Kaniworks Design Studio
A senior designer on your team within a week.
Cover an open UX role while you hire, or hand us a defined piece of design work. A senior designer, or a small team, from Kaniworks in Chennai: your hours in Europe, your mornings in the US, month to month, and you own the work.
Taking on new engagements · we reply within a day
Design Studio · one engagement
RESEARCHResearch: eight interviews, one wall of notes
The short version
- Who: Kaniworks, Chennai. We design and build our own software, and the studio is led by a designer with 16+ years in enterprise software.
- What: one named senior UX designer on your team, or a fixed-scope sprint, audit or research study.
- When: a designer at work within a week of the first call. Project work starts when you sign off the scope.
- How much: from $5,500 a month for a full-time designer; fixed-scope work from $1,900. Every price confirmed in writing first.
- Risk: month to month, 30 days' notice, NDA and IP assignment as standard. You meet the designer before the start.
Start within a week
A dedicated designer or a fractional lead is at work within a week of the first call. Project work starts when you sign off the scope.
Senior, and reviewed
You get one named senior designer chosen for your product, and you meet them before the start. The designer who leads the studio scopes the work and reviews it every week.
Your hours, your tools
In Europe the designer works your full day. In the US you get about four hours of overlap every morning, and the rest of the day's work is waiting when you start. The work lives in your Figma and the designer is in your standups.
Easy to stop
Month to month, 30 days' notice. If it is not working, you stop.
This is for you if
Ways to work with us
Pick the shape. Prices are up front.
Every price is a starting point in US dollars, invoiced monthly or on milestones, with no recruiting fee and nothing to pay before work starts.
Dedicated senior designer
from $5,500 a month
Full time, 40 hours a week. Half time from $3,000 a month.
- One named senior designer, the same person every week.
- Your full day in Europe, your morning in the US, in your tools.
- If your designer leaves, we replace them and our lead carries the handover.
- Month to month, 30 days' notice.
Best for: an open senior role you need covered now, while you hire.
Fractional design lead
from $3,200 a month
Two days a week.
- Sets up or runs your design function.
- Design reviews on your calendar.
- Help with hiring your first designers.
Best for: a product team that needs design leadership before its first design hire.
Design sprint
from $4,500
Two weeks, fixed scope.
- One problem, framed on day one.
- A prototype tested with users.
- A clear decision at the end.
Best for: a feature or idea that needs an answer before you commit a team.
UX / CX audit
from $1,900
Delivered within ten working days, for one product and one user group.
- Expert review of the product.
- Five sessions with your users. You bring the users, we run the sessions.
- Findings ranked by what to fix first.
Best for: a product that is not performing and nobody can say why.
Research study
from $3,900
Three to four weeks.
- 8 to 10 interviews with your users.
- A journey map.
- Findings and recommendations you can act on.
Best for: a decision that needs evidence from users, not opinions from the room.
Project work
quoted within a week
A product, a feature set or a redesign.
- Scoped and quoted within a week of the first call.
- A narrow first piece your team can use.
- You own everything we make.
Best for: a defined piece of work with a start and an end.
What moves a “from” price: the seniority of the designer you need, hours beyond 40 a week, a second designer, and recruiting users for research. Every price is confirmed in a written scope before anything starts. A dedicated designer usually costs well under half of a US or European contractor rate; the difference is Chennai, not the seniority.
How it starts.
A first call
You send us the role or the problem. We reply within a day, and on the call we tell you whether we can help.
Scope in writing
You get a written scope and an estimate before anything starts, with the NDA and the IP assignment as standard, and you meet your designer.
A narrow first piece
We start with a small first deliverable your team can use, so you see how we work before the bigger work.
Steady work, in your rhythm
The work is in your Figma every day, the designer is in your standups, and a short end-of-day note says what moved.
What we do
Research to shipped screens.
Our own system is documented and live: the Kaniworks design guide ›
UX design
Flows, information architecture, wireframes and tested prototypes for software people use at work.
UI design
Screens that are clear at a glance, built on a system your developers can keep consistent.
User research
Interviews, contextual inquiry and usability sessions with the people who do the work: remote by default, on site when the scope says so and travel is agreed up front.
Customer experience
The whole journey from first contact to renewal, mapped end to end, with the breaks found and fixed.
Service design
Service blueprints that show the front stage, the back stage and the handoffs where the pain collects.
Design systems
Tokens, components and rules that your team can take over and keep running.
UX / CX audit
An expert review plus user sessions, with findings ranked by what to fix first.
Design operations and fractional lead
Process, design reviews and hiring help for a product team that has no design lead yet.
Graphic design and branding
Identity, decks and marketing material when your product needs them. Software design stays our core.
Proof
Work you can open, not slides.
Our direct proof is the software Kaniworks has designed and built. Each product below is in production, built and tested, or a working prototype, and each has a live demo on this site that needs no guide. One principle runs through all of them: built for people who are standing up, gloves on, in a hurry, often with no internet. Under the products are five case studies from the designer who leads the studio, from 16 years of designing enterprise software. Nothing here is a client's material: no screens, no names, and the concepts are rebuilt with illustrative data.
Swipe to see all 7›
Field research to concept
The repair isn't the hard part. The certainty is.
Contextual inquiry at a global elevator company into how technicians install, connect and commission IoT devices on live elevators.
30+
technicians shadowed at 30+ sites
3
countries
Our lead designer shadowed more than 30 technicians at more than 30 sites in Italy, Spain and Finland. The constraints were plain on site: gloves and PPE, noisy machine rooms, hands full, and a signal that comes and goes. Certainty means knowing, before leaving the site, that the device is connected and sending.
The findings became a guided commissioning concept: a service blueprint, a validated concept and a business model for it. It stayed a concept; it is shown here for the research.
Backs: the research study and the design sprint
Field research
Five tools for one job, and WhatsApp runs the day.
Ride-alongs and deep interviews with an elevator service operation in Chennai.
19
steps from call to close
7 of 19
steps carry pain
90 to 100
lifts per technician
Our lead designer rode along with four technicians across eight zones, each carrying 90 to 100 lifts. Four is a small number; ride-alongs go deep, and a 19-step work-order journey from call to close came out of them. Seven of the 19 steps carry pain, and they cluster at the handoffs, not at the repair. The response timer starts when the technician marks “en route”, so traffic counts against him.
The output was a journey map, the pain themes, and five rules any product for this team has to respect.
Backs: the research study and the UX / CX audit
Concept, illustrative data
One health number first.
A control-room concept for a connected fleet of about half a million devices, recreated with illustrative data.
~500,000
devices in the fleet the concept was designed for
Rank what is happening by its consequence: one health number first, then a short list of what needs a person. The desk and the field app share one live model, so the control room and the technician look at the same thing.
A working prototype, and a 75-second product film built in code.
Backs: project work and the design sprint
Concept, 10 screens
Eight steps from noticing a fault to verifying the fix.
An operations architecture for a tower with 52 elevators, as a ten-screen concept.
52
elevators in the tower the concept was designed for
The interface is organized around the operator's question, not around widgets. Five kinds of information come together in one Command Center, and handling one problem takes the operator through eight steps, from noticing it to verifying it is fixed.
A working prototype shows one fault handled end to end.
Backs: project work
Leadership, a running system
A team of seven, six domains, one portal.
How our lead designer runs a UX team of seven across six domains and eleven projects.
7
team members across six domains
11
projects
6 of 7
logging AI-assisted work, up from 3
The team runs on a portal the lead designed and coded: process, working groups, trackers and learning in one place. Ownership is delegated. AI use is logged: three of seven were logging AI-assisted work at the start, six of seven six weeks later.
The portal is in use by the team. It is shown here as leadership, not as a project.
Backs: the fractional design lead
We do not publish client names or testimonials. The product demos are open; try them. Ask, and we will walk you through any of the five studies on a call.
Who you get
The studio is new; the people are not. It is led by a designer with 16+ years designing enterprise software for building-technology companies: IoT platforms, field tools and operations dashboards. That work earned a Red Dot Design Award for product design and nine design patents. The lead has run a UX team of seven across eleven projects, and holds an M.Sc. in Psychology and the HFI Certified UX Analyst credential. For each engagement, Kaniworks brings in designers to work under that lead: the lead scopes the work and reviews it every week, so the method is the same whoever is on your project. Kaniworks also designs and builds its own software, four products in production and each with a live demo on this site, so we design knowing we will have to build and support it. We do not name our lead designer or past employers on this page; we will on a call.
The practical bits.
- You contract with Kaniworks, Chennai, India, under a simple services agreement that includes the NDA and the IP assignment.
- Invoices in US dollars, or euros on request, paid by bank transfer: monthly for dedicated work, on milestones for projects.
- A data processing agreement is available when research involves your users.
- Every design, file and finding is assigned to you. Nothing of yours appears on this site.
The questions you are already asking.
How do we know the work will be good?
Look at the work first. Every Kaniworks product on this site has a live demo you can click through, and the case studies show how we research and decide. Then start with a narrow first piece: if it is not good, you stop there.
Chennai is far from us. Will the time zone work?
Chennai is UTC+5:30. For Europe that means the designer works your full day, since our day starts before yours. For the US it means about four hours of overlap with the East Coast morning and three with Central, every day, with the rest of the day's work waiting when you start. Reviews and standups happen when you are at your desk.
How will we communicate?
In your tools. The work is in your Figma every day, the designer is in your standups and on your calls during the overlap, and a short end-of-day note in your Slack or Jira says what moved.
What about our IP and confidentiality?
You own the work. We sign an NDA and an IP assignment as standard before anything starts, so every file, design and finding is yours, and nothing of yours appears on our site.
We would rather hire in-house.
Good. Many teams should. Use us to cover the gap while you hire, so the roadmap does not wait, and a fractional lead can help you interview. If the hire takes a quarter, you have had a quarter of design work instead of a gap.
How fast can you start?
Within a week of the first call for a dedicated designer or a fractional lead. Project work is scoped and quoted within a week of the first call, and starts once you sign off the scope.
How do contracts and invoicing work?
A simple services agreement with the NDA and IP assignment included. We invoice monthly in US dollars, or in euros on request, and dedicated engagements run month to month.
Which tools do you work in?
Yours. We design in Figma and keep notes in Jira, Slack or Notion, whichever your team already uses.
Can we see the work before we commit to a designer?
Yes. Start with a UX / CX audit or a design sprint. Each has a fixed scope, a fixed price and an end date, so you see the work before you take a dedicated designer.
How do we cancel?
Give 30 days' notice. Dedicated engagements run month to month, and every file is already yours.
Which holidays does our designer take, and what if they leave?
Your public holidays, not India's, plus leave agreed up front. If your designer leaves, we replace them and our lead carries the handover.
Tell us the role, or the problem.
We reply within a day. If you would rather see the work first, start with a two-week sprint or a ten-day audit: fixed scope, fixed price.