Selecto

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CTO of an online video networking company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Selecto?

We’re building a platform for expensive video calls with people who are typically hard to reach. It’s similar to a global address book, where users can call any person, even if you don’t know them personally. We needed additional help with the app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Selecto is our long-term partner, and they’ve helped us with this app as well as a few prior ones. We usually start with a customer discovery phase, where we talk about user stories, what could happen, and what the situations are between different scenarios. 

After we have our initial idea from this stage, we sit together with Selecto and we transform this into a set of user stories and wireframes. Once that is stable, we move onto design and user experience. 

After the mockups, prototypes, and UX are in place, we move onto creating high fidelity UI screens and then development. We use Figma for the UX. For the application itself, it’s Kotlin for native Android, Swift for native iOS, Vue.js for the frontend, and Node.js for the backend.

What is the team composition?

For this particular project, we worked with 20 different people. There’s one lead designer, one designer that helps do more simple tasks, a project coordinator, and the full set development team with front- and backend engineers and QA leads.

How did you come to work with Selecto?

They were recommended by my business partner. Since we started working with Selecto five years ago, we’ve never looked back. It was an easy choice to work with them on this particular project. They’re our regular supplier for UI/UX and development.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $120,000-$160,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2019, and in January 2020 we ended the core full-speed development. It’s mostly ongoing in terms of marketing and bringing it to the market. We scaled down our technical operations 10-fold since the active development phase.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Being a startup, it’s mostly important how the user perceives the product. The best indication was that we were twice presented from the stage. We were the number three app of the day on the product hunt. 

Since the launch of the app, we’ve received a lot of five star reviews in both stores, as well as prominent people from different industries join us — even some people from Google and the music industry. They all love and appreciate how the app looks and feels.

How did Selecto perform from a project management standpoint?

We work in a scrum methodology. Communication is regular. We do daily meetings and short iterations. We do very simple task management with Trello and Jira. 

There were a few deadlines shifted but it’s either because we weren’t clear in our initial requirements or there were changes in the market. I can’t blame Selecto for that.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The reason we selected them and are still working with them is because they’re careful in how they do things. Selecto goes really deep into the thinking process, considering not only the way it looks but also how it will be perceived and what will be the motivation for a user to usea certain action.

They are deep in terms of behavior psychology of users. They also follow the most recent trends in design.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’d prefer them not to raise prices that much. I’d prefer that they would overdeliver. They do what they are asked, and they do it great, but I’d love if they’d put a cherry on the top here and there just because they can.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re very fast in providing prototypes. If you consider choosing them, I’d suggest you try to do something simple within a week or two. They have the service and it works amazingly well. The cost of a mistake here can almost be neglected compared to the budget of the full project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of LifeArk.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Selecto?

We had an old app with an outdated UI/UX. We needed to upgrade, rebrand, and change up the UX/UI of our subscription model. Basically, we needed to take it from a prototype to a working app we can bring to market. It’s a digital time capsule that users can hand down to their kids.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They created a new version of our home screen and timeline. We also created paid features form a premium and subscription model for our app. We also created a separate UX, login, and onboarding process for children. Now they can scan a QR code and see the messages their parents have saved for them.

Most of our prototyping was in Sigma, so they used that. Then we used Miro for mind mapping.

In addition to their design team, they have as strong engineering team as well. They also handled the coding side of the project. The app is for iOS.

What is the team composition?

There’s one project manager, 2–3 designers, a lead iOS engineer, a backend engineer, and a QA tester.

How did you come to work with Selecto?

They were a recommendation from a friend who has worked for them in the past.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $68,000–$80,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together at the end of February 2020 and we’re still working with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to release 2–3 good updates in the span of five months, and now we have an app we’re ready to go to market with.  They’re very good with brainstorming creative stuff in terms of product design. We also created a larger product roadmap, so how we could continue to develop the product later. They definitely thought of a lot of ways to get users excited about the app, get them to onboard and start using it. They had very original ideas that are very forward-looking.

How did Selecto perform from a project management standpoint?

They could probably communicate a little more on the project management side. I think that’s often the case when we outsource, so it’s nothing to complain about, but it is the one area in which they could stand to improve. Of course, it takes time to establish those relationships with a new company.

We used Slack to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their creativity, their speed, and they have great taste in design. Their approach is intuitive and creative, and the results are beautiful.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s always space for improvement, but in the overall scope of things, they were fine.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Balance between sticking to your idea and giving them the creative freedom that you want. If you want to a partner that is going to help you rebuild from the ground up, I would definitely recommend them because they’re very creative.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CTO of Foxstone, a Swiss based Crowdfunding Real Estate platform. My role is to conceive, build, manage and deliver the platform where our investors gather to get access to real estate investment. With my team, we strive to bring to the swiss market the most advanced tools and concepts to make their journey to investment as simple as possible.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Selecto?

The main business challenge was to improve the convertibility of our pages and the quality of the content of our website. Selecto re-worked from scratch, starting with UX design system, through usability mind maps, to clean and modern rendered UI. As part of their efforts, they managed to create visual and emotional parts of the website that will create trust, seriousness and reliability to our users. Selecto also created different marketing materials, hand made illustrations and new branding guidelines.

What were your goals for this project?

The main goal was to add new CTAs on every page, improve navigation, optimize loading speed and last but not least refresh our branding guideline. Selecto proudly delivered a holisting design system with many marketing parts, visual effects, illustration and animated elements.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I used Selecto in the past for a few projects where my satisfaction was already high. A few years later, they just confirmed their professionalism, as their Creative Director grew his team, and hired highly skilled talents. Prior to that, I interviewed many companies in Ukraine but I never felt the same level of confidence as I have when I work with Selecto.

Describe the project in detail.

The overall scope was to rebuild the whole website, following the mobile-first paradigm, but an important part of it was to add one important contact wizard, which has been executed successfully. Therefore, Selecto had to revisit their own design procedures, working with a forced constraint, and managed to deliver a very pleasant result.

What was the team composition?

At Selecto, we were assigned a Project Manager, a Creative Director and two UX designers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Well, Selecto did it's part by delivering in time 100% of the work ordered. It lacked a little bit on our side since the review of content and design by our team went to many different persons / departments. In any case, Selecto has shown a strong engagement by assisting us on every step of the project, helping us to integrate / implement the new website, and giving some advice during the development. It is a great quality that I can recognize in the Selecto design team. They really care about the accomplishment and the success of your project rather than running after their billed hours.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Selecto has a good management process in place, using collaborative tools such as Trello to exchange, follow up and measure the progress of the project. Our frequent online meetings have helped the followup of the project. Since Selecto follows the same iterative process as us, our teams were in perfect symbiosis and managed to collaborate in the most efficient way, hence the distance.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Creativity / innovation / understanding of the problematics / strive to succeed / overdeliver / attention to details. But most of all is their ability to listen to us and deeply understand our needs is impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

While we are very satisfied with Selecto's performance, we would have appreciated if they were proposing the job of development of their design into a proper website / wordpress. We had to work with a different team of the integration, which resulted in a higher budget than expected.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm CEO and founder of the Softblues. One of our products is Premmerce, SaaS platform for building online businesses in different fields

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Selecto?

We approached Selecto to help us create a platform, UX and design system with templates for the SAAS e-commerce website builder platform. Selecto designers created basic logic and UX for both external pages used by our users and internal system for creating our own websites on our platform.

What were your goals for this project?

The main goal was to create a UX design e-commerce website builder platform, with a system, templates for online business and CRM platform for sellers. Selecto delivered the product we needed.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

One of the members of our team conducted an investigation and suggested Selecto as a skilled agency that fits our needs.

Describe the project in detail.

Overall it’s a design of SaaS e-commerce website builder platform and the system with templates that can then be edited. Also, we needed external and internal parts of the platform comfortable in use.

What was the team composition?

Project manager, two UX designers, graphic designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We received a convenient web-platform with the holistic system for building online business that is easy to edit and fit into sellers need. We continue to communicate with Selecto because they are willing to support us and understand if the product really helps users. We have a lot of new customers with positive feedback. And we are working on analyzing and systematizing the progress for further strategic steps.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

There is a lot of work to be done, from onboarding to system management to website management, payment management etc. We worked with Selecto design with constant dialogue that allowed us to come up with the most convenient solutions. Selecto's work is based on a Time & Material approach. They are always involved not only in the scope of work but also in suggestions for improvement of our company.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Selecto has confident expertise in the field of design and user experience. Their core competency is recognizing users pain point and soothing it with a digital solution.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We are entirely satisfied with the result of the work they did. And we continue to request Selecto for consulting us about usability as they know our product in detail. Also, we recommend them as a reliable design agency for our customers who need sophisticated product design.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm CEO and founder of Pharmatrace, a platform dedicated for pharmaceutical business. We built our platform based on Blockchain and AI/ML in order to provide best track and trace solution in supply chains and also prediction of chronic diseases based on AI and ML

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Selecto?

We contacted Selecto to help us creating design and understand UX journey for our current product services in our website, which could explain all the values of our products to potential partners from Pharmaceutical companies and involve them to join an ecosystem we’re working on

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to create a website that presents our brand and value proposition and attract enterprises to join us. Also to offer new customers a real understanding of our business and investors as well

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We found Selecto from the list of top agencies on Clutch and we were also linked in LinkedIn

Describe the project in detail.

We’re building blockchain-based ecosystem where the pharmaceutical industry come together and do better business based on a common distributed ledger. It’s very complicated software, which requires participation of all pharmaceutical industries, R&Ds institutes, Medical centers, Supply providers, pharmacists and others.

For us it is essential to explain our product services and how we could benefit new customers to be always on top of their game based on our ecosystem participation

What was the team composition?

Two designers and Project manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As design is now will be under development, we’ve got an internal satisfaction and vision how to present and explain our products, which helps us build our marketing strategy. We’ve got a top-notch design, as we expected 

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We had regular meetings and workshops on each stage, so we had a feeling that we’re always on the same page and they understand each aspect of our business.

A few times we was making a step back when the work seemed to be finished, so we spent a bit more time as expected, but it led us to even better results, so we’re happy that happen and challenged ourselves.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Selecto is able to get into the business and think out the box, we’re really impressed not just with the quality of design we’ve got, but with unique solutions, empowering our marketing strategy.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We will definitely continue our cooperation with Selecto and are absolutely satisfied with all the results we’ve achieved together. One last thing, we should as a clients be as active as those guys, this helped us to get the best results and helped them understand or reel need and expectation.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm Marcus Dahl, owner of the Dahl Skincare, a platform that provides remote consultation with estheticians and to help to select treatment due to customers need.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Selecto?

We contacted Selecto to help us create a unique and complex project in the middle of e-commerce and healthcare solution. They were responsible for designing the website for mobile devices and desktops, to design e-commerce and marketing part and online consultations service.

What were your goals for this project?

The main goal was to create a mobile and desktop platform that presents our brand and communicates about the services our company delivers. Selecto delivered a holistic user experience, which fits our products and services, design system, new visual language across all marketing materials, visuals and illustrations.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I got recommendations from local aesthetics clinic who worked with Selecto and was satisfied with results. After a short meeting with Selecto I decided to go with them without searching for anyone else.

Describe the project in detail.

We have own product for skin treatment, which requires diagnostic and consultation with a doctor before ordering, so the first part of selling the product is finding the right one after an online consultation. We take care of each client, communicating with them, preparing not just substances, but also recommendations and all necessary materials.

The scope of work was to relaunch our website with a fresh look, better e-commerce user experience in combination with an advanced personal profile, wizards, questionnaires, online chats and other functionality for communication with our customers.

The most of our clients use mobile phones, so the goal was to create mobile-first website and transfer that experience on desktops after that. Selecto succeeds wIth both steps.

What was the team composition?

Mostly I was communicating with Senior UX designer, and Lead product designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We received a well-designed mobile and web platform that we keep on further development (https://dahlskincare.co.uk/). Discovery and design phase delivered on a high level. Selecto continues to communicate with us because we want them to work on our product further.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We worked on a product like one team. Selecto designers are dedicated to the project. We are in touch on a very frequent basis that allowed us to achieve an amazing result. The design process started with research and then we had frequent workshops that allowed us to implement needed steps gradually.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Selecto has great expertise in e-commerce and business automation design. I’ve got a lot of insights and suggestions I didn’t expect to receive on a starting point. Their team is proactive, hardworking and always aspire to create the best possible service, so I can focus on strategy and rely on them in all questions regarding to digital design.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We are very satisfied with the result of the cooperation. The only thing to add is having more such professional and talented designers to the team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and CEO of Fr8 Network.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Selecto?

We hired Selecto to help us build a web app to give our customers access to real-time quality of service data on trucking companies.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals were to simplify the display of data and to give our customers a very streamlined way to pay for advanced access using our native cryptocurrency.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We were referred to them by a trusted technology leader in my network.

Describe the project in detail.

We had a need to lock detailed data about trucking companies behind a paywall. The paywall would be removed in the user had >= 1000 FR8 tokens held in their connected Ethereum wallet. However, many customers are new to the world of cryptocurrency. Selecto was tasked with updating the UX/UI to inform customers of the new paywall in a way that encouraged them to purchase FR8 tokens to unlock the detailed data.

What was the team composition?

We had myself from the Fr8 Network team and 2 UI/UX designers working with the software team of 1 full-stack engineer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Yes we succeeded in creating an understandable workflow that gave the FR8 token holders confidence that more apps built by Fr8 will be of such high quality.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Fr8 Network's team is based in the United States so we had some understandable issues working with a team based in Kiev, Ukraine. However they were responsive and made great judgement calls when they couldn't get quick responses from the US team at Fr8 Network.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The talented team was very gifted in created modern and simple UI/UX.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Estimating time of completion for the project was off by about 30%

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of a medical education website that provides training resources for skill development for health care professionals. We help doctors and nurses and others learn how to read chest x-rays, ECG's, and to learn critical reasoning skills for diagnosing in general.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Selecto?

Our website has existed since 2005. It is poorly designed (because I played a large role in the design). It required improvements in: communicating to users what the function was quickly, easier navigation, better "emotional" feel, and we also transitioned from open access free-to-use to a subscription based paid platform.

What were your goals for this project?

Improvements for users in the following: beautifully and simply designed interface, clear and rapid explanation of what services the website offers, easier navigation, funnelling of users from our "free" offerings to our "paid" offerings, increased education to our users of what THEY need.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I started on both Elance and Clutch. I interviewed 2 from Elance and 2 from Clutch. I quickly determined that a one person hire was not going to work and therefore needed a team. I was impressed by portfolio of Selecto and since they had experience with an educational platform and I liked the work they did for that platform, I chose them. I also spoke to the owner of the other educational platform to get a direct interview about their opinion of Selecto, which was positive.

Describe the project in detail.

There was to be 3 phases: a discovery phase, a design phase and a software development phase. After the discovery phase, we determined scope and cost. During the design phase, there was a lot of back and forth which was absolutely required for communicating our needs. I ended up deciding to use internal staff to convert the design into software because of the need to continue with pre-existing programming language which Selecto did not have experience with.

What was the team composition?

1 project manager, about 2 UX/UI people, and 1 artwork person.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The deliverables were a mobile and desktop version of the new design in Figma. The deliverable has a clickable prototype and was exported to us so that we can use it to create the software. We are in the early phases of software development and have not yet deployed the new design.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Workflow was excellent. Communication and availability were excellent. Very minor adjustment in the early phases of the project due to language and accents and sometimes it was difficult for me to understand everything they said, but this was only a minor issue and only an issue with 1 person on their team and after the first few skype chats, it was not an issue because I became little better at understanding accents. There is an 8 hour time zone difference so we had morning meetings for me and afternoon meetings for them and it was not a problem.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The responsiveness to feedback, the quality of their work, ability to clearly communicate what will be best for project, ability to work as a team, and a very friendly team to work with. Was very enjoyable. Very professional. Everything was transparent and honest.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company is a Social Media platform for Gamers that provides them an easy way to share their gaming moments, watch their favorite streamers, and discover new gaming content. Currently I serve as the CEO of the organization and am one of the co-founders

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Selecto?

We hired Selecto to do the design work for our application. We had a great idea of what we wanted the application to do, we had a strong team of developers but were looking for the right designer to bring our idea to life.

What were your goals for this project?

The goals for the project was to build a relationship with a company that understood our team, our mission, and was easy to work with us as we figured things out along the way and changed our mind. From a design perspective they were great to work with, they were not sensitive if we liked a design or not & were ready and willing to work with us whenever we reached out.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We went online, explored around a bunch of different design websites and then interviewed a bunch of different firms and ultimately liked the reviews and previous work that we saw from Selecto and decided to give them the business.

Describe the project in detail.

Selecto was responsible for taking our idea and bringing it to life. They started off by building out the user stories, building a mood board and making sure that they got feedback from all of the members on the team.

What was the team composition?

Selecto assigned a project manager, a lead designer and a backup designer in case the lead wasnt in the office.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Currently our app is available in the App Store as Hover.GG; We continue to work with Selecto on newer pagers and Functionality.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very Effective; they understood our challenges of us all doing this as our secondary jobs and were flexible to get on meetings and calls with us during the afterhours

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The flexibility; They were very good at starting and stopping with us as we went to build the pages and functionality. Other firms wanted a monthly guarantee. Selecto was willing to jump back in and help whenever we asked

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nope they were great!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am CEO and founder of Queue Continuum LLC.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Selecto?

We hired Selecto to create a pleasing user interface around existing UX/wireframes for two mobile apps.

What were your goals for this project?

To get a holistic visual style that worked across the two apps that was still pleasing to look at.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We found Selecto on Clutch. Our manager had a call and then ran a test sprint. We saw a lot of promise in them and decided to give them a chance.

Describe the project in detail.

We are not prepared to discuss this publicly, but it is a pair of consumer facing mobile apps that should be approachable by users of all ages.

What was the team composition?

Designer, illustrator, project coordinator

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The designer was incredibly attentive; he actually listened to our concerns and addressed them correctly. We were very pleased with the outcome.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Every day we'd meet with their designer and we'd iterate. I feel it went flawlessly.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Truly, the designer's attentiveness. In my experience, hiring designers has always been trouble. Many do not listen and go off on their own desires. Our designer stayed focused and directly addressed our needs. Easily the best, easiest-to-work-with designer I've ever had the pleasure to work with.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I was wholly pleased with their work. I have no areas of improvement to suggest.