How to Choose a UX Design Agency: 6 Questions to Ask

A UX (user experience) design agency is a team that learns how people try to complete a task, designs the flows, content and screens that help them finish it, tests those designs with real people, and prepares them for whoever builds the product. UI (user interface) design is the visual layer of that work: layout, type, colour, components and states. Most agencies sell both together, which is why "UX/UI" appears on so many proposals.

The output is not a set of pretty screens. It is a set of decisions that hold up when someone who has never seen your business tries to book, buy, sign up or find an answer. Nielsen Norman Group's 10 usability heuristics are a useful baseline for what "holds up" means: the system shows people what is happening, uses their words, lets them undo mistakes, stays consistent, and helps them recover from errors. Any agency you hire should be able to talk about its work in those terms.

Table · scrolls sideways

The sections below explain what to listen for in each answer.

A portfolio shows finished outputs. It cannot tell you how the team got there, whether the client's problem was solved, or whether the screens were ever tested. Ask for one case study walked through end to end: the problem, what the team learned, the options it rejected and why, what changed after testing, and what shipped.

A public reference point helps here. The Government of Canada Digital Standards start with "Design with users" and "Iterate and improve frequently", and describe developing services "using agile, iterative and user-centred methods". You do not need a government-scale process for a small business site, but you should hear the same shape: learn, design, test, adjust.

User research means learning from the people who will use the product, by interviewing them, watching them try tasks, or reviewing evidence such as support emails and analytics. The GOV.UK Service Manual puts it plainly: "always start by learning about the people who will use it", and keep researching throughout each development phase.

Research can be sized to the decision. For a clinic or law firm website, it might be a review of the questions callers ask most, plus a handful of people trying to book or enquire on a prototype. For a software product, it might be interviews and moderated sessions before each major flow is finalised. Ask three things: who the participants will be, what tasks or questions the research covers, and what you receive at the end (notes, findings, a list of changes). If the proposal says nothing about research, ask whether it is excluded or simply unmentioned.

Many problems appear in the gap between design and build: missing error states, screens that look different in code, components invented on the fly. Ask whether the team that designs also builds. If it does not, ask what the handoff contains, such as annotated flows, every empty, loading and error state, a component library with spacing and type decided, and a walkthrough with your developers.

At UXPro, we build marketing sites and web front ends ourselves, so the people who design a website are the people who ship it. For an application, we design it and hand off to your developers, or work alongside them, and the quote says which. Whatever agency you choose, that split should be written down before work starts, not discovered at launch.

Ownership is easy to assume and expensive to recover. Ask for a written list covering:

• the design files (Figma or equivalent), in an account you control or transferred to one
• the code, in a repository in your name
• the domain, hosting, analytics and Google Business Profile accounts
• font, photo and plugin licences, and whose name they are in
• the content you supplied and the content written for you

Our own term is short: your code stays in your repository, and you own it. The guide to owning your website covers the account-by-account detail.

Both models can be fair. What matters is that the basis for the price is clear before you sign.

Table · scrolls sideways

UXPro uses a fixed quote, agreed before any work starts. As of 15 October 2026, our published project tiers start from $1,500, $3,500 and $7,500 CAD per project, plus HST, paid in two instalments: 50% to start and 50% at launch. The pricing page shows what each tier includes. A fixed quote is not automatically better than hourly; it simply moves the risk of estimating onto the agency, so it should come with a written scope.

The most useful answer to "what will we get?" is a list of deliverables and how each will be accepted. The least useful is an outcome nobody controls. Google's own guidance on hiring an SEO says no one can guarantee a top ranking on Google, and that if someone guarantees first place in search results, you should find someone else. The same logic applies to promised conversion rates, sales lifts or AI citations.

• No process. The team cannot describe what happens between the first call and launch, or what you approve along the way.
• Polished mockups within days, before any questions. Speed is not the problem. Screens produced before anyone has asked about your customers, content or constraints are decoration, and they anchor you to a look before the problem is understood.
• Ranking or revenue guarantees. See question 6.
• Ownership kept by the agency. Your site or product hosted in an account only they can open, or code you cannot take elsewhere.
• A price with no scope. If you cannot tell what is included, you cannot tell what will cost extra.
• No accessibility plan. Ask how they check designs against WCAG. In Ontario, the AODA guide explains who is required to meet it.

Paste these into an email to every agency on your list, so the answers are comparable.

1. Walk us through one past project from problem to launch. What did you learn, and what changed because of it?
2. Is user research included in this quote? With whom, covering what, and what will we receive?
3. Who will design our project, and who will build it? If building is separate, what does the handoff include?
4. At the end, what will we own, and in whose name will each account and licence be?
5. Is this a fixed quote or hourly? What is in scope, what is out, and how are changes priced?
6. What exactly are you promising, and how will we both know each deliverable is done?
7. How do you check accessibility, and to which WCAG level?
8. What do you need from us (content, approvals, access), and when?