UXReactor

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of product, technology, and operations for Guardhat Inc. We’re building the first industrial internet of people’s platform. In a way, we’re an 80-year-old startup trying to transition away from being a hardware company towards being a SaaS-based company. Our goal is to build an ecosystem. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with UXReactor?

We started as a device manufacturer; we built a smart helmet and a unique hardware set that has won many prizes due to its innovative design and features. The helmet has a lot of built-in technology with a backend platform to funnel in all the device data and make use of it by building solutions on top of it for enterprises and workers. 

As our journey progressed, we noticed the challenges of hardware manufacturing due to supply chain and logistical issues, certifications, and sales challenges. Over the last 12–18 months, we made a strategic change in our focus to de-emphasize device manufacturing and focus on the software side of the business. 

We decided to invest in building an internet of people’s platform and the ecosystem around it. We needed help building that ecosystem and wanted a partner to think about a UI and put the user and their experience first and the design third. I wanted to understand our user personas, the problem we had to solve, and the best-in-class experience we could provide to help solve that problem.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

UXReactor designed our product's UX for two of the user personas we identified. Initially, we wanted to take a broad approach and design an experience for each user persona. However, we later decided to focus on one specific kind of user and two user personas tied to them. 

They helped us identify the user personas and solve their entire experience. UXReactor did their own research and managed our internal research process, acting as a quarterback and guiding us through getting user feedback, interfacing with the users, and creating mock-ups. 

With UXReactor's guidance, we used a third party to find the right people in the industry to interview based on the personas we had identified. We had an internal session to determine the project we needed to solve, the flow, and the features we wanted to provide. UXReactor worked with our product management team to determine how we needed the product to behave. 

From there, we created low-fidelity click-through mock-ups. Then, we interviewed 5–10 users to get feedback on the mock-ups and identify pain points. UXReactor helped us assimilate the feedback to ensure the UX matched the requirements. They created another version of the mock-ups. Through an iterative process, UXReactor created the high-fidelity design. 

Using Figma, UXReactor delivered the UX designs for two personas across the desktop and native mobile experiences. The team delivered a complete design system that outlines the product's visuals, colors, and fonts. 

What is the team composition?

Lalatendu (Senior Experience Design Strategist) was our main point of contact. Initially, we worked on the research track with a research lead and a support resource. Then, the design team took over; we had a design lead and several other teammates. 

UXReactor also provided a project management team, and Satyam (Managing Partner & Chief Experience Officer) was also involved. 

How did you come to work with UXReactor?

We created a detailed RFP that we sent to providers we knew of asking for proposals. Some of the other design firms that sent me prior work had better visuals and a better 'wow' factor than UXReactor. However, Satyam asserted that the 'wow' factor is short-lived, and what carries over is the complete experience. 

UXReactor was focused on understanding the user persona; they first defined the experience and then focused on the design because the entire duration of the experience is more critical. This focus aligned better with our goals, so I went with them. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from May 2022–February 2023.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

UXReactor was very collaborative and accommodating. We didn't always make things easy for them because we didn't have the right level of product management resources, but UXReactor was very amenable. Ultimately, we developed a good camaraderie with UXReactor. Although we wanted to continue our engagement, we decided to end it due to internal financial decisions to focus on implementation and execution. 

How did UXReactor perform from a project management standpoint?

Initially, we had a six-month contract, but as we decided to narrow our focus to two user personas, we collaborated with UXReactor. Once we chose the whole native experience for two personas, UXReactor extended the contract without charging us more. 

We used Slack, Zoom meetings, phone calls, and email to communicate. We used Confluence pages to document our timeline. For the research portion, I met with Lalatendu and the research lead to discuss what we had learned and needed to address. Then, our design lead coordinated the design efforts. 

After every meeting, the project management team summarized the feedback and sent us a recap with reaction items they followed through on. They recorded the meetings, action items, and artifacts on a Confluence page. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

UXReactor's strength was their project management in terms of corralling and handover. Additionally, they were very strong in the research part of the project. Even though they didn't have domain expertise and it took us time to get them up to speed, once they understood the landscape, they were great at doing research against the user personas. The team did a good job with market landscaping; they laid out our competitors and how to convert our solution into a transformative experience. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Our development team had some technical challenges that weren't obvious to me when we started the project. I understood UXReactor would provide everything our developers needed, such as converting Figma to HTML, but that wasn't the case. 

We initially thought we could achieve a broader spectrum of UX design. Although readjusting expectations and narrowing the project was a mutual decision, the ultimate result has made me wonder if we got the full value of the money we paid. Although this process could have improved, it's been a learning experience for us. 

In the first month and a half, we ended up educating them on the landscape, which was a bit of a waste of our resources. I would expect UXReactor to have domain knowledge on their own to some extent. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be narrower and more profound in what you're trying to achieve. While you should still paint the bigger picture, your project should be focused. We took a couple of months to narrow down the project and should have done that from the beginning. 

Additionally, it would be best if you had a solid project management team that could operate with UXReactor's design team. The design team is looking at a higher level of UX, so they can't be a substitute for a product team. You should define the broader use cases or requirements for the development team. Therefore, there should be a layer between the design team and your engineering team. On the other hand, ensure you understand you need a UI engineer to convert the Figma design to your programing language.

Although there are cheaper options, at the end of the day, you get what you pay for with UXReactor. You should balance out the cost and temper your expectations, especially if you're a startup. Think through how to make the most efficient use of your dollars because an investment like this is a big decision.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of product development at a data analytics company. We’re the leader in software-defined storage focused on delivering highly performant and available block file and object solutions. Software-defined storage allows customers to leverage heterogeneous solutions, bringing them all together. It presents a single storage interaction to customers’ applications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with UXReactor?

Our organization was moving into a new category and needed to get into the space that’s still becoming a commoditized business. We were looking to innovate the stack in the area of analytics and insights to launching a new cloud-based service to provide analytics on customers, storage infrastructure driven from instrumentation, and telemetry data that’s running On-Prem.

The product would involve surfacing customers to make sure their environments are running as expected. It can detect those issues and resolve them in a closed-loop process through actionable insights and make proactive optimizations as well as do predictive analytics on their environment. That was something traditionally new from an On-Prem, Windows-based management to move into a web SaaS world where low friction and UX becomes paramount.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Conceptually, we knew what we wanted in terms of future specs and the type of analytics we wanted to present to the customer. We engaged UXReactor with our overall concepts. In the kickoff meeting, we went through all the customer journeys. We did this by stepping through the customer need statements as well as building out personas and customer empathy. Then, our teams walked through journey maps across the board.

From there, we focused on the screens and what elements our personas needed to interact with. This involved starting with the interaction design, going into wireframes then to high fidelity mockups and all the feedback loops. UXReactor also provided an overall style guide of branding elements and how we wanted to be represented externally in terms of colors, fonts, and so on.

What is the team composition?

The team consisted of a design and research lead (Sarah), a researcher, an interaction designer, and a visual designer.

How did you come to work with UXReactor?

We had a running between three different design firms. UXReactor had a lot of the bells and whistles we were looking for. We did have some previous history with the founder of UXReactor as well.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested a little under $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement was from February 2019–February 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They were pivotal in us building a successful cloud product and changing our organization’s culture in terms of introducing the importance of UX; not to mention the importance of simplicity in products and how we approach engineering in future developments.

In the past, the storage space was all about the number of levers and knobs that we could have. But that’s very intimating to new customer acquisition and coming in with a pragmatic user-centric design. Simplifying that to meet business objectives and bringing in that mindset was transformative at our organization. It helped pave the way for how we’re approaching and thinking about our future in terms of the vision for our storage infrastructure.

How did UXReactor perform from a project management standpoint?

They were extremely flexible in terms of plugging into our process and four-week sprint cycles. Their team was always available for anything we needed. We used project boards as well as held daily sync-ups, design sessions, and review sessions multiple times a week.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The biggest thing is the importance of UX and driving that in. It’s critical to have that level of credibility come in from an outside firm. We don’t know what we don’t know until someone comes and shows it to us. UXReactor is an expert in their field. They helped change the thought process we have at our organization.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s all about the level of engagement and effort you put into it. If you’re heavily invested and care about that space, they’re going to deliver or exceed the expected results you have.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the president and CEO of an online dispute resolution company based in California.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire UXReactor?

We brought in UXReactor to improve the interaction and visual design of our new platform, CREK ODR. The functionality in the platform is strong, but the UX is weak because it was just thrown together by the developers. We needed an expert eye to help us take it to the next level.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to make CREK ODR easier to understand and use. People come to us to provide an easy way to conduct and participate in disputes, and we want to make an easy to use experience for them.

Any mediation or legal dispute will add enough to someone’s plate - the last thing we want is for someone to have further frustration from not understanding how to use our platform.

SOLUTION

How did you select UXReactor?

I previously worked with Satyam, one of UXReactor’s co-founders, at PayPal and I have followed the company's progress since then. In fact, I had co-founded a prior company called Modria and Modria was UXReactor’s first paying client. Needless to say, UXReactor and I have a long history together.

Even when I was at Modria an UXReactor was just starting out I was really impressed by the caliber of their work and their passion, so when we were launching CREK I felt UXReactor would add a lot of value to our product.

Describe the project in detail.

UXReactor assigned a project lead who took care of all project management aspects, and kept things on track and on time. They presented a 3-week plan, and delivered a full readout by the end of it as planned.

They sent regular status updates to keep us informed on what they completed, what they were going to work on next, and identified risks to raise awareness and create mitigation plans.

What was the team composition?

UXReactor’s team consisted of 4 team members - a project lead, 2 interaction designers, and 1 visual designers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We received great user feedback since we’ve released the product. The team had picked up on issues we didn’t see or were blindsided by, all of which would have led to poor user experiences, satisfaction, engagement, or retention.

We are thankful for the work done by UXReactor because they mitigated a lot of potential risks we would have faced and therefore contributed to the overall user satisfaction and growth of our product.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very efficient. They came into our meetings well prepared and ready to listen. They asked good questions that helped us understand what we wanted better. The was zero churn in our interactions -- they are pros, so they know what to ask and when.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The thoroughness of their work was second to none. I was very impressed with how comprehensive their readout of design issues and improvements were. In addition, they identified design issues and provided us with a scoring mechanism that objectively assessed the design health of our platform.

It was extremely easy to understand and more importantly, we knew what specific actions we needed to take to generate the greatest impact.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We’re a young platform, and we're just starting to grow revenue, so hopefully we'll have the resources to do another deeper engagement with them soon so we can find where else we can improve value to our end users. But I found the insight they delivered to be invaluable and I'll be on the lookout for another opportunity to work with them soon.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a relatively young startup working in the API security niche of cybersecurity. We’re building an enterprise cybersecurity product. I’m a co-founder of the company, and I run the product and engineering team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with UXReactor?

Being a young startup, we initially built our own UI and product features. We quickly realized that we needed to spend some time and resources on refreshing the UI/UX of the entire product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project scope was to do some user research and combine that with our existing feature set in order to refresh the UX and visual design.

What is the team composition?

We had a total of five people working on UXReactor’s side, including a project lead, visual designers, a product manager, and several engineers. I led the project alongside our director of engineering, who was responsible for implementing the UI.

How did you come to work with UXReactor?

A contact in my network referred them to me. They worked with UXReactor and were extremely satisfied. I evaluated two companies in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with UXReactor between November 2019–April 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve released all of UXReactor’s work into our product. We’re using the same design for both our free community tool and the enterprise product we offer. Numerous users and customers have appreciated how simple and easy the visual design is to navigate.

How did UXReactor perform from a project management standpoint?

The project lead really helped. I was taking care of a lot of other things, so I appreciated getting weekly updates from them. They detailed the work they did and then outlined the next items on the list. They brought up potential roadblocks in advance, making sure we’d still meet deadlines.

UXReactor worked very closely with us, so they were an extended team from my perspective. I could call upon and engage them in discussions, and we had daily standups.

They followed a systematic methodology, and that helped us go through the process of doing user research, collecting feedback, and combining that with the existing product features. Using that, we were able to create a framework that allowed us to continue development. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They had a methodical, proven process for going through some of the visual designs. Secondly, I really liked their visual designers. They surprised me multiple times with very nice interpretations of what the product should look like.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We achieved our goals, so I don’t have any criticisms for UXReactor.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

UXReactor is well-prepared for any UX or visual design engagement. My only comment is that, the better prepared the client comes, the better the outcome will be. They let us know what we’d need once the engagement started, including a feature set of the products and an introduction to the company. We gave them all of that information, so we were able to start running from day one.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Blume Global is a worldwide leader in supply chain visibility and logistics software. My role is the Director of UX.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire UXReactor?

We hired UXReactor to give us a thorough rethinking of the User Experience so far. We wanted to leverage current best practices for elevating the experience. It is a complex process that was in dire need of simplification.

What were your goals for this project?

To increase completion rates for any flow in the creation of a business object; to gain greater visibility, throughout the platform, of a container and/or shipment; to foster consistency of experience across the suite of products.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

The main criteria for selecting UXReactor was their familiarity in solving complex problems for enterprise software with elegant solutions. Their ability to empathize with the user and keep them at the center of the product development process would give us an unparalleled business advantage.

Describe the project in detail.

UXReactor was asked to create a net new experience for an experimental concept. They owned all aspects of design starting from a discovery kick-off to the final deliverable, a clickable visual prototype. The engagement also involved creating a unified framework that could bring 5 different products into 1 single framework.

To achieve this, UXReactor conducted a series of SME interviews and card sorting exercises, validated the new information architecture through user testing, and proposed 2 scalable design approaches for execution. In later engagements, we engaged with UXReactor again to help improve the UX for existing products where the workflows were incomplete.

They ran initial design audits to identify areas for improvement and conducted multiple discovery sessions with various stakeholders to gather the knowledge needed to deliver a complete, user-friendly experiences.

What was the team composition?

There was a team leader that became our primary contact; she was a UX Strategist. Then we also had several Interaction Designers and a Visual Designer. For the research, we had a Senior Researcher. Rounding out the team was insight and direction from a principal of the firm, the Chief eXperience Officer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The work that UXReactor completed for us became the de facto eXperience we leveraged as we sought to redesign the existing product and complete any new features. There work was instrumental in elevating the thinking of the in-house UX Designers and Product teams. We could not have traveled as far and as fast as we were able without their framework and solid deliverables.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow is best described as: seamless. They became an extension of our team and embedded themselves in a way that allowed us to incorporate their thinking without losing a beat in our delivery.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their process is rock-solid; it goes far beyond design to really look at the ecosystem of the business in total: from the various personas to the onboarding of new users complete to those that have been using the system for a considerable amount of time.

Are there any areas for improvement?

This is a hard question to answer since I became such a fan of their work. If I were pressed to think of a certain factor, it would be how they could simplify their communication in a way that can quickly describe their business impact for the C-suite. For someone in my position, I’d like to have the reasons crafted to readily justify why I hired UXReactor.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief product officer at a cybersecurity company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with UXReactor?

We were looking to build a new platform and move our user interface to HTML5 technology. We didn’t have any in-house UX, visual design, or user research expertise on staff, so we looked to UXReactor for help.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

UXReactor helped us set up new UI standards for the new product. For the actual design, their UX designers worked within our scrum teams and worked directly with the engineering team. The third service they provided was user research, wherein they developed a structured research process. They worked in HTML5 AngularJS.

What is the team composition?

We started with three members from their team, which expanded over time. Now, we work with six people from their team, comprised of a UI designer, visual designer, and a user researcher. The user researcher our main point of contact as well as a project manager.

How did you come to work with UXReactor?

The business model they provided made sense since we’re very small. To hire a UX designer, a visual designer, and a user researcher would have been very cost absorbent. UXReactor was able to provide a team of three at the cost of one full-time employee.  

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $225,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in July 2016, and our work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We do a lot of iterative testing with internal stakeholders, existing customers, and also non-users; the feedback has always been positive. The UI is intuitive and easy to understand.

How did UXReactor perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication is very good. The team is very good at meeting their deadlines. We use Microsoft Teams, Google Docs, and Pivotal Tracker to facilitate collaboration.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their biggest strength is that they train their personnel very well to iterate. They come with multiple options and take feedback very well, and are always ready to iterate quickly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their biggest challenge is their level of experience and retaining their experienced staff.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I wouldn’t use them if all you’re trying to do is revamp your web page; that would be an under-use of their skills. If you feel really strongly about UX and you have a strategic project, that would be an excellent fit for them. They’ll do a lot of research and iterate constantly.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m head of solutions management for a telecommunications company. We create software products that run telecommunication networks and business management systems for telecommunications companies or enterprises with larger networks. We’re a software incubation group. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with UXReactor?

We were well into a software project and realized that we didn’t have a design for customer interaction. That portion of the project was also unfunded, so we needed to quickly bring in a designer to handle the intuitive presentation of a tremendous amount of data. It was essential for users to navigate through the software seamlessly.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They designed the wireframes and screen that displayed how a user would navigate through the software. It was a collaborative relationship because they passed the designs for our team to develop in Java after they were complete. Once we determined together how a user might accomplish a certain task, they moved onto the visual presentation side of the work. We had a number of very specific design problems, and they helped us determine how to solve them. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with between 10–15, which includes designers, data visualization specialists, the owner, and a project manager. 

How did you come to work with UXReactor?

From our network, we knew the owner of the company. This was helpful because we were able to approach him without much of a solidified idea of what we needed. Our existing familiarity with each other helped us work together to locate the right resources and scope of the project. After he provided us with advice, he offered to submit a bid for the project with his company. 

How much have you invested with them?

For the first project, we budgeted $1.3 million. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2019. At this point, we’ve renewed our contract for another project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their process and methodology were impeccable. They had the ability to guide us and be effective consultants. Despite us not knowing what we wanted, they helped us make important decisions on design problems. They helped us solve big problems.   

How did UXReactor perform from a project management standpoint?

There was some back-and-forth, but it was necessary for our company to experience it. Their team helped us make decisions and confront the necessary issues. They did an outstanding job of keeping us on track and updating us on progress. We communicated mostly through email and phone calls. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to question our processes to help us expose the company to a new way of problem-solving was important. The methodology we were using for this project was very different from our typical operations. Their ability to open our eyes to new methodologies and perspectives has a profoundly positive impact on our team. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The majority of their design team is in a different time zone. Things may have been a little more smoothly if we determined a time zone for all of our teams to follow consistently, rather than switching back and forth.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d invite companies to think about their design problems in new ways with the team. That’s what they’re best at.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of design and product innovation at Tekion Corp, a B2B software company. We also design and develop software solutions for automotive dealerships.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with UXReactor?

As a startup company, we were looking for a design firm that could help accelerate us by building us a design system that was user friendly and would reduce training cost.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

UXReactor started with a comprehensive research report, wherein they explored the field of dealerships to understand user processes and workflows. They delivered the report, which contained insights about our customer, and then used their findings to build the entire system, from wireframes to experiences. In terms of design, we’d given them specific guidelines in some engagement areas, and in others, we were quite flexible. The process was collaborative, iterative, and feedback-driven.

The design system is essentially a style guide equivalent. It defines how screens should be created and for what use cases. It helps with standardization and usability, and it’s really important in terms of scalability and speed to market.

The team also did a mobile experience for us, as well as user journey maps outlining pain point analyses. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with over 10 members of the UXReactor team. We had several project managers, including at the senior level. We also worked with the CXO. 

How did you come to work with UXReactor?

Our CEO and CFO had reached out to a couple of different firms, and they’d tried at least two of them, but a lot of them didn’t deliver the experiences we were looking for. It was also difficult to find someone who could deliver as quickly as we needed. UXReactor has a really strong process-driven approach to design, communication, and transparency, which we found superior to other firms. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The project took place from January 2017–January 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

One of the most important things we’d set forth was to ensure it would be really simple and easy to train our customers on the platform. That’s been a resounding success. There’s an ease of training based on their thought processes.

How did UXReactor perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management skills were excellent. UXReactor met our needs for day to day updates extraordinarily well. We had at least three different tracks running simultaneously at the peak of the engagement, and they were able to give daily updates with timelines for every single project both at a summary level and on a very detailed project level. If there were ever any changes to the plan, they were very clear and communicative. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their processes are their strength, which allows for consistency. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing that comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Leveraging research is really important. There were a few areas where we could’ve talked to a few more end customers to understand their pain points better, and those were instances in which we had to go back and rebuild things. UXReactor isn’t just a design firm, they’re a research firm, so not leveraging that aspect of their work will be a detriment to the value you can drive.