Aten Design Group

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the website manager for a community college.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Aten Design?

We needed to rebuild our website from the ground up along with its hosting, CMS, SEO strategy, accessibility compliance, analytics tracking, and design. In order to create a better, more informative website that could help our prospective students, we hired Aten Design.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with a website audit to understand where users were going, how they were interacting with the site, and if there was anything wrong or missing. Aten Design got access to all of the reviews and analytics, and we also provided them with the branding material and media for the design.

The team went on to create new functionalities for our website, one of which could allow us to link directly to any program that we’re promoting in our college catalog. A lot of development time was spent making sure that that was in place. 

Aten Design also created a document resource library within the website that could store and sort files by size. They used Drupal as our CMS and made sure that we were compliant in terms of accessibility. 

What is the team composition?

The number of people that work with us depends on what bucket of the project we’re focusing on. We bring in more people as needed. 

We initially interacted with the salesperson and then got assigned a project manager and around three engineers. As we went, we ended with a rotating stable of 10 people. 

How did you come to work with Aten Design?

We have some strict rules in higher education, so we went out to RFP. We received over 25–30 responses before following through with the interview process. In the end, we awarded that contract to Aten Design because they naturally rose to the top with their impressive work approach and portfolio.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We formally started around June 2020 and we’re still working with the team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We don’t use any traditional KPIs; we’re simply looking into making an improved version of our previous website. From what we’ve seen, the current website has an improved experience over the last in terms of speed, structure, and authoring environment. The overall design of the website is just so much better.

The integration that allows us to connect with the catalog saves us costs as we’re now able to promote the most current degrees and programs. That Aten Design used an open-source CMS is also a big deal since it allows us to develop and iterate more in the future.

How did Aten Design perform from a project management standpoint?

Aten Design is top-notch in terms of project management. They are a terrific, dedicated team that is super responsive and quick to find answers. We meet at least twice a week and their performance merits nothing but great marks on my end.

We use Slack, Jira, and another project management software that we use within the college.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What’s most impressive about them is their ability to collaborate and make sure that we’re getting the exact custom solution that we need. Whenever we have to go back to the drawing board, Aten Design is a good sport about it. They’re very professional and knowledgeable.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There's always something that they can be better at, but so far, nothing stands out.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you truly understand what you want to get at the end of the project. Be very clear at the beginning because it helps everybody when you are firm about what you want. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of the Johnson O’ Connor Research Foundation, a nonprofit organization that does aptitude testing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Aten Design Group?

We needed to replace our old bar graph program, which is where we put all of the results of each person’s aptitude test. The program would generate printouts of the results, as well as a report that provides detailed information.

Additionally, we were also using separate programs for accounting and scheduling, so we needed a platform that would encapsulate all these tasks, including accounting and research.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Aten Design Group provided us with custom software development to build and design a cloud-based program using the Drupal platform. They’re still working on the project, but essentially, we’re looking to move into a maintenance contract with them to manage bugs.

What is the team composition?

We’ve been working with them for two years now, so there have been some staff departures. Currently, we have a project manager, a backend programmer, and a frontend programmer. 

How did you come to work with Aten Design Group?

One of my colleagues recommended Aten Design Group to us, after they’ve heard of them. We were getting bids from a number of different companies, but some of them thought our project was too small, so they declined to submit a bid. The great thing about Aten Design is they focus on working with nonprofits, so that made them very attractive to us.

Furthermore, when we talked to them about what we needed, they already understood the challenges of the project from the outset.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in November 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We work together on developing a product that can mediate better results, and provide a more sophisticated analysis to the client — so they were getting more than just the sum of its parts. Our old program didn’t provide an adequate summation of what our clients were hearing, but we’ve had a few people say that they don’t even need a face-to-face meeting anymore, because this new program is clearer and more efficient.

How did Aten Design Group perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve had two different project managers with two different styles, and we've enjoy working with both. The current project manager is very communicative. We meet once a week, and then she’ll send updates about what we talked about on our calls. The program did take longer to develop than we initially thought, but it wasn’t their fault once they realized how complex the report part of the program was — so they added more time to the project.

Regardless of that, we’ve been happy with how they’ve been handling the project, and they’ve been very clear about any changes that had to be made. 

We mainly use Slack and email to communicate, and JIRA to manage the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed by how they go above and beyond to overachieve our expectations.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t really say anything about it, because despite the project being more complex to develop, it wasn’t their fault. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would say to communicate every step of the way. Weekly meetings really help because they make sure that what you say, is what they will hear.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

History Colorado is partially a nonprofit organization and partially under the State of Colorado, under the Department of Education. Traditionally, if you wanted to describe it, it's like the Historical Society. We have museums and sites across Colorado, as well as a public research center. 

We also have a state preservation fund that grants Colorado communities grants for preserving the properties and history — we're a very large and sophisticated organization. I’m the communications strategy manager and I'm a part of the marketing communications team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Aten Design Group?

Before we started working with Aten, we had a part-time employee on our team that managed our websites. He managed the updates, the modules, and everything that was needed, but he decided to retire. Since we are a nonprofit, we couldn't really afford to have a full-time employee at the time. Our previous employee was close to his retirement, so he just worked part-time. 

Aten came in and really helped us work with our budget to keep our websites going, helped us with the module updates, the security updates, and just make sure the website doesn't crash. From there, as we got more comfortable with our budget, it evolved into improving the user experience on our website. We had a huge wish list that we wanted to work on and later on, we also received a grant that we could use for the website — that's how it evolved and we are continuing to work with them in the future.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their developer works on the module updates and the security updates, which happens monthly. Once a week, we have a meeting with their project manager to go through all of these updates that are going on and through our wish list. One of the things that we changed in our website was really reorganizing the web pages, so people can easily find their tickets to the museum and what they were looking for.

Another thing is that we worked on the user experience. We wanted to include more slides in our homepage heroes, but they advised that we couldn’t do that because of accessibility issues. In that way, they're very much keen on who our audience is, so they can advise us on that stuff.

In addition, we worked on changing the templates on our landing pages. We had many different templates depending on our needs, so we changed those and made it easier for our customers to find the tickets and to sign up for events. People don't spend a lot of time looking for things on our website which frustrates them. We just worked hard on improving the user experience design on our website, and we still have a lot of work to do with that.

What is the team composition?

I directly work with Janice Camacho (Digital Project Manager). I also know they have a developer — I think her name is Jennifer, but I never really worked with her. She's the one that works on the updates on our websites.

How did you come to work with Aten Design Group?

A few years ago, this was before I started, our organization wanted to change the website that we used. Since we are under the State of Colorado, whenever a project is over $25,000, we have to put it out for tender to the public, and the companies have to apply for it. The reason we picked Aten was because they had the best proposal.

They really knew what we needed and wanted, and they actually listened to our needs —  we also really liked the people that work there. It was very easy to communicate with them.

How much have you invested with them?

Our fiscal year just ended end of June. We spent around $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I personally have been on this team for a year and a half. I started working with Aten in September 2020, and the partnership is still ongoing.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the associate creative director at Indivisible Project, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit committed to building progressive political infrastructure across the country. We also fight for progressive legislation and help elect progressive candidates. I oversee our web design and video programs. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Aten Design Group?

Prior to our engagement with Aten, we’d gone through a complete website redesign process in 2018, and we were unhappy with our previous vendor. We hoped that the website redesign would lead to a long-term partnership with them, but the relaunch was rocky, just like the support they provided. When we engaged Aten, we wanted to put out the fires that we were burning with the previous vendor. Specifically, we wanted to redesign our homepage, where we had a lot of problems. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our first project was the homepage redesign task. In the beginning, Aten and our team had a kickoff meeting and a month-long discovery process to get to know each other. They studied the site since the project was a redesign of an existing platform. We also kept our original branding, so they needed to learn about our organization and brand. After the discovery process, they researched how people were using our homepage versus how we wanted them to use it in the future. On top of that, we did a codebase walkthrough with their development team. 

Once that was done, we explored our design options. They proposed ways to implement our branding on the homepage, which led to the creation of wireframes and design direction. At this stage, we figured out the visual hierarchy and navigation patterns of the website. Once the design was approved, they implemented it on Drupal. Their resources handled all configurations and frontend development tasks until we launched the homepage in January 2020. 

Since then, we’ve turned the agreement into an ongoing support contract, which covers all the IT support needs of Indivisible. We’ve redesigned other parts of the website, such as the page that’s focused on a specific segment of our audience. We’ve also redesigned a resource library for that key demographic. On top of that, their team has built a completely separate website for one of our campaigns. Currently, we’re migrating to the latest version of Drupal, which also involves redesigning many parts of the website. 

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact is our project manager, who facilitates our communications. Other developers and staff come in based on the needs of the project. We’ve also interfaced with their director of accounts, VP of design, and other full-stack developers. 

How did you come to work with Aten Design Group?

One of my colleagues went to a Drupal conference where Aten gave a great presentation on website accessibility, which was important to us. They also had a dedicated accessibility expert on staff. Overall, they had a combined internal knowledge of accessibility and Drupal expertise, and we hoped to find those things in our long-term support partner. As a result, we hired them. 

How much have you invested with them?

The first homepage project cost $33,000. Since then, our total investment has been around $200,000, including the work that isn’t completed yet but is on the books. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2019, and the engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The best example of Aten’s work success is the redesign of our resource library. After the redesign of that page, we’ve seen a 92% increase in the number of new users. Our team has also seen a 99% increase in sessions per user on that page. That’s important because we want our end users to keep coming back to that page and move around the website. 

For context, our traffic goes up and down throughout the year depending on where we are in the election cycle. As such, the increase in new users and sessions per user truly shows us the quality of the work that Aten has put into redesigning the page. It also proves that the user research we’ve conducted has been paying off, and we’re seeing great numbers. 

How did Aten Design Group perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is one of Aten’s best strengths. We have a single project manager at any given point in time, and we’re in constant contact with him. We conduct weekly stand-ups to go over our project goals and general support requests. 

In addition to the weekly stand-ups, we also do project management-related tasks through Basecamp. We use Slack for more casual conversations or urgent discussions. Overall, we’ve had a bad experience with our previous provider, so we’re truly happy that we’ve found Aten. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

To be brutally honest about ourselves, we’re not an easy client. We’re an organization that responds to the news cycle, so we have to move quickly. With that in mind, Aten Design is incredibly flexible when we have an urgent need that comes up in the middle of a big project. They can adjust with us when we need to shift and prioritize things based on what’s coming down our pipeline. 

Aten’s communication and project management skills truly factor into this. We’re always on the same page about our priorities and shifting needs, and we can have honest conversations about what’s possible and what’s not. In other words, we’re always clear-eyed on what we need to do and how we can do it. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We haven’t taken advantage of their other services. For context, we’ve recently realized that they also provide email marketing and SEO services. 

These aren’t exactly areas for improvement. Rather, these are things that I wish we’ve taken more advantage of while working with them. We just haven’t had the chance to do it. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Aten is communicative, so don’t be afraid to tell them if you need something. On top of that, they’re amazing at project management, user interviews, and UX design work, but they can’t do these things out of anywhere. As a result, you must provide them the user information they need and facilitate conversations that give them deeper insight into your goals and your user base. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at Nebraska Wesleyan University, a small university here in Lincoln, Nebraska. We have about 2,000 students on campus. In our department, we’re about seven people — we have copywriters, content managers, and so on. I’m a web developer, so I do a lot of programming for the website.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Aten Design Group?

We initially hired another company to take our site to the next level, make it mobile-friendly, and update the Drupal version running for the CMS. We spent a lot of money with them, and they didn’t even come close to finishing. They basically destroyed our website. We dropped them, and Aten Design took over the development of our site.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our site was in Drupal 7. The other company had moved us over to Drupal 8 in their own type of platform, which wasn’t working out because we weren’t using it. The site had a lot of the codebase in there and was about two-thirds done. Aten Design striped out the old modules and helped us with our theme to make it mobile-friendly. They also did an accessibility audit, in which they went through our site and noted down several areas where we could use accessibility improvements. Then, they did custom module work to help with accessibility.

After that, we went live with the site, and we’ve been using the same code base ever since.

What is the team composition?

I primarily worked with James (Web Developer), and it was very helpful to work with one technical person. We didn’t have to re-explain everything; he knew our site inside out, so it was like having another employee for our company. Additionally, we had an account representative.

How did you come to work with Aten Design Group?

I ran into Aten Design at DrupalCon. The previous company had about 60 employees. Aten Design had 20 people or so, which allowed us to work with one developer and not get passed around the company. They were really personable, and they were in Colorado, which is a neighboring state. We liked that we could have a more personalized working relationship due to the size of their company.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $35,000 in total — $27,000 on the website theme and another $8,000 on the accessibility audit.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in July 2016, and we finished the Drupal migration in March 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We analyzed our Google Analytics for our accessibility, but a lot of the feedback was just generalized comments from faculty, staff, and students. Once we went live, we had minimal issues, so we considered it a success.

How did Aten Design Group perform from a project management standpoint?

The previous company spent so much time on account management. I think two-thirds of our budget went there. However, Aten Design seemed much more focused on management. They gave us a deadline for the project and hit it with ease. They connected us with the developer, and we went over the issues with him. He continued and took on the project. Overall, they were very efficient and personalized.

We had meetings twice a week and used Slack and Basecamp to communicate back and forth. We also had phone and Skype meetings to answer questions and discuss what had to be done and what had been done so far.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The fact that they were a small company was probably the number one reason why we chose them. Since we’re not a big university, we don’t have a huge budget. Working with Aten Design allowed us to feel more important. We felt like we were a decent-sized project for them. They got the job done and were very personable.

Also, when we dropped the other company, they had to pick up where they left off and finish the site, so they did a tremendous amount of work. However, the money they charged us was nothing compared to the previous company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Since then, we’ve had several technical projects with Aten Design. We haven’t redesigned our website yet. However, we talk to James about different issues, and we’ve run 2–3 times where he’s not familiar with the software or up to speed with the platform. Therefore, the only thing I’d like to see is more of a knowledge base on their end so they can help us out more.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you have a working plan in place and that everything is nailed down and in writing. You need to give them exactly what they’re looking for so they know what to implement. In that sense, they did pretty well for us, got everything set up, and met our goals.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the innovation director at a large United States research university.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Aten Design Group?

Our organization was trying to build an application management system for student learning opportunities. We originally were working with a vendor that was driving the project into the ground and I saw that we needed to make a change.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We brought Aten onboard after to complete the project. From day one, the head of engineering solved one of our thorniest problems in Drupal.Their lead engineer helped us remove a step in our procedure that the previous vendor couldn't see. They worked on the frontend in JavaScript, as well as implemented a battery of testing, using a Scrum methodology.

The tool is a very complex workflow tool, which is way beyond your average website. We have several different roles that access the system, first of which is a program officer who has an opportunity to create a posting on the website.

Then, they use our tool to generate an application form that they'll use to gather applications to gain a decision. From there, scoring, review, recommendations, and award decisions are made.

What is the team composition?

The most we've worked with them at one time was five people.

How did you come to work with Aten Design Group?

From my experience, I had a stable of Drupal shops I could work with, but we had already worked with Aten. I knew that they were committed to nonprofits and mission-driven organizations, which was a good fit for us. They're also very strong technically.

How much have you invested with them?    

We've invested just under $1million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've worked from July 2016, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

One of the metrics we use is onboarding the units to our platform. Adoption is up 50% year over year. On the student side, we've got around one hundred groups using it. On the faculty side, we've got 50 units using it, which is unheard of for something that's not mandated. The reason why we've done so well is because we've been able to deliver value to stakeholders on a predictable time frame. It's been a good collaboration.

How did Aten Design Group perform from a project management standpoint?

They've been very strong collaborators and it's been pretty seamless. We communicate using BaseCamp, Jira, and Slack. Our product owner is in daily communication with them, and I'm in weekly communication with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're very strong at engineering. They're really good at problem-solving and making suggestions, which is their best asset. Another area I would highlight is interaction design. They also spend a lot of time and care with content strategy.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There's no such thing as a perfect shop, but on the whole, I couldn't ask for more. Since we've grown together, they've already improved on the things I would ask them to.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to do your homework and be ready. Project failure more than half the time comes down to the client. Make sure you have a qualified manager on the client-side, that you know what you're getting into. It's also important to have a sufficient budget.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a public library system that serves over 400,000 residents and roughly 205,000 users across 13 locations. I'm the director of marketing and digital strategy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Aten Design Group?

I came on about four years ago. In my first year, we assessed everything we were doing, and we were attracting a lot of people to rediscover the library. Unfortunately, they were coming to a very dated website. We saw an uptick in new user traffic, but our bounce rate was close to 40% for new users. We wanted to improve our conversions and make a site that was responsive and optimized for mobile users.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We target a very broad demographic, and Aten faced all our usability challenges very well to rebuild our website. The second project they helped with was an open-source event management application called Intercept. Both projects were built in Drupal for the backend, with a de-coupled React frontend.

They built the site entirely from scratch, and nothing of the old site remains. We really wanted to allow for spontaneous discovery on the site, and they worked with us to target our repeat users with similar materials to their previous interests. Our design director worked with their creative group to come up with the palette, usability, and accessibility.

What is the team composition?

Our core project team was about five, including our project manager. They would also pull in additional resources as necessary.

How did you come to work with Aten Design Group?

We put out an RFP, as per our state’s protocol. We hoped to stay within our region, and Aten did such good work with other libraries that they were the natural fit. They really understood what we wanted to do.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost was around $575,000 for both the site and the app.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started on both projects around August 2017, and we fully launched in November 2018. We've signed a new consulting contract with them, and the collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The application works for libraries around the world, and a huge library consortium in Illinois is about to start using it. They came up with great little flourishes and details that we wouldn't have come up with on our own. Our new visitor traffic is up over 41% year over year, and our bounce rates are slowly declining. Mobile traffic has shot up, and we've had roughly 1.5 million visitors over the past ten months. People spend more time on the site, which allows them to discover more.

How did Aten Design Group perform from a project management standpoint?

I deal with a lot of vendors, and Aten Design Group is at the top of my list. They track employee hours well, and they set clear expectations. We have weekly check-ins with their project manager, and they've kept us on budget and on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have some very talented people on their staff, and their project management was stellar. They keep us involved, and they speak to us in layman's terms. They help me understand the roadblocks and tell me what I need to do to resolve them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I haven't any negative comments from my board or my staff, and I'm happy with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work with them. If you're in a nonprofit or cause-driven industry, they work to understand your needs and what you hope to do. They will get on board, and they will support you from day one.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a cultural resource information and geographic information system (GIS) specialist for the Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (OAHP) at History Colorado. History Colorado is a diverse organization that represents Colorado history and prehistory and manages historical museums [Remove: and societies] across the entire state. Our programs include the Centennial Farms and Ranches Program, the National State Register, and the State Historical Fund, which provides grants for preservation projects. One of my duties is to maintain the web content for the preservation division.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Aten Design Group?

We’d built our previous website in Drupal 6 but it became outdated. There was a lot of deprecated code, and Drupal had already released newer versions of their software. As a result, we needed resources to help us develop a new, refreshed Drupal 8 site. We wanted a revamped site that wouldn’t have to be rebuilt every four years.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Although we’d completed a significant portion of the discovery work on our own, we collaborated with Aten Design Group to further our insights. They helped us determine what we needed for our customers, where we needed to go, and how to map out our sprints.

From there, they provided updated designs, and developed the new site. They also created a new home page with improved navigation. Because we’re such a diverse organization, we needed to have a home page that showcased all of our divisions while also providing our various audiences with ways to quickly find the content they needed.

For one of the more colorful sections, they created exhibit pages with information and slideshows to give people a better sense of what was going on at our museums. The pages also highlighted general museum knowledge (e.g., hours, directions, ticket prices, facilities), which helped limit the number of calls we received asking for basic information.

Another project they’re working on is implementing mappable content into our preservation sections, including pages for the Centennial Farms and Ranches, past honorees, and National State Register. With the new mapping functions, users will be able to search content by location and browse in-map information. They’re currently continuing to build out our pages, integrate mapping features, and migrate legacy content.

What is the team composition?

We work directly with about five people, including a project manager. They've also supervised other resources who've supported the projects.

How did you come to work with Aten Design Group?

As an organization within the State of Colorado we prefer to work with a local company. Not only does it better fit our mission and state requirements, we like being able to meet the team in person. We felt that a state-provided option would only produce a cookie-cutter site, which didn't really suit our diverse content. Furthermore, we wanted a company that was familiar with Drupal because it was an open-source platform that spoke to our mission. In the end, we were lucky enough to find several companies, including Aten Design Group, that could tackle our project.

What is the status of this engagement?

Their work began in November 2016, and we launched the site a year later in November 2017. We’re still migrating content and engaging with Aten to improve on existing features an develop on new ones.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They’ve delivered an attractive, well-designed website that appealed to both stakeholders and users. Visitors can now easily get information about our museum and learn about our programs. Moreover, our development team uses the site as a showcase for potential donors to pursue funding for exhibitions and grants.

How did Aten Design Group perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re a good team to work with. Internally, we like how flexible they are, and they’re always willing to communicate. We’ve had some miscommunications at times, but they’ve always been willing to sit down, figure out the problem, and find a way forward. We typically coordinate using several project management tools such as Jira and Slack. If I have a question, they’re quick to respond.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Despite the fact that we’re a small team with limited resources, I appreciate how they’ve been able to step in and expand our team with minimal fuss.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The main problem we’ve had is getting their billing structure aligned with the state payment process. It’s an issue we’ve had with other vendors, too, so it’s not really their fault. While we realize that we can’t just ask a vendor to completely change their system for a single client, they might want to look into streamlining the payment process if they ever work with another government organization down the line.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communicate upfront to make sure that they’re a good fit for your project, and listen to their advice. Furthermore, clearly defined goals are essential to keeping the project under control.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a marketing specialist for a large university on the West Coast. Specifically, I work for the school's summer session, which invites high school, undergraduate, and graduate students from all over the world to take courses during our fourth academic quarter.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Aten Design Group?

We offer this summer session to students of different ages, but each group has its own restrictions. For example, high school students are allowed to attend, but they can't do as much as the university students can because they're minors. We wanted to create a website that would address all of these populations but also give them the individualized details they needed for their own population.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Once we agreed to terms, we entered the discovery phase. We met with their team and discussed our product, our challenges, and what we looked for in our ideal website. We did a few card sorting exercises and a build-your-own-page exercise. We decided to build the site using Drupal 8, and in doing so, we tested each of our user profiles to examine how a high school student would interact with the site versus a parent of a high school student or a graduate student. We asked Aten to work with our school’s own log-in system to provide consistency across platforms.

After discovery, we transitioned to developing the site. We used Jira, Basecamp, and Slack to track the build so we could test the feel and view the designs. Once the site was completed, our staff input all of the content we wanted to be displayed.

What is the team composition?

Our team varied in size depending on the stage of the project. Originally, we worked with a project manager, two UX specialists, frontend and backend developers, and a designer. The owner would be involved at certain points, as well. Later in the project, the design was complete, so we worked only with the developers and project manager.

How did you come to work with Aten Design Group?

Before I entered my current role, I worked with a different department that had previously worked with Aten Design Group and had a successful project.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $190,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began the work in April 2017, and the website launched in November 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We believe the new site reduces confusion for our students. We consider it a success that we have implemented a tuition calculator which easily provides a report of how much the tuition for a certain number of credits costs when combined with the base fees and the add-on programs students can enroll in. Prior to this, fees were listed in multiple places on our site. We are now much more transparent regarding our cost of attendance. Further, confirmed students can access the site and retrieve messages that are customized for their population.

How did Aten Design Group perform from a project management standpoint?

I was well-informed the entire time. If they determined that something wasn’t feasible within the timeline or the budget or at all, I was presented with different options. Our sides communicated well in that respect.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They dedicated the time to understand our project and our users. I know they work with other departments on our campus that have similar programs but different needs, so it could be difficult to keep track of conflicting reports, but they did a wonderful job of focusing on us and making me feel like we were their only client.

Any advice for potential customers?

As with any project, it’s important to understand your audience before requesting quotes. Web projects can quickly become expensive, and if you’re requesting quotes, you need to be clear in your expectations so you can accurately compare them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the program manager for digital content and technology for National League of Cities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Aten Design Group?

We are addressing several challenges regarding our Drupal 8 website. We have a lot of technical issues that prevent backend users from completing day-to-day work. We also have a content restructuring issue to the extent that our content isn’t properly searchable or organized.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our first step was outlining all the issues that we had noticed in the last six months and prioritizing them based on what quick wins we could achieve and what long-term issues needed to be addressed. Aten set a timeline that detailed when each task would be completed. It was a very collaborative effort with their project manager and developer. Once we completed the quick fixes, we scoped out the restructuring phase, which included a review of our sitemap and page layout and addressing our search functionality and organization. Our project is currently in that stage.

What is the team composition?

I work with a project manager, a developer, and occasionally a strategist.

How did you come to work with Aten Design Group?

I needed an agency that was familiar with Drupal 8, a relatively new platform, so I researched the companies that sponsored DrupalCon in the past. Aten Design Group was one of the agencies that responded to our RFP.

How much have you invested with them?

The current project is slated to cost $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in January 2018, and the work is ongoing. They have coordinated some small design changes but nothing significant like page layouts, which will occur in the coming months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’ve had modest progress to this point, but I have full confidence that the bigger changes to our website will be just as successful as what we’ve already experienced.

How did Aten Digital Group perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate through Slack and have weekly calls with the project manager, who has done well keeping us accountable and on track. Their entire team has been collaborative and transparent.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The original development of our site was very challenging, so we have been impressed with the knowledge of their staff to be able to resolve these issues.

Any advice for potential customers?

It would be easy to only look at short-term goals, but it is better to consider the long-term and what is best for the end user.