UX research and synthesis.
User interviews, usability testing, analytics review, competitive audit, heuristic evaluation. Output is a prioritized recommendation document with effort estimates — not a 60-slide deck no one reads.
UI/UX Design
Product design — research-led, engineered to ship.
SaaS UI/UX design agency for product teams who need design that survives the handoff. Novura's designers work alongside engineers in the same pod — research, prototypes, design tokens, production-ready React components, all in one workflow. No Figma-to-engineer handoff that loses 30% of the design. Conversion and retention treated as deliverables.
- Research-led: 5–8 user interviews, analytics review, heuristic audit before pixels.
- Design system as output: tokens, components, accessibility baseline — not a Figma file you can't evolve.
- Measurable outcomes: activation, retention, conversion instrumented.
The Studio Model
Design that ships — not design that gets handed off.
Figma + design tokens + production React, all in one workflow. The handoff collapses.
The standard agency model hands you a Figma file at the end of the engagement and waves goodbye. Engineers re-interpret the design, 30% of the intent gets lost in translation, the design system stops evolving the day the agency leaves. That model is broken.
We work differently because we're a studio that builds both. Designers and engineers sit in the same pod from week one. The output of a design engagement isn't just Figma — it's Figma + design tokens + production React components built on Tailwind, shadcn/ui, and Radix. The design system you get can ship on the day of the engagement ending, and it stays maintainable for your team.
What We Deliver
Five outputs. One end-to-end design workflow.
Research, IA, hi-fi, design system, production components — sequenced so each compounds.
Information architecture and flows.
The structural decisions: what belongs on which screen, how users move between them, where the friction is, what to cut. Wireframes when they pay back; clickable Figma prototypes when stakeholder alignment needs a tangible artifact.
High-fidelity design.
Visual design grounded in your brand, calibrated for conversion and retention, with explicit attention to typography, spacing, color, and micro-interactions. Designed for the platform — web designs that feel web-native, mobile designs that feel mobile-native.
Design systems.
Design tokens (color, typography, spacing, motion), component libraries, documentation. Built on Tailwind + shadcn/ui + Radix so they're production-ready React, not Figma-only.
Production handoff — or no handoff.
When designers are in the engineering pod, the “handoff” collapses: designers ship the React components themselves. When the engagement is design-only, we deliver a handoff package that engineers can actually build from — spec, tokens, edge cases, accessibility annotations.
Our Toolchain
Figma in, React out.
The toolchain we reach for — and the measurement layer that grades the work.
- Design
- Figma, FigJam for collaboration, Maze for usability testing.
- Research
- User interviews via Zoom or in-person, analytics review with PostHog, Mixpanel, or Amplitude, heatmaps with Hotjar.
- Design system
- Tailwind CSS v4, shadcn/ui, Radix UI, Storybook for documentation.
- Accessibility
- WCAG 2.2 AA baseline, axe-core in CI for the components we ship.
- Motion
- Framer Motion for web; Reanimated 3 for React Native.
- Measurement
- Activation, retention, conversion instrumented in your analytics; not asserted as design intuition.
How We Work
From research to production components.
Ten weeks, sequenced so each phase makes the next easier — not a handover at the end.
- Weeks 1–2
Research and synthesis.
User interviews, analytics review, heuristic audit. Output: a one-page direction memo, not a deck.
- Weeks 2–4
Flows and prototypes.
Wireframes for new flows, clickable Figma prototypes for stakeholder alignment, usability testing on the prototype before high-fidelity.
- Weeks 4–8
High-fidelity design and tokens.
Visual design across the core surfaces, design system tokens, accessibility pass, motion specifications.
- Weeks 6–10
Production components.
(Optional, recommended) — designers ship production React components against the tokens. The system goes live with your engineers, not over the wall.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions.
What product teams ask before scoping a design engagement.
- How much does SaaS UI/UX design cost in 2026?
- Engagements are custom-quoted because cost scales with scope, research depth, design-system surface, and platform parity. A scoped product redesign (research → high-fidelity design → production-ready design system tokens) typically lands in a 6–10 week engagement. Ongoing design partnerships (a designer embedded with your product team) are scoped separately as monthly retainers.
- What's the difference between UI design and UX design?
- UI design is the surface — the visual system, typography, color, spacing, micro-interactions. UX design is the structure underneath — user flows, information architecture, decisions about what should and shouldn't be on a screen, what the user feels at each step. Most engagements need both, but the proportions differ: a redesign of an existing product is mostly UI; a new product or feature is mostly UX up front, then UI.
- Do I need a design system for my SaaS product?
- Yes, once you're shipping enough features that consistency matters more than speed. A design system is the difference between three different button styles across your app and one button that scales as you grow. The investment pays back in engineering velocity (components are reused, not re-built), brand consistency, and accessibility baseline. We build them on top of Tailwind + shadcn/ui + Radix so they're production-ready, not Figma-only.
- How long does a UX research engagement take?
- Lightweight research (5–8 user interviews, synthesis, recommended changes) takes 2–3 weeks. Deeper research with usability testing, analytics review, and a redesign brief takes 4–6 weeks. We don't do six-month research engagements that end with a deck no one reads — research output is always paired to a designable next step.
- Can a UX redesign improve activation or retention rates?
- Yes — when the redesign is grounded in research, not aesthetic preference. The activation lift typically comes from removing friction in onboarding (shorter forms, smarter defaults, faster time-to-value), and the retention lift comes from making the core loop obvious. We instrument the changes in your analytics (PostHog, Mixpanel, Amplitude) so the impact is measurable, not asserted.
- What's included in a SaaS design audit?
- A structured review of your current product against three lenses: heuristic usability (Nielsen's heuristics + accessibility), conversion friction (signup, onboarding, activation flow), and design-system health (consistency, accessibility, maintainability). Output is a prioritized list of fixes with effort estimates, not a 60-slide deck.
- Subscription design vs project-based design — which is better?
- Project-based fits redesigns and specific product launches with a defined deliverable. Subscription (designer embedded in your team for a monthly retainer) fits ongoing product evolution where you ship 2–4 designed features per month. We do both. The right call depends on whether your design need is one large piece of work or sustained capacity.
- Do your designers also build in code?
- Yes — and that's a deliberate part of how we work. Designers ship design tokens, component specs, and (often) the production React components themselves. The handoff to engineers stops being a handoff: the Figma component and the React component are the same thing, instrumented for the design system. That's why we say 'design that ships' — it's not a slogan, it's how the workflow runs.
Related Services
Services that pair with design.
Design rarely ships alone — these are the services that surround it.
Design that ships — not design that gets re-interpreted.
Tell us what you're building. Same business day reply with a scoped next step.