Table of contents
- The short version
- What product design services are really for
- What should product design services include for a software product
- The four kinds of design work, and when each one fits
- A UX audit, when the product exists but something is off
- User research, when you are not sure where the friction is
- Interface design, for a new product or a redesign
- A design system, when the product keeps growing
- How a design engagement runs, phase by phase
- See your number before a sales call
- Published prices and timelines
- How to choose a product design partner
- Questions worth asking any design team
- Red flags that should end the conversation
- Related reading
- Sources
- Why design and engineering belong under one roof
- Questions about working with us
- Can you design if another team is building the product
- What happens if we do not like the direction
- What files do we actually receive
- Questions about product design and UX
- How much do product design services cost
- How long does a design engagement take
- Can you improve our product without a full redesign
- Do you handle accessibility
The short version
- Product design services cover the research, structure, and interface work that decides whether people can actually use your software, from a UX audit of an existing product to full interface design for a new one.
- We at Scrumfort publish our prices. A UX audit starts at $2,500, user research at $4,000, a design system at $5,000, and interface design at $6,000, with most standalone engagements landing between $2,500 and $15,000.
- Every engagement ends with developer-ready files you own outright, designed to WCAG 2.2 AA by default, and usable by any development team, including your own.
What product design services are really for
What should product design services include for a software product
If you are a founder, product lead, or CTO whose software works but frustrates the people using it, this guide is for you. Good software fails all the time for one quiet reason. The features work, but people cannot find them, misread them, or give up halfway through a task. Product design services exist to fix exactly that, and for software people use all day, the stakes are higher than for a marketing website. We at Scrumfort design B2B products, internal tools, SaaS platforms, and customer portals, starting from the work your users are trying to get done rather than the screens they happen to be looking at. The result is a set of UX and interface decisions you can test with real users before a line of code is written, on a fixed price you see before you commit.
The short answer
Product design services for software typically include a UX audit of an existing product, user research and interviews, interface design delivered as a clickable prototype, and a design system of reusable components. At Scrumfort a UX audit starts at $2,500, research at $4,000, a design system at $5,000, and interface design at $6,000, with most standalone engagements between $2,500 and $15,000. You receive organised, developer-ready files, a written specification covering every state, and full ownership of all of it.
Already know what you need? Get a fixed price for your design work.
In this guide
The four kinds of design work, and when each one fits
UX design services get sold as one vague bundle, which makes them hard to buy. In practice they split into four distinct pieces of work, and most businesses only need one or two of them to start.
A UX audit, when the product exists but something is off
An audit is a structured review of your product against how people actually use it, checked against established usability principles such as the ten usability heuristics from Nielsen Norman Group. You get a written report with problems ranked by what they cost your users, a recommended fix for each, and a rough effort estimate, so you know what is worth doing first. It is not an exhaustive list of everything that could be improved. It is an ordered list of what matters. Often the honest finding is that a handful of targeted fixes on the most-used screens beats a full redesign for a fraction of the cost, and when that is what we find, that is what we recommend.
Pro tip. Before you book any design work, pull your ten most common support tickets. The screens they mention are almost always the screens worth fixing first.
User research, when you are not sure where the friction is
Research means talking to the people who use the product, watching them work, and finding where the friction really is rather than where the team assumes it is. In B2B software this reliably surfaces something the internal team stopped noticing years ago, a workaround everyone uses, a field nobody understands, a report people rebuild in a spreadsheet every Monday. Interface design without that grounding is decoration, which is why we would rather do both.
Interface design, for a new product or a redesign
This is screen design for a new product, or a redesign of an existing one, delivered as a clickable prototype you can put in front of users before anyone writes code. Every state is specified, including loading, empty, error, disabled, and what happens at each screen width. Those details are where most handoffs break down, and specifying them up front is what keeps the build from guessing.
A design system, when the product keeps growing
A design system is a library of named, reusable components with rules for how they behave. It matters most for SaaS products and internal platforms that add screens every month, because it keeps the product consistent and makes every new feature faster to design and build. We can deliver it in Figma, as a coded component library in React and Storybook, the open source workshop many teams use to build and document UI components in isolation, or both, quoted separately so you only pay for what you need.
Pro tip. Start a design system from the five or six components your product already uses most, usually buttons, form fields, tables, and modals, rather than from a blank page.
How a design engagement runs, phase by phase
Whichever kind of work you start with, the engagement follows the same shape, and each phase ends with something concrete you can review and keep. You see work in progress from the first week rather than a finished reveal at the end, which is how problems surface while they are still cheap to fix.
| Phase | What happens | What you receive |
|---|---|---|
| Understand the work | We map the tasks your users do and where they get stuck, from interviews, observation, or a review of the existing product | A ranked list of problems, each with the cost to users and a recommended fix |
| Structure | We decide how information and screens fit together before anything is styled | User flows and screen structure you can comment on |
| Design | We design the screens with named, reusable components and specify every state and screen width | Organised design files and a clickable prototype |
| Validate | You put the prototype in front of real users before development starts, and we revise within the agreed direction | An updated prototype reflecting what users actually did |
| Hand over | We package everything a development team needs and stay reachable during the build | Exported assets, a written specification of states and behaviour, and full access to the files |
See your number before a sales call
Our estimator turns your answers into a fixed range in about a minute, and a short scoping session turns that into a firm price. Start your design estimate here.
Published prices and timelines
The table sets out our standalone product design pricing, fixed against scope. If design is part of a full build with us, it sits inside the project price rather than being charged separately.
| Engagement | Best when | From | Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| UX audit | The product exists and users struggle with it | $2,500 | 2 weeks |
| User research | You do not know where the real friction is | $4,000 | 3 weeks |
| Design system | The product adds screens and features often | $5,000 | 3 to 4 weeks |
| Interface design | A new product, or a redesign of an existing one | $6,000 | 3 to 5 weeks |
Most standalone engagements land between $2,500 and $15,000. Larger products take longer, and you get a specific timeline before you commit.
How to choose a product design partner
Whoever you hire, these are the questions that separate a design partner who will improve your product from one who will hand you attractive screens your developers cannot build.
Questions worth asking any design team
- Can we see real design files from a past project, not just finished screenshots? Polished images hide whether states and behaviour were ever specified.
- Do you start with research, or with screens? A team that opens Figma on day one is guessing at the problem.
- Will the files specify loading, empty, error, and disabled states at every screen width? If not, your developers will fill the gaps themselves.
- Who owns the files, and can another team build from them? You should get full access, not a view-only link to an agency account.
- Which accessibility standard do you design to? Expect a specific answer, such as WCAG 2.2 Level AA, not a vague promise.
- What happens, and what does it cost, if we change direction? The answer should be written down before you start.
Red flags that should end the conversation
- No price, or even a range, until after several calls.
- Deliverables described as flat images or a PDF rather than working design files.
- Files kept in the agency's own account, with access ending when the project ends.
- No contact with a developer until the final handoff.
- A portfolio of concept art with no shipped products behind it.
Related reading
- Product design and UX for everything included in each engagement.
- MVP development services if you need the product designed and built in one fixed ten-week plan.
- SaaS development for multi-tenant platforms where a design system pays off fastest.
Sources
- W3C, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2
- Nielsen Norman Group, 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design
- Storybook, official documentation
Why design and engineering belong under one roof
The most expensive design is the kind that cannot be built. A beautiful prototype that ignores how the data actually loads, or what happens on a narrow screen, turns into weeks of rework once development starts. Because our designers and engineers work together, design decisions are checked against how the product will really be built, and the files arrive with every state and behaviour already specified. That also cuts the other way. You do not need to hire us for development to work with us on design. A good share of our design work goes to teams building with their own developers, and the files are written to be used by anyone, not to keep you dependent on us. When we disagree with a direction, we say so once, explain why, and then build what you decide.
By the numbers
- UX audit from $2,500, delivered in two weeks
- Most standalone design engagements between $2,500 and $15,000, fixed against scope
- Designed to WCAG 2.2 AA as standard, not as an add-on
- 100 percent of the design files, specification, and prototype owned by you
© 2026 Scrumfort. All rights reserved.
Design for software people use all day is not about making screens prettier. It is about removing the friction that costs your users time every single day. That is how we approach product design and UX, starting with the work and ending with files any team can build from.
Questions about working with us
Can you design if another team is building the product
Yes, and a good share of our design work is exactly that. You get developer-ready files with components, states, and responsive behaviour specified, and we stay reachable during the build. You do not need to hire us for development to work with us on design.
What happens if we do not like the direction
You see work in progress from the first week, specifically so this surfaces early rather than at a final presentation. Revisions within the agreed direction are part of the engagement. A complete change of direction after sign-off is a new phase, and we price it honestly rather than absorbing it and cutting corners elsewhere.
What files do we actually receive
Organised design files with named, reusable components, exported assets, a written specification covering states and behaviour, and the clickable prototype. All of it is yours, with full access. Nothing is held back to keep you dependent on us.
Questions about product design and UX
How much do product design services cost
With us, a UX audit starts at $2,500, user research at $4,000, a design system at $5,000, and interface design at $6,000. Most standalone engagements land between $2,500 and $15,000, and design inside a full build is included in the project price.
How long does a design engagement take
Two weeks for an audit, three weeks for a research study, three to four weeks for a design system, and three to five weeks for interface design on a new product. Larger products take longer, and you get a specific timeline before committing.
Can you improve our product without a full redesign
Often that is the better answer, and the audit is designed to find out. A handful of targeted fixes to the most-used screens frequently delivers more than a rebuild, for a fraction of the cost.
Do you handle accessibility
We design to WCAG 2.2 Level AA as standard, the W3C accessibility standard, covering colour contrast, keyboard navigation, focus states, and screen reader semantics. Formal accessibility certification and legal conformance audits are a specialism we do not offer, and we will tell you when you need one.
Want to know what is actually slowing your users down? Start with a UX audit from $2,500, delivered in two weeks.
Get a fixed price for your product design
Tell us what you are designing and we will put a fixed price and a timeline in front of you, with developer-ready files and full ownership from day one.
Explore how we approach product design and UX, see how design fits into a fixed ten-week MVP, or look through the products we have shipped.
If your users are fighting your software instead of using it, book a free thirty-minute scoping call and leave with a real price.
