Product Design & UX

At our core, we are driven by a profound belief that software is not simply about writing clean code. It’s about enhancing the lives of the humans who interface with our world through technology. It’s about the businesses who are making an impact with their product–that behind every digital interaction we create lies a user experience.

Our approach is holistic, integrating business, technology, user needs, and market demands. At the heart of our software product design service is a dedication to human experiences and the businesses that create them.  We dive deep into your problem space and work hand in hand throughout development for seamless collaboration.

Tell Us About Your Project

Experts in Blending Art and Science

Our team is a dynamic powerhouse that skillfully navigates the intricate world of software experiences and thrives on solving complex human interactions with thoughtful solutions. We’re educators and innovators, challenging assumptions and guiding clients through their product design journey.

Connect With Our Experts See Product Design FAQs
Andy presenting brand design elements.

An Innovative Product Design Approach

Integrating Engineering from the Start
Unique to our approach, we integrate engineering and feasibility from the beginning as integral to the design process.

Expertise in Current and Future Needs
Our product designers are experts at finding solutions that meet the needs of today’s users while also keeping an eye on the future. With the rapid pace of software evolution, we design software products that are both user-friendly and future-proof.

Investing in Comprehensive Design Practices
By investing in good design practices that incorporate research, interaction design, product strategy, and so much more, our clients see benefits like:

  • Less rework
  • Increased user retention
  • Strong brand representation
  • High app store ratings
  • Higher sales
  • High product adoption rates
  • Increased market share

Product Design & UX Expertise

We craft custom design strategies tailored to each client—delivering a holistic design strategy. Through business, technology, user needs, and market needs, we ensure products solve the right problem and provide valuable business outcomes.
  • Let us guide you through every stage of your product design journey, from concept to implementation. Here are a few areas you could expect us to help get started:

    • Generative Research
    • Competitive Audits
    • Analytics Reviews
    • Heuristic Evaluations & Accessibility Audits
    • Personas, Canvases, & Mapping
  • Before design begins, we aim to understand your vision—to capture the essence of the product, what it will do for your user, and what your user needs. We have many tools in our toolbox to help identify and refine the needs of your product, including:

    • Journey Mapping
    • Story Mapping
    • Service Blueprints
    • Breadboarding
    • Information Architecture
    • Flow Diagramming
    • Card Sorting
  • The visual representation of your product’s design can take many forms, from a low-fidelity concept sketch on pen and paper to a fully interactive prototype. We facilitate discussions or build custom artifacts for your product based on the product’s needs. Some of these may be:

    • Design Studios
    • Concept Generation
    • Interactive Prototypes
    • User Interface Designs
    • Design Systems
    • Micro-interactions & Animations
  • A “handoff” between design and development is not a ceremonious event at SEP, since designers and developers work side-by-side. Our dual-track agile approach allows us to bring your ideas to life – from conception to launch – eliminating the need for handoffs and ensuring that each decision aligns with user needs and business goals. You can expect things like:

    • Design Token Integration
    • Designer/Developer Partnership
    • Cognitive Walkthroughs
    • Accessibility Check-Points
    • Design Reviews
Sarah Purvlicis - Director of Product, Woven

SEP helped us identify high-impact, low-effort wins in our website design that could convert more reliably to our free trial. They also used their process to help our team think through the problems we were trying to solve collaboratively so we could arrive at the most productive solution with limited resources.
Sarah Purvlicis, Director of Product, Woven

The design elements SEP incorporated exceeded our expectations. The apps themselves accomplished virtually all of the goals we set out to achieve. The consumer app has nearly a 5-star rating in the app store. And the installers love the dealer app as it has significantly reduced the time to install and program the products.
Global Engineering & R&D Director, Global Water Treatment Company

Frequently Asked Questions

The short answer is yes.

We can solve any design problem, whether a small adjustment or a large overhaul. Add a dark mode, build a design system, validate a concept, build a suite of products–we can support you.

When we start working with a client, we agree that our relationship is so much more important than using their business name or logo to get additional business. We keep work private and secure so we can focus on solving problems for our clients.

Alas, that doesn’t really answer your question, does it? We’ve worked with startups through Fortune 100 companies in various industries. Some more unique projects were in the entertainment industry, health and human services, first responders, and IoT.

We build to learn and we build to earn, keeping both discovery and delivery value streams focusing on delivering value for the duration of your product’s development.

Absolutely. We have done this for clients in the past based on project needs and the skill sets of our respective teams. We would love to discuss your project needs.

Improving app performance is our jam! To address a performance issue, our initial step will be understanding your business and identifying why the app isn’t achieving your objectives. From there, we’ll do a rich assessment of how the app is used in your market. We’ll find areas of improvement and make recommendations to improve the experience to begin reaching your performance goals.

Our design work can stop at this stage, or we can assemble a cross-functional team of designers and engineers to get into the details of the resolution.

We recommend adding Product Design and UX to your team as early as possible. Designers make the intangible tangible. When product, design, and engineering work together from the beginning to ensure the right problems are focused on, we see less rework, more clarity, and faster market adoption.

In software and product development, UX/UI, UI/UX, UX, and Product Design are terms that often get used interchangeably but each has a distinct definition that can help clarify intent and priorities.

  • UX (User Experience):  Encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products.
  • UI (User Interface): This concerns the product’s appearance and layout, guiding users visually through the interface.
  • UX/UI or UI/UX: UX/UI and UI/UX are the same thing. UX always includes UI. UI, to be done successfully, must include UX.
  • Product Design: A broader concept that encompasses UX and UI, extending into product vision, strategy, discovery, metrics, and incremental delivery – collaborating with other key functional areas to bring a product idea to market.

Ready to boost your UX Design & craft solutions users love?

We’re here to transform your vision into a user-friendly reality. Don’t wait, contact us today and let’s create something extraordinary together.