Service · UX Support

A specialist system that keeps getting better in operation, release after release.

UX Support is our retainer for products that are already in production. We review releases before they reach expert users, finish small flows, maintain the design system and answer the questions coming from the business departments. With named contacts, committed response times and a team that already knows your system.

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In short

UX Support is an ongoing contract for specialist systems that are already in use. It covers the work that remains after a project and that rarely has a clear owner: release reviews from the user's point of view, small extensions to existing flows, upkeep of components and patterns, answers to concrete questions from the business departments. Instead of issuing a new order for every request, you have a fixed allocation, named contacts and committed response times. We take responsibility for the quality of the user experience, you keep it for the product.

UX Support typically begins after an engagement with our UX team or after an implementation support project: the system is live, the project team has moved on, and requirements keep coming anyway. The retainer fits software vendors equally well when the product has grown without UX ever becoming a permanent role. In both cases the knowledge about domain, expert users and codebase stays with us and is available for every new release.

Who it is for

After the project, before the standstill
Your UX team engagement or your implementation is complete and the system is running. Now someone has to secure what was achieved and pick up the next requirements from daily operation without losing knowledge.
Software vendors with existing customers
Your product is used every day by banks, depositaries or industrial customers. You need a UX function that reviews before the release, not after the complaint.
Business departments configuring their own system
You configure screens, workflows or approvals yourselves, for example in a document management system or a reporting platform. Whether a dialog holds up should be answered on professional grounds, not by gut feeling.
Product management without a UX position
A permanent UX position does not pay off yet or cannot be filled. Decisions about usability should still not get stuck between development and the business departments. UX Support replaces the position with a team that includes cover.

What is included

The retainer bundles the ongoing UX tasks of a live specialist system into one allocation with fixed rules.

Release reviews
We review every release from the expert user's perspective before it is rolled out: new dialogs, changed procedures, error messages, deadline logic. You receive a prioritised list of findings and corrections, agreed with development.
Small flows and extensions
A new field in data entry, an additional approval step, an export for audit: we design small extensions to existing flows completely, up to an implementable specification or up to the component in code, depending on how your team works.
Design-system upkeep
Components, tokens and patterns age when nobody looks after them. We keep library and documentation current, clean up deviations and make sure new screens are built from the same building blocks as the existing ones. Consistency saves training and support.
Questions from the business departments
When fund accounting, the tax department or the control room asks why a procedure works the way it does or how it could work better, they get a professionally grounded answer. We speak the language of the business departments and translate it into requirements development can implement.
Observation in operation
We analyse support tickets, usage data and feedback and classify them: what is a usability problem, what is a training topic, what is a genuine edge case. The result is a maintained improvement list for release planning.
Continuity and cover
You have a named UX lead as your contact and a team behind them that knows the domain. If someone is unavailable, a substitute with the same context takes over. The knowledge about your system is documented with us, not kept in one person's head.

How it works

1
Taking stock
We take over the current state: design system, open findings, running tickets, release plan. After our own project this is a short handover. If we are new to the system, we review it with the business departments and development and record what needs attention first.
2
Allocation and ground rules
We agree the allocation, the response times and the channels through which requests reach us. Every request is classified: review, small extension, design system, advice. This keeps it transparent what the allocation was used for.
3
Ongoing operation
In a fixed rhythm we review releases, work through the classified requests and maintain the library. Decisions are documented, findings go straight into development's backlog. The business departments get answers before workarounds appear.
4
Regular review meeting
In a fixed meeting we go through what is done, what is next and what operation has revealed, together with product ownership and development. This is where priorities are set and the allocation is adjusted if needed.
5
Retrospective and further development
At longer intervals we take stock: which findings recur, where a fundamental rework pays off, what belongs in a separate initiative. The outcome is either the next stage of the support or a scoped project with our UX team.

What we commit to

A named UX lead as your contact, with guaranteed cover from the team.
Committed response times, written into the contract and traceable in every report.
Every finding comes with an implementable proposal, agreed with your development team.
Design-to-code on request: we deliver components into your repository, not just as a draft.
Accessibility to WCAG 2.2 AA is standard in everything we deliver.

Extensions

The support can be extended with services that take further load off the operation of your system.

Regular maintenance
Managed hosting
Hour package for further development
UX retainer with quarterly tests
Design System as a Service

Regular maintenance: We take over the ongoing upkeep of prototypes, library and documentation in a fixed rhythm, so nothing goes stale while your team builds features.
Managed hosting: We run prototypes, design-system documentation and test environments for you, so nothing lives on one person's machine.
Hour package for further development: An additional allocation for larger extensions that you can draw on without touching the base contract.
UX retainer with quarterly tests: We test the system quarterly with real expert users and measure whether usability improves with every release.
Design System as a Service: We run your design system as a product: components, tokens, documentation and versioning, agreed with your engineering team.

Frequently asked questions

How does UX Support differ from a UX team engagement?: The UX team builds: new systems, major reworks, several flows in parallel, at full capacity. UX Support secures and develops further: a live system, ongoing releases, small extensions, questions from operation. Many clients move from one to the other, and team and context stay the same.
Do we need a previous project with you?: No. The start is shortest after our own project because we already know the system. But we also take over systems built by others. In that case the support begins with a stocktake in which we review design system, findings and processes together with you.
How is the allocation used and accounted for?: You have a fixed allocation in the rhythm of the contract. Every request is classified and booked against the allocation, and you can see at any time what has been used and for what. How we handle unused capacity is defined in the contract.
What happens when a request is bigger than a small flow?: Then we say so early. Larger initiatives are planned as a separate package, either through an hour package for further development or as a scoped project with our UX team. The support is unaffected and continues.
Do you also work with our development team, not only with the business departments?: Yes, that is the core of it. Findings go into the backlog development actually uses. On request we deliver components all the way into code. We talk to engineering about technical limits before we design something that cannot be built.
How do you handle confidential data?: We sign a non-disclosure agreement up front and work by default with test or anonymised data in your environment. Where personal data is involved, a data processing agreement is part of the contract.
Which systems is the support suited for?: Specialist systems that are used daily and where errors are expensive: reporting and reclaim platforms for custodian banks and depositaries, fund accounting, control systems and HMIs in industry, document and workflow systems. What matters is not the industry but that the system is live and keeps evolving.