Waleed Ahmad
Founder & CEO
Founder leading strategy, client partnerships, and delivery quality across web, app, and brand engagements worldwide.
waleed@thedesigntime.comAbout
About thedesigntime
Founded in 2019, thedesigntime is a web and app development agency headquartered in Dubai, with senior team members in London and New York. We design and build custom websites, mobile apps, and brands for founders and companies worldwide — remotely over Teams, Zoom, and Slack.
Our mission
Build digital products that actually move the business.
Too many agencies ship themes, hand the project to juniors after the pitch, and disappear when SEO, performance, or maintenance starts to matter. We exist to do the opposite: senior-led delivery, fixed-fee clarity, and websites and apps that are fast, crawlable, and ready to grow.
From Dubai, London, and New York we work with clients across the United States, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Australia, Canada, Saudi Arabia. Whether you need a custom marketing site, a Shopify store, a WordPress CMS, a mobile app, or a full brand system — one team owns discovery through launch.
- Custom web & full-stack development
- iOS, Android & cross-platform apps
- Branding, packaging & Amazon listing design
- SEO-ready builds and site performance
Our values
What we protect on every project
- Innovation
We stay ahead of modern stacks — Core Web Vitals, SEO-ready SSR, and product patterns that age well past launch.
- Quality
Every release passes accessibility, performance, browser, and SEO checks before it reaches your customers.
- Empowering
You own the code, design files, and infrastructure on final payment. No lock-in, no mystery handoffs.
- Quick support
Written replies within one business day. Care plans and growth retainers available after launch.
How we work
Small team, senior work, no handoffs.
We take on a limited number of engagements each quarter so every project stays under senior hands from brief to launch — the same model that built our reputation with founders and marketing teams worldwide.
One team, end to end
The people who scope your project are the ones who design and ship it. No account handoffs, no offshore surprise midway through the build.
Fixed-fee per phase
We quote fixed prices for defined work and don't bill hourly. Hourly billing punishes speed and rewards scope drift — fixed fees keep incentives aligned.
Ship weekly, not quarterly
Every project deploys to a staging URL from week one. You review real pages in the browser, leave feedback early, and reduce late-stage rework.
Your vision, our expertise.
Clients hire thedesigntime when they need a web and app development agency that can hold design, engineering, and SEO in one conversation — without a bloated process.
Expertise
Senior developers and designers with years of shipped work across custom websites, mobile apps, Shopify, WordPress, and brand systems — not junior handoffs after the pitch.
Dedicated team
A named team stays with your project from discovery to launch. The people who scope the work are the people who design and build it.
Timely delivery
Milestones you can plan around. Weekly staging deploys so you see progress in the browser — not in a slide deck at quarter end.
Our development process
A clear six-step path from first conversation to launch and support — so you always know what happens next, what you're paying for, and when you'll see it live.
- Step 01
Planning phase
We audit goals, audience, competitors, and technical constraints. You leave with a clear scope, sitemap, success metrics, and a fixed-fee quote — before development starts.
- Step 02
Strategy & positioning
Messaging, information architecture, and conversion paths. For growth engagements we also map SEO targets, content priorities, and channel focus so the build supports acquisition — not just aesthetics.
- Step 03
Design & development
Component-level design in Figma, then production code on modern frameworks. Custom websites, full-stack apps, Shopify stores, WordPress, and React Native apps — built for speed, SEO, and maintainability.
- Step 04
Testing & quality assurance
Cross-browser checks, mobile responsiveness, accessibility, form flows, analytics, Core Web Vitals, and content review. Bugs get fixed before launch — not after your customers find them.
- Step 05
Launch & deployment
DNS, SSL, redirects, sitemap, Search Console, analytics, and a calm go-live plan. We stay on call through launch so nothing is left hanging.
- Step 06
Ongoing support
Optional care plans for updates and security, plus business-growth retainers for content and social. Your product keeps improving after day one.
Who you'll actually work with
Small senior team. Direct access. No layers of account managers between you and the people shipping the work.
Sophia
Senior App Developer
Senior app developer focused on iOS, Android, and cross-platform product work — from UX polish to App Store launch.
project@thedesigntime.comYusuf M.
Lead Web Developer
Lead web developer shipping SEO-first marketing sites, full-stack platforms, and high-performance front ends.
project@thedesigntime.comElena K.
Head of Brand & Design
Brand and design lead shaping identity systems, packaging, and UI that stay coherent from logo to live product.
project@thedesigntime.comAisha N.
Project Manager
Project manager keeping milestones clear, stakeholders aligned, and delivery on schedule from kickoff to launch.
project@thedesigntime.comOmar H.
Full Stack Developer
Full stack developer building APIs, dashboards, and product features with clean architecture and reliable deploys.
project@thedesigntime.comTech stack
The frameworks and platforms we build with.
Honest list of what we reach for on most client projects — the same stack that powers fast, SEO-friendly sites and production apps for founders worldwide.
Framework
TanStack Start
SSR React framework we default to for new marketing and product sites.
Framework
Next.js
For clients with existing Next.js codebases or Vercel-first infrastructure.
Framework
Astro
Content-heavy sites where zero-JS output matters most.
Styling
Tailwind CSS
Design tokens in code, no CSS-in-JS runtime cost.
Design
Figma
Every project lives in one shared Figma file, component-first.
Backend
Supabase
Postgres, auth and storage with row-level security.
Infrastructure
Cloudflare
Workers, R2, DNS, image resizing. Edge by default.
CMS
Sanity
Structured content for editorial and marketing teams.
E-commerce
Shopify Hydrogen
For stores that outgrow themes.
Payments
Stripe
Checkout, Connect, subscriptions.
Mobile
React Native (Expo)
One codebase, iOS and Android, OTA updates.
Observability
Sentry
Errors and performance in production — always on.
Start a project
Ready to work together?
Tell us about your website, app, Shopify store, WordPress site, or brand project. We reply within one business day with questions if needed, then a clear scope, fixed-fee quote, and realistic timeline.