Now Boarding

Digital Product Design Studio
Innovation City, Darter Studios, Longkloof, 7 Darter Rd, Gardens, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa
https://www.nowboarding.io

Now Boarding Overview

Year Founded
2010
Employees
Under 49
Minimal Budget
$1,000 - $10,000
Average Hourly Rate
Inquire

Now Boarding is an award-winning, boutique UX/UI and product design studio based in Cape Town, South Africa, with over 16 years of experience designing complex, often regulated digital products. We work with clients across the UK, Ireland, Europe, the US, Australia, and the UAE, offering senior-level design leadership without the overhead of a large international agency.

Our work spans native mobile apps, SaaS platforms, marketplaces and enterprise web applications, with particular depth in fintech, insurance, health-tech, prop-tech and green-tech. We've designed a crypto wallet for SwissBorg, streamlined merchant onboarding for SnapScan (a 47% increase in converted leads, with no human intervention), built an insurance marketplace for Everything.Insure, and created a guided solar wizard and usage dashboard for Stage Zero. In healthtech, we took AI Diagnostics' TB-screening device from prototype to a market-ready brand, app and packaging, and rebuilt Lula and HURU's brands to feel human rather than corporate.

We run a senior-led, agile-aligned process: discovery and product strategy, iterative design and usability testing, then engineering-ready handoff with atomic Figma component libraries and documented interaction states, reducing rework and speeding up build cycles.

Directors stay hands-on throughout every project, backed by strong technical literacy and a genuine belief that great digital products are the clearest expression of a brand.

Now Boarding Portfolio

Now Boarding - Making VAT compliance sexy
Product Design
Making VAT compliance sexy
Fintech
Now Boarding - Giving people total control of their insurance
Product Design
Giving people total control of their insurance
Insurance
Now Boarding - Revolutionising rentals with AI
Product Design
Revolutionising rentals with AI
Real Estate
Now Boarding - Improving the accuracy of TB screening
Product Design
Improving the accuracy of TB screening
Health Care
Now Boarding - Empowering SMEs with mobile payments
Product Design
Empowering SMEs with mobile payments
Fintech
Now Boarding - Making alternative power accessible
Product Design
Making alternative power accessible
Energy & Mining
Now Boarding - Giving kids a push with surf therapy
Web Design
Giving kids a push with surf therapy
Nonprofit
Now Boarding - Building the digital Shark Tank
Web Design
Building the digital Shark Tank
Sports
Now Boarding - Making essential digital services accessible
Web Design
Making essential digital services accessible
Professional Services

Industries

  • Automotive
  • Crypto
  • Education
  • Energy & Mining
  • Finance
  • Health Care
  • Hospitality
  • Insurance
  • Fintech
  • Real Estate

Client Types

  • Startups
  • Small Businesses
  • Medium Businesses
  • Enterprise / Corporate
Branding Expertise
Branding Expertise
  • Brand Design
  • Brand Messaging
  • Brand Positioning
  • Brand Strategy
CMS Platforms
CMS Platforms
  • WordPress
Custom Frameworks
Custom Frameworks
  • Property Management Web Development
Digital Marketing Expertise
Digital Marketing Expertise
  • App Marketing
  • B2B
  • B2C
  • Copywriting
Graphic Design Expertise
Graphic Design Expertise
  • Illustration
  • Logo Animation
  • Visual Communication
Low Code Development Expertise
Low Code Development Expertise
  • Webflow
Mobile App Expertise
Mobile App Expertise
  • App Development Consultants
  • B2B Apps
  • B2C Apps
  • Cross-Platform
  • Telemedicine App Development
UI/UX Expertise
UI/UX Expertise
  • AI UI/UX Design
  • Dashboard Design
  • Interactive Design
  • UX Audit
  • UX Research
  • UX Strategy
  • Usability Testing
  • User Research
Web Design Expertise
Web Design Expertise
  • B2B
  • Landing Page Design
  • Mobile First
  • Responsive
  • Web App
  • Website Redesign
  • eCommerce
eCommerce Expertise
eCommerce Expertise
  • Shopify
  • Shopify Plus eCommerce

Now Boarding Clients

SnapScan
Averly
SwissBorg
Everything.Insure
Shyft
PrivateProperty
BetterBond
Sharks Rugby
Lula
Waves for Change

Now Boarding Team Bios

Partner & Managing Director
Leigh Stefanski
Partner & Managing Director

Leigh leads Now Boarding's day-to-day operations while also driving sales, business development and client relationships across the studio's client base. With a hands-on approach to leadership, Leigh ensures every project is resourced, sold in and delivered to the studio's senior standard.

Founder & UX Director
Jacques Oberholzer
Founder & UX Director

As one of Now Boarding's founders, Jacques shapes the studio's approach to UX across every project, with a particular focus on complex, regulated products where clarity and trust matter most. He leads the discovery and product strategy work that sits at the start of every engagement.

Founder & Creative Director
Michel Brink
Founder & Creative Director

Michel co-founded Now Boarding and leads its creative direction, translating brand values into interaction patterns and visual identity across the studio's work. His approach treats digital products as the clearest expression of a brand, not just a functional interface.

Lead Project Manager
Katherine Berold
Lead Project Manager

Katherine leads project delivery on the operations team, keeping complex, multi-stakeholder projects moving through Now Boarding's discovery, design and handoff process. She works closely with clients to ensure nothing gets lost between strategy and execution.

Digital Project Manager
Brannon Wood
Digital Project Manager

Brannon manages project delivery on the operations team, keeping complex projects moving from first scope through to final delivery. Backed by technical expertise, he also supports the wider operational side of the studio, bridging the gap between process and execution.

Operations Manager
Melissa Pieterse
Operations Manager

Melissa keeps Now Boarding's operations running behind the scenes, supporting the team so projects move at pace without losing the attention to detail the studio is built on. Her focus keeps delivery consistent across every project in flight.

UX Strategist
Amy Meyer-Franz
UX Strategist

Amy shapes the studio's copywriting, UX copy and user testing, with a strategic eye that ties messaging directly to user behaviour. Her work spans everything from UX strategy to the words that make an interface actually make sense to the person using it.

Principal UX/UI Designer
Saskia Brink
Principal UX/UI Designer

Saskia brings deep design talent to every project, with a level of Figma mastery that shapes how the wider team builds and maintains its component libraries. Her expertise sets the bar for craft across the studio's work.

UX/UI Designer
Lance Dick
UX/UI Designer

Lance combines a strong technical grounding with a knack for unpacking dense dashboards and mobile app interfaces, turning complex data into something genuinely usable. His work sits at the sharper, more technical end of the studio's UX practice.

UX/UI Designer
Kayla Archer
UX/UI Designer

Kayla brings a creative, illustrative eye to her work, with particular strength in onboarding flows and web apps that need to feel welcoming from the first interaction. Her design sensibility adds real warmth to functional, everyday user journeys.

UX/UI Designer
Bianca Costa
UX/UI Designer

Bianca brings a sharp creative instinct to projects where first impressions and conversion both matter. Her work also expands into broader product design, bringing an eye for detail to more complex digital platforms.

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