Get in touch

Lets

design

build

create

incredible work together.

Alex West

Creative Director

We're always open to new collaborations and would love to hear about your projects. Please reach out through any of the channels below if you're interested in working together.

[Mail to]

contact@mugen.design

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Address

2300 Yonge St. Toronto, ON M4P 1E4

Office hours

Monday to Friday: 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Get in touch

Lets

design

build

create

incredible work together.

Alex West

Creative Director

We're always open to new collaborations and would love to hear about your projects. Please reach out through any of the channels below if you're interested in working together.

[Mail to]

contact@mugen.design

email copied

Address

2300 Yonge St. Toronto, ON M4P 1E4

Office hours

Monday to Friday: 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM

[01]

Either book a call or a send message.

[02]

Share your vision and requirements.

[03]

We'll evaluate within 24 - 48 hours whether your project is the right fit.

Send message

Book call

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Answers

FAQ

Everything else you're wondering.

Have a question?

Reach out anytime. I'd be happy to answer any questions before you commit to working together.

Akash Datta

Founder & UX Principle

How do I know if my product needs a UX audit or a full redesign?
icon

Most scaling products don't need a redesign — they need clarity on where the experience is breaking. A UX audit maps your actual customer journey end-to-end, identifies friction points like onboarding drop-offs, support ticket spikes, or feature confusion, and delivers a prioritised backlog your team can act on immediately. A full redesign is only warranted when the underlying product model no longer fits your users. I start with a 5–7 day audit to surface the real problems before recommending whether deeper work is needed — so you're never paying for a redesign when a targeted fix would do.

What is service blueprinting and how does it help my product?
icon

A service blueprint maps your complete customer experience — not just what users see on screen, but the communications, operations, and internal handoffs happening behind the scenes. It reveals gaps that UI-level analysis can't: misaligned team workflows, broken handoffs between departments, or operational bottlenecks that create friction for users. For example, at SafetyCulture I discovered that enterprise onboarding wasn't failing because of unclear screens — it was failing in the handoff between sales and setup teams. A service blueprint makes those invisible seams visible so you can fix the root cause, not just the symptoms.

How long does a UX strategy engagement take and what do I get?
icon

Engagements typically run 1–6 weeks depending on the scope. A UX audit takes 5–7 days and delivers a friction analysis with a prioritised recommendations backlog. A service blueprint takes 2–3 weeks and delivers an end-to-end journey map with gap analysis and design principles for your product. Sprint-based UX leadership runs 4–6 weeks and includes user research, rapid prototyping in Figma, usability testing, and production-ready designs with developer handoff specs. Every engagement ends with a clear, actionable output your team can execute — not a slide deck that sits in a folder.

We have an in-house design team — why would we hire an external UX strategist?
icon

In-house teams are usually deep in delivery and don't have the bandwidth to step back and audit the full customer lifecycle. An external UX strategist brings a fresh perspective on problems your team may be too close to see, dedicated capacity for a focused initiative without pulling designers off their roadmap, and experience across multiple scaling companies that reveals patterns your team hasn't encountered yet. I've worked alongside in-house teams at SafetyCulture, Pet Circle, and Deputy — not replacing their designers, but augmenting their capacity with strategic work that accelerates what they're already doing.

What types of companies do you work with?
icon

I specialise in scaling tech companies — typically Series A to C. These are products where the experience that worked at launch starts breaking under growth: new user types create complexity, teams ship faster than the experience can keep up, and support load starts climbing. If your product serves multiple user roles, handles sensitive data, or spans digital and operational touchpoints, that complexity is where I do my strongest work. I'm based in Sydney and work with companies across Australia and internationally.

Answers

FAQ

Everything else you're wondering.

Have a question?

Reach out anytime. I'd be happy to answer any questions before you commit to working together.

Akash Datta

Founder & UX Principle

How do I know if my product needs a UX audit or a full redesign?
icon

Most scaling products don't need a redesign — they need clarity on where the experience is breaking. A UX audit maps your actual customer journey end-to-end, identifies friction points like onboarding drop-offs, support ticket spikes, or feature confusion, and delivers a prioritised backlog your team can act on immediately. A full redesign is only warranted when the underlying product model no longer fits your users. I start with a 5–7 day audit to surface the real problems before recommending whether deeper work is needed — so you're never paying for a redesign when a targeted fix would do.

What is service blueprinting and how does it help my product?
icon

A service blueprint maps your complete customer experience — not just what users see on screen, but the communications, operations, and internal handoffs happening behind the scenes. It reveals gaps that UI-level analysis can't: misaligned team workflows, broken handoffs between departments, or operational bottlenecks that create friction for users. For example, at SafetyCulture I discovered that enterprise onboarding wasn't failing because of unclear screens — it was failing in the handoff between sales and setup teams. A service blueprint makes those invisible seams visible so you can fix the root cause, not just the symptoms.

How long does a UX strategy engagement take and what do I get?
icon

Engagements typically run 1–6 weeks depending on the scope. A UX audit takes 5–7 days and delivers a friction analysis with a prioritised recommendations backlog. A service blueprint takes 2–3 weeks and delivers an end-to-end journey map with gap analysis and design principles for your product. Sprint-based UX leadership runs 4–6 weeks and includes user research, rapid prototyping in Figma, usability testing, and production-ready designs with developer handoff specs. Every engagement ends with a clear, actionable output your team can execute — not a slide deck that sits in a folder.

We have an in-house design team — why would we hire an external UX strategist?
icon

In-house teams are usually deep in delivery and don't have the bandwidth to step back and audit the full customer lifecycle. An external UX strategist brings a fresh perspective on problems your team may be too close to see, dedicated capacity for a focused initiative without pulling designers off their roadmap, and experience across multiple scaling companies that reveals patterns your team hasn't encountered yet. I've worked alongside in-house teams at SafetyCulture, Pet Circle, and Deputy — not replacing their designers, but augmenting their capacity with strategic work that accelerates what they're already doing.

What types of companies do you work with?
icon

I specialise in scaling tech companies — typically Series A to C. These are products where the experience that worked at launch starts breaking under growth: new user types create complexity, teams ship faster than the experience can keep up, and support load starts climbing. If your product serves multiple user roles, handles sensitive data, or spans digital and operational touchpoints, that complexity is where I do my strongest work. I'm based in Sydney and work with companies across Australia and internationally.

Answers

FAQ

Everything else you're wondering.

Have a question?

Reach out anytime. I'd be happy to answer any questions before you commit to working together.

Akash Datta

Founder & UX Principle

How do I know if my product needs a UX audit or a full redesign?
icon

Most scaling products don't need a redesign — they need clarity on where the experience is breaking. A UX audit maps your actual customer journey end-to-end, identifies friction points like onboarding drop-offs, support ticket spikes, or feature confusion, and delivers a prioritised backlog your team can act on immediately. A full redesign is only warranted when the underlying product model no longer fits your users. I start with a 5–7 day audit to surface the real problems before recommending whether deeper work is needed — so you're never paying for a redesign when a targeted fix would do.

What is service blueprinting and how does it help my product?
icon

A service blueprint maps your complete customer experience — not just what users see on screen, but the communications, operations, and internal handoffs happening behind the scenes. It reveals gaps that UI-level analysis can't: misaligned team workflows, broken handoffs between departments, or operational bottlenecks that create friction for users. For example, at SafetyCulture I discovered that enterprise onboarding wasn't failing because of unclear screens — it was failing in the handoff between sales and setup teams. A service blueprint makes those invisible seams visible so you can fix the root cause, not just the symptoms.

How long does a UX strategy engagement take and what do I get?
icon

Engagements typically run 1–6 weeks depending on the scope. A UX audit takes 5–7 days and delivers a friction analysis with a prioritised recommendations backlog. A service blueprint takes 2–3 weeks and delivers an end-to-end journey map with gap analysis and design principles for your product. Sprint-based UX leadership runs 4–6 weeks and includes user research, rapid prototyping in Figma, usability testing, and production-ready designs with developer handoff specs. Every engagement ends with a clear, actionable output your team can execute — not a slide deck that sits in a folder.

We have an in-house design team — why would we hire an external UX strategist?
icon

In-house teams are usually deep in delivery and don't have the bandwidth to step back and audit the full customer lifecycle. An external UX strategist brings a fresh perspective on problems your team may be too close to see, dedicated capacity for a focused initiative without pulling designers off their roadmap, and experience across multiple scaling companies that reveals patterns your team hasn't encountered yet. I've worked alongside in-house teams at SafetyCulture, Pet Circle, and Deputy — not replacing their designers, but augmenting their capacity with strategic work that accelerates what they're already doing.

What types of companies do you work with?
icon

I specialise in scaling tech companies — typically Series A to C. These are products where the experience that worked at launch starts breaking under growth: new user types create complexity, teams ship faster than the experience can keep up, and support load starts climbing. If your product serves multiple user roles, handles sensitive data, or spans digital and operational touchpoints, that complexity is where I do my strongest work. I'm based in Sydney and work with companies across Australia and internationally.

DESIGN BY DROPS

DESIGN BY DROPS

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info@designbydrops.com

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We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which Design By Drops stands the Wallumattagal Clan of the Dharug Nation whose cultures and customs have nurtured, and continue to nurture, this land since time immemorial. We pay our respects to the Elders, past and present.


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