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UI/UX Design
Most app designs fail in the gap between the pretty screen and the developer who has to build it: the empty screen nobody drew, the error nobody planned for, the user type nobody thought about. UI/UX design here means the whole app, not just the happy path — and the same person can build it afterwards.
When to bring in UI/UX design
- You have an idea, or a rough prototype from Figma Make or Base44, and need screens a developer can actually build from.
- Users get lost, drop off, or keep asking how to do the obvious thing.
- An existing app works but looks inconsistent — every screen designed on a different day.
- A developer has asked for a spec and you don’t have one.
- You want the design and the build from the same person, so nothing gets lost in hand-off.
How the UI/UX design process works
- 01
Who uses it, and what for
Each screen starts from a person and a job — a receptionist booking a slot, a customer checking an order — not from a layout. That decides what goes first on the screen.
- 02
Flows before screens
Every path a user takes, start to finish, including the ones that go wrong. Screens come after, and there are fewer of them than you expect.
- 03
Every state, not just the happy one
Empty, loading, error, success, no permission. These are the screens that decide whether the product feels finished, and they are the ones usually missing.
- 04
A consistent set of parts
Buttons, forms, lists, cards — designed once, reused everywhere (a design system, in the jargon), so the app looks like one product and the build goes faster.
How long it takes
A first product usually takes one to three weeks of design depending on the requirements — how many flows, how many roles, whether it is one platform or several. If I am also building it, design and build overlap. I’ll tell you after a first conversation.
Questions about this
Can you design the app as well as build it?
Yes. Flows and screens first, including the empty, loading and error states most designs skip, then the build by the same person — so nothing gets lost in hand-off. If you already have designs, or a Figma Make or Base44 prototype, I work from those instead.
Can you build something from scratch?
Yes — mobile, web and AI-powered products. It's a different engagement from a rescue: we start with what the thing actually needs to do, and I'll usually push to get a small version in front of real users before building the rest. If your idea is better served by something simpler than what you're picturing, I'll say so.
What do you need from me?
Less than you’d think. A repository or a deployed URL, some idea of what’s broken, and access to whatever is failing — logs, the hosting dashboard, an error message. If you don’t have all of that, send what you do have and I’ll tell you what else I need.
Your AI-built app doesn’t need another prompt.
It might need an engineer.
If you’ve spent hours asking AI to fix the same problem and you’re going in circles, stop fighting the code. Send me what you’ve got — I’ll figure out what’s wrong and tell you what I’d do next.
No cleanup. No judgment. The messy version is usually the useful version.