Cieden

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a manager at a SaaS company focused on helping students prepare for medical school admission tests.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Cieden?

We were using a Moodle-based platform, but it was too costly and inefficient to maintain, so we decided to create one from scratch and needed help to develop it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Cieden provided custom software development for us, where they created the platform from scratch, including UI/UX design using Figma. We started the process by meeting with Cieden’s team to discuss our requirements and go through a discovery process where they interviewed our existing users to see what we could improve compared to our previous platform. 

After that, the team created the software’s wireframes and our logo and recreated existing functionalities, like a question bank and our online video-learning sections. Moreover, they enhanced our log-in, bookmarks, live events, and community forum features, focusing on making it desktop- and mobile-friendly.

What was the team composition? 

We mainly worked with Andrew (UI/UX Designer) from Cieden’s team, but we also engaged with Anastasiya (Associate Product Director) and another project manager.

How did you come to work with Cieden?

I found Cieden via Upwork and chose them among other potential providers because they were communicative, had great English speaking skills, and understood what we needed because they had done education platforms in the past.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $100,000 with Cieden for this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from July 2021–December 2022 for this project, but we could also reach out to them for ad hoc design work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Cieden's work helped us increase user engagement, and we also received good results in a student survey and positive anecdotal feedback on the platform's usability. In addition, we didn't notice any bugs within the system.

How did Cieden perform from a project management standpoint?

Cieden's project management was excellent in terms of meeting deadlines and working within our budget. Regarding tools and communication, we used Slack and Figma throughout the engagement.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review? 

Anastasiya was fantastic; she was communicative and proactive with discovery for us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Cieden's excellent communication and overall project management were impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I didn't think they could improve anything because I was happy with their work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I suggest doing a discovery phase with initial user interviews to get a sense of what you need before starting.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO of RivaEngine.com

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We provide a revenue data solution that unifies, governs, and distributes customer information between your revenue stack and communication stack to form a trusted view of an organization's relationships with clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Cieden to accomplish?

• Create a design system for new cloud based web application.
• Create numerous clickable prototypes to solicit feedback from end-users and stakeholders.
• Provide product feedback to our product team to create seamless user journeys.

SOLUTION

How did you find Cieden?

Referral

Why did you select Cieden over others?

• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

What was the size of Cieden’s team?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Worked directly with our product managers to create new user journeys from sign-up to numerous in-app subject matter-specific user actions. The process included numerous rounds of stakeholder feedback and clickable prototypes used for external end-user validation. The project continues as we add more depth to the application. The design and feedback continue to evolve, with the engineering team following closely behind the new UI features being designed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• The key deliverables were numerous visually styled user experience flows, that were first used to solicit stakeholder feedback and approvals; once these were approved these user journeys were converted to clickable prototypes that were then used for user testing and buyer persona feedback. Each milestone had specific outcomes intended, reviews and approvals from stakeholders as well as deliverable designs/prototypes.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The team is very keen to hear feedback. After a rush of critical milestones being met, we transition to a more formal agile project management flow with bi-weekly stakeholder demo/feedback sessions and asynchronous feedback via messaging/chat/in-app commenting.

What was your primary form of communication with Cieden?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The teams bring an outstanding balance of skillsets, from project management and ideation feedback to requirements definition and deep knowledge of user expectations. They can think on their feet and provide valuable feedback to our product team. They've done more than translate our product ideas into a product design. They've created excitement within the engineering team, as the team is always eager to get new designs.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Cieden could have done differently?

Nothing at this time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and managing director of a software development company. We develop software for the contact center industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cieden?

We had a web suite of complex products that did everything from recording to screen capture, QA, team experience, and analytics. We were looking for UI/UX designers to help us design the next generation of our interface.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We engaged with Cieden for UI/UX design. We initially had some ideas on what the web UI should look like. We provided a mock-up and gave them access to our 12-year-old UI and some design concepts for the new UI. Then, we asked them to use that insight to develop new ideas for the interface. Cieden’s team went away and came back with the scope of work, quotes, and methodology to deliver the UI design.

Cieden made many design suggestions. One of our criteria was that users of the old system should be able to use the new system intuitively. The team took that on board, but they went through every design element of the old interface, mapped it to the new interface, and made enhancements. They got us on the phone and walked us through the concepts, what they thought might be a good idea, or the design philosophy behind it. In most cases, we went back to challenge them, and Cieden went away and came up with an updated concept that worked better.

They used Figma as a framework and designed all the assets we’d use with the web developers. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with two teammates on the project. We had a dedicated designer and senior lead running the project and reporting back to us.

How did you come to work with Cieden?

I exclusively get all of our contractors from an online marketplace. I had a strong brief, so we put a requirement out. We got about 20–30 candidates in the first two days, and Cieden was one of them. Afterward, we shortlisted about five candidates and their work examples. We had some initial questions based on their examples and then went into interviews. Finally, we reviewed 2–3 organizations and chose Cieden based on our selection criteria.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2022, and they delivered in 3–4 months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They were thorough with their review of the old interface. Moreover, their definition of our requirements was impressive, and their execution was perfect. Cieden delivered on time and within budget; they absolutely killed it. However, the proof of the pudding was that our partners were delighted with the design. Even more telling was the success we had with customer feedback. Customers loved the interface; it was a gorgeous-looking product.

How did Cieden perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was perfect. They were spot on with the budget and product delivery predictions. Organizations are often open-ended with the budget, but Cieden was excellent at tracking the budget. Communication was also excellent; there wasn’t a time when I couldn’t get a hold of them. We can’t praise their professionalism enough.

We had weekly meetings with the team over Zoom and used an agile delivery framework. We predominantly used Slack, Trello, and Zoom for project management. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Cieden’s team had excellent skills and was highly dedicated. They knew what they were doing and had a passion for their job, which showed in their work quality. I rarely give this level of accolade to a company, but Cieden impressed me.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I didn’t see any negatives. Any human or organization could do slightly better, but nothing sticks in my mind. Cieden met the budget, excelled in the brief, and delivered on time. As customers, we were delighted.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Our experience with Cieden on UI/UX design was superb; I can vouch for them. My advice for others is to let Cieden control the creative process. We gave them some design concepts but let them run with the creative process because they were the experts in that domain. Let them do the job you employed them to do; they’re good assets, but good assets require a creative license.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CPO of Lykon

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Lykon is a digital health start up making people healthier and happier through personalised nutrition based on the user's biology data (from blood and DNA tests).

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Cieden to accomplish?

• Improve mobile app UX
• Collect insights from customer research
• Integrate an agile team as UX designer

SOLUTION

How did you find Cieden?

Online Search, Clutch Site

Why did you select Cieden over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

What was the size of Cieden’s team?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We integrated a Product Designer of Cieden into our mobile app team with the purpose of upgrading our UX/UI set-up and become an integral part of the team. In this capacity, Cieden helped us in Customer Research rounds, implementing rapid prototypes for testing purposes, conceptualised new product areas and features and contributed to on-going delivery as a team member.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Engagement metrics
• Retention metrics
• Usability index

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

They've always been professional and timely in their responses. The Cieden team members also used their own network to add value and collect feedback and other perspectives, which greatly extended the insights generated by them.

What was your primary form of communication with Cieden?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Professional approach, very cordial and easy to work with, with an excellent portfolio to showcase for in similar or relevant projects.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Cieden could have done differently?

Not really, nothing to add, everything was fairly streamlined.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

CTO of a technology company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Cieden, and what were your goals?

We needed to design an easy-to-use user interface for our emergency messaging system.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We found them through their high rating on a contractor search website, and we selected them because their portfolio of past projects was impressive, and their design sensibilities was similar to our own.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

They first did a robust discovery process, through which they ultimately understood our new product even better than we did, and found some gaps in our thinking. They were able to close those gaps and create a well-designed structure for our application. Then they began a wireframing process and met with us frequently to ensure that everything was on track. After confirming wireframes, they began the final designs. When we began development, they were very responsive in answering questions, and making modifications to the design when necessary to fit technological needs as we encountered them.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked with a project manager and a UX expert.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We were able to save time and money through developing the entire application "on paper" before committing any code.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

They are very adaptable and worked with our existing flow, including our Slack. They deliver their designs in Figma.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They are very genuine and personable, so they are a real pleasure to work with. But their design expertise is outstanding, and their willingness to dive deep into the details is refreshing.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

We have no complaints

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO of TimberBase - the startup where we build global timber trading platform

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Cieden?

We needed to rethink the whole platform and redesign the user flow with simplicity in mind. Since our users are not tech-savvy, the main goal was to design an easy-to-use and intuitive user flow. On the other hand, we needed a catchy style to stand out with our brand in our market.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

After interviewing several freelancers and agencies, we were impressed with the structured and well-rounded approach shown by Cieden. Making a hire was a no brainer.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

In order to design a timber trading platform Cieden walked us through a user-flow session, where we defined our users, and their goals on the platform and sketched possible solutions.

I personally enjoy working in an iterative way and that worked pretty well with Cieden. Step by step we design, approved, and implemented the first pages of the platform, built a style guide, and eventually covered all aspects we had in mind. Just to be clear, it's a neverending process of constant improvement and we still work on daily tasks with Cieden.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked with Design Director and two UX/UI Designers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

UI-UX work isn't the easiest one to measure, but I can name at least 10 pages of the platform that we simplified from 5 steps to 2 or from 10 fields form to 3 fields form while keeping the same user value. On top of that, the elaborate style guild built by Cieden enabled us to simply follow their best practices and design simple pages ourselves.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Cieden specialists were nice enough to use the tools we use for internal work - Slack, Notion, Figma, etc. This made our collaboration smooth as silk.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Clearly UI/UX skills of Cieden guys were quite decent, that's why we chose to work with them. But on top of that, I'm impressed with how they adjust to our workflows and schedule. At some point, when we had an urgent and at the same time very complex task - I think 4 people from Cieden worked for us that week. And the result was pretty impressive - it wouldn't be possible to achieve the same with a single in-house UI-UX specialist.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Spent time reports we received weekly were kind of too detailed. I understand why, it's generated automatically. As a customer, I'd prefer a more aggregated report, but I realize that this is extra work so I'm actually fine with how it works today.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of a pre-launch startup called Combat Sales, a sales boot camp that utilizes the door-to-door space in the US to train the top salesman in the world.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cieden?

We needed a professional company to design our sales training platform, which would train our candidates.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Cieden designed everything from scratch. The team began by creating our site’s wireframes before implementing our platform's UI/UX design. In the end, they created over 300 pages on Figma.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Cieden’s designer and product manager. The designer used UI/UX principles to help create the pages. On the other hand, the product manager helped me work through all of the project’s issues and served as the liaison between me and the designer.

How did you come to work with Cieden?

I found their team online, and they had an incredible amount of awards and prestige. When I looked at their website, I was really impressed with their site’s design and flow. It was a no-brainer to partner with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $35,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November 2021–February 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They provided a dedicated team that helped me work through all of my ideas which allowed me to bring my vision to life. In addition, they were able to customize everything from start to finish. Above all, they created fairly extensive documentation on Figma on how our website works.

How did Cieden perform from a project management standpoint?

Cieden had an incredible project management process. We communicated using Slack and Gmail. We also used Google Docs, Google Sheets, and more.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their attention to detail was impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Do your best to create your idea on Canva or other sites and bring that to Cieden. Providing visual references of your vision will help explain your ideas and help the team properly take over the project. In our case, we provided them with simple mock-ups.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of a data software company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cieden?

I hired Cieden to design my platform’s UX/UI.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I had an initial call with Cieden’s co-founder to discuss the project, and then she connected me to the project manager. I worked with them to outline the project requirements, and they brought in a designer to elaborate on them. I’d defined the user personas before the engagement, so I supplied that information to the designer. Once the designer had all the information, they developed the UX/UI in Figma and Nero. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with the designer and a project manager. 

How did you come to work with Cieden?

I found Cieden on Upwork.  

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve invested $15,000–$20,000 with Cieden. 

What is the status of this engagement?

My engagement with Cieden began in September 2021, and it’s ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Cieden did such a fantastic job on the deliverables that I’ve decided to hire them for another project.  

How did Cieden perform from a project management standpoint?

Cieden had great project management. I had calls 1–3 times a week with the designer and project manager throughout the project. Typically, we communicated via Zoom, emails, and a variety of messaging services. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with Cieden’s professionalism and organization. They came to the table with ideas and processes for running everything, which was terrific. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think Cieden has anything to improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Cieden can handle a variety of work, so customers shouldn’t be afraid to give them more work and requirements. Their team can synthesize and distill provided information to develop comprehensive solutions. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of product at a consumer healthcare platform. With us, patients receive support for resources and get the care they need for medical procedures. I work on our product-building strategies. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cieden?

We needed a product designer, and we hired Cieden for our UI/UX design needs.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, we had a call with Cieden to discuss our business needs. They also did a trial project for us, and we gave them all of our requirements and budget. 

From there, we’ve had ongoing projects with them. I usually outline the scope of the project and our ideas, and then they produce high-fidelity designs. The team also tests, validates, and edits such designs — they handle the entire design cycle. They’ve also created prototypes for us, and they provide designs based on their experience in research with industry-standard practices. 

The Cieden team has also conducted user interviews for us as part of the user testing phase. They collect feedback from users and write the tests by themselves.

What is the team composition?

I work with two people from their team, namely their director of design and their designer. 

How did you come to work with Cieden?

Cieden reached out to me on LinkedIn, and then we scheduled a call with them. Our engagement started there.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $22,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in August 2021, and the engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t have specific metrics right now because we’ve only recently launched the platform.  However, based on our user interviews, testing results, and feedback from end users, the overall UI/UX design has been easy to use and looks welcoming and comforting. In that regard, Cieden’s work has contributed to our overall trustworthiness and the comfort that end users are feeling. 

How did Cieden perform from a project management standpoint?

Cieden’s project management is likely the best experience I’ve ever had in terms of working with an agency. They’re easy to communicate with, and they’re quick to respond. The team consistently delivers either on time or early. We communicate with them via Slack, Figma, and emails, and our teams meet once a week to go over our projects. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication and project management is impressive. Whether I share specific or vague information, Cieden is able to ask questions I need to answer and deliver the projects on time. Their work is also exceptional, but what makes the engagement so helpful to us is the easy communication channel. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. I’m happy with Cieden at every level. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be specific; know what you want. Prepare for more work than you expect because the Cieden team can work at high-level tasks — they’re high-functioning. In fact, they can do two times more work than I expect.

For context, I didn’t initially know how quickly they could work, so I was the one holding them up. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the director of a Software Development company in Perth, Western Australia.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Cieden?

To build a great user interface for a new startup software project, developed for a large and well established transport company.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We selected them based off of research and online reviews, along with how well their team communicated to us during the selection process. They had a wide range of skills which appealed to the end client, along with an excellent portfolio of existing projects. Not being based in a native English speaking country, their communication was exceptional, both verbal and written.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The project was already technically scoped and development had commenced. The technical documentation was provided to them, along with a design brief. They spent a good amount of time to understand the product and the brief, before providing a final estimate of cost and time. Our timeline for the first deliverable was was tight, so they delivered on it very quickly, and the quality of the work was exceptional. We implemented their designs in the first product, and came back to them a few months later for the next design which was for the same product but a different app, and then again a month later for the web version of the design. They took their time to understand the product, the end users and improved the UX of the product to a point beyond our expectations.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Three different resources. Their co-funder, a lead designer and an assistant designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

A happy client, and very positive initial feedback from the users themselves. There has never been a complaint about the usability from the 500 or so users. The product is in the early days, and we expect success to be visible and measured in about 18 months.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective. They are prompt, concise, and on time.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

How much time they put into understanding the product and its end users, before completing the designs.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Honestly, not a single complaint.