Khula Design Studio

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Director of Technology at a non-profit based near Vancouver, Canada. We facilitate direct engagement between churches, businesses and community groups in Canada with global communities to address extreme poverty and needless suffering.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Khula Design Studio?

Our website was close to 10 years old and outdated, no longer meeting our needs in reaching our constituents. We needed a fresh re-design that worked well across all types of devices, that would clearly communicate who we are and what we do, and be easy to navigate. We hired Khula to design and build our site, and to give insight into how to best communicate our message.

SOLUTION

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

We reviewed proposals from 5 different companies, each who specialized in different CMS systems and had different strengths and weaknesses. We needed a system to that would be easy to maintain moving forward, given our limited staff resources, and Khula was able to provide a system that does just that. Having worked with them on another project before, I knew we could trust them to do great work in a timely matter. They were also priced very competitively, and helped us save money over most of the other proposals we considered.

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

The project started with a series of discovery meetings to help assess our current site and our future needs and desires. This moved into building out the information architecture, mapping out the types of content and pages the site would have. From there, they worked on wireframes and mocking up two different designs and styles. Once we chose our design, we worked together on messaging and wording, while their designers completed the UI/UX stage. They then started building the site page by page, and we worked the next month or so dialoging back and forth and tweaking things as we went. There were some coding and integrations that happened near the end as well. The final stages were QA testing and refinement before going live and rolling it out.

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

I worked mostly directly with Jamie, Khula's owner/project manager. There were at least 5 others on his team that worked on our site, including a designer, 2 copyrighters, a full-stack developer, and a QA tester.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The site design and UI/UX has helped us move our site into a more modern look that's easier to navigate. Our traffic has increased this past year and we are able to easily update both the content and the design ourselves moving forward.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow and communication was excellent. Jamie, the project manager, was great at communicating where progress was at and with pushing us to submit the content and details his team needed to keep things moving. We had regular meetings, both in-person and over video chat. Each deadline was met, including the website going live just 4.5 months after starting the process.

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

They were great at understanding our needs and working hard to find a system that worked well for us. They are also often connecting back to see how things are going with the website and offering suggestions for further improvement as we grow.

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

There were a few pieces of functionality that we were exploring together how to accomplish on the fly as the deadline was fast approaching, so just continued learning for them on different ways to develop and implement advanced functionality. Also, more comprehensive training on what parts are easily updatable for everyone through the CMS, versus others that are more complex and would take someone with front-end web development skills.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner and lead photographer at Urban Fig Photography, based in Chilliwack, BC.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Khula Design Studio?

My original website was a cookie cutter template and put together by me, and it was a bit of a mess. I had no branding, it was clunky and slow and had no calls to action. Khula started from scratch with me, starting with discovery, building a brand including logo, colours and overall feel, all the way to a brand new website with multiple pages.

SOLUTION

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

Khula was the obvious choice for me. Their own brand presence was bold and fearless, and I knew Jamie and his team would create something that I could be proud of! After an initial call with Jamie, I felt completely confident that he would not only be able to build something "pretty", but something that would convert and would be user and SEO friendly.

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

After our discovery call(s), Jamie got to work building my brand. Once that was dialed in, he began building the site itself. He was unbelievably efficient, and made sure I stayed on task by supplying him with images for each of the sections he was working on. Once the site was mostly built, he asked for my feedback to ensure everything looked and worked how I wanted it to!

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

I don't remember who all was involved, but I remember working with both Jamie and Chloe directly.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

My site is significantly faster than it was before and my clicks are up - definitely a success!!

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Jamie was in constant communication with me about whether they needed something from me, or what stage they were at with the build. I never felt like I wasn't their top priority.

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

Jamie and his team are insanely efficient, energetic and creative. I was blown away by what he was able to create for me in such a short period of time. I was not looking forward to this process as I had heard horror stories of website builds taking a year or longer, but I can't say enough good things about the service I received from Khula. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!

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

Honestly, no. I had to fight him a bit about the overall vibe for my logo, but I also know that from a creative standpoint, his ideas were better. I'm just stubborn :P

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Owner of a Residential Home Design Company with offices in Kamloops and Chilliwack BC, Canada

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Khula Design Studio?

A brand refresh including logo and website design.

SOLUTION

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

We searched for months looking for a new Website designer; one that stood out as we knew we wanted someone who could really dive in a discover how best to reach out target market not just create a fancy website. We found Khula through Google Maps of all places and from our initial meeting with Jamie it was evident we had found the firm to work with.

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

After our initial meeting, we were sent a very thorough proposal that outlined the deliverables and timelines. From there they took us through a deep dive exploration of our target market and shaped our messaging to speak to this market. Next we were presented with a mockup of the look and feel of the various pages, first in a wireframe format and then in a fleshed our coloured version.

A few revisions and variations later they then took this and recreated into the live version we see today. They also provided great support as the website was took live and minor last minute changes made by both us and them.

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

We met directly with the owner Jamie as well as his marketing specialist on a couple occasions early on. I know he had a number of programmers and designers behind the scenes building out the website that we didn't interact with directly.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have had great feedback from prospective clients having chosen us on account of our online presence and included portfolio. Clients have also very quickly adopted the online booking system Khula recommended which has been great.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective. Weekly meetings, collaborative design sessions and rapid back and forth communications over a variety of platforms to get the design just right.

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

Their dedication to getting the message right just blew us away. It exceeded our wildest hopes in this regard. The design itself also fully met our expectations which great. The combination of the two makes for the best website design firm we could possibly hope to have found to work with!

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

not that specifically come to mind. Always opportunity to improve communication, but this process did go well and our website certainly speaks for itself.