Capability 01 · Design
D&C Studios is a UI and UX design studio in Mumbai for products, portals and apps that carry real work. We find the problem worth solving, prototype it with the people who will use it, and design it with the engineers who will build it.
4 days
IVCA renewal cycle, down from 3 weeks
9 in 10
IVCA renewals completed online in the first cycle
3,200+
learners registered on GoDaddy Academy in year one
Where it usually starts
Rarely a request for prettier screens. Usually a quiet sense that the product works harder than it should.
It does the job, eventually. Support tickets, workarounds and a training deck nobody reads show exactly where the design stopped listening.
Every release made sense on its own. Together they became a maze of menus, duplicate forms and three ways to do the same thing.
A founder with funding, a deadline and a product that still lives in a deck. The real risk is building the wrong first version very well.
Beautiful files, then week nine. The data does not exist, the error states were never drawn and engineering quietly rewrites the flow.
What we do
Five kinds of work, usually combined, always with an engineer in the conversation.
Before a pixel, we make the problem clear: who it is for, what must change for the business, and the smallest first release that can prove the idea.
Interviews, task analysis and an honest read of your analytics and support evidence. An audit tells you what is broken, why it matters and what to fix first.
We map roles, states and exceptions, including what happens when the happy path breaks, so every screen has a reason to exist.
The right fidelity for the decision at hand, from rough flows to clickable prototypes that real users try before anyone writes production code.
A visual language built as tokens, components and rules, documented so your designers and developers can extend it next year without guessing.
The Ampersand Method, applied
Design runs through all six phases of The Ampersand Method, and an engineer sits in every one of them.
How the method worksWorkshops and interviews until the problem fits in two sentences, with goals and success measures agreed before design begins.
Journeys, content and systems audited, requirements and risks listed, and a scope you can sign with its assumptions shown.
Wireframes, prototypes and visual design, tested with users while the engineers draw the technical blueprint alongside.
Designers stay through the sprints, reviewing working software every Friday and correcting intent the moment it drifts.
Usability and accessibility checks on the real product, and a design system handed to the team who will own it.
Analytics, session reviews and a quarterly roadmap, so the design keeps learning from how people actually use it.
Proof
Two platforms where the interface was the smaller half of the problem and the rules underneath were the larger one.
All workRenewals used to take over our inboxes for a month. Now they mostly take care of themselves, and our members notice.
Tools we trust
How we engage
Most engagements open with a three week Discovery Sprint that covers the first three phases of the method and ends with a tested prototype and a costed plan. From there we design and build together, or join your engineers as an embedded design team. Starting points for each model are on how we partner.
Most design projects that go wrong do so on page one, long before anyone opens Figma. A team agrees to redesign the dashboard when the real trouble is an approval rule nobody ever wrote down. So our first job is not to make anything look better. It is to find the decisions the design has to handle.
Every engagement opens with conversations: your team, your customers and the people who answer the support calls. We read the analytics and the complaints, sit beside someone using the product, and map the process behind the screen. For the Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association, that meant tracing a membership from application through verification, payment, access and renewal before drawing a single page. The interface was the smaller half of the problem. Once the rules underneath were clear, IVCA’s renewal cycle fell from three weeks to four days.
The ampersand in our name is literal. An engineer joins the design work from the first workshop, which means every screen is drawn with a way to exist. There is no week nine surprise where the data turns out to be missing or a flow cannot be built. On GoDaddy Academy, the assessment model shaped the interface, the partner model shaped registration, and the credibility of the certificate shaped what the system had to record. Those links only appear when design and code are discussed at the same table.
We test ideas at the lowest fidelity that can answer the question. A rough flow settles an argument about steps. A clickable prototype, tried by a handful of real users, settles an argument about wording. By the time visual design begins, the structure has already survived contact with the people it is for.
Type, colour, spacing and components become a documented design system, in Figma and in code, so the next release is assembled rather than reinvented. We design the unglamorous states too: errors, empty screens, slow connections and expired sessions. They are part of the product, and they are where trust is usually lost.
A tested prototype, a design system your team can extend, an architecture the engineers have already agreed and, if you want us to build it, a costed plan with every assumption in plain view. Every file sits in your accounts. Many clients keep us on for the build and the years after it, following the same six phases of our method.
One small confession. Saurabh, who usually leads the first workshop, keeps a private collection of beautifully designed forms. He will happily show you the good ones, and gently point out what yours could learn from them.
If you are preparing a brief, our guide on how to brief a digital product studio will save you a week of back and forth. Or tell us what you are building and a partner will reply within one working day.
FAQ
UX is how a product works for the person using it: what they need, the steps they take and what happens when something goes wrong. UI is what they see and touch, from layout and type to colour and controls. We do both together, because separating them early produces attractive screens that do not survive real use.
We price per project, never per screen, because the hard part is the thinking between screens. A focused UX audit is a fixed fee agreed up front. New products usually begin with a three week Discovery Sprint, and full product builds with design and engineering start from about ₹12 lakh. See engagement models and starting points.
A UX audit is a structured review of your product against usability and accessibility principles, your analytics and your support evidence, usually with a handful of user sessions. The report lists what is broken, why it matters, who it affects and what to fix first, with an effort estimate beside each item. It typically takes two to three weeks.
A design system is a shared library of colours, type, spacing, components and rules, in design files and in code, so every new page is assembled rather than reinvented. A five page brochure site rarely needs a formal one. A product with several teams, frequent releases or more than one platform almost always does, and it pays for itself within a few releases.
We start from the one assumption that could sink the business and design the smallest complete product that tests it. Everything else goes on a later list, written down so nothing is lost. You leave with a first release you can put in front of paying users, a prototype that proves it, and an estimate with its assumptions shown.
A good freelancer can be the right call for a focused piece of work, and we will say so. A studio adds research, accessibility, a design system and, at D&C, engineers in the room from day one, so designs are buildable before they are beautiful. You also get continuity: a year later, someone still knows why each decision was made.
Our Discovery Sprint takes three weeks and covers Listen & Learn, Map & Measure and the first round of Sketch & Shape. You leave with a two sentence problem statement, a tested clickable prototype and a costed roadmap. Smaller redesigns can compress this into a week; complex platforms sometimes need a second sprint before the build is scoped.
Yes. Once invoices are settled, you own the design files, the design system, the research notes and any code we write for you. We work inside your Figma organisation where possible, or transfer ownership at handover, so nothing depends on our accounts. Fonts and stock assets stay under their own licences, which we list for you.
Or the idea that still lives in a deck. A partner replies within one working day, usually with a few good questions.
