Most people hire designers because they want “a better look.” Then the project starts, and they realize the real work is not the look. It is the choices behind the look. What goes first on the page. What gets removed. What the button says. What happens when a user makes a mistake. Where the user hesitates. What the product should do when the user is not paying attention.
That is what professional ux/ui design services are supposed to cover. Not just screens. Not just colors. The full set of work that turns an idea into something people can use without friction.
Discovery and Project Setup
A serious UX/UI team does not jump into visuals on day one. They start by getting the basics right, because every decision later depends on them.
You should expect a kickoff that clarifies who the product is for, what it must achieve, and what is not in scope. This is where the team learns the business model, the audience, and the success metrics. If the project has internal stakeholders, the design team should also learn who approves what, and how feedback will be handled. Projects get messy when this part is skipped.
Good discovery usually includes reviewing any existing product, website, or earlier designs. If you already have users, the team should ask for support tickets, common complaints, recordings, analytics, or anything that shows where people drop off. If you do not have a product yet, discovery focuses more on the concept, the market, and the primary actions users need to take.
This step often produces a simple written summary: goals, assumptions, risks, constraints, and priorities. It is not “extra paperwork.” It becomes the reference point when opinions start flying later.
Understanding Users In A Practical Way
User research can be light or deep. What matters is that it is real and it matches your budget.
In professional ux/ui design services, research might be as small as five interviews or as large as a full research program. The point is to stop guessing. Even a handful of conversations can reveal surprising things, like users using different words than your team, or users wanting a faster path to a result you thought was “secondary.”
You should expect the team to define who they want to talk to and why. If there are different user types, the design team should separate them. A product often fails when it treats every user the same.
Research may also include reviewing competitors. Not to copy them, but to understand the “normal” patterns users already know. People bring habits with them. When you fight those habits for no reason, you create confusion.
If research is included, you should receive a short output that the team can act on. It can be simple: key findings, the biggest pain points, and what the design must support. You do not need a 40-page slide deck. You need decisions that get better because the team learned something.
Information Architecture and Structure
Once the team understands the problem and the user, the next part is structure.
For a website, this might mean a sitemap and page hierarchy. For an app, it might mean how screens are grouped and how navigation should work. This is where the team decides what pages exist, what content goes on each page, and how people move around without getting lost.
You should expect the team to care about naming. Labels matter. “Solutions” might sound nice internally, but “Pricing” or “Services” might be what users actually want. A professional team pushes for clarity over cleverness.
If your product has a lot of features or content, the design scope should include decisions about prioritization. What is visible immediately, what is one click away, and what is hidden until the user needs it. This is not decoration. It is usability.
User Flows and Key Journeys
A good UX/UI scope includes mapping the important journeys. This is where the team defines the steps a user takes to complete a task.
Common examples are sign up, onboarding, searching, filtering, booking, checkout, submitting a request, or contacting support. The exact flows depend on your product, but you should see at least the “money paths,” the actions tied to revenue or retention.
The best value here comes from thinking through edge cases. What happens when something goes wrong, or when the user takes an unexpected path. People forget passwords. They abandon forms. They mistype emails. They try to upload the wrong file. They hit back. They lose connection. If these moments are ignored, the product feels broken even if it looks great.
When professional ux/ui design services include flow work, you usually get simple diagrams or written steps. The output does not have to be fancy. It just has to make the flow clear enough that everyone agrees before the team invests in detailed screens.
Wireframes and Layout Planning
Wireframes are the planning stage where you decide what goes on each screen without getting distracted by style.
Most teams start with low-fidelity wireframes. These show the layout and hierarchy: what is at the top, what sits under it, and what the user sees first. They help answer questions like “Do we need this section?” and “Is the page trying to do too much?”
Some projects move into mid-fidelity wireframes, where spacing and structure become more realistic. This is helpful when you need alignment across multiple stakeholders, or when the product has complicated screens and forms.
A scope that skips wireframes can still work for very small projects, but it is a risk. When you jump straight into polished UI, stakeholders often start debating colors and personal taste, even though the bigger problem is the layout and flow. Wireframes keep the conversation on the right things early.
Content Support and UX Writing
This is a quiet part of UX/UI that changes everything.
UX writing includes the words inside the interface: button labels, form hints, error messages, confirmation messages, and the short bits of guidance that help users move forward. These words need to be simple, consistent, and specific.
A solid UX/UI package often includes writing or rewriting key microcopy. If the design team does not do the writing, they should still flag where copy is missing and help you avoid vague labels. “Submit” is vague. “Book a call” is clearer. “Continue” is okay sometimes, but not everywhere. The user should always know what happens next.
For websites, content support can also include helping you shape the page sections so they answer user questions in the right order. You might still write the final copy internally, but the design scope should at least guide what content belongs where.
Visual Design Direction
Once the structure is agreed, visual design begins.
A professional team usually confirms direction before designing every screen. This might include mood references, a style tile, or a small set of example screens. The goal is to avoid designing 30 screens and then hearing, “This is not the vibe.”
Visual direction covers typography, spacing, color usage, imagery style, and how the brand should feel. It also includes the basic rules that keep everything consistent. If your product has a brand guide, the design team should follow it and fill gaps where the guide is unclear.
This is where UI starts to show, but the best teams still make decisions based on usability first. A clean layout with readable type beats an “exciting” layout that confuses people.
High-Fidelity UI Screens
This is the part most people expect: polished screens that show the final interface.
High-fidelity UI includes realistic content, final spacing, final typography, and the actual components the user interacts with. It should also reflect different states, not only the “perfect” state.
A good scope includes at least the critical screens for the main flows. If your project is large, the team might design core templates and then apply them across similar screens. That is normal. What matters is coverage of the main journeys.
A common mistake is getting beautiful screens that cannot be built, or screens that contradict each other. That usually happens when the team is designing screen-by-screen without a shared system.
This is one reason professional ux/ui design services often include a component library or design system work alongside the screens.
Components, Patterns, and A UI Kit
A UI kit is the set of reusable building blocks used across the product.
This can include buttons, form fields, dropdowns, checkboxes, toggles, cards, tables, tabs, modals, alerts, navigation patterns, and spacing rules. It can be lightweight or deep depending on the product, but it should exist.
When a UI kit is included, development becomes easier. Updates become easier too. You do not want a product where every button is slightly different because the design files were not built with reusable components.
A design system can also include tokens (color and typography variables), rules for states, and guidelines for how components behave. Even if you are not building a “full design system,” you should still expect a basic set of component rules.
This is a core part of professional ux/ui design services when the product will keep growing after launch.
Interaction States and “Boring” Screens
Most products fail in the boring parts, not in the main screens.
A complete design scope includes states like:
- Loading
- Empty (no data yet)
- Success
- Error
- Disabled
- Validation messages for forms
These states matter because users see them often. When they are not designed, the developer improvises. That creates inconsistency. It also creates frustration for users, because the product behaves differently from screen to screen.
These states do not need to be drawn for every single screen, but they should be defined clearly enough that the build stays consistent.
Prototyping and Click-Through Demos
A clickable prototype lets you test and review flows without building anything.
In professional ux/ui design services, prototypes are often used for three reasons. First, they make feedback easier. People understand “click and feel” better than static images. Second, prototypes help spot flow gaps early. Third, they help developers understand how screens connect.
Prototypes can be simple or detailed. For a marketing site, a prototype might focus on navigation and key pages. For an app, it might cover onboarding, core tasks, and any tricky flows. The key is that the prototype matches the scope and highlights the areas where mistakes are expensive.
If you’re planning a redesign or a new product, contact TCU for UI UX design services and get a clear scope before you start.
Usability Testing and Iteration
If testing is included, it should come with actual iteration. Testing without changes is just a report.
Usability testing usually means asking a few people to complete tasks while the team observes where they struggle. It can be done with five to eight users and still be valuable. You are not chasing perfection. You are catching obvious friction before launch.
Testing can also include quick internal tests with people unfamiliar with the product. Even that helps. The point is to learn what users do, not what you hope they do.
Developer Handoff and Specs
A design that cannot be built cleanly is not a finished design.
Handoff is the stage where the design team prepares everything developers need: organized files, component rules, spacing specs, and behavior notes. Most teams use tools like Figma for this, but the tool is not the point. The point is clarity.
Good handoff includes:
- Consistent naming and structure in files
- Components that are actually reusable
- Notes for interactions and states
- Clear typography and spacing decisions
- Guidance on responsive behavior
This is where many cheap design services fall apart. They deliver screens but not the rules behind the screens. The developer is then forced to guess, and the product drifts.
Some companies in the broader product space get mentioned because they work across design and build. That kind of crossover can be useful when you want fewer handoff gaps. It does not mean you need a combined team, but it is worth understanding how handoff will be handled and who supports developers when questions come up.
Responsive Design and Device Behavior
If the design is for a website, responsive behavior must be included. Not as an afterthought.
A proper scope covers how layouts adapt across screen sizes. That can mean designing key breakpoints, or at least defining responsive rules so developers do not guess.
For apps, this might mean support for different device sizes, orientation rules, and safe areas. For dashboards, it might include how tables behave on smaller screens.
Responsive planning is one of those things you only notice when it is missing.
Accessibility Basics
Not every project needs a full compliance program, but accessibility basics should be included in professional work.
This usually means contrast checks, readable typography, clear focus states (especially for web), form labeling, and interaction patterns that do not rely on color alone.
Accessibility often improves overall usability. It is not “for someone else.” It helps everyone, especially on mobile, in bright light, or when users are moving fast.
Design Support During Implementation
Many people assume design ends when files are sent. It should not.
A good service includes some level of support during implementation. Developers will have questions. Something will be unclear. A flow will need a small adjustment because of technical constraints. The design team should be available to keep things consistent and to prevent random decisions from sneaking in.
This is another part of professional ux/ui design services that protects quality. Without it, the final product often looks like “almost the design,” which is not what you paid for.
What You Should See In A Scope Of Work
If you are comparing vendors, look for these items in writing. They can be phrased differently, but the intent should be there.
Light bullet check, just for scanning:
- Discovery and goals
- User research or at least a review of existing data
- User flows and edge cases
- Wireframes
- UI direction and high-fidelity screens
- Components and states
- Prototype
- Testing and iteration (if budget allows)
- Developer handoff and implementation support
If a proposal is mostly “UI screens” with no mention of flows, states, or handoff, you are not getting the full package. You are getting artwork.
Closing Note
When people ask what is included, they usually want a simple answer: screens, colors, and a design file. That is the surface.
The real answer is that professional ux/ui design services include the thinking that prevents waste. They include structure so users do not feel lost. They include clear writing so users do not hesitate. They include states so users are not punished for small mistakes. They include handoff so the build matches the design.
If you are paying for UX/UI, you deserve more than good-looking screens. You deserve a product that feels easy to use on a normal day, not only in a perfect demo. That is what professional ux/ui design services should deliver.
