The words we use, defined.

An active task is a request that is being worked on now, as opposed to one waiting in a queue. In a design subscription, the number of active tasks allowed at once sets how much work runs in parallel.

The Recast UX plan works five active tasks in parallel, and the pilot allows up to three.

The plan and the price

Arabic-Indic numerals are the digits ٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩ (Unicode U+0660 to U+0669), used with the Arabic script in the eastern Arab world, including Egypt and the Gulf, alongside the European digits 0 to 9. Unicode encodes a second set, the Eastern Arabic-Indic digits ۰۱۲۳۴۵۶۷۸۹ (U+06F0 to U+06F9), used in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

Recast UX writes a rule for each product on which numeral system appears in which field, with identifiers such as invoice numbers kept in European digits.

Arabic and RTL design Source: The Unicode Standard 16.0, chapter 9: Middle East-I

Auto layout is a Figma feature that arranges the contents of a frame automatically by direction, spacing, padding and alignment. When content is added, removed or resized, the layout adjusts without anything being repositioned by hand.

Recast UX builds its components with auto layout, so screens are assembled from parts that resize instead of being drawn one by one.

Source: Figma Help Center: Explore auto layout properties

Bidirectional text (bidi) is text that mixes right-to-left and left-to-right runs in one line, such as an Arabic sentence containing a number, a web address or an English product name. Software orders it for display with the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm, working from the base direction set on the surrounding text.

Recast UX hands engineers a bidi checklist with each Arabic design: logical properties, where the dir attribute goes and where a <bdi> boundary is needed.

Guide: what goes wrong in right-to-left interfaces Source: Unicode Standard Annex #9: Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm

A component is a reusable interface element, such as a button, an input or a card, defined once and used wherever it is needed. In Figma, a main component defines the element and each use of it is an instance, a linked copy that follows the main component.

Recast UX names components the way the client's code names them, so a designer and an engineer mean the same thing by the same word.

Design systems Source: Figma Help Center: Guide to components in Figma

A design system is a complete set of standards for managing design at scale, built on reusable components and patterns. It gives designers and engineers one shared source for how a product looks and behaves.

The Recast UX plan includes building a design system and maintaining it month after month.

Design systems Source: Nielsen Norman Group: Design Systems 101

A design token is a named design decision, such as a colour, a type size or a spacing value, stored once as the single source of truth and used across design tools and code. Changing the token changes every place that uses it.

Recast UX writes spacing, type and colour in its spec frames as tokens, not as raw pixel and hex values.

Design systems Source: Design Tokens Community Group: Glossary

Developer-ready Figma is a Figma file prepared so that an engineer can build from it directly: screens assembled from named components, values held as tokens, each state drawn and the behaviour written down.

It is the standard deliverable at Recast UX: components, tokens and spec frames.

FAQ: what is in the Figma file

Figma is a collaborative design tool used to create, share and test designs for websites, mobile apps and other digital products.

Recast UX delivers its design work as Figma files, and the client owns them on delivery.

Source: Figma Help Center: What is Figma?

First concepts are the first designed response to a request: an early version of the screen or flow, shown so the client can react and give direction before the detail is finished.

Recast UX delivers first concepts in 48 hours, counted as real hours because the team works every day of the week.

The plan and the price

Framer is a website builder in which a site is designed on a visual canvas and published from the same tool, with hosting and a content management system built in.

Recast UX builds front ends in Framer, as well as in React, Next.js and Webflow.

Front-end build Source: Framer

A front-end build is the work of turning finished designs into the working interface a user sees in a browser or an app: the markup, the styles, the components and the interaction code.

Front-end build hours are included in the Recast UX plan, in React, Next.js, Webflow or Framer.

Front-end build

Handoff is the point at which a design passes from the designer to the engineers who will build it, together with what they need to build it: the file, the specification, the assets and the reasoning.

At Recast UX the handoff is developer-ready Figma, and the same studio can carry on into the front-end build.

Front-end build

A lead designer is the senior designer accountable for the direction and quality of the design work on a product or an account, who reviews that work and answers for it to the client.

At Recast UX one lead designer is the client's single point of contact, on every call and accountable for every design choice.

About the studio

Localisation is the adaptation of a product or its content to meet the language, cultural and other requirements of a specific target market, called a locale. It goes beyond translation to cover number, date and time formats, currency, symbols, icons and colours.

Recast UX designs in English and Arabic, and treats the Arabic version of a screen as a version in its own right.

Arabic and RTL design Source: W3C Internationalization: Localization vs. Internationalization

Mirroring is the reflection of a layout when an interface switches between left-to-right and right-to-left: navigation and alignment change sides, and directional icons such as back arrows flip. Not everything mirrors: numbers, clocks and icons with no direction keep their orientation.

Recast UX re-sets a right-to-left screen element by element instead of flipping the whole layout, and lists for engineers which icons mirror.

Arabic and RTL design Source: Wikimedia Codex style guide: Bidirectionality

A pilot is a short, limited run of a service on real work, used to judge a provider before a longer commitment.

The Recast UX pilot is $490 once: one week, up to three active tasks, credited against the first month if the plan starts within ninety days.

How the pilot works

Product design is the design of a digital product's screens, flows and behaviour, from the first outline of a feature to the detail an engineer builds from. It covers both how the product works and how it looks.

Product design is one of the five services of Recast UX, with design systems, Arabic and right-to-left design, websites and front-end build.

Product design

A product design subscription is a flat monthly fee for a product design team that works through a client's requests as a queue, instead of a project quote or a hire. The client files tasks, a set number are worked at once, and there is usually no long-term contract.

The Recast UX plan is $3,900 a month for unlimited tasks, five worked in parallel, billed monthly with no annual contract.

Guide: what is a product design subscription?

A queue is the ordered list of requests waiting to be worked on. When a task in progress is finished, the next one in the queue starts.

On the Recast UX plan the client sets the order of the queue, and five tasks from it are worked in parallel.

The plan and the price

A revision is a round of changes made to a design in response to feedback, after which the design is shown again.

Revisions are unlimited on the Recast UX plan.

Right-to-left (RTL) is the direction in which scripts such as Arabic and Hebrew are written and read: each line starts at the right edge and runs to the left. A right-to-left interface is laid out to follow that direction.

Recast UX designs right-to-left screens in Arabic as part of the plan, as their own version of the design.

Arabic and RTL design Source: W3C Internationalization: Right-to-left scripts

A spec frame is an annotated copy of a screen in a design file that records what an engineer needs to build it: spacing, type and colour values, component names and notes on interaction. The same information is also called a specification or redlines.

Recast UX includes spec frames in every delivery, with the values written as tokens.

FAQ: what is in the Figma file

A state is one of the conditions a screen or component can be in, such as default, empty, loading, error or disabled. A design that shows only the default state leaves the others to be decided during the build.

Recast UX designs each screen at every state, including the empty, loading and error ones.

Turnaround is the time between a request being filed and the work coming back. The unit matters: two working days and 48 real hours are different promises.

Recast UX returns first concepts in 48 real hours, because the team works every day of the week.

FAQ: how fast is a request

A usability test is a session in which a researcher asks a participant to perform tasks with a product and observes what they do and where they struggle. For a qualitative study of one user group, five participants are usually enough to find most of the common problems.

On the Recast UX plan, usability testing is available on request: five users and a written recommendation.

Source: Nielsen Norman Group: Usability Testing 101

A variant is one version of a component, such as the small, hover or disabled version of a button. In Figma, the variants of a component are grouped in a single container called a component set.

Recast UX builds its components with variants, so one component covers its sizes and states.

Source: Figma Help Center: Create and use variants

Webflow is a platform for building, launching and hosting websites visually in the browser, with a content management system, without writing the code by hand.

Recast UX builds front ends in Webflow, as well as in React, Next.js and Framer.

Front-end build Source: Webflow

White-label design is design work produced by one company and delivered under another company's brand, usually an agency presenting it to its own client. The company that did the work is not named.

White-label delivery for agencies is included in the Recast UX plan.

For agencies