reader structure — rather than accessibility treated as a post-launch fix.
- Handoff qualitySpecs, redlines, and component documentation precise enough that a developer who wasn't in the design sessions can implement the interface correctly.
- Platform fitInteraction patterns designed for the actual target platform — web, iOS, Android — rather than a single layout awkwardly adapted across all three.
Where this fits
- React Native
- Figma
Is this the right fit?
- A good fit when...You need dedicated UX/UI expertise — an audit, a redesign, or a validated concept — and want a design artifact you can act on, regardless of who builds it afterward.
- Not a good fit when...You already know exactly what to build and just need engineering capacity — in that case a build service that includes design as part of the scope is the more efficient path.
- Typical engagement shapeA scoped audit, redesign, or design sprint with a defined output — often followed by a separate build engagement, sometimes with us, sometimes with your own team.
Related services
Frequently asked questions
Can we hire you for design only, then build with our own team?
Yes. This is a standalone design engagement — the output is a validated prototype, flows, and handoff documentation intended to be buildable by any competent engineering team, ours or yours. We don't require a build contract to take on design work.
How is this different from the UX/UI work inside your build services?
Our build services include UX/UI as one part of a larger scope because a build needs a design to work from. This service is that design work on its own, for when you need it before, or entirely separate from, a development commitment.
Do you validate designs with real users before development starts?
Yes, where the engagement includes a prototype we test it with real users before recommending it as a basis for a build. This surfaces problems while they're still cheap to fix.
What do we actually receive at the end of the engagement?
Depending on scope: audit findings, user flows and wireframes, a clickable prototype, and developer-ready handoff files and specifications — documentation built to be usable without us present.
Can this lead into a build engagement with North Tech Labs later?
It can, but it doesn't have to. If a build follows, the design output carries directly into a mobile app or custom software engagement. If your own team builds it, the handoff is written for that outcome too.
Further reading
- A Buyer's Guide to Healthcare Administrative SoftwareA practical framework for buying healthcare administrative software: regulatory scope, data security, EHR/EMR integration, and vendor evaluation.
- Product Discovery: Validating What to Build Before You Build ItA practical guide to product discovery — the process of validating what to build before scoping or writing any code, with real techniques.
Considering a UX/UI Design project?
Tell us whether you need an audit of something that already exists, or a new concept validated before development starts — we'll scope the design work on its own terms.