UXeria

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Orbico is a distribution company working across 12 European countries. We distribute goods for various well-known brands such as Procter and Gamble, Lavazza, and more.

I’m a project manager within the organization, and I’m in charge of our e-commerce B2B platforms that distribute the products from our suppliers to store owners. On these platforms, business owners can order products from our entire portfolio of about 30 different brands.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Uxeria?

Uxeria is helping us with two of our B2B e-commerce platforms. One is the platform for our alcoholic beverage products, and the other is for our FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) products.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Uxeria collaborated on the content creation, design, and delivery of our e-commerce sites. In the beginning, we met and defined the project’s scope and deliverables. We agreed that they would do some preliminary market research to benchmark our business and determine which technology and features we were supposed to have.

Then, we worked together over Figma and Azure to review mockups and oversee the graphic design process. Uxeria produced lo-fi and hi-fi designs and delivered them to our development team. They also tested everything afterward to verify the quality of their work.

Now, we’re still working together to improve the functionality of our platforms for the next release.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with two UX designers, a UI designer, a design lead, and a project manager. I’ve mostly collaborated directly with the UI/UX designers.

How did you come to work with Uxeria?

Uxeria was recommended to us based on their previous experience in the B2B sector. They had the necessary knowledge in the field and some really good reviews from a mutual business partner.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over €200,000 (approximately $235,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2019, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

During the first phase of the project, when the platforms weren’t yet up and running, we measured Uxeria’s ability to deliver on time and stay within the budget. They hit both marks. Since the platforms went live, we’ve measured their performance, user attention, and sales figures, and the results have been great.

How did Uxeria perform from a project management standpoint?

Uxeria’s communication is clear and smooth, and they always propose new ideas. These suggestions have helped our customers have a better shopping experience. Overall, Uxeria has been very proactive.

Additionally, their estimations are quick and on point, and their work has needed no changes. We use JIRA for managing the project, and we communicate over Slack. We also have weekly or bi-weekly calls through Teams; they’re very responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Uxeria has ample experience in B2B projects, which is impressive because there aren’t many e-commerce companies in this space; most of them are B2C. They’re also very flexible and cooperative, and their proactive team knows how to make suggestions for helping us achieve our goals.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Any issues have been addressed during the process. Our engagement is a work in progress, and Uxeria usually implements improvements within the next week. Overall, they’re great at continuous improvement, and they’re very open to feedback.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clearly state your needs and limitations. Additionally, it is helpful to have a competent team member collaborate with Uxeria, particularly someone who knows the systems and products and can assist in passing on the knowledge to their team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a CEO of a company that was providing IT service (buidling the actual solution for the end-client)

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Uxeria?

The Petroleum company was looking for a new, revised scope of services and utilities for it's new App. The scope was UX-analysed for the next 2 years.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We took into account some of the leading UX agencies in Warsaw - Mobee Dick, Uxeria and one more. UXeria was best when it came to pricing, elasticity and versatility of servicies.

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

1. Pre-workshop. Desk Research & competitive solutions
2. Workshop. In-depth review of the solutions of the Petroleum company and their further plans for IT-ecosystem development
3. Post-workshop with detailed action-plan, divided into 8 or 9 stages. One year quarter each.

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

2 people - CEO - Igor and Marek, his right hand. I assume more people might participate in the proces in the back-end.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project became quite a success in the long run, it also received Mobile Trends Awards nomination. Therefore, I can assess the work of the UX agency after some time.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective. Actually I would not expect that level of confidence from small agency to manage the process with such a Behemoth as this Petroleum Company.

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

Actually, that the CEO was at the same time subject-matter expert and provided lots of insights.

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

Well, actually in such a complex process usually the largest obstacle is the difficulty to implement all the ideas that come from this

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of The Heart. We build startups for corporate clients and support them in their digital transformations. We work predominantly in the banking, financial, and insurance sectors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Uxeria?

They're our partner in designing the UI/UX interfaces for the products we develop.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Uxeria designs sites, marketplaces, and mobile apps for us and our clients. We’ve worked on a portfolio of projects with the first one being designing our own website. We were in the middle of pivoting our services portfolio so we wanted to change the website to fit our new offering. Uxeria ran an analysis of what we were doing and what our new operating model was, as we went through all the consulting phases to try and understand our audiences. They started developing wireframes and designed a final user interface.

I don’t know what tools they used to build the site, but what I appreciated was that it wasn’t just a team of designers that started painting our website — they dug deep into our business needs before designing the website itself. We gave them a lot of the materials that our clients usually receive about our products, because they asked us to give them anything that we use to introduce ourselves to prospects. Apart from that, they also participated at the very last stage of our strategy development with our consultancy team. 

Uxeria also ran their own research with our clients and potential clients, to understand how we’re perceived. I saw the results and the recommendations based on this research.

What is the team composition?

We work with a couple of people, including their senior UX designer. Uxeria’s CEO also participated in meetings at the beginning of the project, as well as a representative from their research team. We then worked with a senior graphic designer on the wireframes and the final design later on.

How did you come to work with Uxeria?

They were recommended by a colleague of mine, who’s a famous marketeer from the retail industry. We met Uxeria and discussed their methodology of work, and we looked at their portfolio — we quickly came to the conclusion that we wanted to give them a try, and they’ve been working with us since then.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent somewhere between €150,000–€200,000 (approximately $178,700–$230,200 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Uxeria in late November 2018, and we launched the site at the end of 2019. The collaboration is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve had a significant jump in the quote requests that we get through the website. We do a lot of mobile app and website redesign projects with clients, and Uxeria is our core contractor for that. Our clients are also very happy with the work.

The team members working for us are never below mid-level specialists. Igor (CEO) is a UX designer himself, and he’s a well-known figure in the field. He’s also a very good storyteller, and we’ve used him as part of our sales process. He really knows how to talk about design, and he convinces our clients to trust us. In addition, Uxeria is fast, they deliver on the timelines they promise, and the sheer quality of their work is really good.

How did Uxeria perform from a project management standpoint?

This could probably be done better, and I’m aware that Uxeria is now hiring people to focus solely on project management. They’re a boutique organization with no more than 25–30 people, and they’re mostly just experts in their field. They have researchers, UI/UX designers working with us directly. This means that they’d be difficult to reach when they’re focused on their work. However, it hasn’t affected our dates, and we’ve had a smooth collaboration so far — we’re really happy with Uxeria. 
We don’t use anything overcomplicated, like specialized project management software. We use Excel to work on timelines and Slack for communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We work with big corporate clients that expect to work with providers that are recognized names or brands. We compare Uxeria with big marketing agencies, and we really like them from that perspective. They’re a small boutique agency that focuses solely on UI/UX design and development. They have no other agenda on their minds, and they don’t try to shift the focus to places that have bigger margins.

Secondly, in comparison to other agencies that focus on UI/UX, Uxeria has a really strong team that’s recognized in the market, and unknown agencies usually try to recruit Uxeria’s people to their own teams. When I task them with a project, I know they’ll do their jobs really well so we don’t have to look elsewhere.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be good if they had more people on their team to focus solely on project management, especially since we’re working on a portfolio of projects today. Our people are talking to them on a daily basis, and without someone to manage communications, we’ll have delays of a day or two when someone’s busy or on holiday. Other than that, I can’t think of anything that’s important enough to mention.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

My advice is to plan ahead. Uxeria is a small team with quite a big list of clients. Clients need to wait in order to get a slot with them. If they’re in a hurry, it’s better to plan ahead.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a digital health startup preparing for launch of a new disruptive model for continuous care management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Uxeria?

We hired Uxeria turn our idea into a product, designing the app that we are bringing to the market soon.

SOLUTION

How did you select Uxeria?

I have worked with Igor & Uxeria team on other projects in the past, and really appreciated their dedication, UX design skills, customer focus, so it was an obvious thing to hire them for my new startup.

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

The team spent enough time in workshops understanding our vision and goals. They reviewed and challenged our ideas, opening our eyes to many potential solutions. They created a vision and design system of the app that we really liked. Then we started working in weekly sprints to finalize different elements of the application.

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

We worked with a team of 4.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are just starting, but first feedback from our clients (doctors) and our investors is great.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We feel like we are one team. Loving every minute of it.

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

They impressively understand the business, dive into the topic, walk in the customer's shoe, and talk to clients is impressive. You can see they bring their years of experience and UX skills to turn our rough ideas into beautiful software.

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

It is important to set weekly status meetings from the start to keep a nice rythm of work and review of deliverables.