Hashtag Developer

Design, development and identity for startups

Hashtag Developer presents itself as a full-service studio that builds beautiful design, development and identity for a client's product. Its work is aimed at startups and growing brands that want to reach their customers at every digital touchpoint, and it describes its service as one that helps businesses scale and keep growing. The studio's base is in San Francisco.

Discovery before design

Every digital product project begins with an in-depth discovery phase. The studio's UX designers interview the client's stakeholders, run user research and analyse competitors, then consolidate the material into an action plan for the brand and the user experience. The studio says this stage is what allows it to design a holistic product rather than a set of screens.

Branding and visual systems

The studio treats a brand as a cohesive system that runs across every medium, not just a logo or a visual identity. Its branding work covers the full path from naming and logo design to communications and style guides, so the same decisions show up in each channel the business uses.

UI, UX and web work

UI and UX design is presented as the defining factor for any digital product. The studio builds for usability first, shaping each product around the personality of the brand. Its web designers and developers produce responsive sites that work on any device, and it takes on product landing pages, marketing sites and intranet portals.

Application development and enterprise software

The studio builds native apps for iOS and Android, web applications, apps for wearables and business-to-business software. It also describes a practice of turning legacy enterprise platforms into products that feel like consumer apps, and of designing new business software that people want to use.

Projects in education and security

Classe365 is a student management product for educational institutions, which the studio says brings together student information, learning and customer relationship features for schools around the world. Digital Fire and Security Services is a security business set up in India in collaboration with partners in Canada and Ukraine, where the studio contributed to technology, product design and content management support. A food chain called EQRS is also among the studio's showcased work.

Process from discovery to delivery

The studio says its process starts with discovery, moves through design and development, and keeps the client involved at each stage so that the finished product matches the brief.