yuj

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the VP of Products for DataVision. Our company has been providing software solutions for the banking and financial services industry for over two decades.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire YUJ Designs?

We wanted our core banking product to have a visually appealing new design for the global market.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to create a more attractive design and better user experience for our site. 

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We found a couple of companies on the web. After narrowing down the options to two vendors, we selected YUJ Designs based on their proposal, presentation, and project approach based on studying our product. We engaged them for our website project once we agreed to a timeline.

Describe the project in detail.

YUJ Designs redesigned the entire UI/UX, including all the user screens. The delivery included wireframes and HTML code. We also engaged with them on the Website design for our Latin American market.

What was the team composition?

Three UI/UX and Three HTML developers including the lead worked on our project. I'm not sure exactly how many teammates were involved.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

YUJ Designs conducted a lot of research before providing us with a solution. We had a good experience overall. 

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

YUJ Designs was always responsive. Despite some initial hiccups, but the management team’s timely intervention smoothed out our interactions during the later stages. 

What did you find most impressive about this company?

YUJ Designs provided several iterations for each solution. They have an excellent and professional approach.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We did not face any issues during the website design stage. One thing they need to look into is planning the deliverables. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We operate in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) retail market. We have a couple of solutions that help retailers in FMCG companies. We’re primarily a technology- and product-based company. I'm the CTO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with YUJ Designs?

We had an almost three-year-old enterprise product, which was quite boring. Our sales team was always complaining that people weren’t able to understand its functionalities. It was even a challenge for our internal staff to understand the product, so they weren’t able to convince clients about its benefits.

We decided to create a second, new B2B platform for retail. We knew we wouldn't have a second chance to correct it, so we wanted to make sure we made the right UX choices from the start. With the platform, we wanted clients to be able to complete orders in three clicks, and the daily active user count needed to represent 40% of all usage.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided simple requirements, primarily consisting of our business objectives for the company and the product team itself. The platform isn’t too complex in terms of functionalities, but we wanted users to be focused and to understand it the first time without too much need for explanations or descriptions.

They helped us in a couple of areas, including UX/UI development. The UX was whiteboarded on paper, after which they used Zeplin to transform the concepts into visual designs. They helped us build the Android app along with an HTML web version.

What is the team composition?

They have a great team on the UI/UX side. There were two UX people assigned to us along with three UI developers, one of whom had experience on the UX side as well. There were two Android developers.

How did you come to work with YUJ Designs?

I knew them from my previous organization where they'd been a contractor in one of my projects. I was impressed by the amount of detail they went into in order to understand the project. They didn’t cut any corners and did justice to the design rather than pleasing the client.

That impression carried over when I had to select a firm here. I vetted a few companies and shortlisted two. YUJ Designs stood out in that they also had the capabilities to execute. In addition to visual design and research, they could deploy the people who could get the task done. It was the complete package for a startup environment like ours.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from February–June 2018. Most of the things we wanted to accomplish on the existing product were done within the timeline we wanted.

For the new product, we wanted to enter the market, take a step, listen to the feedback, and understand what’s happening from a business and end-user perspective. We took a break in July in order to reassess.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m sure there’s been a positive impact, both quantitative and qualitative. We do have metrics, but there are a lot of factors to consider. We’re still working on it.

The only feedback so far has come from investors and clients, who’ve told us that the new app looks amazing. It's made a great impact across the board, on both the investment side and the client side.

We’re currently in the process of launching a by-product of the platform we’ve already launched. We may start looking at more work in the coming months but are just in the talks process right now.

How did YUJ Designs perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Jira for project management. It was basically kept in our hands, and not done with them. Their resources are self-governed, and they work in the agile format. Their people would send us details about what they’d accomplished that day. As a startup member, I get satisfaction from being able to look at an email at the end of the day and see that information.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciated their understanding and focus on the design side, along with how they mentor their team. YUJ Designs’ CEO mentors their new people. As a result, each of their team members has taken on the culture of focusing on design and not succumbing to the pressure of a client or a project. They do the right designs, and, if they’re not convinced, they do more research, figure it out, and do the right thing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m not a UX expert, so I can’t really comment on this.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s important to have a complete package. When I started the engagement, I also had my own HTML and Android developers. But getting a complete package is great, one that includes conceptual design, UI/UX, and backend development.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the EVP of IT for a large, private, life insurance company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with YUJ Designs?

We wanted to transform how our company uses digital in their distribution and sales team. To do this, we needed UX and design changes. We’d already onboarded one person, but it took almost a year to recruit them. Attracting more talent for was proving very difficult.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Whenever we have a project that requires UX resources, I’ll ask YUJ for a few profiles, interview those profiles, and select one or two that would fit best into the environment, and achieve the company’s needs. We’ve engaged YUJ Designs on an as-needed basis, for projects that require UI/UX resources. They’ve completely revamped our website with UX and design changes, they’ve worked on a B2B project, and they’ve designed an employee app for us.

UX is a different skillset than UI design. When working with their resources, I’ve looked at whether they are able to talk about research, personas, information architecture journeys, and wireframes—which is where the UX work ends and the UI work begins. All the resources we’ve worked with, especially for the website revamp, were familiar with these concepts, and they had experience with them.

What is the team composition?

Currently, we’re using two resources from YUJ, but we’ve worked with a team of up to five at times. They have all kinds of UX resources, from junior, to mid-tier, and up to top-tier.

How did you come to work with YUJ Designs?

I met their team at a conference where they mentioned that they specialized in UI/UX changes. We explored several other partners before meeting with them, but I found that some were very expensive and that most of the other players were design or UI, interaction people.

The questions YUJ asked—along with the answers they provided to the questions I asked—confirmed that they really knew what UI/UX means, that it’s different from UI and design, which most of the other potentials talked about. Their leadership understands design thinking, which was very important.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $250,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since January 2017. They’ve worked on several projects so far, all of which are currently live, but we’re doing subsequent reviews on these projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m unable to come up with quantitative data, given that their resources are part of a larger project team, but it takes between one–three weeks for us to get a resource onboarded, from the time we request it. This is a good turnaround time compared to that of other partners, where it can take six to eight weeks to get a resource onboard. Most of their resources have done their jobs like they were asked to, and most of them have met or exceeded our expectations.

How did YUJ Designs perform from a project management standpoint?

I’m not qualified to comment on their project management, as we haven’t used this service yet, but the resources they’ve provided are good and flexible. They did propose a remote model, but given that we needed them to be part of a larger team, all of YUJ’s resources have been on-site.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re hungry for business, and they’ll do whatever needs to be done in order to succeed. They’re unique in their understanding of UI/UX. One resource, in particular, has exceeded our expectations in terms of strategic thinking and balancing things out in the short- and long-term. They’re the kind of designer I would hire in a heartbeat.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They can find good resources, but the prices are high, especially since we’re working in Indian rupees. They might want to send resources that are not up to our standards, but it’s up to us to say to say yes or no. It would be idealistic to think that we can find a partner that can get everything done right in terms of UI/UX design.

Their resources are creative people, who can sometimes find it challenging to work in an environment that is not associated with creativity. UX resources tend to question and challenge the status quo, while also having to deal with technical elements. This is an improvement area for at least one of the five resources we’ve worked with. That person found the collaboration difficult, but it was a combination of our limitations, as well as those of the resource.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I advise clients to screen their profiles and make sure that they’re getting the right level of seniority and expertise. Clients need to assimilate these resources into a larger team, so that they can be successful, especially for projects that they’re working on as consultants.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We develop software portals for the telecom industry. I lead the UI/UX team based with our development staff in Pune, India.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with YUJ Designs?

The demand for UI/UX designers is huge in India, given the number of IT projects in the area. There are both startups and giant companies that demand this service, which makes finding talent a challenge. Design talent is also difficult to hire directly and recruitment typically takes 3–4 months, which is a very long time for our industry.

We were looking at possible collaborations with larger partners so that we could quickly fulfill the requirements on multiple projects. We needed a partner who could understand user requirements and convert those into usable, intuitive designs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

YUJ Designs initially worked on two different projects, one being our core products and the other a delivery for a customer. We had a few other internal teams that needed UX design services and we couldn’t spare any designers from our team on the task. YUJ Designs offered resources to them as well.

Their UX designers will convert our requirements into wireframes, based on their knowledge of usability models and domain trends. Their graphic designers then convert those wireframes into graphic designs, also keeping in mind the typical use cases of the interface, along with current trends.

What is the team composition?

We started working with three designers from their team and are currently working with eight.

How did you come to work with YUJ Designs?

Our first interaction with them was in September 2015. I knew about their partners from an organization I had worked for a long time ago. When we started operations in India, I was approached by them with a proposal. We had a discussion in order to learn about their capabilities and past work. They had enough manpower and they had worked on similar projects to ours.

We needed three designers to start working on the two initial projects. I was given a few résumés, out of which we chose our resources.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our first project together was in January 2017. The collaboration is ongoing and we’ll be onboarding two more designers from their team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

YUJ Designs has the skillsets we need and the ability to understand our requirements. They have been in this domain for a while. Their talent is sufficient for any of the projects we’re working on. We’ve received continuous feedback from our clients over the last year about the qualitative aspects of their design work.

How did YUJ Designs perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Slack for communication, which ensures good communication and reduced turnaround times. We also use InVision for sharing wireframes and graphics within our team and with the client. We can receive feedback on particular screens or flow issues. That feedback is converted into action items and closed.

We solicit client feedback on a continuous basis and involve both our internal designers and contractors in that process. We make any interventions as needed based on this feedback.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re good at providing the right talent to an organization, which has made our hiring process much faster. We have focused on quality in this area and aimed to work with vendors who could give us that. YUJ Designs has provided us with quality resources on short timelines. Having a location in Pune, India, is another advantage.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They should improve the process of providing information about resources available for on-boarding, this should include better and consistent format for providing resource information. That would make it easier for us to make decisions.

We have a non-solicitation clause with them, which means that we can’t directly hire any of their designers for a given period of time after that person has left the company. I understand that they spend a lot of time and money sourcing talent—but losing knowledge when an employee leaves is a challenge for us. YUJ Designs should find a way around this.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

YUJ Designs’ directors are designers themselves and they focus on quality rather than quantity. There are many vendors on the Indian market willing to provide designers or developers but talented people are harder to come by. I would recommend YUJ Designs to anyone who is focused on quality.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product UX manager for a sales and marketing consulting firm. As part of the consulting work that we do, we also have a suite of products that we sell to or operate on behalf of our clients that solve sales and marketing challenges. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with YUJ Designs?

We wanted to redesign the admin section of a product that helps sales representatives determine who they should call. We had redesigned the end-user portion of the software, and we needed the administration section to reflect the new capabilities that we’ve added to the frontend and be easier to use when configuring or setting up the software.

All of the administrators of that software are in Pune, India, so we wanted to find a UX company in that area that would be able to work with the actual users of the product. We firmly believe in designing with the actual user in mind. All of our UX designers at the time were in the United States, and we just didn’t feel that they had enough access to users. We also didn’t have enough people for the project. Up to that point, we had done all the work internally. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We needed to do a complete redesign of the entire administrative experience, starting with interviews and observations of how people actually use the tool to configure the software. The project included lots of different touchpoints with users, including workshops, usability testing, interviews, iterative design to dig into the shortcomings of the current experience, and a lot of co-creation exercises with end-users in Pune to iterate different wireframe versions of the application.

I really liked YUJ’s approach because they do what I call “real UX,” which is a blend of research and design. I didn’t want them just to look at the screens and then design something from UX best practices or mobile trends without really understanding what our users need. Many design approaches might not fit an expert audience like ours because the product needs to be fast, be highly flexible, and support bulk and batch entry. This isn’t a standard UX design for a consumer or a casual user, so I think the design principals are different and must rely on a firm understanding of how people are doing their jobs.

YUJ is comfortable and confident in the design realm. They used a variety of UX research techniques to understand real needs are and cut through the impressions of non-users.

I remember the first versions of the screens. I’d looked at their research output, and I understood a lot of the problems that our users were facing. When they drew the first version of the screen, it made perfect sense to me. I saw how their solution was directly addressing issues that we had uncovered. Other stakeholders of the project took a look at those first screens but weren’t connected with the research, so they weren’t as impressed. YUJ was able to push back and explain their reasoning behind each design.

We were assigned 2 resources. One person was leading the project primarily as a researcher and an information architect. He proposed how items should be labeled and organized. The second person was more junior but was learning about the research and project management. His expertise included interaction design. Once you understand what each page has to do, which is the job of the information architect, then you move to the actual screen-level design where you’re laying out the controls in an intuitive way.

I rarely find that combination of research/information architecture and interaction/visual design skills in a single person. Having both skill sets creates a good blend as far as designing an entire product. If you have 1 without the other, you’re either going to have a beautiful product that makes no sense or a functional product that doesn’t look good.

How did you come to work with YUJ Designs?

We were looking for someone in Pune, India. We received several proposals and heard presentations. We really liked YUJ because they provide both research and design, and they were able to walk us through the full UX from various projects on complex domains.

Our work is incredibly complex, and our products take difficult and hard-to-solve problems and make them seem easy. If you don’t have experience with enterprise-level software or complex projects, then many of the paradigms or the design solutions won’t be robust enough. I don’t want someone to cut their teeth on enterprise complexity with us for the first time. YUJ had done similar work in complex spaces like ours, so they seemed like a good option.

How much have you invested with YUJ Designs? 

We spent between $50,000 and $200,000 on the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2015, and the project was finished later that year. Because we really liked the results, we extended our contract with the interaction designer for other products. He actually stayed on as a contractor for several months after that, and we were pleased with his work. He acted as a member of a full product team to augment our capacity. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

I don’t have quantitative results because we ended up choosing not to build what YUJ designed, which had nothing to do with them at all. Qualitatively, I think that their work really gave the team in Pune a better sense of user-centered design because they had someone on the ground involving them in all this research. Several people from the Pune team reached out to us and explained that they now understood what we meant by user-centered design and how it’s different than just visual design. YUJ was truly rethinking at a fundamental level how the tool worked and aligning it with users’ needs and expectations.  

The process really helped us understand the challenge better in terms of leading UX for an entire product suite. If we don’t make every effort to do the work well, we’ll redesign and release something that either people won’t use or will complain about. If that happened, our users would go with a competitor because their product may work better. Spending more time in the beginning to do research saves time in the long run.

How did YUJ Designs perform from a project management standpoint?

I thought the project management went very well. I didn’t want to have to keep track of the team or micromanage them. They set up all the meetings and hit their deadlines. If they had any trouble, they reached out to me. They did what they said they were going to do. I was pleased with their results, and I didn’t have to worry about constantly reaching out to them.

What did you find most impressive about YUJ Designs?

They have an extraordinary ability to do research. They don’t just design in a vacuum; they truly solve user needs. A lot of places claim to have that skill but don’t do it well or rely on a single technique. They leveraged a lot of different research techniques and reacted in the moment as the project progressed. After observing our challenges, they recommended better strategies. That kind of adaptability and expertise is exactly what we wanted.

Are there any areas YUJ Designs could improve?

Nothing really sticks out. The lead on our project was excellent. I think they’re really good at what they do. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

UserZoom is headquartered in San Jose, California. We have offices across the globe with employees in both the UK and Spain. The company started in Spain and is now incorporated in the US. We provide designers, product managers, marketing leaders, and user experience researchers with a SaaS platform. This is software that people with these positions use to conduct all sorts of research including agile, quick feedback, benchmarking, and user experience research activities. The primary focus of users is on enterprise organizations, and we are catering primarily to the Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 companies.

I am VP of research consulting, and I also head up our participant sourcing. Customers that buy our annual subscription and software need help throughout the year to conduct research. Every user experience research study needs participants to run the study, and if you are getting feedback on your website, you will need someone to go to your website and give you that feedback. We have tools that help you do that, or you can come to us and we can source them for you. We have our own panel and are integrated with third-party providers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with YUJ Designs?

This wasn’t the first time I worked with them. I was in research and design at my previous position at PayPal, so my relationship with the founder of YUJ goes back to my Master’s program. My professional relationship with him started in 2006.

At PayPal, I needed design boards for research and design. At UserZoom, I’m more focused on global research.

Our need last year was that we had a customer who wanted to run research in the education field in five countries. They wanted us to provide them feedback from university students and professors on their education software. The countries they were targeting were the US, UK, Spain, Singapore, and India. UserZoom has a presence in US, Spain, and London, so we’re coordinating those three countries. For Singapore and India, I needed a partner. The engagement with YUJ Designs started last year on the research side. Since then, they have done two or three engagements. Right now, we’re working with them on research in China and India. I used them for design when I was at PayPal, and with UserZoom, I’ve primarily used them for research.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They do the work and come back with a report, or we work collaboratively for the presentation. We use them as a full-service agency, or, one of my research leads will work with a YUJ team member who is running the research and integrate those findings. The output from YUJ can be video highlights, a full report with four-point deck, or a bunch of written notes with one deck.

I have done four projects with them so far, including the one that’s going on right now. They were all separate engagements except for the current project.

How many resources were assigned to your project?

There are three resources right now, and my point of contact is Prasadd. The people that we are exposed to are two other individuals who are hybrid designers and researchers. I don’t know if there are others working in the background. At PayPal, I worked with designers, not researchers.

How did you come to work with YUJ Designs?

I had used them before and was happy with their work. They were the first people I went to for this project. I knew what they would charge because we had done this several times. I tried other design firms who claimed they could do research, but YUJ was my first choice.

For design work, it depends. There is lots of competition from multiple design organizations in the US and India. At PayPal, we were doing a lot of comparative evaluation, but YUJ had this niche, and I knew some of the designers. There was also a cost and benefit analysis. I’ve tried some of the vendors in Asia, but they overpromise and underdeliver, while YUJ has never done that.

How much have you invested with YUJ Designs?

We have spent between $4,000 and $15,000 per project, or around $50,000 total. We are trying to convince our US based customers who want to do research globally, but haven’t gotten to that level. I expect the partnership to grow more.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2016, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We look good in front of our customers, which has made an impact. Even though they’re just doing the research work in the background, we are consolidating that global feedback and taking it to our customers. If it weren’t for YUJ, I wouldn’t have known how to get it done. The value was delivering this massive, global user experience through research, insights, findings, and recommendations. The other advantage I get working with a design and research hybrid agency is that their research can be displayed in a visual format. The recommendations I get from most other research vendors are bullet list and four-point. The recommendations that I get from YUJ are bullet list and four-point, followed by some wireframes and design ideas, which I know our customers love.

I’m chasing my professional services business, so that is a financial impact. The education based company that we did work for has spent a lot more dollars with us based on their earlier experience with us. The 2017 contract with them has dramatically grown.

Because we sell SaaS in an annual contract, our values tend to be in the $150,000-$200,000 range. Our incentive is to increase the annual contract value in at least two of the four. Our next year subscriptions have dramatically grown with these customers. I don’t attribute all of that to YUJ because we did the work, but they definitely helped.

How did YUJ Designs perform from a project management standpoint?

My personal experience has been great. I used to have a design team while I was at PayPal in Chennai as a data consultancy in seven countries. It’s a nightmare to coordinate across geographies unless you have experience and a buttoned-up communication plan. We realized with this current project that things moved so fast that we needed 10-minute daily standups. One of my research leads in San Jose has an early morning 10-minute standup with them.

The time difference over time has become a challenge because running design and research projects with geographically distributed teams is just hard. If everything else were equal and the same cost, and someone locally could deliver the same thing, that would be my preference. I would like to have them closer to me because project management would be tighter. For remote engagements, it’s true that a tight project management plan is needed, and I’ve always been clear with YUJ about my expectations. What I love about them is that they do not overpromise and underdeliver. That just kills the relationship, because we are committing to our customers based on them. We need lots of email communication, phone calls, and the 10-minute standups. That’s not taxing for either side. Our projects are not that huge, so it’s been good so far.

What did you find most impressive about YUJ Designs?

I love that they’re both design and research, so the recommendations come in a visual format. They created a video last week that wasn’t part of the contract and wasn’t expected, and they went above and beyond in project management. I am happy because we haven’t had many issues. I haven’t always had this much luck with a lot of agencies.

Are there any areas YUJ Designs could improve?

If their business can grow more in hybrid design and research with leads in the US, that would be better. That was the model we had at PayPal, but the projects were larger. I assume they can’t afford that in the smaller projects. Another thing would be the time difference, but there’s nothing anyone can do about that.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

‎ELS Educational Services Inc. is an India-based educational company. The organization has around 50 people and is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with YUJ Designs?

We wanted to launch a new business initiative in India with Berlitz, and we needed to find a partner to help us. The product had existed on the market, but it was owned by another organization. When we took over the company, we wanted to relaunch the application, take it from a static website, and introduce e-commerce features.

We reached out to companies with experience in the creative space. From the options we explored, YUJ Designs really fit the bill. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

YUJ Designs helped with the creative designs and enabled e-commerce functions on the website. The project was restarted from scratch, and the development was solely handled by their team using the WordPress CMS.

The platform was offering English language training for students, young professionals, homemakers, and others. An algorithm allows students to choose the right program. The platform is scalable in accommodating additional Berlitz products in the future.

We worked with around 3 people from YUJ Designs at the peak of the project, including a creative developer, an e-commerce developer, and a business developer.

How did you come to work with YUJ Designs?

We explored a lot of creative agencies and cross-verified some of their existing work. We started with 7–8 options and shortlisted 2–3 that met our needs. Once we started the engagement, YUJ Designs had the best response compared to other vendors. We were able to negotiate a price that worked for both of us.

How much have you invested with YUJ Designs?

The cost of their work was between $15,000 and $20,000. We also added another phase to the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with YUJ Designs around February 2016. The project was completed in October to December of that year. We’re working through some legal aspects, so the site hasn’t been launched. We will engage with YUJ Designs for updates and maintenance. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

We haven’t launched the site, so I have no data yet. The design was the result of a lot of internal brainstorming within our organization and stakeholders, not a direct result of YUJ Designs’ involvement. We are happy with the outcome in terms of the platform’s general look and feel and responsiveness. It works on most portable devices, and the e-commerce component was implemented well. We have no major complaints.

How did YUJ Designs perform from a project management standpoint?

I would rate them an 8/10 in this respect. The team was able to anticipate scope changes, assess risks, and keep us posted with updates.

What did you find most impressive about YUJ Designs?

They’re knowledgeable in their area and acted like a true partner, rather than as a vendor. YUJ Designs understood our domain and came up with ideas for influencing prospective customers and impacting our business. I appreciated their consultative approach.

Are there any areas YUJ Designs could improve?

I can’t point to anything.  

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a product manager at Hero MotoCorp, an Indian multinational company that manufactures motorcycles and scooters. We’re the world’s largest two-wheeler producer with a major market share in India.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with yuj?

We needed help creating a simple UI/UX design to understand and increase our conversion rates by 15% and ratings.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

yuj has helped us create and revamp the UI/UX design for the customer journey in the Hero and H-D Connect apps. The team has delivered wireframes, prototypes, and final designs, along with secondary research at times.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 2–5 teammates from yuj.

How did you come to work with yuj?

I found yuj through a referral. We chose them because their pricing fit our budget, and they offered good value for the cost.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with yuj in July 2022, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve seen a 25% overall improvement in our conversion rates, ratings, and NPS.

How did yuj perform from a project management standpoint?

yuj delivers 95% on time. We communicate via in-person meetings, virtual meetings, and email or messaging apps.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed by yuj’s regular check-ins.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could have more check-ins and focus.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the Associate General Manager at Maruti Suzuki India Limited, India’s largest passenger car manufacturer. We’re a subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corporation and are well known for having the largest service and sales network in India. In 2025, we achieved a remarkable milestone by becoming the eighth most valuable carmaker globally.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire yuj to accomplish for your company?

We hired Yuj to work on a highly strategic project for our EV charging platform. The platform was designed to create a holistic EV charging solution for customers to alleviate range anxiety and offer a seamless charging experience for our first electric vehicle, e-Vitara.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Yuj team conducted in-depth user research encompassing the EV ecosystem, crafted a transformation user experience strategy, created design language systems for the 'e for me' app, conducted closed user group testing, and developed a value vision app for us.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Samir (Founder & CEO), Karim (Sales Director), Vishal (Principal Designer), and his team.

How did you come to work with yuj?

We found them through a referral.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent a confidential amount.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June 2023–January 2026.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Yuj delivered user research, Competition benchmarking of EV charging Apps, a scalable design language system for the 'e for me' app, Intuitive app designs as per brand guidelines, a charging management portal design, insights from beta testing, and a value vision app.

How did yuj perform from a project management standpoint?

They understood the business criticality of the project and managed the project delivery highly professionally. The team was always keen to support the on-time delivery of the milestones. We communicated via in-person meetings, virtual meetings, and emails or messaging apps.

What did you find most impressive or unique about them?

The Yuj team understood the business criticality of the project and managed the project delivery highly professionally. They were always keen to support the on-time delivery of the milestones.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

Samir, Vishal, and Karim played a critical role in ensuring the exceptional quality of delivery, an intuitive user experience, and the on-time delivery of the project.

What did you find most impressive or unique about them?

They understood the project's business-criticality and managed its delivery with great professionalism. They were always keen to support the on-time delivery of the milestones.

How did you come to work with yuj?

We found them through a referral.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent a confidential amount.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June 2023–January 2026.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Tata Motors Group (Tata Motors) is a $35 billion organisation. It is a leading global automobile manufacturing company. Its diverse portfolio includes an extensive range of cars, sports utility vehicles, trucks, buses and defence vehicles.

Tata Motors is one of India's largest OEMs offering an extensive range of integrated, smart and e-mobility solutions. I'm head of Digital and Connected

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire YUJ Designs?

• UI/UX Design
• App/Portal Development
• Design and User Research

What were your goals for this project?

to build world class user experience in connected mobility

SOLUTION

How did you select YUJ Designs?

based on research and vendor evaluation

Describe the project in detail.

the challenge was to build world class user experience via connected customer app.

What was the team composition?

4 designers, 6 developers and 3 backend teams

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

the product was pilot launched within 8 months of overall connected development. The interface was very well received by the pilot users. we are in production and multiple enhancements and versions are supported by YUJ team.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

we worked in remote Agile mode and YUJ team leader was very good at running cadence and stakeholder expectation management.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The leadership engagement of YUJ was impressive and always willing to help with your products and services.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Automation of test cases