Sparklin Innovations

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the COO at a real money online poker website, based in India. We are a legal and licensed entity and have been in the industry for close to 4 years now. I oversee daily operations and strategy with focus areas including marketing, product & finance.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Sparklin Innovations?

We belong to a very niche yet crowded industry, and since all incumbents largely cater to the same pool of poker players, we have to ensure we manage to differentiate through the UX we offer to serve two purposes; one, that any high potential player becomes activated and that we don't lose them at the outset and two, we realize the LTV potential considering how it could be over the $100,000 number in select cases

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to make the entire user journey as personalized as possible, considering how that's something every poker player appreciates. Also, we wanted to enhance the credibility of our brand by means of every key touch point across the journey because we are a real money platform at the end of the day and consequently have to act as custodians of our users' money.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

What we noticed during the initial phases of our search for a good partner in crime for the project was that most players were still largely conventional in their approach and hence we didn't think they would be able to see things from a poker player's perspective, which involves a thorough understanding of multiple fields including psychology, ego, gamification, etc. The pitch by Sparklin preempted our concerns with their 'design thinking' approach, which appealed to us because at that point in time we too didn't entirely understand what that meant but it was enough to intrigue us to try & apply it to our company.

Describe the project in detail.

The requirement was and has been very clear since we began. We wanted to work with somebody who had a first principles approach and since that synergy existed from the get go we didn't have to meet very frequently. The rebranding exercise was completed as per schedule and to the sort of response we were expecting, and our LTV also has seen a sharp increase with the onboarding process we integrated as per Sparklin's work. What is really exciting us now is the entire revamp that we're currently working on together, which should turn a lot of heads once we make it live. Still a few months away considering the quantum of change but we're confident it'll have the sort of impact we're anticipating.

What was the team composition?

Initially it was the founder himself because we'd initiated discussions with him directly, post which, once the vision was aligned within their team, we worked directly with one project lead and on some rare occasions took the founder's opinion if the changes weren't unanimous.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Like I said, we belong to a very niche industry, and most players play on all the better-known websites. Post the changes, we received a lot of positive feedback that suggested we were moving in the right direction, basis which they next set of changes are now underway.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

This wasn't an issue at all. Our offices, as a matter of fact, were hardly 15 minutes away yet we didn't require to meet that frequently because communication was always prompt & efficient.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The speed at which they grasped the entire business. Their understanding of what would actually work for our users really stood out.

Are there any areas for improvement?

More of these would actually lie at our end, when it comes to applying & deploying the changes as per the exact recommendations.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of a company that is based of of delhi and we are in the LED TV manufacturing business. We are B2B model company and OEM partners for regional brands nationwide.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Sparklin Innovations?

To consult and brand our new line of expansion towards a B2C model for the sales of our products.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed to have the most targeted branding and designs that appealed to our market segment. The goal was to create a distinction amongst existing B2C companies and ours; in terms of the company ethos, brand positioning, market and product segmentation. We were able to come up with new organic and viral marketing strategies.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Sparklin was recommended to us by a company 'Whyte Farms' ; it was word of mouth appraisal for their work. We considered around 4 other companies and decided to work with sparklin because they were the only ones who were not trying to sell themselves, rather understood what would be our requirements; both current and future.

Describe the project in detail.

Overall scope was to create a well positioned electronics brand that appealed to younger generation. My role in the project was to be the link between our two companies and i handled the entire project with Sparklin's team. They provided consulting, brand strategy and UI/UX designs.

What was the team composition?

Around 4-5 people were involved from Sparklin's team. I mostly co-ordinated with Himanshu Khanna for the project and since the project is an ongoing one with various parts, different people in seperate teams are involved.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since the project is a branding one and UI/UX one; its very difficult to explain the metric value of it. For me the success of our project is the consultation part. Sparklin was able to teach us as to how to go about our brand and how to actually market ourselves without the mainstream techniques, and services out there.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The overall experience was extremely professional and was tailored to our needs.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their personal involvement with the project. They brainstormed with us until we were entirely satisfied and fully understood our branding goals.

Are there any areas for improvement?

See there are always areas for improvement; but for us the work was on-point.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a product manager for Taxmann, an Indian research portal for taxes aimed at corporate law professionals. My role is to take care of existing projects for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sparklin Innovations?

We needed to hire someone to take care of a revamp for our portal.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We tasked them with reimagining the entire website and defining the design language that will be used for a multitude of our products with the same target audience. They started their work with user personas, after which they built wireframes. We had a feedback meeting around those, and once the wireframes were frozen, we moved to the UI.  

What is the team composition?

I worked with Himanshu (Founder and CEO, Sparklin Innovations) and their head of design. They have a team of UX designers, but I primarily interacted with their two principals.

How did you come to work with Sparklin Innovations?

Other senior managers and I were looking out for a UX agency based out of New Delhi. After a lot of research and talking to people who’d been part of successful startups, we arrived at Sparklin Innovations. We had a few discussion sessions with Himanshu and became convinced that we wanted to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about 2 million Indian rupees (approximately $28,802 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Sparklin Innovations in August 2018, and it took around a month for them to complete our user personas and two-and-a-half months to complete the wireframes. We started working on the UI after that. It an ongoing project, but it’s nearing completion.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The people in our company that has been using the website for the last five to seven years have given us good initial feedback upon testing the new one. They all agree that the work done by Sparklin Innovations has definitely made the platform more consistent, reliable, intuitive, and personalized. Since it’s still an ongoing project, I can’t share actual metrics, but we expect at least a fourfold growth in terms of traffic.

This, coupled with better user experience, will certainly improve our e-commerce funnel. We’re expecting our user retention rate to improve. We offer a rather expensive subscription-based product relative to the Indian market, but we hope to see success.

How did Sparklin Innovations perform from a project management standpoint?

Their performance was quite satisfactory. They have a clearly defined process in place, sharing wireframes and other material through email for us to review and share our feedback at the next meeting. They then take that feedback, incorporate the changes, and gets back to us with revised designs in the next couple of days. We haven't found it necessary to use a complex project management tool. All changes and feedback are recorded on Google Sheets.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciated their approach to simplifying a complex project. We don’t have a simple e-commerce product or travel discovery website, but rather a complex portal used by a niche audience that isn’t tech-savvy. Sparklin Innovations used the feedback we gave them about our audience, did thorough research, and came up with some innovative solutions that we wouldn’t have thought of. This is something I really liked about them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't have any suggestions at this point in time.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients should let them do their work and listen to their ideas, which are quite ground-breaking. Unlike other designers, Sparklin Innovations doesn’t propose solutions that can’t be realistically implemented or that aren’t scalable.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder of iZooto, an audience engagement firm that uses web personifications. We’re in the marketing automation space. I’m in charge of marketing and customer success.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sparklin?

When we starting working with them, we had very little in-house design expertise in-house, and very little understanding of UI/UX. We sought agencies that could help us put together an initial version of both our product and website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started holding conversations to build a brand persona and worked through a few iterations on our brief. It was the first time someone had asked us to put together a brief on our persona and target audience. I answered an exhaustive 3–5-page questionnaire on what the brand would look like.

The first level of engagement consisted of creating a product identity. From there, we started engaging at the app level itself: how we expected our users to use the web app, what the UX should be, how the dashboard would look and function, and so on. Following that, we went on to the website itself: what information we wanted to communicate and what the best way of communicating it was.

What is the team composition?

One of their members engaged with us to collect our specifications. They put together a team that talked with us about who we were, who we wanted to be, and whom we were targeting. There was a separate team in place, which collected that information into a tangible form. We had a third team for the website work. I believe there were different teams handling our branding, website, and app.

How did you come to work with Sparklin?

I’d read articles featuring them and I’d seen their work multiple times. I was using some of the platforms they’d designed on a daily basis, and the amount of thought they put into creating those experiences stood out.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $8,000–$15,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from November 2015–April 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve grown from 24–36 users at the time, to around 15,000 now. Our dashboard is being used by thousands of people on a daily basis. We’ve kept their dashboard design essentially unchanged over the last three years, and we’ve stuck to it because it works. We prefer functionality over visual design, and theirs was excellent.

How did Sparklin perform from a project management standpoint?

We mostly communicated through email. They shared material with us using Dropbox, which we also used to share our comments, and we used Google Sheets for tracking. We used Balsamiq for some initial wireframing. We may have also used Basecamp.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They pushed us and asked tough questions about our goals. Their brainstorming sessions helped us determine what we really needed, and they solved our problems in time. The solutions they gave us were perfect for that stage of our business, and they continue to work for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

A better communication channel or management tool might have been helpful at the time.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s important to communicate abundantly and clearly and to keep track of what is communicated and how.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a company that provides healthcare content in over a dozen Indian languages. We offer online and offline medical services for doctors and patients in tier-2 and tier-3 towns and villages in India.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sparklin Innovations?

Our main goal is to solve healthcare awareness and access problems in India. To achieve this, we needed to build a doctor’s app. The biggest challenge we had was our doctors weren’t familiar with apps and technologies, so the solution had to be well-designed and intuitive.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sparklin Innovations designed the UX of our mobile app, while our team was responsible for development. They conducted brainstorming sessions and multiple use cases that helped us determine our priorities.

What is the team composition?

We interacted a lot with their head of design and senior visual designer.

How did you come to work with Sparklin Innovations?

I worked with Sparklin Innovations for my previous company. We found that Himanshu (Founder & CEO, Sparklin Innovations) and his team excelled at creating consumer profiles and building products based on these personas.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $13,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from July–October 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

More than 40,000 doctors have downloaded the app—about 8,000–10,000 monthly. There are roughly 50,000–100,000 doctors in India, and we’ve been able to capture 15%–20% of them.

I’m extremely satisfied with their work. The app does what it’s supposed to do, and we have not received any complaints so far. We don’t have to train people on its functionality; no one has come and said they don’t know how to use the app.

How did Sparklin Innovations perform from a project management standpoint?

There were no challenges with project management. It was good compared to other agencies we’ve dealt with in different roles. Sparklin Innovations used a project management tool to track timelines. We communicated regularly via phone calls and in-person meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were quite proactive, so we could relax and let them take the lead. This set them apart from other service providers I’ve worked with. They thought about the consumer like we did.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their rates could be lower.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I was the Head of Design at FreshMenu during this project. FreshMenu is a food tech company that crafts daily changing chef-prepared meals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Sparklin Innovations?

We noticed user engagement rates dropping in our website and mobile applications. Our team hired Sparklin Innovations to complete user research for us spanning across three cities where FreshMenu is active. We wanted to listen to our users and start heading toward the right direction before a major overhaul of our products.

What were your goals for this project?

Our team wanted significant qualitative data to gain insights into our biggest and newest users. We wanted to see if users in different cities behave differently and if we needed a product to cater to specific needs. Having this data would also help explain our reasoning while presenting to senior management.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

A small team searched online for UX research agencies, however, we found Sparklin Innovations through a colleague. Our product and marketing teams were involved in the selection process. Even though there was a local vendor, we chose Sparklin Innovations based on recommendations from other startups and because of our first meeting with Himanshu (Founder & CEO, Sparklin Innovations).

Describe the project in detail.

I served as a point of contact between the vendor and my internal team, providing context and answering any questions.

The first few weeks were dedicated to discussing our goals and objectives, then Sparklin Innovations spent a month conducting the research in three big cities. We were constantly in the loop. Their team synthesized the findings in a concise document, which we presented to senior management and built a design strategy around.

What was the team composition?

Himanshu was our primary contact, and they had a small team of researchers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We created features based on the data Sparklin Innovations collected. FreshMenu launched a premium membership tier, which had an active engagement rate and a high number of signups. Our target was 30% for the beta, but it surpassed that by 10%. This was a promising start and nice to see the reactions overtake the initial goals. 

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

My interactions with Himanshu were on a case to case basis. We had weekly calls and communicated through email. Himanshu’s articulation and thought process were noteworthy to our team. He was also very proactive in informing us of any setbacks or issues and managed them gracefully. I was impressed with Sparklin Innovations’ prompt response time and how nicely they integrated with our team.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their strategic planning knowledge and responsiveness were fantastic. Their team easily integrated with another production team for a successful collaboration. Our team learned quite a bit from their research activity.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I was happy with the process and results of the project. They could improve their scheduling during user research activities for participants. Sometimes users can be no-shows, maybe having excess participants could offset that.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and head of operations for TheTeacherApp. Our organization builds professional development content for government teachers across India.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sparklin Innovations?

Our main challenge was having searchable content on our app. As we continued to add content year after year, it would become difficult for teachers to find resources without a proper UI in place. We approached Sparklin Innovations to restructure our content’s positioning and add a layer of gamification to the app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We shared the changes we wanted to make to our existing UI, and Sparklin Innovations designed the wireframes for us. This gave us an idea of what the UI would look like. They then finalized the designs while adhering to our overall guidelines for images, visuals, and so forth.

As for the gamification elements, we’d already built out some components that we wanted to adopt. Sparklin Innovations created a UI for them, working on the app’s profile pages, badges, and more. It was a complete overhaul of our UI/UX, which we’ll pass to our technology team to flesh out.

What is the team composition?

We interacted with Himanshu (Founder and CEO, Sparklin Innovations) during most of the initial meetings. Once the project started, he handed the work over to his team. We primarily worked with Nikita (Senior Visual Designer, Sparklin Innovations) and another person who both led the project. I took over the project management toward the end.

How did you come to work with Sparklin Innovations?

We met with a few organizations before finding Sparklin Innovations. Ultimately, we went with them because they seemed to understand both what we wanted to do and who we were as a company. They also fit our desired price point for the UI/UX project. From the first meeting, the team had a clear grasp of our product and brought some good ideas for us to build upon.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around 400,000 Indian rupees (approximately $5,300 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

Their work lasted from May–October 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We haven’t implemented the UI yet, so we don’t have any current metrics. Once we complete the project, we plan to test it with users.

How did Sparklin Innovations perform from a project management standpoint?

Overall, the project management handled the engagement well. We gave Sparklin Innovations a lot of feedback, and they remained receptive throughout. They held meetings to go over our comments and helped us with several aspects of our product’s design. One idea they suggested was creating a social portal for teachers. We hadn’t thought of that before, so it was useful advice. Toward the end of the project, we needed to extend the timelines a bit, but it wasn’t much of a problem.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were receptive to our feedback and never said no to our ideas. They always gave us additional options and innovated on a constant basis.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would’ve been nice if they’d stuck to the established timelines. The initial phase moved fairly quickly, but we lagged a bit later on. In addition, sending out more details or conference minutes would be helpful. It would allow us to see what we’ve previously discussed. They did this in the beginning of the project but not as much near the end.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Keep all the steps of your objective in mind and know what you want when interacting with their team. This worked for us and was a good starting point for our collaboration. You can always add more requirements to bring value.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of SuperSike Games. We are an indie game development studio based in New Delhi, India.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sparklin Innovations?

Their team has helped us across multiple assets, including brand imaging and logo design.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve primarily used Sparklin for UX work on our games. We also occasionally engage in services projects for games. They’ve provided UI/UX work for those projects, including layout design and user flow.

We start projects by establishing the core mechanics of the games. We involve Sparklin at the prototyping stage, so they can help us create a player journey. If, for example, we’re working on a mobile game, we need to consider what each screen does. We know what functions to include on the main menu and other screens, but they help us organize the whole interface: what buttons should go where, which parts of the menu are secondary and which ones are primary, and what the user flow should be on the pause menus and game-over screens. Each game is different, and our overall strategies vary based on specifications and requirements.

What is the team composition?

We usually work with their project manager and lead designer, but communicate with team members directly as necessary. Their whole team is friendly and easy to work with.

How did you come to work with Sparklin Innovations?

I stumbled upon their website 4 years ago and was very interested in their work. After doing some research, it turned out that someone I knew had worked with Sparklin.

How much have you invested with them?

The overall cost of their work has been $25,000–$30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Sparklin in 2014. Since then, we’ve worked with them on multiple projects. We still onboard them on larger projects that require additional resources.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve received a few awards for our projects. We worked with Sparklin in building a game called One More Run a couple of years ago, and it was listed as one of the top 25 games of the year on the App Store. We reached close to half a million downloads on that game, and the UX/UI were partly why it became so popular.

How did Sparklin Innovations perform from a project management standpoint?

I use Slack and Trello internally. We will occasionally share a workspace with Sparklin depending on the type of project, but we primarily communicate via phone and email. They reliably understand what we need, and the work never gets too convoluted.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They reliably deliver on what they promise, and we’ve never had to question whether something would work or not. They’re always accommodating when we need small changes and almost always deliver on time. They work hard to understand requirements before starting a project, which we’ve really appreciated.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everybody can improve, but this is a difficult question. Sparklin could push me to use their project management tools to simplify the process. It’s possible that they use this approach with other clients.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I advise clients to be completely open-minded. Describe all the requirements without trying to compartmentalize. This allows them to do their best work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of healthcare tech startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sparklin Innovations?

I wanted to create a healthcare mobile app for elderly Alzheimer patients. I’m trying to use machine learning to track patients’ conditions to help doctors know how they are doing day to day. I had worked with a different design firm, but it didn’t go well—they hadn’t understood what I was looking for.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I interacted with a couple of their members including their CEO to discuss what I wanted. They helped me design the UI/UX and developed the app. They’re also helping me with branding. The app is 90% done, and the machine learning part is being built by me.

What is the team composition?

I communicated with a project manager and a UX designer.

How did you come to work with Sparklin Innovations?

My friend referred them to me. They did research to understand Alzheimer’s Disease and the challenge the app addresses, which I was happy with.

How much have you invested with them?

$45,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2018 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app is in a beta testing phase. I know two people who are suffering with Alzheimer’s and they started using the application. There are no major bugs but I don’t want to rush it to market.

Sparklin Innovations understood what I was looking for, what the disease is, and what I wanted to track.

How did Sparklin Innovations perform from a project management standpoint?

I told them I didn’t need the project tracked because I wasn’t in a rush. I wanted quality deliverables. I wasn’t looking to make money; it’s more of a personal thing. They mainly communicated via email and Skype, and their project management was good.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciated their excitement to do a project like this that is very new to them. They studied the subject itself, which I really appreciated.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They can improve their technology skills to match their design skills.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Listen to what they are saying and their point of view.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am one of the founders of 01, Inc. We are creating a new app that projects the “high” of fantasy sports onto the live game. During games, users can predict what happens next and compete against other fans. 

The app is called Oi. We just finished development and are currently beta testing. We hope to launch its baseball component within a few weeks.

I split my time between India and the Bay Area. We are an American company in the U.S. market.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sparklin Innovations?

I designed an app that went through several evolutions. I’ve known their CEO for a while, and he has known about our app for a long time. He's great at design. More importantly, he’s good at identifying usability issues. He doesn’t just make it look pretty; he also ensures that your app functions as it is supposed to.

The app has a social aspect. Winning is fun if your friends know you’ve won and if you can rub it in their faces. The game is live, so users have a lot to say about it. Rather than making weighty comments, they need to vent spontaneously. We have a comment feature to address these issues.

The bulk of the app's screen space was taken up by the contests. Every time something happened in the game, a screen asked the user to predict what would happen next. Interactions with the contest happened throughout the game and lasted only a few seconds. After that, there was a gap for gameplay. 

We used most of the space for contests, while the comments and live stream had barely any. For a long time, their CEO had told me that I was doing this wrong. We needed time to take care of some server-side issues, so I suggested that he fix our UX issue. If he thought that we were doing it wrong, what was the right way? We started off with that. He also suggested that we change our brand name.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our brand name was initially “Streak,” like a winning streak. Their CEO believed that “Streak” wasn’t fun, which a brand name needs to be. We wanted to provide an interesting entertainment option for Americans, but we chose a boring name.

They sent me a few documents. The first was meant to clarify our brand identity. The second was a functional brief of our development goals, based on the current app. We responded to them, and they called us with questions. They followed up by sharing a few mockups and wireframes. We went back and forth on this material a few times.

They had a lot to contribute, not only about the UX, but also about building engagement points and small viral components into the product. They asked a lot of questions about the correctness of our approach and our thoughts on modifying it. We disagreed on a lot of things, but it was interesting and extremely useful to talk with someone outside our team.

What is the team composition?

I primarily interacted with their CEO and a designer.

How did you come to work with Sparklin Innovations?

I met their CEO at a meetup a few years ago. He had been active in the startup community for a long time.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Sparklin in May 2017. The project wrapped up in July of that year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Hard data may not be relevant from a design perspective. The design was universally loved. We have never received a negative comment on any aspect, but there have been quite a few positive ones.

The lack of comments about the design is a good thing. A design that disappears is one that works. Usefulness and usability were our objectives, not prettiness. That is what we achieved.

The new design has no extraneous elements. There is never an unnecessary component on the screen, and things appear only when they are needed. Cognitively, this is very easy for the user. 

We need to share a constant stream of sports data, contest results, and actions happening on the field. The nicest thing about this design is how it is streamlined so that it never feels like too much for the user.

How did Sparklin Innovations perform from a project management standpoint?

We did not use any project management tools. We met at their office for brainstorming sessions.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They start out by questioning every detail. Although they work from our brief, they don’t take it for granted. This is good because we can sometimes make bad design choices. It’s almost like working with our own design team. We wouldn't ask their team to produce one small comment box. They can build a product from the fundamentals, which I find very nice. They tackle issues that aren't necessarily related to the design, but which are integral to the product. They focus on usability without being obsessed with prettiness.

I wasn’t a typical client, and my requirements were different. I wanted a solution to a basic usability problem, not a finished design or logo. I wanted a concept brief that gave a second perspective on our fundamental design approach. They solved our problem well and gave us exactly what we needed. This has been a great experience for me, and nothing negative comes to mind about it.