Fixed cost, variable workload
Unlimited requests per month
A salary is owed whether there's 2 days of work or 20. Here you send as much as you like for one flat monthly fee.
AN ALTERNATIVE TO HIRINGUnlimited design.
Unlimited design.
Without the hire.
Senior product design on a flat monthly subscription. A dedicated designer for your product, without the salary, the recruitment risk or the long-term commitment. Cancel anytime and own everything I design.
Pause or cancel anytime • 100% IP ownership from day one
Not ready for a monthly subscription?
Start with a 5-day Workflow Audit.
Choose the focus on a call: the whole workflow, design and styling, how well it fits the way people think about the task, best practice, or a basic accessibility check. You get written findings and recommended next steps, with a fixed scope and timeline and no ongoing commitment.
From £2,500, fixed price once scoped.
One queue. Always moving.
No meetings, no hiring, no overhead. Just senior product design delivered on a timeline that matches the real complexity of the work.
Subscribe
Pick a plan and add as many requests as you like to your dedicated queue. One flat monthly fee, no scope creep, no surprise invoices.
Request
Add as many design tasks as you need to your dedicated queue. I tackle them one at a time, async. You get a reply within two working days and a progress update every two to three.
Receive
Get polished, production-ready design files delivered async. Review, request revisions, and move straight to build, with 100% of the IP owned by you from day one.
Async delivery, always on
Where I’ve done this work
The employee problem, solved
Hiring a designer is a bet, a fixed monthly cost, a recruitment process, and a long, awkward exit if it doesn't work out. Here's what you get instead.
Founding rate, held for 12 months
Choose your track
One flat monthly rate based on how many requests move at once, not per task, not per hour. Founding rates are open to the first 3 to 5 clients and held for 12 months, then the standard rate applies.
One senior designer. Not a rotating team.
designforward is run by Richard Marseglia, a senior product designer with 8+ years’ experience turning complex, legacy-heavy operations into usable software. You’re not getting a junior generalist or a rotating team, you’re getting that experience on tap.
Selected work
Two projects from my work on operational software.
Modernising a legacy warehouse management system
The problem
The platform had become fragmented, which made high-volume warehouse tasks slower and more error-prone. Much of that came from what the screen asked of people at their busiest moments.
What I did
I shadowed 15 pickers and packers across three shifts, interviewed six supervisors and walked through eight core workflows on handheld devices. I improved navigation and feedback in steps, so nothing needed heavy retraining, and built a reusable component library.
The result
The reusable component library I built now cuts the time to design and prototype a new workflow by about 50%. On the warehouse floor, supervisors reported fewer mis-picks and quicker task completion. That was informal feedback rather than a measured result.
My role: Sole product designer, six months.
Read the full case study (opens in a new tab)Making integration setup and error handling consistent
The problem
Setting up and monitoring connectors worked differently across seven integration types. Most support escalations came from users being unable to tell whether a failure was their fault or the system's.
What I did
I ran six weeks of discovery, interviewing 12 support engineers and 8 account managers and reviewing four months of support tickets. I created one standard pattern for setup, monitoring and errors, a guided connector panel with a visual flow builder, and clearer error messages that separate system failures from input mistakes.
The result
Support teams reported fewer escalations over unclear errors, and the pattern has been reused for several new connector types.
My role: Sole senior product designer, nine months, plus ongoing maintenance.
Read the full case study (opens in a new tab)What people I've worked with say
Feedback from colleagues and product leaders across eight-plus years of enterprise work.
Common questions
What is designforward?
designforward is a UK product design subscription run by Richard Marseglia, a senior product designer with 8+ years' experience. You add requests to a queue and get back production-ready design files, with no long-term contract and full IP ownership.
What does designforward design?
Anything a senior UX or product designer would normally do: UX flows, UI, prototypes, design systems and user research. You add requests to your queue and I work through them one at a time.
Who is designforward for?
Any product team, of any size. Whether you have no designer yet or an in-house team that needs extra capacity, you add requests to a queue and get production-ready design files back.
How long does a request take?
It depends on the complexity of the work. As a rough guide, UX flows, UI screens and low-fidelity prototypes take 3-5 days. High-fidelity or AI-assisted prototypes and smaller research pieces take 1-4 weeks. Greenfield design systems and in-depth research take 1-3 months. Larger pieces are broken into stages so work keeps landing along the way. I reply to every new request within two working days with a delivery estimate, agreed before work starts. While a request is in progress, you'll get a progress update every two to three working days.
How much does it cost?
One flat monthly rate, based on how many requests move at once, not per task and not per hour. Single Track is £3,000 a month for one request in progress at a time. Double Track is £5,500 a month for two requests moving in parallel. These are founding rates, open to the first 3 to 5 clients and held for 12 months. After that, the standard rates apply: £4,500 a month for Single Track and £8,000 a month for Double Track, confirmed in writing at least 30 days before they start. Sprint / Project is a scoped, fixed-length engagement with no subscription: a 5-day Workflow Audit starts from £2,500 as a fixed price once scoped, and larger projects are quoted per engagement.
What is a Sprint / Project, and is it a good place to start?
It's a fixed-scope engagement with no subscription. The usual starting point is a 5-day Workflow Audit, from £2,500 as a fixed price once I've scoped it with you. We agree the focus on a call, for example the whole workflow, design and styling, how well it fits the way people think about the task, best practice or a basic accessibility check. You get written findings and recommended next steps. Larger pieces, like a 4-week Module Redesign, are quoted per engagement.
How do I send requests?
Through a Trello board that I set up for you when you subscribe, one board per client. Add each request as a card with a written brief, a link, a Figma file or a short screen recording, and I work through them in order. You can add as many as you like and reorder them at any time. Design feedback happens as comments in Figma.
How does onboarding work?
After the call, you subscribe and I set up your Trello board and invite you to it. Send your first request along with any existing files, brand guidelines or design system, and work starts straight away.
Are revisions included?
Yes. Every request includes reasonable revisions until the work meets the brief you gave me. If the brief changes substantially once work has started, I treat it as a new request and update the timing.
Can I pause or cancel?
Yes, at any time, with no notice period and no cancellation fee. Pausing stops the subscription at the end of your current billing period and keeps any unused time, so you can pick up where you left off. Cancelling ends the subscription at the end of your current billing period.
Can you work with our existing design system?
Yes. I can pick up and extend what you already have, or build one from scratch. A greenfield system takes longer than adopting an existing one.
Do you do user research?
Yes. Research is part of the service, and how long it takes depends on the effort involved, from a quick round of interviews to a deeper study.
What kind of prototypes do you build?
Low-fidelity, high-fidelity, or AI-assisted rapid prototypes, depending on what you need to test or show.
What's not included?
designforward focuses on product design, so branding, marketing graphics, video and production code are not part of the service. If you're not sure whether something fits, ask on the call.
Who owns the work?
You do. Every design, file, licence, trademark and copyright is yours from day one.
How do I get started?
Book a 30-minute call. If it's a fit, work starts the day you subscribe, with no recruitment, no onboarding runway and no long-term contract.
Ready to skip the hiring headache?
Pause or cancel anytime • 100% IP ownership from day one