User experience and development are more than capabilities for us. They’re at the core of everything we do here at Canned Spinach. We started in Cincinnati as a UI/UX design agency focused on mobile apps, but quickly expanded our offering to websites, web applications, enterprise software, and emerging AR/VR and wearables technologies. Our projects range from building a new product to redesigning an existing mobile app, website, or enterprise software. We do everything you might need to bring a successful digital product to life: user research, product strategy, user interface, user experience design, usability testing, prototyping, web design, and development.

We get this question a lot. There are many competent design and development agencies in Cincinnati (and even more globally.) It’s hard to stand out when the standard is so high.

So what makes us different? First and foremost, it’s the quality of our work and the craft it takes to make it. The digital products and user interfaces we create are easy to use, look great, and represent your brand in the best way possible. Then, it’s the people who make those outstanding results a reality. We assign a multidisciplinary team of senior UX/UI designers, developers, and other specialists to every project, led by one of our design directors and overseen by a company co‑founder.

Finally, unlike most traditional digital design firms and user experience designers, we combine creative and product development capabilities under one roof to supercharge the solutions we can offer your business.

Our pricing is directly related to the project scope, timeline, deliverables, and team composition. When the scope isn’t set in stone or the project is very dynamic, we prefer engaging on a time and materials basis where you pay us for the time spent. However, most of our engagements are fixed‑price contracts. In this case, we’ll give you a detailed proposal after learning as much as possible about your project. All estimates are calculated based on the hourly rates and the number of hours we think the job will take.

Please click here to get a quote.

Our process is based on the design thinking methodology, which allows us to adapt to almost any project type and collaboration model. While each engagement is unique, we always go through the following key phases:

1) Discovery & Research
We start by consolidating all available project documentation and scheduling workshops with your team. During those sessions, we interview key stakeholders, collaborate on requirements, ideate, and plan the next steps. When possible, our designers talk to your current or potential customers to understand their needs and pain points. In some cases, we may need to audit your existing product to identify opportunities for improvements to the user experience. We will also review competitor products, gather visual design references, and document best practices.

2) Digital Strategy & Concepts
Based on the Discovery & Research results, we synthesize a digital strategy and define an approach to drive our design process. Since a core offering is UI/UX design, we will explore different concepts to establish central elements such as information architecture, key screen layouts, and UI design direction. We then validate the resulting concept with users and stakeholders. Once the feedback is in, we make necessary updates to proceed with designing the rest of the product.

3) UI/UX Design
After the design concept has been approved, we start designing the UI and UX, continuously conducting user tests and iterating along the way. The UX/UI design’s main activities include user flow mapping, wireframing, user interface design, interaction design, and prototyping. We hand off design assets to developers using tools like Zeplin & Figma and provide a comprehensive style guide that includes a UI component library, UX guidelines, and complete user flows.

4) Development & Hand-off
With alignment on proposed functionality and design, it’s time to build your product according to the requirements and SOW. We work in agile sprints with frequent check-ins to avoid scope creep and build a clean and efficient product. Finalized products are run through a rigorous QA testing process to ensure we are not shipping a buggy product to actual customers. Finally, with the heavy lifting (and coding) out of the way, it’s time to launch your product. But just because we’ve shipped, it doesn’t mean we’re done. Canned Spinach leaves all of our clients with developed designs and robust training, so internal teams are fully empowered to drive the future of the product.

Learn more about our process and deliverables here.

If you’re looking for help on a project, please fill out this form with a quick summary of your project or an RFI/RFP. We usually reply within one business day to schedule an introductory call and ask any immediate questions. During our first call, we will ask about the project goals, audience, budget, timeline, and other essential details. We can sign an NDA if necessary, but we always treat all client conversations as confidential. We recommend contacting several design and development companies to compare their prices and approach.

While many design and development agencies only work by the hour, we try to estimate the project cost as precisely as possible before starting. After the call, we may request various documentation such as a design brief, project requirements, past designs, etc. If we’re redesigning an existing digital product, we’ll want to schedule a demo or try it ourselves.

We will then email you a proposal and schedule a video call to walk you through it. Our proposals include a detailed description of our UX UI approach, project phases, activities, and deliverables, design team composition, and relevant case studies. That way, we’ll all be fully aligned and ready to supercharge your business.