Widelab

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

PeerPal is an educational software company that helps schools to tell their unique stories by connecting their prospective families with members of their community. I was the founder and CEO of PeerPal from September 2019 until it was acquired in July 2021.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Widelab?

We were doing a complete overhaul of our client dashboard (what schools used to view analytics and manage their ambassador programs) and had Widelab lead the entire UI / UX design.

SOLUTION

How did you select Widelab?

We searched online using several different resources and then interview several firms. Widelab stood out for their design process and for the opportunity to work with them on a short design workshop before committing for the full project. Krystian was also super responsive and made it clear that we would be getting a high level of dedicated service from them.

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

We started with an intensive three day workshop where we did everything from discussing pain points to mapping out user stories to constructing a mood board. By the end of this workshop, Widelab was able to start constructing a rough UX prototype. This UX prototype went through several iterations based on feedback. Once this was finalized, work began on the UI screens the final deliverable.

There were opportunities to provide feedback at every stage of the process and Widelab was super responsive to our requests.

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

We had three main people that we worked with in addition to the founder, Krystian. We had a full time UX person working with us at the early stages and then had a UI designer working with us full time once we got to the UI stage. We also worked with their head of development at times to consult on how to implement their designs with our engineering team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The new UI was praised all around by our customers. It was a huge success!

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective. We used a Slack channel as our primary means of communication. Updates were regular (usually daily) and their team was very flexible about hopping on calls whenever requested.

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

Their communication, flexibility, and intense desire to ensure the project was a success for us were impressive. They would regularly ask us about what outcomes we were hoping for and checked in to make sure that they were meeting our expectations. They were also incredibly efficient without compromising on quality.

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

Honestly, not really. I would (and hopefully will!) work with Widelab again.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a SaaS startup in the United States. We make an enterprise software application used by fortune 500's, governments and any engineering firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Widelab, and what were your goals?

We needed to be able to scale up design, development, quality assurance quickly and also be able to scale back down and up again when need be.

SOLUTION

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

We selected Widelab based on their clear understanding of our needs and goals, their past performance, and price reasonableness.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The application we are creating is incredibly complex. We desired apple-like ease of use and a world-class design. We were blown away at Widelab's ability to understand our vision and help bring it to life. As a developer with 25 years of experience myself, this is easily the most complicated and complex project I've brought to life. We could not have done it without Widelab.

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

We worked with about 10 different people from project managers, designers, developers, to testers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

With tough deadlines and intense technical challenges, the Widelab team felt like an extension of our own team to get us to each milestone.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Widelab is easy to communicate with. We used slack, zoom meetings, figma, jira, and weekly emails. We have very dynamic engagements.

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

If you want first-class software applications, we highly recommend Widelab.

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

None come to mind.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Klarbi, an all-in-one travel platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Widelab?

We were trying to find a good designer or design studio to redesign the entire app from scratch and carry out design and product enhancements.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Although I only hired Widelab for the UX/UI redesign, they provided some extra animations, videos, After Effects prototypes, logo, branding, and more. It took about five months to redesign the entire app, and it was a pretty comprehensive scope because it included the customer and supplier sides.

To jumpstart the project, I had a previous design on Sigma, which I used to record a 50-minute video explaining every feature. I also provided a PowerPoint presentation with the style guide, including font style, colors, picture layouts, and more. Ultimately, Widelab delivered new Sigma files.

The app is an all-in-one platform. You can book your trip on one site instead of 20. It’s also collaborative, so you can share your trip with others and split payments between your travel companions. Those are the top functionalities.

What is the team composition?

I worked with two people. Michal (Senior Product Designer) was the designer, and there was someone else in charge of doing the animation video. She was the director of the animation and motion graphics team. She was the intermediary between the design team and me, so I didn’t meet them.

How did you come to work with Widelab?

Before I selected Widelab, I reached out to almost 50 design studios all over the world and did about 20 interviews. Out of those interviews, they were the ones that impressed me the most because they understood the product and what we needed. In addition, they were straightforward and very reasonable in their pricing.

Other than that, the most significant thing was the communication channels they had in place. Anything that I needed, they answered promptly after I submitted my request.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working around January 2021, and we have an ongoing partnership. We’re in the process of raising funds right now, so after we launch and generate some revenue, we might get an in-house designer. For now, I definitely see us working with Widelab for at least another year or two.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The redesign was awesome. If you compare the previous version of the product with this one, it’s just crazy. They did a fantastic job.

How did Widelab perform from a project management standpoint?

To be honest, I was surprised by the communication channels they had in place. Whether it was through email, text, or something else, they answered immediately. They never made us wait for more than an hour or so. Any sort of debate we had about design or budget, we would get an answer right away.

We mostly communicated through Slack, Zoom, and Loom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It was their attention to detail. They just went forward with the details and really paid attention to every single aspect of the product. In the end, they over-delivered.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As an engineer, I understand that sometimes things take eight days instead of 4–6, but if they could be more precise with estimations, that would be great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communication is fundamental. Sometimes you might lose details because you only had one meeting or two. With Widelab, we had several meetings to talk and go into detail, which was the main difference from other vendors.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

kinastic AG is a young Swiss company with an advanced fitness and lifestyle platform for middle to large enterprises. My role in the company is that of the Head of Software.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Widelab?

We hired Widelab to bring into life (through UX/UI design) the requirements we had for our kinastic Coach, a fully virtual and automated fitness and lifestyle coach which is using AI algorithms to analyse every individual’s needs and capabilities and as a result provides customized coaching in fitness anywhere and at any time.

What were your goals for this project?

The main goal of the project with Widelab was to create an easy to use interface for a quite diverse clientele, all while maintaining a fresh look that would reflect the values of our company. A secondary goal was to bring an unintrusive interaction between our users and the virtual personal coach.

SOLUTION

How did you select Widelab?

The search kicked off by evaluating the designs posted n Dribble and Behance and factoring in previous experience with similar fitness projects. The next filtering was done based on reviews gathered from various sources around the internet.

Describe the project in detail.

We kicked off the project with a small workshop based on the requirements already defined. We created a roadmap and we described in even greater detail the features that should be part of our MVP release. Here the professional experience of Widelab helped us to maintain the ROI high and inside the time and money budget allocated.

What was the team composition?

The team through the course of the project consisted of 1 Project Manager, 1 Art director & a Senior Product Designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As this is a MVP product the biggest success was that it finished in a timely manner and in the previously defined budget. The initial feedback that we received from our beta testers was really positive regarding the aesthetics and "feel" of the app.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The communication between the internal team and Widelab was top notch. This brought the maximum efficiency and results from our co-operation even during the difficult period of the pandemic.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The passion that they put in their designs and the ideas that they were willing to present in order to improve the product even more.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing that comes up our mind.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a payment processing company and payment gateway for both card-present and card-not-present businesses. My role is director of business development and product development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Widelab?

We hired Widelab for the complete redesign of our payment gateway.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a clean, intuitive and modern UI for our product. The original UI was very outdated and we needed something that was cohesive with today's user experience.

SOLUTION

How did you select Widelab?

We must have interviewed 10 design agencies for the project. Widelab was the most transparent and had the strongest portfolio for our budget. They also had experience with financial platform which was a big plus. What I valued the most was their honesty. They didn't say yes to everything like other agencies do and they made suggestions on how to make the UX more intuitive right out the gate.

Describe the project in detail.

We needed a complete redesign of our minimal viable product. The platform supports credit card transactions, e-commerce checkout, financial reporting, customer vault, security settings, invoicing, subscription billing, and more. In short it was a big project.

What was the team composition?

We were assigned a project manager, designer and lead developer for converting the design to code.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They completed the prject with flying colors. We ended up with a beautiful UI and new UX that was top notch. Widelab crushed it.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The work flow was fantastic. We had two weekly calls, one with design and another with developers. They added our team to their slack channel and trello account.

The best tool in my opinion was Figma. We could see live updates and easily add comments down to the pixel. It was very easy for us to provide feedback and request revisions.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was very impressed by a lot of things. Widelab was very professional, fast, and just flat out talented. They really know their space and it was nice to work with a team that could make our vision come to life and improve our vision at the same time.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The only area of improvement I can think of is their internal communication between designers and developers. The developers built a few older revisions of the design and didn't know what was ready for development. This was resolved very quickly, however.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Frontegg is a ready-made platform for SaaS companies, enabling them to quickly and easily create SaaS offerings without having to build everything themselves. It can be easily integrated into an existing SaaS offering, making it simple to add critical functionality.

Frontegg is in itself a SaaS, provides both the backend and frontend of each component, allowing companies to modify elements via the platform or by editing the CSS directly. Frontegg’s components become an integral white-labeled part of a SaaS solution’s management dashboard, ultimately seen and used by a SaaS company’s end customers.

As the head of Operations and Compliance at Frontegg, I work closely with all departments and was able to experience and review the outcome of this project with Widelab over the last few months.

We are always looking to work with companies that move quickly and efficiently, at the same quick pace as us, and who are able to provide a high-level standard of service that suited our needs and brand. Widelab was definitely one of the more professional and high end graphics and development companies we have worked with to date.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Widelab?

Frontegg is a dev platform that provides plug-n-play enterprise SaaS components for integration into your SaaS product: things like SSO, Audit logs, Reporting, Notifications, Team Management, 3rd party app integrations (and much more).

With growth stage customers and new products being launched weekly, we needed a website that would reflect our diverse product offering and that was easy to navigate, to demo and where we could offer self service product integrations.

We wanted our company brand and new shiny product offering to shine through via our landing page and content creation.

What were your goals for this project?

We were looking for a top notch web designer company that could understand our company brand and provide a final product that reflected our brand and service.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Dribbble

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Web development, content, branding, graphics. Landing page.

What was the team composition?

We worked mostly with Karol K. https://dribbble.com/karol_kos and Krystian S. https://dribbble.com/krystianslowinski/about

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We feel confident about our current landing page and graphics and are most certain that it will assist us in portraying the branding and messaging of the company overall. The site is professional, well thought out and easy to navigate. We have received many compliments from our customers and from visitors to the site and we have been asked for a reference to WideLab from people who love the design.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was organized and structured through Slack and was efficient and easily arranged.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

1. Lot's of creative and experienced UI/UX talent
2. Fresh graphic perspective and ideas
3. Very flexible, always there to help us meet those crunch time periods 
4. They were very pleasant to work and communicate with. All of our team enjoyed working with them
5. Everyone is WOW-ed by the design they did!

Are there any areas for improvement?

N/A

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company produces advanced software for the healthcare industry and I am the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Widelab?

We needed a professional and sleek website with informative graphics and a clean design. We engaged Widelab to help us with the design elements, unique illustrations, and web development.

What were your goals for this project?

To have a new website, within a strict budget and time schedule.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We went through a number of design firms from Dribbble and interviewed 10. We selected Widelab because of their professionalism, strong design skills and great communication.

Describe the project in detail.

They redid the website and communicated with us frequently.

What was the team composition?

We interfaced with the main designer and main developer, who themselves fronted a team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've gotten great feedback on the new design and illustrations. I am very happy with the end result. The site looks great.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective - they worked on US hours, which was very nice of them, and we had great communication. Issues were resolved quickly. They took our feedback on illustrations and made them look amazing. They took our vague ideas and turned them into something very nice.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Easy to communicate with and ver professional.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We were happy

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a software development company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Widelab?

We had some design problems that needed to be resolved. We needed neat and clean designs, and we contacted Widelab to help us with it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It was a smaller project. We had some design problems with content, text, and presentation of the complex data. I had given them the sketches, explaining what I was looking for and the importance of it.

Once I explained my requirements, they went ahead and handled the solution. There were some challenges initially, but they took it really well and resolved any issues.

What is the team composition?

I worked with the project manager and a designer.

How did you come to work with Widelab?

I found them on the Drupal website. I saw their profile and found them interesting. I decided to contact them, and they got back to me quickly.

How much have you invested with them?

They initially gave me an estimate of $4,000. After my requirements changed, the final cost went to approximately $5,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in June 2020, and the work will be completed in a few days.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Widelab easily understood my problem. I’m satisfied with the quality of their work. They’re great at what they do.

How did Widelab perform from a project management standpoint?

The communication has been proper. When I ask for something or need more feedback, communication is good. They’ve given me access to their Slack channel, and the tools they are using are capable of communicating properly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The service was good, and everything was fine. I’m satisfied.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Because of the time zone difference, it happens that I’m on holiday or they’re on holiday.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would recommend working with them because they’re friendly and will do it within budget. I suggest going ahead with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of an organization that creates innovative solutions on the Office 365 platform to help user adoption and drive effective collaboration with an emphasis on user experience and value.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Widelab?

We engaged Widelab to help with a comprehensive review of both our user experience and visual design for our new upcoming product. This involved reviewing requirements, use cases, our previous design and coming up with a new visual design and interactions to help streamline the process for end users and administrators.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a more modern and flexible design based on industry best practices and to reduce confusion with users.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We searched online in various design sites including Dribbble and ended up contacting a few companies. Widelab however was the clear choice as their skills were top notch and the communication with their team was superb.

Describe the project in detail.

We initially started with a requirements and user experience review. Then we worked with Widelab iteratively coming up with new ideas and designs. This worked extremely well as we could quickly develop new features and ensure that they were acceptable before burning unnecessary hours.

What was the team composition?

We worked with the account manager and a UX designer who was the lead. Some other designer were involved but it was all funneled through the two leads.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our previous design for the product received acceptable reviews from customers but nothing super positive. Since the new design and UX work the praise has been universal.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Collaborating with Widelab was the best experience that we have had with a remote vendor. They are super quick to respond, always ready to listen to feedback and good, honest people. It was a great experience.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Every interaction from the very beginning was top notch. From the initial contact with the owners to the team, everyone was professional, knowledgeable, and highly skilled. We are based in Canada and there is no way we could find that level of talent here so we are super happy and will be continuing on the relationship with them for the future.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Honestly not really. The timezones can be a bit of a challenge but we handled that the best way that we can.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the product manager of a startup based in North America. We have 6 employees. I oversee the business requirements, UX and UI of our platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Widelab?

As a startup with a small team, we did not have a brand or brand identity, or any in-house design expertise. We hired Widelabs to create our visual brand identity.

What were your goals for this project?

The final deliverables were logos and a full ui guide, including components to used on the platform.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We reached out to one the partners as we really liked his portfolio. He mentioned he started Widelabs with some partners.

Describe the project in detail.

We had an initial call with Widelabs, and agreed the best path forward was for my team to put together a brand identity document, and a wish list of components for the UI guide. The components were based on the Bootstrap framework.

What was the team composition?

We conducted all discovery and initial conversations with an account manager. As the work began we also communicated with the designer who designed the concepts screens and the UI guide.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Within 6 weeks, we had a logo, concept screens and a completed UI guide. The engagement with Widelabs was very much a success.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The cool, calm and collected professionalism of the Widelabs team very much complimented our teams culture, and worked well together. Their English was very good, and communication excellent.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They were very responsive to requests and to address feedback. Timelines were adhered too. Their design work is simple, elegant, and well thought out.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Only suggestion is to provide more context and why things were designed a certain way.