Xplines Digital

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the COO of Calico Spanish

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Calico Spanish provides curriculum and supplemental resources for elementary Spanish instruction and learning.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Xplines Digital to accomplish?

• Redesign the app to include features and layouts that motivate consistent learning and practice
• Reduce complexity in navigating between lessons, exercises, and progress tracking features
• Update the visual design to make the app more appealing and aligned with contemporary design standards

SOLUTION

How did you find Xplines Digital?

Upwork

Why did you select Xplines Digital over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Clear communication

How many teammates from Xplines Digital were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Our Spanish curriculum is hosted on Wordpress and features a custom experience for teachers. We launched our online curriculum in 2016, and the experience is outdated and clunky. The goal behind our partnership with Xplines Digital was to revamp our curriculum experience and to create a teaching portal through which teachers access and teach Spanish. Our Spanish curriculum features over 350 lesson plans and over 400 hours of content across 4 levels. We sell to both schools and homeschool families.

Key Deliverables

• Design a teaching portal through which teachers and parents can easily access our curriculum and navigate through the lesson plans and content
• Redesign and organize our Resource Library with over 400 hours of content so that it's easy for users to quickly find and access content 
• Understand the different needs of school teachers vs. homeschool families and create two seperate experiences to cater to those unique needs
• Create subtle upsells within the curriculum portal to advertise our supplemental products and add-ons
• Ensure ease of navigation between our teaching portal and our main website which hosts our pricing, blog, and informational pages. 

In addition to designing our curriculum portal, Xplines Digital worked with us to improve our checkout flow and free trial experience. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Checkout experience:

Xplines Digital redesigned our checkout experience to lower the number of steps from add-to-cart to checkout and improved visibility into the differences between subscription types. We're already seeing improvements on Hotjar in conversion rates and time to checkout. 

Curriculum experience / teaching portal

Xplines Digital's design is still in development by our dev team, but early feedback from our test users and curriculum team has been very positive. We're very excited to roll this out.

Free Trial experience

Xplines Digital worked to decrease the amount of content offered in our free-trial to avoid overwhelming users. Less content and improved navigation have led to an overall better experience. We've seen an increase in time from sign-up for a free trial to purchase and in overall purchases.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Xplines Digital has been one of the best teams that we've worked with. Their commitment to excellence, communication, and ability to stick to deadlines were top notch. I only write reviews when a contracted company has either performed abysmally or has surpassed my expectations. Xplines Digital falls into the latter category, and I highly recommend them. If you hire Xplines Digital, you can be sure that they'll bring experience, research, and work ethic to your project. 

What was your primary form of communication with Xplines Digital?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I've worked with a lot of companies that had great communication, work ethic, and ability to stick to deadlines. What separated Xplines Digital is the research that they did behind the scenes. They dove into the nitty gritty, asked detailed questions, and listened to feedback. I had a design vision for our teaching portal, and Xplines Digital's design is much different than my original vision. The result is a high-quality design that our test users and curriculum team love and are excited to use. 

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

N/A

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an Executive of DIG

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a B2C and B2B business building our web3 projects and going direct to consumers, as well as working with leading brands looking to get into the space.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Xplines Digital to accomplish?

• Corporate website design

SOLUTION

How did you find Xplines Digital?

Referral

Why did you select Xplines Digital over others?

• High ratings
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Xplines Digital were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

This project involved the end-to-end design of a corporate website, with a focus on representing our brand, engaging our target audience, and fulfilling all functional requirements. The scope of work was divided into several key stages, each with its deliverables.

During the initial Discovery stage, we focused on explaining our business, and the goals of the website, and discussed our expectations. As a result, we hammered out a game plan, including the timeline, the content plan, and the budget. The next stage was Wireframing where we were presented with the sitemap and high-fi prototypes of the key pages that outlined a visual guide for layouts, content placement, and user interactions with our website.

After this, Xplines Digital started working on the design itself, developing desktop and mobile versions that aligned with our branding. They also delivered documented guidelines that described typography usage, colour schemes, and animation. The key deliverables included a structured and commented Figma file with layouts, optimized media assets, as well as text guidelines we were able to share with our development team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The final design met all our initial project requirements and specifications, including layouts and branding guidelines. It also complied with outlined functional requirements such as responsive design, and UI elements we requested to include.

The key design milestones, such as wireframes, mockups, and final designs were delivered according to the agreed timeline. Xplines Digital also managed to handle all revisions within the project’s timeframes. Last but not least, the final budget review confirmed that the design phase was completed within our financial constraints, with a detailed breakdown and justification of every milestone delivered.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

After the kickoff meeting, we were presented with a detailed project plan that included key milestones, deadlines, task assignments, and resource allocation. This plan served as a roadmap for the entire project. Their dedicated project manager kept us informed with regular updates on project progress through weekly status reports and online meetings. 

The response time was also great. Due to our business nature, we had to travel quite extensively with frequent time zone changes, and we never experienced any issues in comms – the project manager was always in touch and addressed our requests promptly.

Xplines Digital was flexible in accommodating the changes we made to some of our requirements and maintained a balance between staying on track with the project timelines and adapting those adjustments. All in all, we received the finalised project as expected, with no delays and hiccups.

What was your primary form of communication with Xplines Digital?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They were extremely professional on every step of the project from top to bottom. Regular comms, superior design quality, and flexibility were impressive and resulted in a smooth transition from their design team to our development team.

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

No, I can't think of any areas for improvement. Everything was performed to the highest standard we could expect.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the marketing manager at Axual - provider of an all-in-one Kafka platform for enterprises

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Xplines Digital?

We needed a new website and branding. Xplines Digital designed and developed our website from scratch.

SOLUTION

How did you select Xplines Digital and what were the deciding factors?

We looked for designers within Upwork in Europe. We needed a team that could deliver quickly with high quality. Xplines Digital did an excellent job and was able to deliver value every week in small, quick steps. Our feedback was taken into account and they we are able to act on it.

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

We discussed our goals with them and quickly came up with a MVP for the website. They made a few quick designs to decide on the direction we wanted to go for the rest of our website.

For every page we gave them the raw content/text and Xplines Digital translated that into a wireframe. They also took our marketing toolstack into account to make sure everything was integrated. After the wireframe phase they provided us with a few design options to choose from.

After the design phase they were pretty flexible with feedback and making changes. When agreed they developed the page and pushed it to production. In that way we could see the page live on our desktop and mobile. This was really helpful.

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

In total we worked with 3 different people. Project leader, UI/UX designer and a developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They deliverd an outstanding website and branding. As of today, we are still working with the team for new marketing campaigns.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective. Communication via Slack, email and Google Meetings was perfect. That’s all you need.

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

I was blown away by their speed of delivery and high-quality standards. From idea to concept and from concept to production takes them a few days. That’s insane!

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

No. We’re really happy with the result.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am CEO and founder of a marketing services company. My agency provides various types of marketing services for established companies and startups

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Xplines Digital?

In 2019 my agency worked with LightPoint, a company that provides unique lighting solutions for museums. Website design and development were an important part of the marketing plan, and I hired Xpines Digital to take care of both.

SOLUTION

How did you select Xplines Digital and what were the deciding factors?

Our primary goal was to find a contractor who will be able to come up with elegant design that emphasizes the products offered on the website. Also, I wanted to work with someone who is able to implement the design after its approval. Since I had positive experience of working with Vlad, the agency's CEO and co-founder, on previous projects, I reached out to him and requested a proposal.

Ultimately, their portfolio and approach were deciding factors to hire Xplines Digital.

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

The LightPoint website had to be a lead generation tool for the company to boost sales and brand awareness. I had plenty of content, incl. texts and images approved by the stakeholders and I sent these materials to the design agency.

Then we had a few online meetings to discuss the deliverables, project stages, and the expectations. Once the details were discussed, Xplines Digital started working on the design concepts according to the plan we approved together. The concepts were presented to my client, who chose one of them to move forward with, and the design agency worked on the wireframes, so we could approve the structure and sections of the website.

This stage was very important because it was necessary to capture leads and I wanted a few contact forms to be integrated seamlessly in the design. When the wireframes were approved, Xplines Digital finalized the design for desktop, sliced it and coded into the website.

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

I worked closely with Vlad, who is CEO and a co-founder. Also, I met online with the lead designer who was responsible for the design. So, 2 people total.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

My main concern was to combine elegant design with effective lead capture because my agency had to start a marketing campaign after the website launch and we understood we wanted to receive as many leads as possible to integrate them in our email blast, etc.

After the website was launched, we received 100+ contacts within 2 weeks which was very good, and also I heard very positive feedback about the website from LighPoint stakeholders.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I think it was very effective. From the very beginning we agreed on the communication plan and the tools we would use – email threads for ongoing progress and questions, phone calls and online meetings for presentations and discussions.

Ultimately, I think I saved a lot of time on communication because Vlad was my primary point of contact and he did it effectively on regular basis

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

Apart from the design skills and expertise, I was very happy with the project management and customer experience. The process was well-documented and I received regular updates on the progress made, and what's more, their team was very patient and professional when we waited on approval from LightPoint stakeholders who requested certain tweaks on design after it was delivered.

Xplines Digital was an example of a company that knew how to make its clients happy with the outcome.

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

No, I can't think of any areas of improvement. I was very happy with how it started and with what we received in the end.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of Prysmatic Labs, a small tech company composed of around 10 people. We work on the actual infrastructure of the Ethereum blockchain, writing the code behind it as well as providing developer tools and open-source software.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Xplines Digital?

A lot of people use our open-source software, so we wanted this product to be targeted to non-technical people who benefit more from facing visual interfaces. We engaged Xplines to design a web interface for our software.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Xplines began by looking into and understanding what you were trying to build and who we were trying to build it for. We described what pages and sections we needed designed and provided them a textual breakdown of the user journey and user stories. 

The team then produced visual examples of design directions that we could take. We gave them our approval, and they put together an original design based on that inspiration. We laid out milestones for the project, from wireframing and designing high-fidelity mockups for each web page. They made sure that each page would appear nicely on both desktop and mobile, and they used Figma for that job. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with two people from their team. My point person was Vlad (Co-Founder & Creative Director), but the lead designer was Lesya (Head of Design).

How did you come to work with Xplines Digital?

I found Xplines through Upwork. We saw in their portfolio that they had done work for other clients in the same industry. They also had a really good price point. When we reached out to them, they were very communicative and responsive, so we decided to give them a go.

How much have you invested with them?

We paid a total of $10,000 across all of the different milestones.

What is the status of this engagement?

This design project lasted from March–May 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our users are very happy with the interface, which shows how well Xplines thought about their journey as they came up with the design. A large chunk of our users rely heavily on the web interface, and the work that Xplines did for us directly impacts the UX and, in turn, the value that we bring into the network. Our software currently runs 80% of the network that's worth $30 billion; it is used in critical capacity to secure over $23 billion. 

How did Xplines Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

The communication between us was very smooth, which I believe was helped by the fact that I’ve worked with designers in the past. Xplines listened to our input and were very receptive to our feedback. We let them do their work independently, but their team would reach out to us in case anything tricky came up. We didn’t feel the need to micromanage them, as they were able to complete every milestone in the time expected. 

We communicated through Upwork, email, and occasional video calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Xplines is a very professional agency that delivers great quality designs for good value. A lot of other agencies will market themselves for being cheap or fast, but that’s not what the Xplines team does. They focus on the quality of the work and aligning it with what we need. Another stand-out about this team is how proficient they are in English — something that’s not very common with international freelancers. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I want to leave this is their fault but perhaps they could come up with a more original set of designs as opposed to simply executing our requirements. We were hoping to see them propose some of their own ideas, but, then again, it may have been difficult for them to do so given that they’re not really a part of our own team and only have access to limited information.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It would do you good to take a look at Xplines’s portfolio to see if their previous work is similar to the one you’re looking to do. They would doubtless still do a good job even if your project is something outside of their range. However, making sure that they have the experience and related background will help you have a smooth communication of ideas. There won’t be any need to explain yourself or your requirements too much to the team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Operations Manager for a biotech startup, Debut, that uses a proprietary platform technology we have pioneered called cell-free biomanufacturing. We use cell-free biomanufacturing to unlock and overcome the limitations of cell-based biomanufacturing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We were wanting a more viewer-friendly, interactive, and modern website to attract new partnerships and recruit employees. Vlad and his team did a complete redesign of our site. They were fast, communicative, responsive to feedback, and overall great to work with. We're very happy with the outcome and love our new site. We get positive feedback quite frequently.

SOLUTION

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

Vlad and his team were quick to provide quotes and ideas. They were much less expensive than many of the other companies that we had spoken with, and we felt they had comparable skills and visions for the site. We're happy we decided to give them a chance.

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

The scope was overhauling the entire website. It started with a couple of meetings and emails regarding the general vision of the site and some inspiration shots. The Xplines team put together a detailed vision board site with pictures, text, and pages.

Once this was approved, they quickly got to work building the site. After some minor tweaks, they migrated the site for us to go live. They still maintain the updates and are very responsive to any issues that we encounter.

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

Vlad, company co-founder, was our primary contact, and he worked with the team behind the scenes to streamline communication and reduce the work for our team. We really appreciated having a single contact to reach out to, and he made sure to get everything done on the backend.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Xplines team was able to get the new site to the top of Google searches really quickly. In the last 30 days we've had 5,002 unique visits to the site, which for a 20 person start-up is great. We get many inquiries and applicants directly through the site.

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

All very strong. Very responsive, fast and attentive to detail.

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

Overall just a very stress-free experience. As I said earlier, they were considerably less expensive than their competitors and provided a comparable quality of work.

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

No.