Shimira ITUI/UX design
Design that developers can actually build.
There are two ways UI/UX design goes wrong. The first is obvious: ugly, confusing interfaces that users abandon. The second is quieter and more expensive: beautiful Figma files that ignore technical reality, designs that triple development cost, animate what can't perform, and leave engineers improvising every edge case the mockups skipped.
Our design practice sits inside an engineering company, and that's the point. Our designers work daily with the developers who build their designs, so what you approve in Figma is what ships, on budget, with the empty states, error states, and loading states real products need already designed.
What you get
What we design
Product UI/UX
SaaS platforms, dashboards, portals, and mobile apps, the complete interface, from information architecture to the microcopy on error messages.
MVP design sprints
For early-stage products: research-informed wireframes to a clickable prototype in 2–3 weeks, ready for user testing before development spends a dollar. Changing a prototype costs minutes; changing shipped code costs thousands, this is the highest-leverage money in your whole budget.
Design systems
Reusable component libraries (designed in Figma, built in React) that keep your product consistent as it grows and make every future feature cheaper to design and build.
UX audits & redesigns
For live products bleeding users: analytics review, heuristic evaluation, and user-flow analysis producing a prioritized fix list, quick wins separated from structural changes.
Complex-workflow design
Our specialty, shaped by the products we build: admin panels, approval chains, data-heavy tables, and multi-role systems where clarity is the feature.
- Figma
- Design systems
- Prototyping
- Accessibility
- React
Proof
We've shipped this.
A personalized children's-book platform where the design had to feel warm to parents and run as an automated production line underneath.
How it runs
Our design process
- 01
Understand
week 1Stakeholder interviews, user research where feasible, competitor teardown, and analytics review for existing products. Design that skips this step is decoration.
- 02
Structure
weeks 1–2Information architecture and low-fidelity wireframes, the cheap stage to argue in. We want your disagreements here, not in sprint 6.
- 03
Design & prototype
weeks 2–4High-fidelity screens and a clickable prototype covering the real states: empty, loading, error, edge-case-long-username, the ones that define whether software feels finished.
- 04
Validate & hand off
ongoingUser testing on the prototype where the budget allows, then developer handoff that actually works: annotated designs, tokens, and a designer who stays available through the build. (When we're also building the product, handoff friction is zero, same team.)
Timelines & pricing
Honest ranges, not a lump sum.
| Engagement | Timeline | Typical investment |
|---|---|---|
| UX audit of an existing product | 1–2 weeks | $3K – $8K |
| MVP design sprint (research → prototype) | 2–3 weeks | $5K – $15K |
| Full product design (web or mobile app) | 4–8 weeks | $12K – $40K |
| Design system | 4–10 weeks | $15K – $45K |
| Embedded product designer | ongoing | $3.5K – $7K/mo |
Context for these numbers: design typically consumes 10–15% of a total software budget, the full breakdown by phase is in our software development cost guide. Our rates run 40–60% below equivalent US design agencies, with the same time-zone overlap model as our engineering work.
How you work with us
Three ways to engage.
Fixed price
MVPs from $7,500
Full products $18,000–$55,000+
You know what you need built. We scope it, quote one price, and deliver against it, no meter running.
- One agreed price, agreed before we start
- Milestone-based payments tied to what you can see
- Change requests priced openly, never assumed
Time & materials
from $28 / hour
Blended ~$32; senior specialists to ~$45
For work that changes as you learn. You pay for the hours spent, see exactly where they go, and can steer week to week.
- Billed on real, logged hours, reviewed with you
- Reprioritise or change direction any sprint
- Start small, scale the team as it proves out
Dedicated team
from $2,800 / month
Per developer, full-time, see the rate card
Developers who work only on your product, full-time, as an extension of your team, the offshore model most of our long-term clients settle into.
- The same people, month after month
- Your tools, your standups, your roadmap
- Roughly half the loaded cost of a local hire
Full rate card and what's included on the pricing page.
Why Shimira IT
Why design with an engineering company.
Buildable by construction
Every design decision is made within technical reality, no post-handoff "this component doesn't exist" surprises.
Complete-state design
Empty, loading, error, and edge states designed up front. This is the single biggest gap in agency design files, and the most common source of mid-build cost creep.
One accountable team
Design → build → launch without the agency-to-dev-shop handoff where products traditionally lose their soul and their budget.
Measured, not just admired
We design against your metrics, activation, task completion, retention, and instrument the product to verify.
Questions
Before you get in touch.
$5,000–$15,000 for an MVP design sprint, $12,000–$40,000 for full product design, $15,000–$45,000 for a design system. Rule of thumb: design is 10–15% of a total build budget, full cost breakdown here.
No, design-only engagements with handoff to your team are common, and our handoff is built for it (annotated files, tokens, availability during your build). But design + build with one team removes the most expensive handoff in software.
Figma for design and prototyping; design tokens and component specs mapped to React for implementation. You get full access and ownership of every file.
Usually, yes, a UX audit tells us whether your problems are structural or surface. Many "we need a redesign" projects turn out to be five high-impact fixes, and we'd rather sell you those first.
Yes, scaled to budget: from lightweight prototype tests with 5–8 users (which catch the majority of usability problems) to structured research programs for larger products.
Design stays 1–2 sprints ahead of the build, with the designer in sprint reviews, so developers never wait, and designs never drift from what's being built.
Not sure what you need yet? That's the usual starting point.
Tell us the problem in your own words. We'll scope it with you and put the plan in writing, free, and yours to keep either way.