Today, the quality of any software is measured mainly by the satisfaction of its users. That’s why companies spend large portions of their budget making sure their customers’ needs are met.
This is the main philosophy behind UX design. A good UX design agency is constantly on the lookout for new, more effective ways to communicate with users, whether that’s by creating more intuitive interfaces or visually breathtaking designs. If you feel your product needs a good makeover, check out our list of top UX agencies for inspiration.
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Stages of UX Design
UX design is a complex process that consists of several stages. Here are the essential elements as explained by CareerFoundry:
Research
The first and most important step of every good UX design process is the research. This is where your UX design agency analyzes the market, studies the competition, and interviews potential users of the product. The latter allows the designers to find out exactly what users want and identify some of the main problems they face. After that, they can move onto the next step.
Creating personas
The next step is creating fictional users - so-called personas that will represent your target audience. For example, an agency might create Dave, a 30-year-old small business owner from Denver, as one persona and 45-year-old Rita, a passionate kindergarten teacher, as another. These fully developed characters - perfect representations of their social groups - act as filters for any interface change.
Designing wireframes
Wireframes are essentially sketches of the interface - detailed schemes that UI design companies come up with. They start off as simple drafts that offer just a basic idea of what the interface would look like. With every change and improvement, these wireframes become more complex and elaborate. At the very end of the process, the wireframes are almost identical to the final product.
Testing
In a way, testing is the final part of the UX cycle. The finished product goes to real-life users, who assess the quality and point out important flaws. Testing the prototype is an important step because it lets the UX design firm polish any problems and catch bugs before they cause any frustration among paying customers. During this process, testers might also discover that the product doesn’t actually solve the problems it was designed to fix, in which case it needs some serious reworking.
Methodology
Because UX is so in demand nowadays, there are many agencies to choose from. This is why it’s important to know exactly what to look for. Here’s the checklist we used to identify the best user interface design companies out there.
List of services
Most of the best design agencies in the world offer a wide range of services that go beyond simple UX design. As such, it’s important to find out what the agency you choose is capable of. Typically, it’s much better for your budget if you can find a single agency to do your research, design your product, develop it, and then provide maintenance.
Work process
If possible, you should familiarize yourself with the agency’s work process. How does the agency achieve what it claims it will? How involved are you as a client in that workflow? Top UX design firms are usually transparent about all of this because they have nothing to hide.
Reputation
During your initial research, you’ll probably come across reviews from other clients who are sharing their experiences with the agency. While these are important and can give you a sense of the agency’s reputation, you should take them with a grain of salt, especially if they’re posted anonymously. We rely only on reliable reviews posted on Clutch.co.
Price
Finally, there’s the question of price. The only way you can get an exact price for your project is to contact the agency and give them the basic information. In our reviews, we provide you with a ballpark estimate so you know what to expect.
5 Top UX Agencies
- Praxent
- Momentum Design Lab
- Fuzzy Math
- Clay
- December Labs

UX Agency Reviews
Praxent Review
GOOD
EXCELLENT
EXCELLENT
- ⦿ Highly experienced
- ⦿ Solid research skills
- ⦿ Innovation planning
Momentum Design Lab Review
GOOD
GOOD
EXCELLENT
- ⦿ Overwhelmingly positive reviews
- ⦿ Innovation sprints
- ⦿ Customer journey mapping
Fuzzy Math Review
EXCELLENT
EXCELLENT
EXCELLENT
- ⦿ Co-designing with clients
- ⦿ Technology-independent designers
- ⦿ Training services
Clay Review
EXCELLENT
GOOD
EXCELLENT
- ⦿ UX/UI audit
- ⦿ Front-end and back-end programming
- ⦿ Copywriting
December Labs Review
EXCELLENT
EXCELLENT
EXCELLENT
- ⦿ Full-stack development
- ⦿ AR/VR technologies
- ⦿ Machine learning
The main goal of a UX agency is to provide a great experience for the user. This is done through extensive research, innovative design, and continuous testing to make sure both the client and the end-user are satisfied. The agency usually employs an array of professionals, including researchers, designers, strategists, analysts, and developers. They all work together to create the optimal customer experience.
This depends mainly on the experience of the designer and the type of service you’re after. According to one of the biggest freelance platforms right now, Upwork, general UX design can cost anywhere between $25 and $75 an hour. That estimate is based on US freelancers who work at an intermediate level. User experience design firms can charge more, but that’s because they often include a team of professionals and not just a single UI UX designer. In any case, keep in mind that the best UI design doesn’t come cheap, and there’s a good reason for that.
This oft-used acronym is actually an abbreviation of the term user experience. UX design is basically a branch of graphic design that focuses solely on the user’s interaction with the product or service. UX agencies use it to improve the entire user experience by adding various visually pleasing and functional elements to the product. A good example is microinteractions, those little animations that are triggered when a user clicks on or hovers over an element. Not only is this visually appealing, but it also serves a purpose - it tells users they have (un)successfully interacted with the element.
The main difference between best user interface design (UI) and user experience (UX) is the focus. UI refers to basically any part of the software, service, or website that the user interacts with. A UI design firm comes up with screens, pages, and all of the elements on those pages. However, once the interaction happens, that’s where UX comes in. The focus of UX design is the feeling the user gets from using a product. The design tries to manipulate the experience through usability, accessibility, and desirability. Good UX design follows every step of the user’s interaction and streamlines the experience.
In most cases, the best companies for UX designers don’t require any coding knowledge. However, this might be an advantage in some cases. Considering UX design is a competitive field, you need to find a way to stand out from the crowd. A top UX designer who knows a little bit of coding can be useful in a number of ways. They can deal with the odd front-end or back-end problem if it comes up, therefore offering a more complete service as a freelancer. That said, the technology has evolved so much that there’s no other explicit reason why you should use code in any case.
The first thing you need to do is make sure you actually want to become a UX designer. Go online, do some research, and find out what user interface design firms actually do. You need to learn as much as possible and become an expert on the subject. Once you’re confident you want to go down that path, it’s time to find a suitable course on the web. There are countless courses out there, but you have to understand straight away that there are no shortcuts. Acquiring the necessary skills will take some time and effort. In fact, one might say that it’s an ongoing process that never really ends.
Once you feel you’ve acquired enough skills, it’s time to put them to the test. Do some real-world designing for user experience consulting firms to get a feel for the job and learn new things along the way. Create your own project or accept a few low-cash offers just to get some experience. Don’t feel discouraged if it doesn’t work at first. Every beginning is hard. It will get easier with time.
Because UX design includes a number of different elements, it makes sense that you’ll need various programs to make it work. When it comes to interface design, some of the most popular software solutions include Sketch, UXPin, and Adobe XD. Flinto and Principle are great choices for motion design, while Justinmind and Axure might be your best option for wireframing. In addition to that, every good UX design agency uses Hotjar for testing purposes.