hipinspire

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and Principal of the digital creative agency Urban Emu. We create digital brand user experiences through innovation and design thinking for both web and mobile users.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire hipinspire?

We needed additional creative support for a client project that required brand development and website programming.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to accommodate the clients needs and requests by presenting high value design results and programming deliverables on time and within budget.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Our team researched designers with skills in brand design and front-end development. After a lengthy evaluation period, we were referred to HipInspire by a creative colleague and the rest is history.

Describe the project in detail.

Our client project included a need for brand development and design, identity design for both digital and print outcomes. The project also included a new website that included a variety of complicated functionality and strategic user experience design.

What was the team composition?

Our team worked with HipInspire in a contractor capacity. Working with HipInspire was easy and efficient. Our project managers and designers worked hand in hand with HipInspire on a daily bases in order to meet the clients deadlines and expectations.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was a huge success. User experience testing was performed after the site was launched and the overall user feedback showcased a positive reflection on the materials created.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow with HipInspire was extremely effective and efficient. There was never a problem with working hours, scheduling calls, or meeting expected deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The quality of work and speed of delivery.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None at this time.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company is Banzai, a SaaS company. I am the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire hipinspire?

A redesign and development of our website in WordPress.

What were your goals for this project?

Rebuild the website, including custom graphics and new pages to handle all of our various types of content and corporate materials.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We spoke to multiple vendors and selected Marko based on the quality of his portfolio, graphics, and cost.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Marko provided full design, development, and graphic design of our website.

What was the team composition?

Marko worked with our head of marketing and an in-house designer on our team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

This has allowed us to grow the content on our website and showcase it in the best way possible. We've expanded our content footprint and presented our business in a much more professional manner.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Marko worked with our head of marketing to manage the project. We took daily check-ins over email. This was effective. Marko is a good independent worker.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Marko does great design work and he's a great graphic designer. He is easy to work with, and he was very flexible in accommodating change requests.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Marko was unable to implement our website on top of an existing theme, which makes it harder for our team to maintain.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of 3CC Partners. We’re a private equity company focused on buying small to medium sized businesses and taking over management when the owners are ready to retire. In the process, we often digitize company operations to add value. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with hipinspire?

I’ve worked with Marko (Web Designer & WordPress Dev, hipinspire) on three different companies that I founded (e.g. an online consumer security company, a software-enabled property trading company, and 3CC Partners).

For 3CC Partners, I wanted quality, simple web design produced on an efficient timeline with a straightforward delivery. My software developers would use the resulting designs to build a website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

For all three companies, I asked hipinspire to create designs based on provided briefs and wireframing. 

The process consisted of emailing Marko with bullet points of the project scope and timeline. When he confirms he has the capacity to do the work, I create wireframes and send them to him. Based on my vision, he produces UI work. Usually, he works in two to three iterations before completing a product. 

What is the team composition?

I work with Marko because hipinspire is a one-person firm.

How did you come to work with hipinspire?

Initially, Marko applied to a job I posted to my homepage and asked if I had remote work available. My human resources manager really liked him based on his proactivity and excellent work samples. However, we were looking for a full-time designer. He didn’t accept that position because he didn’t want to relocate, but I kept him in mind for future projects.

For 4–5 years since then, I’ve worked with Marko as needed. I always choose hipinspire when I’m looking for fast, cost-efficient delivery. Local freelancers are expensive, but Marko provides very good work for reasonable pricing. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested below $10,000 for the 3CC Partners solution.

What is the status of this engagement?

3CC Partners started working with him in December 2018, and the project ended in January 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Whenever I give him a briefing, he turns around a rough outline in only 2–3 days. He also has a fast e-mail response rate; he usually responds in less than 12 hours. 

How did hipinspire perform from a project management standpoint?

His English is very easy to understand, and collaboration is effortless. Unlike other providers I’ve worked with, he offers concise, quick feedback to my emails. Also, his time estimations for tasks are always accurate and never vague. He strives to avoid risk by outlining a detailed plan at the very beginning. For example, he would say, “If we have two to three iterations, I’ll need at most 8–10 hours to complete it.” 

What did you find most impressive about them?

hipinspire is a great choice for an entrepreneur with time and money constraints. He doesn’t produce sophisticated, bombastic designs; his value proposition is practical designs at a reasonable cost. While he isn’t the best choice for complex designs, he is the fastest, most pragmatic designer I know, and he delivers solid work. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m very happy with his work. There’s nothing I would want him to do differently.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a co-founder and the CTO of Xmetryx, a team relationship management software startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire hipinspire

We brought Marko (Web Designer, hipinspire) on initially to design a thumbnail view for our results page, but, after seeing his work, we decided to expand our goals. Marko was also responsible for freshening up our existing results page, team member management page, and user feedback pages.

What were your goals for this project?

We designed our software in-house because we're a small technology startup. Despite receiving positive feedback on its ease-of-use and general design, it still had a home-grown look. As the head designer, I was responsible for ensuring our customers saw us as professional, responsive, and stable. Our ultimate goal was to have a professional design that retained our company’s unique personality.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Marko contacted me, offering his services on a contract basis. I checked his references, responses from previous customers, and online portfolios. Later, when I needed some design work done, I contact Marko and gave him a try.

Describe the project in detail.

Initially, I emailed Marko some mockups and an explanation of what we were looking for. I also provided him with a login to the demo version of our product. He sent me an onboarding link where I was able to specify my preferred level of artistic freedom and communication methods.

Soon after paying a small retainer based on his initial assessment of time required, Marko provided me with a mockup of our new pages. I made one or two minor changes and asked for his opinion on any other changes we should make. He came back in a day or two with another version of the update. Each of the other page designs was handled the same way.

What was the team composition?

We worked directly with Marko.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All our key stakeholders responded to our final designs with resounding praise. They found the UX/UI cleaner than it used to be yet familiar enough not to have to relearn the software. We’re extremely pleased with Marko and hipinspire’s work.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Marko was friendly and easy to communicate with but always kept his emails focused. All communication was via email, and all mockups were delivered via Dropbox (my preferred method of file sharing). He was highly responsive to my feedback.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I most appreciated Marko's willingness to step outside my creative guidelines and provide me with ideas to make the software easier, cleaner, and more professional. He’s able to provide modernized applications without imposing his own personality on them.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The only feedback I provided, which Marko addressed quickly, was the ability to track hours online. The work he did was beautiful, his response time was fast, and his rates were extremely competitive. I look forward to working with him in the future.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm one of the co-founders of QuikNode. We provide infrastructure (i.e., Ethereum Nodes) for blockchain developers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with hipinspire?

We needed a website designed and developed as this was a brand new project we were building from scratch.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided a couple of sketches and ideas of what we wanted in the design. hipinspire built the website using HTML and CSS as we wanted it to be simple and streamlined. Marko (owner, hipinspire), who is both the designer and coder, has done several iterations of the site. Once the home page was complete, we asked him to create an FAQ page. He provided UX/UI work for an administrator’s panel and status page.

He also worked on a side project for a branch of QuikNode. We had an idea for the design and gave him a mock-up. He delivered a live product in two weeks.

What is the team composition?

As far as I know, it’s only Marko.

How did you come to work with hipinspire?

Marko had initially reached out to us through another company, and we decided to use him on this project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $3,000–$5,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2017 and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It only took a week or two from the time we hired Marko for him to finish the initial product and have live website up. We still use the same website, with a couple of custom tweaks. Our business has around 200 customers right now, and each one visits the site and uses the admin panel. It's simple and they get all the information they need.

How did hipinspire perform from a project management standpoint?

His communication is good. We asked him to join our Slack channel, which is great for being able to communicate about the project. Marko is able to understand our use case because of his IT background. He’s excellent at tailoring the design to our audience.

What did you find most impressive about them?

He's very good at following instructions. We give him an outline and a mock-up, and he will create several versions for us to consider. We iterate two or three times before we end up with exactly what we wanted. If something doesn't work — it needs to be darker or it needs to bring our message — he’s able to fix it right away. When we give feedback, he will deliver something that we’re happy with, usually within one try.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was one thing that we later corrected. When he originally did revisions for our website, he would send the updates to us in a ZIP file. Our preferred method was to use GitHub. It took some back and forth, but he did agree to use commits in GitHub and adjust to our workflow process.

Any advice for potential customers?

The more design direction and guidelines you can give Marko, the quicker he can be at delivering your site. Providing a mark-up, even if it's just a sketch and colors, will give him a better sense of the type of website you want. That's how we were able to get a live website in less than two weeks.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a software company that specializes in competition-management software platforms. We help with marketing, design, and e-mail for competition operations. I am the client services manager. I manage operations for clients and help with the project management of our contractors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with hipinspire?

hipinspire helps us with a multitude of projects. We initially needed them to design a 404 page for us. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Originally, hipinspire helped design a 404 page for us, which served as a test trial for our company. We wanted a specific page for our clients to see rather than a typical error message and were pleased with what they came up with.

After this project, we brought them on to help design some of the public-facing pages we offer to clients on our platform. When hipinspire designs these pages, we usually provide them with designs from our clients--essentially what we currently have and what we want to see. The designs usually depend on how much latitude the client gives us and how flexible they are.

Marko (Designer, hipinspire) does a good job of interpreting what we want and listens closely to our feedback to make specific tweaks. I'm a visual person and will usually send him .jpegs of the design choices we're looking for and my comments. 

Marko has also helped us with internal projects for our company. For example, he's helped with the design of our platform so that it looks better for the clients who are using it. 

What is the team composition?

We primarily work with Marko Bijelic (Designer, hipinspire).

How much have you invested with them?

It's hard to say how much we've spent with him over the years, however, I believe it has been within the $10,000–$15,000 range thus far.

How did you come to work with hipinspire?

Marko originally reached out to our company and got in touch with my boss. My boss wanted to give him a try so that's how we came to work together.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started around three years ago and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our clients are happy, and we receive a lot of positive feedback on their designs. Additionally, the work hipinspire is doing for my internal team is running smoothly and well received.

How did hipinspire perform from a project management standpoint?

Even though they're a foreign company and working on other projects, they're usually responsive and typically respond within a day or two. We do have minor communication issues sometimes, however, this is due mostly to my lack of technical knowledge and English not being their first language. For the most part though, we've cleared up these issues and they're great about not charging for any errors that arise from miscommunication. We use mostly email and occasional Skype calls to track milestones and handle all communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We have a fairly complicated and complex system for our designers to design on. Marko really understands our system though and gives us great recommendations on how to improve it. 

His response time is fast compared to other design firms we've worked with. Additionally, our engineering team respects him, and they have a great relationship. They really understand each other. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be a little more assertive from time to time, especially since I get really busy. When he doesn't hear from me, it would be nice to receive a nudge from him as a reminder.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about what you want.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and president of Board Studios, a boutique animation studio that helps companies supercharge their marketing and PR campaigns as well as improve their internal communication initiatives.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire hipinspire?

Our website needed a refresh to appear more custom-built, better designed, more user-friendly, and more appealing to the high-end clients we are serving and targeting.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to create a slick, fast, and original website. We did not want anything that resembled a template. We wanted our site to have its own identity.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Marko, our project manager, has great ideas and presented a compelling portfolio of his past work. The cost savings compared to all the other competitors we evaluated made the decision to choose Marko was an easy one.

Describe the project in detail.

I submitted an initial wireframe along with the content I wanted on the site, and then Marko shared a few different approaches. We settled on one, then iterated on the details a few times. Marko got almost everything right on the first try, which made the process very painless. Even though we did not call Marko directly, we never felt he was not communicating enough or missing anything.

What was the team composition?

We worked directly with Marko, who handled our whole project from start to finish. This was very important for us because switching mid-project to another manager leaves a chance for details to get missed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The speed of our website greatly improved. I believe our GT Metrix score went from E to B. This was our primary goal, along with creating an attractive and easy-to-navigate website.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The process was streamlined and professionally handled. We relied on email to provide feedback and review their work. It all worked very smoothly. Marko was very responsive and easy to communicate with.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed by Marko's creativity. Using our wireframe and content, he devised a website that's visually compelling in a single attempt. We expected more headaches and a longer feedback loop but were pleased with the quick result.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We were very satisfied with speed and quality, and the price is unbeatable. So we did not have any recommendations for improvement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of Unique Visitors, an addiction treatment marketing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire hipinspire?

We hired Hipinspire to aid us in website design and development.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to create a clean, user-friendly, and fully operational website for one of our clients.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We'd heard about hipinspire through a colleague who said that they do great work. Based on our experience, he wasn't wrong!

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

First, they designed and developed the website mockups and full-color PSDs. The team's software engineers then coded these prototypes into a comprehensible framework for us. It's built to allow us to make changes when needed. 

What was the team composition?

The one individual we worked with directly was very timely and professional.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The results of this project were stellar. Our engagement with hipinspire had an immediate impact on our business. Our client is in love with their new site, which is one that hipinspire developed. The team's support enabled us to work on other aspects of this project while the design and development were being completed.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was straightforward. Whether it would be one hour or 40, hipinspire told us exactly how long each phase would take. They completed each facet of the project on time, every time.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Strong quality work and professionalism are hipinspire's most impressive aspects.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

I truly believe hipinspire performs strong quality work. We would definitely recommend their services.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the founder of an analytics and growth consultancy that helps companies measure and optimize their products to acquire and retain customers. With decades of experience in growing businesses, we not only look at what is happening in the funnel, but also at multiple aspects of the business that are needed to grow the brand effectively.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire hipinspire?

hipinspire works on many projects across a wide variety of clients.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They were recommended to us.

Describe the project in detail.

The scope ranges from cleaner website design for clients to our internal branding projects.

What was the team composition?

They typically work with project leads from our team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

hipinspire consistently delivers quality results and expedient replies to our requests.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It is very effective. We typically bring them into a project with a simple email or Trello assignment, and they can get the context and deliver with little to no back-and-forth.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their speed is impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

While they’re good at following instructions, it wouldn't hurt to make judgment calls based on their experience.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO for a big data company called Sparkflows. We provide self-service software for big data management and analytics.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with hipinspire?

Before hipinspire, we’d worked with numerous vendors to develop the interface for our web-based platform. However, despite redoing it multiple times, we never felt that the visuals were cutting edge, and users often criticized the overall look and feel as being too unprofessional. As a result, we approached hipinspire to provide UX/UI and web design services for both our platform and, later, our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, they worked on the UX/UI for our product before redoing our website’s look and feel. They first showed us a few different wireframes to choose from. Once we approved the design, we gave them our CSS files, and they updated the code to develop a new UI end to end. This allowed them to make direct changes rather than having to convert from another language. Throughout the process, we collaborated with them on stylistic choices such as colors, fonts, icons, and messaging.

What is the team composition?

In the beginning, we met with 2–3 people, but for the most part, we worked with Marko (Principal, hipinspire).

How did you come to work with PX Media LLC?

We found them through our enterprise accelerator where they participated as a vendor.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $4,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Their work lasted from September 2017–February 2018. However, he completed both projects within a month each.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve received great feedback from our users. Previously, when we showed our platform to prospective clients, people would immediately focus on the lacking UI instead of the features. But now, they praise both the platform and our website for their professional UI. Marko did an exceptional job and took our designs to another level.

How did PX Media LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

They were productive and responsive, consistently generating good ideas. We collaborated through email and Google Drive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Building on my previous comments, Marko was professional, and his focus helped us identify and execute our needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of any major improvements. I had a great experience, and I’ll always go back to them for future projects.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a clear idea of what you’re trying to do. For us, we went over multiple designs upfront before narrowing down the choices. This ensured that we would do the project correctly the first time.