App design agency · London
App design agency: design apps people actually use
Many apps fail before a single screen gets designed. They solve a problem nobody has, or solve the right problem the wrong way. As a leading app design agency in London, Steer73 starts designing your app long before a single screen is mocked up, ensuring you build the right thing.
We design apps your users actually want to open. Faster, with less risk, and with a higher ROI than traditional agencies.
enterprise ai automation agency - UK
Failed projects
0
Years delivering
10+
License fees
£0
IP ownership – yours, always
100%
A mobile app design agency trusted to design and build apps for
Why work with Steer73?
A leading app design agency in London
You want an app that earns its place on the screen, gets used, and moves your business forward, without the cost, long timelines, or risk of failure that usually comes with custom development. That is exactly what we design for.
Here is what makes our app design different. We do not start at the interface. We start with the harder question many agencies skip: what should this app actually do, and will anyone use it? Our full product and design team, product directors, app developers, solution architects, UX and UI designers, and a dedicated QA team, map your requirements and business case to real features before anyone opens a design tool. This is the work that decides whether an app succeeds or not.
Over ten years of doing this has taught us where app projects go wrong, and how to get them right the first time. The result is apps that launch on time, on budget, and that get used, the kind of systems that are still driving value years later rather than being quietly retired.
In 10+ years, across complex projects in more than ten countries, we have never failed to deliver a project. We can contractually guarantee that your project with us will not be the first. Most of our clients are still with us years after launch, for one reason: the work holds up.
App design is about more than just what an app looks like
Here is where many app projects go wrong. An agency jumps straight to screens. The screens look beautiful, the app launches… and nobody uses it.
Because a gorgeous interface wrapped around the wrong solution still fails. Good app design is about four key areas:
1 · THE FOUNDATION
Solution design: building the right thing
This is the layer that decides whether anyone uses your app, and whether it delivers against your business goals. It is the work of defining the right solution, and it is largely what our product team does, alongside the wider team.
We study how your users behave, write user stories, run business impact mapping, and define the process flows, states, and lifecycles that govern how your app behaves in the real world, including the edge cases. We map your business goals and requirements to specific features, run the numbers on ROI, and shape the whole thing into epics and features with the right technical architecture underneath.
Part of getting this right is deciding what to build first. We help our clients prioritise features against the value they deliver and the cost to build them, then break the work into a focused first release, often an MVP, and a roadmap of future releases. This keeps your initial investment as small as it can be while still solving the real problem, gets a working app into users’ hands sooner, and lets you validate the design with real users before committing to everything else.
For nationwide systems with tens of thousands of users, this approach has taken an MVP from idea to launch in as little as 2 to 3 months.
Solution design is not a one-off step. It runs through the whole project at increasing levels of detail: high level in Discovery, deeper in Scoping, exact in Solution Definition, and in an Agile product it keeps evolving as you learn. Most of it never shows up in a portfolio shot, but it is the difference between an app that just looks good in a demo and one that is driving ROI for your business 5 years later. Get this wrong and no amount of beautiful UI saves you. Get it right and everything after it gets easier. This is what we mean by helping you build the right thing, and it is both the number one reason projects fail and the most commonly neglected part of mobile app projects.
2.
UX design: the journey through your product
UX is the path a user takes through your app, screen by screen, decision by decision. Good and bad UX can be proven, it has formula, science, and principles behind it. We design the journey so the right action is always the obvious one, then test it against how people actually move through the product, not how we hope they will.
3.
UI design: the look, feel and interaction
UI is where the app comes to life: the screens, the controls, the moment-to-moment feel of using it. It is built on clear principles, but it is also genuinely creative, and it can be qualitatively good or bad. We design interfaces that feel effortless on the device they live on, so using your app is a pleasure rather than a puzzle.
4.
Visual design: brand overlay and final polish
The final layer is the visual one: the graphic treatment, the brand overlay, the look and feel that makes the app unmistakably yours. It is creative work, guided by your brand style, that turns a well-built product into one people are proud to put their name on.
IMPORTANT CONCEPT
Quality assurance: designed into your app from the beginning, not bolted on at the end
Quality is not something that just needs to be checked at the end of a project. It runs through every part of your app design, and it starts on day one. To design an effective app, it’s important not to treat QA as a final check before launch, a gate the finished app either passes or fails. By then it’s often too late, and too expensive, compromises are made, and the quality of your app suffers.
We design quality in from the start. We define exactly what quality means for your app at the requirements stage, alongside what it needs to do and how users will experience it. What counts as done? How will each feature be tested, and against what? Those answers are agreed up front, not improvised at the end. Then we track quality throughout, with a dedicated QA team and the right mix of testing for your app, from manual QA early on to automated testing for systems built to last.
This is how we make sure your app design works in the real world, not just in a demo, and it is a core part of why we have never had a project fail.
Our app design services
As an app design company that takes a project from first idea to launched product, we cover every part of the work.
Need help with your app design project?
App design discovery (Free service)
Many app projects commit to a direction before full thought and analysis has been done. Our Discovery is a structured deep dive, run as a free service for qualifying projects, where we work with your team to understand the problem, define the high-level solution, and surface what your app really needs to do. You leave with clarity and a plan, before you have spent a penny on the build.
Solution and feature design
This is the layer that decides whether your app gets used. We turn your business goals and user needs into a prioritised set of epics and features, map them to a realistic roadmap, and define the technical approach underneath. The result is an app scoped around what actually drives value, not a wish list that blows your budget.
UX design and user journey mapping
We design the journey your users take through the app, screen by screen, so the right action is always the obvious one. Using proven UX principles and real user testing, we map flows, states, and decision points to remove friction before it ever reaches a user. The result is an app people find genuinely easy to use.
UI, visual design and design systems
We design interfaces that feel effortless and look unmistakably yours, then package the work into a reusable design system. That system keeps every screen consistent and makes future development faster and cheaper. The result is a polished app and a foundation that scales as you grow.
Interactive prototyping and user testing
Before a line of production code is written, we can build interactive prototypes and put them in front of real users. You see and feel the app early, catch problems while they are cheap to fix, and validate the design with evidence rather than opinion. The result is a design proven to work before you commit to the build.
Design for existing apps: UX audit and redesign
Already have an app that underperforms? We can audit the experience, find where users drop off or get stuck, and redesign the journey and interface to lift adoption and engagement. The result is more value from the app you already own, without starting from scratch.
User behaviour design
Good app design does not just make things easy, it can actively encourage the behaviours your business depends on, whether that is repeat ordering, engagement, or loyalty. We design flows, prompts, and mechanics that nudge users towards the actions that matter, grounded in how people actually behave rather than how we assume they will. The result is an app that does not just get used, it drives the outcomes you built it for.
Backend, data and AI design
A working app is rarely just an app. As a full-service digital transformation partner, we do not only design the app itself, we can design and build the backend, the data system, and the AI functionality it needs to work. The result is one team designing the whole solution, with nothing falling through the gaps between the app and what powers it.
Integration design
We design the integrations your app needs to other systems, whether there is a solid public API to use, whether we need to build the APIs, or whether integration has to happen another way.
Roadmap design
We work with your team to prioritise requirements into a clear, staged roadmap that delivers the maximum impact for your budget.
Apps designed to be AI ready
We architect the solution so that even if AI is not needed in the first release, you can add AI functionality later without a rebuild.
Support and ongoing management design
We define how your app stays updated, secure, and well supported for years to come.
Technical solution design
We design the right technical solution, from what the app is built in to the underlying infrastructure and the third-party services it relies on.
Not sure which you need?
That is exactly what the free Discovery is for. Bring us the problem, even a single sentence, and we will help you work out the right approach.
Not sure which you need?
That is exactly what free Discovery is for. Bring us the problem, even a single sentence, and we will help you work out the right approach.
Not sure which you need?
That is exactly what free Discovery is for. Bring us the problem, even a single sentence, and we will help you work out the right approach.
The most expensive app is the one nobody uses
Most failed apps are not the result of ugly interfaces, or poor visual branding. They’re the apps that don’t solve a real problem for users. They’re failures of solution design rather than visual design. Build the wrong thing, beautifully, and your app will fail.
Our entire approach is built around getting this right before development begins, which is exactly why, in over ten years, we have never had a project fail. We help you build the right thing, so the most expensive mistake in app design never happens to you.
General rule of thumb
A problem caught at the design and requirements stage costs roughly £1 to fix. The same problem found during development costs £10. Found after launch, with real users and live data? £100.
General rule of thumb
A problem caught at the design and requirements stage costs roughly £1 to fix. The same problem found during development costs £10. Found after launch, with real users and live data? £100.
Example app design projects
We’ve designed and built apps for some of the world’s largest companies, used across hundreds of retail sites, as well as for small UK businesses, all with a 100% success rate. This track record is the kind of work that separates a mobile app design company that ships real business systems from one that only makes screens. Here is what design-led delivery looks like in practice.
A retail companion app used across 600+ stores
Paddy Power, part of Flutter, had a one-year head start to let customers track and cash out their in-shop bets online, and nothing built to use it. We designed and built the app that captured that window, taking it from first conversations to launch across more than 600 stores, and tens of thousands of customers, in around three months.
The design decision that made it possible: rather than build native apps from the start, we designed a mobile web experience whose UX and UI felt like a native app. It proved the value proposition just the same and saved months. We focused the first release on football bets alone, the largest category, then expanded once the core was live and working. From there we kept designing and adding, free-to-play games, native apps, live streaming and more.
The mobile app & online ordering platform for a 50+ location restaurant chain
We designed and built the entire online ordering platform for Camile, a restaurant chain with more than 50 locations. This was a design-led ownership of the customer relationship: the app is how Camile’s customers find them, order from them, and come back. Getting the experience right, end to end, was central to making the platform a core part of the business rather than a side channel.
Why choose Steer73 for your app design
Guaranteed success
Other agencies hope your project works. We guarantee it. In 10+ years we have never failed to deliver a project, and we can contractually guarantee that your app design project with us will not fail. Behind that promise sits our proprietary Digital Transformation Platform and a team of senior experts in app design.
Design that starts with strategy, not screens
Many app design agencies start at the interface. We start one layer up, with solution design, the work of deciding what the app should do and whether anyone will use it. That is why our apps get adopted rather than abandoned. By the time we design a single screen, we already know it earns its place.
Maximising ROI
Design is not decoration, it’s an investment, and we treat it like one. We weigh your business goals, your operational realities, and your long-term growth against every design decision, so the app you launch drives measurable returns. Technology might be the means, but business improvement is always the goal.
London based, global team
As an app design agency in London with senior people who can be on site when it matters, we back local accountability with a wider team spanning more than seven countries. You get a face you can meet, plus access to genuinely world-class talent regardless of where it sits. The best people on your project, every time.
Full product and design team, not just visual designers
A visual designer makes screens look good. We bring the whole discipline: product directors, technical leads, app developers, solution architects, UX and UI designers, and a dedicated QA team, supported by our Digital Transformation Platform. That breadth is why our app design holds up under real use, and it is what separates a design partner from a freelancer with a colour palette.
Our app design process
Our process is proven across a decade of delivery, and it is built to be light on your team’s time while removing risk at every stage.
We have a range of delivery models from fixed price, fixed scope waterfall projects, through to fully Agile teams that act as the technical arm of your business. However, initial projects often start up by going through the following process.
1. Initial project assessment
We start with a short call to understand your business goals, the challenge you are solving, your stakeholders, and your constraints. It is how we identify the right approach from the start and make sure we are designing the right thing before any investment is committed.
2. Discovery (Free service)
Next, we run workshops with your team to understand the problem in depth, build the business case, and define the high-level solution at the epic and feature level. We usually produce high-level designs to align early thinking, including clickable prototypes of key flows and example screens. For qualifying projects, Discovery is free.
3. Scoping
Then we define exactly what gets designed and built, at the user story level: full requirements, the solution approach, and a detailed plan. The early designs are taken further here too, refined in line with what the analysis uncovers, so the solution and the way it looks and feels develop together. This is the stage that makes fixed-price commitments possible, so you can know exactly what you are getting before development begins.
4. Solution definition
Now we confirm and finalise all requirements, detailed solution architecture, develop a prototype or POC as required, and define test case detail. The designs are refined again to match, often as a full clickable prototype. Output is at the test case level. Nothing is left ambiguous, because ambiguity is where app projects often go wrong, especially during new engagements.
5. Design, prototyping and validation
By this point, design has been part of the project from the very first workshop. This is where it intensifies: we design the experience across all four layers, build out the interactive prototypes, and validate them with real users before the build begins. You see and feel the app early, and we prove the design works while it is still cost-effective to change.
The tools we design with
We are technology-agnostic but Microsoft-first. The goal is always to choose what delivers the best outcome for your app, not what is easiest for us.
Design and prototyping
- Figma for interface design and interactive prototypes
- Design systems and component libraries for consistency and speed
- Mobile app UI design optimised for both native and cross-platform delivery
- Proprietary AI app design workflows
App development technologies
- Cross-platform frameworks including Flutter, React Native and .NET MAUI, for a single codebase across iOS and Android
- Native iOS and Android development where the app demands it
- A .NET and Azure backend when required
Design and prototyping
Design and prototyping
| Figma for interface design and interactive prototypes |
| Design systems and component libraries for consistency and speed |
| Mobile app UI design optimised for both native and cross-platform delivery |
| Proprietary AI app design workflows |
App development technologies
| Cross-platform frameworks including Flutter, React Native and .NET MAUI, for a single codebase across iOS and Android |
| Native iOS and Android development where the app demands it |
| A .NET and Azure backend when required |
Our Digital Transformation Platform accelerates the move from design to working product.
Brody Sweeney, CEO (Camile)
“The attention to detail, clarity, quality and pace which Steer73 deliver customer features is outstanding, which creates a working relationship more akin to a joint venture than a supplier / customer standard.”
Paddy Power
What our clients have to say
How much does app design cost?
It is the first question most businesses ask, and the honest answer is: it depends. There is no one-size-fits-all price for app design services, because no two apps are the same. A simple app with a handful of screens is a different project to a business-critical system with deep user research and complex flows. What we can do is give you a real, grounded number quickly, through our free Discovery, before you commit to anything.
What affects the cost?
Scope and number of screens
A focused app with a few core journeys costs far less to design than a feature-rich product with dozens of screens and user types.
Depth of user research
Light validation costs less than deep behavioural research, but the research can be what decides whether the app gets used at all.
Solution-design complexity
The harder the problem, the more work goes into mapping requirements to features and shaping the right solution before design begins.
Design-system needs
A reusable design system costs more up front and saves significantly over the life of the product.
Prototyping and testing depth
More rounds of interactive prototyping and user testing cost more, but remove risk before build.
Native versus cross-platform
Designing for native iOS and Android, cross-platform, or both shapes the work and the cost.
The fastest way to a real number is a free discovery project.
App design agency FAQs
A good app design agency does far more than make screens look nice.
At Steer73, app design runs across four layers, with solution design as the foundation everything else sits on. Solution design is the work of building the right thing: deciding what your app should do and whether anyone will use it, designing the features and product architecture, planning integrations with your other systems, and defining the right technical solution underneath. On top of that sit UX, the journey users take through the app, UI, the interface they interact with, and visual design, your brand applied.
UX is the journey: the flow a user takes through your app and how easily they get where they are going. UI is the surface: the screens, controls, and visual feel of using it. Good UX can be proven, it has formula and principles behind it, while UI blends those principles with genuine creative craft. Any good UI UX design agency designs the two together rather than in isolation, and that is exactly how we work.
The whole product. Visual design is the final layer, and it matters, but on its own it cannot save an app built around the wrong solution. We work as a full product design agency rather than a screen shop, bringing product directors, solution architects, technical leads, app developers, UX and UI designers, and a dedicated QA team, so the app is designed to succeed from the requirements up, not just to look good.
It depends on scope, but our process is built to move quickly without cutting corners. Discovery and scoping define the work precisely so design runs without false starts, and we use our Digital Transformation Platform to accelerate delivery. For nationwide systems with thousands of users, we have taken an MVP from idea to launch in as little as 2 to 3 months. The fastest way to a realistic timeline is a free Discovery project.
There is no single answer, because cost depends on scope, the depth of user research, solution-design complexity, design-system needs, and how much prototyping and testing the project warrants. Rather than quote a misleading number, we use our free Discovery service to give you a grounded estimate before you commit. You know what you are getting, and what it costs, before you’ve spent a penny.
Yes. If you already have an app that underperforms, we can audit the experience, the technical foundations, find out where users drop off or get stuck, and redesign the solution, the journey and/or the interface to improve results.
Both. We’re a full service app design and digital transformation agency. We can design your app, build it, help you launch it and then manage it long into the future. This can include security & risk monitoring, app store management and ongoing maintenance and improvements.
Three things. First, the contractual project success guarantee: in 10+ years we have never failed to deliver a project, and we will guarantee yours won’t be the first. Second, our Digital Transformation Platform, a proprietary toolkit that lets us design and deliver faster, with less risk, than traditional agencies. Third, a genuinely cross-disciplinary product and design team, not a handful of visual designers, so your app is designed to succeed from the requirements up.
Yes. We are based in London and our senior team can be on site when it matters, but we deliver for clients across the UK and have run projects in more than ten countries. With a team spanning over seven countries, location is never a constraint on getting the right people on your project.
Ready to design an app people will actually use?
Wherever you are, a rough idea, an underperforming app, or a problem you cannot yet name, we would like to hear about it.