11 Top UI Designers for SaaS – What To Look For In A UI Designer
The UI of your SaaS needs to leave a lasting impression on your users, which is why we’ve compiled a list of 11 top UI designers for you. The list is based on what SaaS owners are recommending in several popular Facebook groups.
It takes just one clunky UI element to drive someone away from your site or app. But that won’t happen to you with these recommendations.
Let’s dive in!
TL;DR
- UI design is a subset of UX and a UI designer is responsible for designing the visual experience of a digital product for users.
- There are seven important things to look for when picking a UI designer for your project including their portfolio, design files, how they explain things, their curiosity, and how they describe examples of good design.
- The best UI designers for SaaS we’ve found include:
- #1: UserActive
- #2: Hatchly
- #3: Seahawk Media
- #4: Funktional
- #5: Springboard Media
- #6: Draftss
- #7: Ysi Danderfer
- #8: Neoteric
- #9: Social Podium
- #10: Piola Digital Solutions
- #11: Benkendorf Group
- Multiple factors impact the pricing for your UI design project including whether it’s a web app or mobile app, how clear your requirements are, the number of screens or pages you have, and the complexity of the design.
What is a UI design?
UI design is a subset of UX and involves designing the visual experience of a user. It’s about anticipating what a user might want to do with a piece of software and making sure all elements are intuitive, easy-to-use, and visually pleasing.
What should you look for in a good UI designer?
You need to know what to look for, what questions to ask and what responses to expect when looking for a good UI designer.
Here’s a list of what to look for in a good UI designer:
Top UI designer traits #1 – A strong portfolio
Ask to see the designer’s portfolio and look at what projects they’ve done in the past (type of product, tools used, industry, etc.) Consider asking them the following questions:
- What steps did you take for this project?
- Is this a real project or a mock project for your portfolio?
- Can you share KPIs on the success of this project?
- What kind of team (if any) did you work with?
Top UI designer traits #2 – Good at explaining how things work
Good designers know how to explain how a product works at the macro and micro-level. They start with the bigger picture and drill down to the details. The order in which they relay information is logical and easy to understand.
Watch out for the following negative signs:
- They start with the details and eventually talk about the bigger picture.
- They jump around and tend to bring up the same points multiple times.
- It takes them a long time to explain how a design works and why it’s effective.
- They’re not able to explain how a product works much beyond what a regular user would experience.
Top UI designer traits #3 – Organized and intuitive design files
Good designers keep their design files organized and consistent. It’s part of the craft. And it helps when it comes to handing the project over once it’s complete.
While reviewing their design files, ask yourself the following questions:
- Is the folder structure organized and intuitive?
- Do the element names follow a convention?
- Are there symbols and text styles that are reused or are all elements styled from scratch?
- Is there consistent spacing between elements and are they spaced out enough?
Top UI designer traits #4 – Curiosity about your product
Curiosity is an important characteristic of a top UI designer. They’re curious about how your product came to be, who the target customer is, what KPIs matter to you, and what your vision is.
They’ll ask questions like:
- What led you to create this product?
- Who is your ideal customer and who isn’t?
- How do you measure success?
- What do you want this product to achieve in 1, 2, 5 or 10 years?
Top UI designers are curious and are able to uncover deep insights needed for a killer UI design.
Top UI designer traits #5 – Good use of tools and workflows
Top UI designers know about and use the latest tools in design such as Sketch, Figma, InVision, Marvel, Principle, and Adobe XD. If you have a preference on what tools you want a UI designer to you, make sure they have some experience with them.
Also, find out how they work and what teams they’ve worked with in the past and what their way of working is. Here are some questions to ask them:
- What adjacent roles do you usually work with (user researcher, UX designer, front-end developer, product marketer, etc.)?
- How do you prioritize a scope of work?
- How much feedback do you usually seek on a project?
- Do you usually provide any documentation?
Top UI designer traits #6 – A good description of an outstanding UI design element
Ask the designer to tell you about an outstanding UI design element on a digital product. They should be able to come up with an example on the spot, speak about it in detail, and explain exactly why it resonates with target users.
A response like “I really like Spotify’s simple app design” isn’t detailed enough. But top UI designers might reply with something like:
“The design of the search screen in Spotify’s mobile app is user-friendly because it uses card elements which are easier to navigate on mobile.”
Top UI designer traits #7 – A good description of an overall beautiful UI design
Ask the designer to tell you about a UI design they find beautiful and why. This question will test how good they are at thinking about the bigger picture. An ideal answer might look like this:
“The overall design of the Zapier UI is beautiful because it’s extremely simple, catering to users who aren’t technical but want to create automations with technology. The design is very user centric in that the home page starts with what two apps the user wants to connect, which is representative of how they think about automating their workflows.”
Best UI designers for SaaS
Now for the list of top 11 UI designers based on recommendations of SaaS founders in the following Facebook groups:
- SaaS Growth Hacks
- SaaS Founders – Build and Scale by UserActive.io 🚀
- SaaS Boss
- SaaS Products and Marketing
Top UI designers #1 – UserActive
UserActive is a design agency founded by Peter Loving, a software designer, coach, and consultant for SaaS companies. Loving is well-known in the SaaS space.
The agency is based in London, U.K., and has been operating since 2011 with consultants in both London and Barcelona. It offers the following UI design services:
- New product idea
- UI refresh for an existing product
- Improved usability for an existing product
- Extra features or screens for an existing product
- Product advice or consulting
Pricing
You need to give UserActive some details about your project for pricing.
See the What factors impact the pricing of a UI design project? section for information on what factors affect the pricing of your project.
Client testimonials
How to work with them
To work with UserActive, fill out the quick 2-minute on their website.
Top UI designers #2 – Hatchly
Hatchly is based in the U.K. and was founded in May 2020 by William Griffiths, Design Director at Griff Design.
It offers the following UI design services:
- UX/UI design
- Landing pages
Pricing
Monthly packages start at $550 (£399) for one dedicated designer and go up to $1102 (£799) with discounts on quarterly and annual packages. If you need a custom solution, you can contact them for more information.
Hatchy even has a free 14-day trial with a risk-free money-back guarantee.
Client testimonials
How to work with them
To work with Hatchly, select a package from their pricing page or get in touch with them about a custom solution.
Top UI designers #3 – Seahawk
Seahawk is based out of Boston, Massachusetts, and was founded in 2015 by Ryan Hussey. It’s a marketing company with a focus on WordPress design and development.
Here’s a list of the UI design services it offers:
- Web design
- WordPress design and development
Pricing
You need to give Seahawk some details about your project for pricing.
See the What factors impact the pricing of a UI design project? section for information on what factors affect the pricing of your project.
Client testimonials
How to work with them
To work with Seahawk, fill out their online questionnaire with information about your project requirements.
Top UI designers #4 – Funktional
The fourth on our list of top UI designers is Funktional, an agency based out of Poland and was founded in 2010. It’s won 12 awards including one Gold Place from Indigo Awards and two Honorable Mentions from Awwards.
They offer the following UI design services:
- Graphic design for iconography, infographics, reports, and visual information systems
- UI and UX design
Pricing
You need to give Funktional some details about your project for pricing.
See the ‘What factors impact the pricing of a UI design project?’ section for information on what factors affect the pricing of your project.
Client testimonials
How to work with them
To work with Funktional, fill out their quick online survey with your project requirements.
Top UI designers #5 – Springboard Digital
Springboard Digital is based in Coimbatore, Tamilnadu in India, and was founded by P Vinodh, Kr Sriram, and P Rajkumar in 2016.
Here’s a list of the UI design services they offer:
- UI and UX design for websites
- UI and UX design for mobile applications
Pricing
You need to give Springboard Digital some details about your project for pricing.
See the What factors impact the pricing of a UI design project? section for information on what factors affect the pricing of your project.
How to work with them
To work with Springboard Digital, fill out the contact form on their website.
Top UI designers #6 – Draftss
Draftss is a top UI designer agency based in Mumbai, India, and was founded by Junaid Ansari and Amin Memon. It’s a subscription-based productized graphic design and front-end code services agency.
It offers the following UI design services:
- Landing pages
- Websites
- Dashboards
- Mobile app screens
- Onboarding screens
Pricing
Design packages start at $89 per week and go up to $269 per week with a 7-day free trial of their services.
Client testimonials
How to work with them
To work with Draftss, start the 7-day free trial or go straight to picking one of their paid plans from the pricing page on their website.
Top UI designers #7 – Yesi Danderfer
Yesi Danderfer is a top UI designer on dribbble.com and brands her work as “empathetic visual design for badass women.” She’s from Argentina and has worked on UI design for 10 years with clients like Spotify and LinkedIn.
She offers the following UI design services:
- Web app UI design
- Mobile app UI design
- iOS UI design
- Website design
- Data visualization design
Pricing
You need to give Yesi Danderfer some details about your project for pricing.
See the What factors impact the pricing of a UI design project? section for information on what factors affect the pricing of your project.
How to work with them
To work with Yesi Danderfer, get in touch with her through her profile on dribbble.
Top UI designers #8 – Neoteric
Neoteric is a software development and top UI designer agency based in Poland. It was founded in 2005 and has been predominantly remote even before COVID-19 with 97% of projects completed remotely.
It specializes in full-stack design and rapid prototyping for web app and mobile app development.
Pricing
According to clutch.co, the minimum project size is $25,000 and they charge around $50 to $99 per hour for their services.
Client testimonials
How to work with them
To work with Neoteric, get in touch with them through the quick online questionnaire on their website.
Top UI designers #9 – Social Podium
Social Podium is a professional website builder for influencers on a mission to help influencers make money comfortably while living their passion. It’s ideal for influencers to link to from their social media bios.
Pricing
It’s free to create a social podium site according to their website but you need an invite code. If you don’t have an invite code, you can apply for VIP access on the sign-up page.
How to work with them
Apply for VIP access on the sign-up page for free.
Top UI designers #10 – Piola Digital Solutions
Piola Digital Solutions is based in Nashville, Tennessee, and was founded in 2019. It specializes in product development with nearshore Agile Scrum teams.
Past projects include landing pages, mobile app design and development, website design, and e-commerce platform design.
Pricing
You need to give Piola Digital Solutions some details about your project for pricing.
See the What factors impact the pricing of a UI design project? section for information on what factors affect the pricing of your project.
How to work with them
To work with Piola Digital Solutions, get in touch with them through the contact form on their website.
Top UI designers #11 – Benkendorf Group
Last on our list of top UI designers is Benkendorf group, a design and development agency based in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and was founded by Alexander Benkendorf in 2018.
Their past projects include:
- Prototype design
- UI redesign
- Mobile app development
- Landing page design
- Data dashboard design
Pricing
You need to give Benkendorf Group some details about your project for pricing.
See the ‘What factors impact the pricing of a UI design project?’ section for information on what factors affect the pricing of your project.
Client testimonials
How to work with them
To work with Benkendorf Group, book a call on their website.
What factors impact the pricing of a UI design project?
Here’s a list of factors that impact how much your UI designer project might cost:
- New product idea vs. existing product
- How good of an idea you have of what you want
- Clear documentation of requirements vs. no requirements documented
- Web app vs. mobile app vs. landing page vs. dashboard
- Number of screens, pages, or data points
- Complexity of design
- Branding guidelines vs. no branding guidelines
- Availability of wireframes and design files
Conclusion
To find a top UI designer for your project, you need to carefully review their portfolio and know which questions to ask. As a recap, the best UI designers:
- Have a strong portfolio
- Are good at explaining how things work from a design perspective
- Have organized design files
- Are curious about your product and company
- Use the right tools and workflows
- Can give a good example for an outstanding UI design element
- Can give a good example for an overall beautiful UI design
Paying attention to these factors will help you pick which UI designer to hire for your project.
And our list of 11 top UI designers is your shortcut to finding the right one for you.
Happy designing!
