UX & product design for early‑stage startups.
A small design studio for B2B and AI teams that have a working product and no designer yet. We help you make product decisions from real user evidence.
- User interviews
- Contextual inquiry
- Usability testing
- Information architecture
- Interaction design
- Prototyping in code
- Accessibility review
- Heuristic evaluation
- Design systems
- Developer handoff
Who we work with
For teams that have a product, but not a designer.
- 01
Your product is live, or close
You have users or a working prototype, and the experience needs to catch up with the product.
- 02
Decisions are made without users
Founders and engineers are designing by instinct, because no one has time to research and test.
- 03
A full-time hire is too early
You want experienced UX work on a scope and budget that fit the stage you are at.
Services
Three ways to work together.
01UX auditFrom $2,500
A focused review of your product’s usability and accessibility, with clear next steps.
- Heuristic evaluation of key flows
- Accessibility review against WCAG
- Findings ranked by severity
- Recommendations your team can act on
About 25 hours
02Product design sprintFrom $6,000
Research, design, and testing for one important flow or feature, from question to handoff.
- User research and task analysis
- User flows and wireframes
- Interactive prototype
- Usability testing with real users
- Handoff specification for developers
About 60 hours
03Monthly design support$3,000 / month
An ongoing design partner for your product team, working on what matters most each month.
- Research, design, and testing on your roadmap
- Prototypes and specs for upcoming features
- Design system resources
- Regular working sessions with your team
30 hours per month
Other work is billed at $100 per hour. Every project starts with a written statement of work, and we collaborate with your team remotely.
Approach
Grounded in human‑computer interaction.
Every project uses the same research-led methods, scaled to its size. The goal is a product people can understand and use, and a design your developers can build from.
- 01
Understand
Interviews, contextual inquiry, and surveys to learn users’ goals, tasks, and problems.
- 02
Structure
User flows, information architecture, and wireframes built on what the research found.
- 03
Prototype
Interactive prototypes, in design tools or front-end code, so ideas can be tried before they are built.
- 04
Test
Usability tests and heuristic reviews that find problems early and rank them by severity.
- 05
Hand off
Specifications for every state and interaction, so developers can build with confidence.
Founder
You work directly with the designer.
Lime Pie Design was founded in 2026 by Ce Liang, who leads every project personally.
Ce has about six years of UX and product design experience. Most recently at Oracle, Ce designed workflows for complex enterprise software in clinical research. Before that, at Global Payments, Ce worked on a payments portal for merchants. Ce also builds working prototypes in code, so ideas meet real constraints early.
- Education
- M.S. in Human-Computer Interaction and Design, Indiana University Bloomington
- Experience
- Oracle, Global Payments, Tencent, NetEase
- Founded
- 2026, Austin, Texas
Selected work
Work by Ce, at Oracle.
Rule AgentHow study designers check AI-written clinical trial rules without reading code.
2026
Clinical One redesignSplitting one crowded screen so each page shows, and loads, only what its job needs.
2026
Focused visit formsMaking each step of a clinical trial visit ask only for the data it needs.
2025
FAQ
Questions teams ask first.
How much does a project cost?
A UX audit starts at $2,500 and a product design sprint at $6,000. Monthly design support is $3,000 per month for 30 hours. Other work is billed at $100 per hour. The price is fixed in a written statement of work before any work starts.
How long does it take?
An audit is about 25 hours of work and is planned to finish within about two weeks. A design sprint is about 60 hours, planned over four to eight weeks depending on how much research and testing it needs. The timeline is agreed in the statement of work.
Is this a fit for an early-stage team?
It is built for one. We work best with B2B software and AI teams of about 5 to 50 people that have a live product or a working prototype and no dedicated designer.
What if we don’t have many users yet?
We can test with people who match your target users, or with prospects from your pipeline. A UX audit is also a good start, because it does not need research participants.
Who does the work?
Ce Liang, the founder. You talk to the person doing the research and design, from the first call to the handoff.
How do we work together?
Remotely, in regular working sessions with your team. Designs and prototypes are shared as we go, and the project ends with a handoff your developers can build from. We invoice you directly.