Best UX Design Agencies in Shanghai (2026)

Introduction

Shanghai has 10 UX design agencies worth a close look in 2026, spread across European product design consultancies, network digital studios and locally founded firms that build apps, websites and WeChat mini programs. Most of them work in Chinese and English, and much of their output runs on Chinese platforms rather than the app stores and web stacks used elsewhere.

The city is home to several of China’s largest consumer platforms, including Xiaohongshu (RED), Bilibili, Pinduoduo and Trip.com, and to the China operations of most global luxury, beauty and automotive brands. That shapes the UX work here: membership and clienteling tools on WeChat and WeCom, e-commerce built for Tmall and mini programs, and in-car and connected-product interfaces for the EV sector. The roster of international names has also thinned. frog now lists Hong Kong as its only Greater China studio, and Thoughtworks’ China offices are in Beijing, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Wuhan and Xi’an, so neither appears here.

Every firm below has a working studio or office in Shanghai in 2026, checked against its own site. The list is unranked, since the right partner depends on whether the brief is a physical product, a digital service or a China-market build for an overseas brand.

The best UX design agencies in Shanghai

1. Wiredcraft

Independent · Huangpu · wiredcraft.com

Wiredcraft started in Shanghai in 2009 as a small team building its own SaaS tools and consulting for organisations such as the World Bank and the United Nations. It moved into digital products for large brands from late 2014 and now has more than 120 people across Shanghai and Singapore, led by founder Ronan Berder and CEO Vincent Viallet.

Its client list includes Polestar, Starbucks, Lululemon, Dior, Burberry and Harmay, with work spanning UX, UI, WeChat, omnichannel retail and data. Recent projects include a WeChat experience for the Louis Vuitton x Timberland collaboration (2025), work with Edrington for The Macallan (2025) and a WeChat luxury experience for Maybourne aimed at Chinese travellers (October 2026).

2. TEAMS Design Shanghai

Kearney · Hongkou · teamsdesign.com

TEAMS Design was founded in Germany in 1956 and is now part of the consultancy Kearney. Its Shanghai studio opened in 2006 and is run by managing director An Luo, who joined the Esslingen headquarters in 2004, with Wan Kee Lee as executive managing director. The studio covers design strategy and branding for clients in China, Asia and beyond.

Alongside its industrial design work, TEAMS runs dedicated digital and user experience practices, which makes it a good fit for products where hardware and interface have to be designed together. Group clients include Bosch, Siemens Healthineers, Kärcher, Samsung, Philips and Stellantis.

3. Phoenix Design

Independent · Changning · phoenixdesign.com

Phoenix Design is a Stuttgart product design agency founded in 1987, with its second studio in Changning. Its services run from design strategy and user journeys to UI/UX, industrial design, CMF and class A surfacing, and it has been recognised at the UX Design Awards.

Published work includes the Hansgrohe Raindance Alive shower, the Bimos TEXON chair and the Avalegra project, which won an iF gold award.

4. BMW Group Designworks Shanghai

BMW Group · Xuhui · bmwgroupdesignworks.com

Designworks is the BMW Group’s creative design company, with studios in Los Angeles, Munich and Shanghai. It describes its offer as design, digital and strategy work, built around making ideas real and keeping presentations short. The Shanghai studio sits on Longwen Road in Xuhui.

The studio is closely tied to mobility and the car industry, which matters in a city where SAIC, Tesla, NIO and several joint ventures run large design and digital teams. Ask early whether a given project can be taken on alongside BMW Group work.

5. AKQA Shanghai

WPP · Jing’an · akqa.com

AKQA’s Shanghai studio is on the WPP Campus on Hengfeng Road, led by managing director Jon Ip. Its work moves between digital experiences, retail and campaigns for global brands in China.

Its Shanghai projects include Nike “Rise” and “Rise 2.0”, Nike “Unpack Your City”, General Motors “Hello Billy” and L’Oréal Paris “House of Worth”. The studio lists Coca-Cola, Visa and Nike among its founding clients.

6. TMO Group

Independent · Putuo · tmogroup.asia

TMO Group is a digital commerce agency for China and Asia, with teams in Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong. Its UX work centres on mobile-first design, including UX for older users, and it builds on Adobe Commerce, Shopify Plus, headless stacks and WeChat mini programs.

Case studies include Atlas Copco, Allianz, Swisse and Henry Schein. TMO also handles China digital compliance, hosting and managed services, which suits brands that want one team from UX through to running the platform.

7. IT Consultis

Independent · Xuhui · it-consultis.com

IT Consultis was co-founded in Shanghai by brothers Yoan Rigart-Lenisa and Aurelien Rigart and now has more than 60 people from 14 nationalities, with further offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Singapore. Its UX/UI process runs from user research and audits through information architecture, wireframes and user testing to build.

Clients include Havaianas (an e-commerce and loyalty WeChat mini program), Brandy Melville (a localised e-commerce app for China), Banyan Tree (a website for four hotel brands and more than 200 properties) and The Hour Glass (a site across eight Asia-Pacific markets). The firm reports a 2026 Tencent award for hospitality solutions.

8. Digital Creative

Independent · Huangpu · digitalcreative.cn

Digital Creative is a Shanghai UX, AI and app development studio founded in 2014, working from a lab space on Xietu East Road. Its design work covers UI/UX, design systems and automotive HMI, backed by user research and product discovery.

Projects include in-store digital strategy and UX research for IKEA, a WeChat experience platform for Glenfiddich, WeChat e-commerce and membership for Hublot, and a marketing website for Nike. Several newer case studies on its site are not yet published, so ask to see them in a meeting.

9. Ekohe

Independent · Jing’an · ekohe.com

Ekohe has been active since 2007 and has offices in Shanghai, Tokyo, Vancouver, Paris and New York, with the Shanghai team on West Beijing Road. It designs and builds AI, data and automation systems, with design and software engineering in-house and more than 150 systems shipped.

Organisations shown on its site include Harvard Business School, Ford, Budweiser and Canadian Solar. It suits projects where the interface sits on top of AI models, forecasting or internal data tools.

10. ROOM 1707

Independent · Shanghai · room1707.com

ROOM 1707 has been building brands in Shanghai since 2015, with three practices: branding and strategy, digital products (including UX/UI), and social media and channels. It works across the main Chinese platforms, including WeChat, Weibo and Douyin.

Brands on its roster include New Balance, Inditex, Mattel, Bacardi and Citi. It is a smaller studio, which suits launches where identity, product and social need to be designed by one team.

What to look for in a Shanghai UX design agency

Start with where the product will live. A WeChat mini program, a Tmall store, an in-car interface and a medical device each need different skills, and Shanghai agencies tend to specialise. Ask to see shipped work on the same platform as your brief.

Check the research setup. Good UX work in China depends on testing with Chinese users in their own language, often across several tier-one and lower-tier cities. Ask who recruits participants, who moderates and how recordings and personal data are stored. Your own legal team should make the final call on data handling.

Be clear about who builds. Some firms on this list design and develop in-house, while others hand over to a development partner or to your own engineers. Agree on design systems, handover formats and who owns the code before the first sprint.

Finally, look at how research, prototypes and feedback are kept. UX projects produce interview recordings, screen captures, Figma files and long comment threads, often split between a team in Shanghai and stakeholders abroad. A shared place where both sides can find the latest version and leave feedback saves a lot of chasing across WeChat groups and email.

How Fabric helps UX design teams

Fabric gives a UX studio one workspace for research, design files and client feedback, with AI search across all of it. The setup for UI/UX agencies keeps each client’s briefs, research, prototypes and call notes in one place.

Research sessions can be uploaded as audio or video and are transcribed automatically, with clickable timestamps. Search then works by meaning across transcripts, documents, images and PDFs, so a team can find every interview where users mentioned checkout friction. AI meeting notes record stakeholder calls without a bot joining.

Large prototype videos and screen recordings sit in the cloud drive, which streams files on demand and takes no local disk space. For journey maps and flows, Canvas embeds Figma files alongside notes and references on an infinite board.

Client review runs through sharing. Share a file or folder with the client as a commenter (the link works without sign-up), and they can leave timestamped comments on a usability video, draw on a frame or a screenshot and attach a comment to the drawing, or highlight text in a research report. The team marks each comment completed as it is resolved, so the annotations work like a checklist. On Team plans, per-client pages keep decisions, deliverables and open items up to date from meetings and the workspace.

Fabric uses AES-256 encryption, holds CASA Tier 2 certification and does not use customer data to train AI models. Per-client pages are included on Team plans. See plans for teams.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best UX design agency in Shanghai?

It depends on the brief. For WeChat and China-market digital products, Wiredcraft, IT Consultis and Digital Creative publish the most shipped work on this list. For products that combine hardware and interface, TEAMS Design and Phoenix Design bring long industrial design histories, and AKQA Shanghai is the network option for experience work tied to campaigns.

Does frog still have a studio in Shanghai?

frog’s 2026 studio list does not include Shanghai. Its only Greater China studio is in Hong Kong, so Shanghai clients would work with that team or with frog’s other Asia-Pacific studios.

Do Shanghai UX agencies build WeChat mini programs?

Most of the digital studios here do. Wiredcraft, TMO Group, IT Consultis and Digital Creative all show shipped WeChat mini programs or WeChat services for international brands, often combined with e-commerce, membership or clienteling features.

What is the difference between a UX agency and a design agency in Shanghai?

UX agencies focus on digital products and services: research, interaction design, interfaces and the systems behind them. Multidisciplinary studios that also handle identity, packaging and spaces are covered in the best design agencies in Shanghai.

Can international brands work with these agencies in English?

Yes. All ten firms publish their sites in English, and most have multinational teams. For research with Chinese users, ask for bilingual moderators and translated summaries as part of the scope.

Related lists

UX design agencies in other cities: New York · London · Singapore · Hong Kong · Tokyo

More in Shanghai: Creative agencies · Design agencies · Branding agencies · Marketing agencies · Social media agencies

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