Best 10 User Experience Consultants to Watch in 2026


A great user experience doesn’t happen by accident. It’s a product of strategy, experience, and real user research.
Review seasoned user experience research consultants who create products that are both functional and delightful to use.
Natalia Sambir is the CDO and co-founder of Linkup ST. Natalia has worked as a user experience consultant for over 11 years, focusing on building interfaces that organically promote themselves by combining company goals and user expectations. Ms. Sambir uses her broad knowledge of user psychology to create outcome-driven strategies and initiatives across multiple industries. In 2025, Natalia was named one of the world's most recognized and influential designers in digital and product design.

Pavlo Savchenko is a Red Dot Award-winning Lead user experience consultant specializing in product design for mobile and web platforms. With extensive experience in the technology sector, Pavlo combines strong team management skills and integrates seamlessly into your in-house team.
Currently, Pavlo leads the UI/UX design of iOS and Android applications, web interfaces, and visual communication assets. He is also overseeing animation, marketing design, and design management.

Sophia is a user experience consultant who specializes in crafting visually appealing and intuitive user experiences with adherence to user research, prototyping, and user testing. Sophia focuses on more than aesthetic screens. Her goal is to create interfaces for optimizing engagement and conversions. Sonya’s screens are highly functional and tailored to the needs of each customer, regardless of the product’s complexity.

Dima Tsozik is a multidisciplinary UX consultant and a co-founder of a UX/UI Design Agency based in San Francisco. His specialization is user interface and web design, branding, animation, 3D, and visual storytelling. Dima’s UX experiences are the result of user research, prototyping, and usability testing. He collaborates closely with developers, product teams, and designers to ensure solutions are both visually compelling and functional across web and mobile platforms.

Sara Vienna is a UX design consultant and Chief Design Officer at MetaLab, where she leads research, strategy, and product design for high-growth startups and global brands. She partners with founders and product teams to translate business goals into intuitive user experiences. Sara advises early-stage companies and startups, helping them define product vision and validate ideas through research, not assumptions. Sara’s expertise in crafting digital experiences was recognized by Apple, The Webbys, Digiday, and more.

Alex Kim is an experienced Creative and Design Leader who specializes in organizational design and the transformative power of design in complex systems. His experience includes both B2B and B2C firms in healthcare, telecommunications, retail, hospitality, and logistics sectors. Alex has led interdisciplinary agency and client-side teams, establishing and growing high-performance design teams.

Peter is a UX design consultant with over 20 years of experience in driving user experience strategies from vision to execution. His approach to design is human-centered and combines customer insights with business goals. Peter’s expertise includes building brand strategy and product experience frameworks, all while relying on translating research into strategy. Focused on aligning customer needs with business ambition, Peter builds frameworks that connect design, engineering, and strategy.

Mauro Morcini is a seasoned user experience research consultant with 30 years of experience in product design, primarily in technology, consumer electronics, and consumer goods. Mauro has served as a Chief Design Officer at global multibillion-dollar corporations: PepsiCo, Samsung, and 3M. Apart from being a skilled UX consultant, Mauro has strong leadership and team management skills. As a CDO, he built design organizations from the ground up. His mission is to redefine the role of UX design as a key driver of business growth and innovation.

Ren Rigby is an internationally recognized user experience research consultant based in New York City. Ren has a multidisciplinary background. Ren treats UX design as a human-centered practice that drives impact on business, helping them reach and surpass KPIs. Their approach blends strategy, creativity, and digital experience to solve complex business challenges. In addition to consulting organizations, Ren mentors the next generation of designers at the School of Visual Arts.

Andreas Markdalen is a user experience design consultant with over 20 years of experience across industries. Andreas has been leading design teams for global consumer and enterprise customers. Currently, Andreas is the Chief Creative Officer of frog – one of the world’s best UX consulting companies that helps businesses build digital products, from UX design to final release. Andreas actively promotes human-centered, empathy-driven, and outcome-focused design principles.

Look beyond good-looking screens. Check the domain expertise of user experience consultants and choose the one with direct experience in your product domain (SaaS, Fintech, Healthtech, or Enterprise). Review their portfolio and case studies to understand how their UX work solved real problems, such as low churn and increased conversion, and delivered measurable business results.
Strong user experience research consultants never rely on guesswork or personal opinion. Their decisions are based on real user research, behavioral data, usability testing, and analytics. Ask how they validate assumptions and what insights support their recommendations. If you opt for ongoing commitment, UX right consultants should track user behavior, analyze patterns, and suggest improvements to optimize performance over time.
Top UX consultants should deliver results. Your task is to discuss KPIs, business goals, and negotiate a quality assurance program. How would a UX consultant guarantee that a released product meets the design and interaction specifications? QA program includes usability testing, A/B testing, and post-launch support – all to make sure the work brings more than a pretty screen.
Define a clear budget before you start looking for a UX consultant. In simple words, decide how much you are willing to spend and what you expect in return. The most expensive option doesn’t deliver the greatest value, while suspiciously low rates may be a signal of a superficial approach. Define stages of collaboration, milestones and approximate delivery times so your UX investment is predictable and justified.
Especially important if you have a complex product rich in functionality that should be understood and easily navigated by a wide audience. A UX consultant should be able to offer clear and logical solutions for the complex product’s interface and create intuitive interfaces that remove barriers between your service and your users.
A good UX is a result of teamwork between the right UX consultants and tech teams. This is why UX consultants should have experience in integrating into a company’s team, work with developers, product managers, and designers. They should be able to clearly communicate their ideas, incorporate feedback, and give corrections if needed. Collaborative skills of a user experience consultant make the process of UX deployment quick and transparent for everyone involved.
