UX Design is a crucial aspect of any product, service, process or a system. As slowly, but steadily, the Indian market is maturing to the fact that design is a strategic differentiator, and can create exponential value, the language of the buyers has improved from 'paint screens' to we need ‘real UX design and architecture’. Moreover, they expect latest technologies, enhanced designs, superior quality and are determined to provide users with long-lasting impressions on software applications, which can differentiate their product from the competition. While achieving such strategic insights, utilizing an 'informed' design process and execution excellence often remains a dream for many industry players, YUJ Designs, a global leader in user experience & research solutions, has been consistently exceeding customer expectations and putting them always ahead of the curve.

Headquartered in Pune and with an operating office in Sunnyvale, California, the company has earned an impressive portfolio of clients including global independent software vendors, Fortune 500 companies, SMBs and startups in ISV, Social Networking, Telecom, Education, Travel, Procurement, Legal, e-Commerce, healthcare and other segments. “We are fortunate to work with big, well-established customers, facilitating us to showcase our expertise in creating value-based designs that bring in real ROI for them. This helped us be at par with competitors,” adds Samir Chabukswar, Founder & CEO, YUJ Designs.

Emerging Trends
Emerging as the go-to provider for innovative UX Design & Research solutions, YUJ not only proactively crafts insights-driven & holistic designs for software products, but also design/redesign processes, services and information to suit the future needs of the customers. The firm follows scientific approach and pushes its design boundaries to suggest designs that are drop-dead

simple, exciting & engaging for the customers. This entails critically looking at the entire customer journey from doorstep to delivery and provide solutions (not just digital but for the entire experience), which can be in the form of mobile-app design, process /service design or a wearable design. These distinct features ensure both, a delightful product experience and a positive impact on the customer’s top line. Rather than being a vendor, YUJ partners with clients as their extended arm to assist them till the product’s deployment.

Emerging as the go-to provider for innovative UX Design & Research solutions, YUJ not only proactively crafts insights-driven & holistic designs for software products, but also design/redesign processes, services and information to suit the future needs of the customers

Based on specific business needs, the firm conducts user research with hybrid models of User Interviews, Contextual Inquiry, Focus Groups, Usability Testing and Surveys to understand users’ conscious and subconscious needs, hopes, aspirations and fears. Informed by this data, YUJ practices a structured approach to develop an effective Information Architecture that represents the way users think and employs top-down & bottom-up approaches to understand client’s business strategies and user needs, and the relationship with the content for developing the high level structure of the product. With its UX Prototype service, the company constructs complete front-end prototype (structure, interaction and visual design) and collaboratively works with the backend development team to create a compelling experience for its users. The core of YUJ’s brand persona lies in its strategic consulting services that enable organizations gain competitive advantage through user experience strategies, build their UX global team & help them operate seamlessly, and envision innovative products through UX led methodology, which impact their product and business success.

Maintaining a separate R&D facility for exploring latest technologies such as NFC, RFID, AR and VR to create ecosystem level experience solutions, YUJ provides solutions in wearables

using them. This speaks volumes about its ability to do forward-thinking research and provide design solutions, which is unique in this area. Moreover, its customized engagement models & performance-based billing model enable it to have a skin in the game. “Our User centered design process is based on the science of informed design, which entails eliciting insights from users & customers to create a conceptual model following principles of persuasion, motivation and cognitive science that appeal to the human cognitive processes,”explains Samir.

When it was established in 2009, it was a daunting task for YUJ to prove its U.S. & European customers that a UX studio in India (which is perceived as a software development service hub) can provide high quality design services – a challenge it surmounted by showcasing its expertise in creating value-based designs. It further co-located its designers with customers through a new hybrid model of onshore-offshore global teams, and exemplified efficient designer-designer working relationship. Contrarily in India, the challenge was teaching customers regarding the need of UX design and working with them on shoestring budgets. This trendsetter is combating this by creating awareness through training, lectures, conferences, and workshops.

The Road Ahead
Compared to its counterparts, YUJ’s experts are much more versatile, adeptly lead customer conversations and push for innovation. Critical design thinking being the key to problem solving, its designers are trained to leverage it to solve problems in any domain/industry. Enriched with such experts, YUJ envisions the initiation of an education arm that would train students to become world class designers. “We are planning to raise funds for growth, and will continue to focus on providing par excellence design solutions to our customers, “concludes Samir.

Key Management:
Samir Chabukswar, Founder &, CEO
Samir is passionate about building high quality design teams and mentoring designers. He has led YUJ Designs with the same vigor to make it one of the leading UX studios in India, and has become a recognized leader in this field.

Clients: eBay, PayPal, Cisco, McAfee, Honeywell, Amdocs, Schlumberger, Bosch, Intel, Max Life and many more