UI/UX design tested with the people who will use it

A UI/UX design agency should find out what confuses your users before developers build it, then hand over designs that can be built as drawn. Meritbyte Technologies, a Nepal-based web and software development company, runs UI/UX design as four steps: research, wireframes, prototypes tested with real users, and a design system, with accessibility checked throughout.

What problem does UX design solve?

It removes expensive guesswork. Moving a misunderstood button takes minutes in Figma and days once it is wired to an API, a database and three other screens.

Clients usually arrive with one of these:

• A new product or MVP where the team knows the business rules but not how a customer will read the screen.
• An existing app whose support inbox keeps asking about the same three tasks.
• A web app built screen by screen by different developers, now with four styles of date picker.
• A sign-up or checkout flow that loses people, and nobody knows at which step.

UX (user experience) design is how the product works: the steps, the wording, the order of decisions. UI (user interface) design is how it looks: layout, type, colour and components. We do both, in that order. If what you need is a marketing site rather than a product, look at website design instead.

What you get

• Research. Interviews with five to eight users or customers, a pass through support tickets and analytics, and a short findings report that describes problems in the users' own words.
• Flows and wireframes. Grey-box screens that settle structure and content before anyone debates colour.
• Clickable prototype. A Figma prototype of the main tasks, realistic enough that testers forget it is not the real product.
• Usability testing. Users attempt set tasks while we watch. We change what trips them up and test again.
• Design system. Colour and type tokens, components with every state (hover, focus, error, disabled, loading), and usage notes. When we also build the product, the same components live in code in Storybook.
• Accessibility review. Contrast, focus order, target sizes and screen reader labels checked against WCAG 2.2 level AA.
• Developer handoff. Specs, assets and the edge cases developers otherwise guess at: empty states, very long names, errors and slow connections.

How many users do you need to test with?

Fewer than most people expect, but more often. Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group has long argued that about five users per round surface most of the obvious usability problems, and that several small rounds beat one large one. So we test, fix, and test again.

Participants come from your customer list where possible, since they already have the context. For consumer products or audiences you cannot reach directly, we run unmoderated tests through Maze. Moderated sessions happen over video call, so no lab is needed. Budget a modest incentive per participant; people's time is worth paying for.

How the work runs

1. Discovery call. Free. Goals, users, constraints, and whatever analytics you already have.
2. Fixed-price first milestone. Research plus wireframes of the core flow, tested with users once. You know the price before we start.
3. Two-week blocks. Every block closes with a demo of the prototype and what testing changed. You are free to stop when any block ends.
4. Build or handoff. Our web development or mobile app team builds it, or we hand the files and design system to your developers and stay on a small retainer of set days a month to answer questions and review built screens against the design.

The Figma team and files are owned by your company; we are invited as editors. Sessions run over video, and for clients in the UK the Nepal afternoon overlaps the UK morning, which suits live review calls.

Tools, and why these

What drives the cost of UX design?

The number of distinct flows and states, far more than the number of pretty screens. Other factors:

• Research depth. Interviewing your own customers is cheaper than recruiting a hard-to-reach professional audience that needs larger incentives.
• Platforms. Web, iOS and Android each have conventions; designing for all three is more work than for one.
• Design system scope. A full system with documentation costs more than a handful of shared components, and is worth it only if several people will build from it.
• Accessibility obligations. Public sector work, products covered by the European Accessibility Act (applying from June 2025), or ADA exposure in the US raise the bar and the testing effort.

We price the first milestone as a fixed amount after the scoping call; later blocks are priced per two weeks. If you are still scoping a product, how to build an MVP helps you decide what belongs in version one.

How to choose a UI/UX design agency

Ask to see research findings, not only finished screens. A gallery of polished shots proves someone can draw. A findings report proves they can listen.

Red flags:

• No user contact anywhere in the plan, replaced by "industry best practice".
• High-fidelity mockups in week one.
• Designs with no empty, error or loading states.
• A brand colour that fails contrast checks, and nobody mentions it.
• Files kept in the agency's own Figma account.
• No developer involved until handoff.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between UI and UX design?

UX design decides how a product works: the tasks, the steps, the wording and the order in which people make decisions. UI design decides how it looks: layout, typography, colour and the visual components. A product can look polished and still be confusing, which is a UX failure. We work UX first, then UI, so visual polish goes onto a structure that has already been tested.

How long does a UI/UX design project take?

It depends on the number of flows. As a typical range, research plus tested wireframes for one core flow often takes three to six weeks, and a full product with a design system takes longer. The fixed-price first milestone gives you a date for the first tested prototype, and each two-week block after that has a demo, so progress is visible.

Can you work with our existing developers?

Yes. Many clients have their own engineers and want research, prototypes and a design system from us. We involve a developer from your team early so designs respect what the codebase can do, hand over annotated Figma files and component specs, and review the built screens against the design before they ship.

Do you design for accessibility from the start?

Yes. Contrast ratios, focus order, keyboard use, target sizes and screen reader labels are checked against WCAG 2.2 level AA during design, not bolted on after launch. Fixing accessibility in a Figma file is quick; fixing it across a finished codebase is slow and expensive. The review is written up so your developers know what to preserve.

Do we need a full design system?

Not always. If one or two developers maintain a small product, a shared set of components and tokens is enough. A documented design system earns its cost when several teams build screens, when you have web and mobile apps that should feel the same, or when you expect to hire designers who need rules to follow.