Best UX Design Agencies in Portland (2026)

Introduction

Portland has a compact but experienced UX scene, and the eight agencies below cover most of what a buyer is likely to need: enterprise product design, B2B software, conversion research, immersive work and well-built websites. They were chosen for current work, client rosters and evidence of an active Portland studio in 2026.

The city’s largest digital studio, Instrument, sits inside Stagwell’s Code and Theory Network and was a Campaign US Agency of the Year finalist for Design Studio in 2026. In August it brought back Jack De Caluwé as chief creative officer. Other familiar names have changed shape: Uncorked Studios became Fresh Consulting’s Portland office after a 2019 acquisition, and Fresh’s own site no longer lists Portland, while Metal Toad now lists offices in Los Angeles, Seattle and São Paulo and leads with AWS cloud work. Much of the remaining work is done by smaller independents, many of them on the Eastside, with Nike and other sportswear and outdoor brands as regular clients.

Every agency here has a Portland studio in 2026. The list is unranked. A shorter list of firms we could check properly seemed more useful than a longer one padded with freelancers and sales offices.

The best UX design agencies in Portland

1. Instrument

Stagwell (Code and Theory Network) · Northwest · instrument.com

Instrument is Portland’s largest digital design studio, with more than 350 staff, a Portland office on NW Front Avenue and a second office in New York. It joined Stagwell in 2021 and is led by CEO Laurel Burton. It was a finalist for Design Studio at Campaign US’s 2026 Agency of the Year Awards, and in 2025 it collected more than 37 industry honours, including Webbys and Awwwards.

Its product and brand work includes a redesign of ŌURA’s digital experience and a brand evolution for ServiceNow as the company expanded its AI products. The client list also covers Nike, Google, Netflix, Patagonia and Spotify. Build Week, run with Vanport Studio, gives underrepresented founders 72 hours of brand, packaging and product design help.

2. Ziba

Founder-led · Pearl District · ziba.com

Ziba is a research-led design consultancy in the Pearl District, founded and still led by Sohrab Vossoughi. Its teams combine anthropologists, strategists, engineers and designers, and much of its work starts with consumer insight before any screens are drawn. In 2026 it published a five-part report on Generation Alpha and announced a partnership with Vera Bradley.

Its digital and experience projects include the LEO courier delivery tool for FedEx, the Detroit Connect telematics platform for Daimler and a member experience strategy for AARP. Other clients include Best Buy, REI and adidas. Ziba suits briefs where the product, service and interface need to be designed together.

3. EMERGE

Privately held · West Portland · emergeagency.com

EMERGE has worked on digital products since 1998 and specialises in UX for complex B2B and enterprise platforms. Its services run from digital product strategy through UX and UI design to full-stack development, so the same team can take a product from research to release. CEO Jonathon Hensley leads the firm.

Clients come mainly from technology, healthcare and manufacturing, and the agency has a long record on Clutch’s Leaders Matrix for user experience and app development. It is a sensible shortlist candidate for internal tools, SaaS platforms and workflows with many user roles.

4. Evolve Collaborative

Privately held · Northeast · evolve.agency

Evolve Collaborative is a Northeast Portland design agency founded in 2014. It works on customer, product and brand experiences, with consumer research and UX and UI design at the centre of most projects. The studio describes its method as design through play, and it publishes an annual impact report.

Recent work includes localising global style for Nike, a banking experience for KFCU in Hawaii, the Savvy online learning platform and a luggage system for Monos. It also runs design training for healthcare teams, which suits organisations that want to build their own research skills alongside the project.

5. The Good

Founder-led · Portland · thegood.com

The Good is a Portland consultancy that improves conversion on ecommerce and SaaS products through UX research, behavioural analytics and A/B testing. Founder Jon MacDonald has written three books on optimisation, the most recent being Behind The Click, and the team publishes new research articles most weeks.

Clients include Adobe, The Economist, Autodesk, Nike, Pendleton, Klean Kanteen and MillerKnoll. Its Digital Experience Optimization Program suits teams that already have a product in market and want evidence before redesigning onboarding, pricing pages or checkout.

6. Twenty Ideas

Privately held · Central Eastside · twentyideas.com

Twenty Ideas is an Oregon product studio founded in Eugene in 2014, with a Portland office on SE Madison Street. It covers product strategy, UX and UI design, web and mobile apps, backend engineering and AI products, and it works mostly in healthcare, education, industrial and research settings. Oregon Business named it one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in Oregon in 2024.

Recent projects include design and frontend work that took PHC Global’s biological-risk platform to alpha in a month, and a remote-care platform for PRVNT by Nsight Health. XPRIZE, Scientific American and Daimler Truck are also on the client list. It now offers a service for turning AI-built prototypes into supported products.

7. SLIDEFACTORY

Independent · Southeast · theslidefactory.com

SLIDEFACTORY is a Southeast Portland studio on Belmont Street that has served more than 60 clients since 2018. It designs and builds websites, mobile apps and digital products, and it has a separate practice in immersive technology: AR, VR and real-time 3D.

That mix makes it a practical choice for product launches that need a web presence, an app and a 3D or spatial demo from one team. Past projects include work for Gigaphoton and a range of professional-services and healthcare clients. It also offers AI strategy and integration work.

8. Block 81

Independent · Portland · block81.com

Block 81 is a Portland web studio that designs and builds user-focused websites, mainly on Craft CMS. It works with professional services firms, nonprofits, construction, manufacturing and tech companies, and it keeps sites running after launch through support, maintenance and hosting.

Projects include sites for the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, Pampas Mate and the Charlottesville International Wine Fair, with testimonials from PSU AAUP and the Oregon Employment Department. Its three-phase partnership model, with 90 days of post-launch support, suits organisations that need a site their own staff can maintain.

What to look for in a Portland UX design agency

Start with the kind of product you have. Portland’s studios divide fairly clearly between enterprise and B2B specialists, conversion and research consultancies, and web studios. A complex internal platform, a consumer app and a nonprofit website call for different teams, and most of the firms above are open about which of these they do best.

Ask how research fits into the plan and the budget. The stronger agencies here run interviews, usability tests or analytics reviews before design starts, and they can show how findings changed a past project. If research is only a line item at the start, it tends to be the first thing cut when the schedule slips.

Check who builds what. Some agencies design and engineer in-house, while others hand over Figma files and a design system for your developers. Both approaches work, but the handover point should be agreed early, along with who owns the component library and documentation after launch.

Finally, look at how review works day to day. UX projects produce a lot of material: research recordings, journey maps, prototypes, design files and rounds of stakeholder comments. Agencies that keep this in one place, with clear versions and a record of what was approved, make it easier for your product team to pick up the work once the engagement ends.

How Fabric helps UX design agency teams

Fabric gives a UX team one workspace for research, design files and client feedback, with AI search across all of it. The UI/UX agency setup keeps each client’s briefs, interview recordings, prototypes and decisions together, which helps when several product engagements run at once.

Research sessions can be uploaded and transcribed, so a designer can search every interview by meaning and jump straight to the timestamp where a participant described a problem. Search also covers documents, PDFs, images and connected apps such as Google Drive, Notion and Gmail. The canvas works as a space for journey maps and flows, with Figma files embedded alongside screenshots and notes.

For client review, a folder of screens or a research readout can be published as a web page and protected with a password. Stakeholders leave threaded comments through a shared link without creating an account, and annotations let them highlight and comment on PDFs and documents. Stakeholders can also draw on images and leave timestamped comments on video. There is more on structuring this in Fabric’s guide to design feedback.

On Team plans, self-writing docs can keep a page for each client up to date from meetings, Slack and the workspace, covering decisions, deliverables and open items. That record is useful when a product team takes over a design system at the end of an engagement.

Password protection is included on Pro and Team plans, and self-writing docs on Team plans. See plans for teams.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best UX design agency in Portland?

There is no single best choice, since it depends on the product and the budget. Instrument is the largest and most decorated studio in the city, EMERGE and Twenty Ideas focus on complex B2B and specialist software, and The Good concentrates on research-led conversion work for products already in market.

Which Portland UX agencies work on enterprise and B2B software?

EMERGE specialises in B2B and enterprise platforms, and Twenty Ideas works mostly on healthcare, education and industrial software. Instrument also takes on large enterprise programmes, including its brand and digital work for ServiceNow.

What happened to Uncorked Studios?

Fresh Consulting, based in Seattle, acquired Uncorked Studios in November 2019, and the studio became Fresh’s Portland office. Fresh’s site now lists offices in Seattle, Bangkok, Mexico and Costa Rica only.

How is a UX agency different from a design agency?

A UX agency concentrates on how a product or website works for its users, through research, information architecture, interaction design and testing. A design agency usually covers a wider range, including identity, packaging and print. For broader studios, see our list of design agencies in Portland.

Do Portland UX agencies work with clients outside Oregon?

Yes. Most of the agencies above work with national and international clients. Instrument also has a New York office, and Twenty Ideas has its head office in Eugene, with a Portland studio and an affiliate team in Thailand.

Related lists

UX design agencies in other cities: New York · London · Los Angeles · Chicago · Toronto

More in Portland: Creative agencies · Design agencies · Branding agencies · Marketing agencies · Advertising agencies

Run your studio on Fabric: Fabric for UI/UX agencies · Fabric for designers · Best design feedback tools