500 Designs

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Co-Founder and CEO of DABBA EATS

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

DABBA EATS is like having a home-cooked meal from your favorite local chef delivered straight to your door—no cooking required! We connect you with talented chefs in your community who whip up fresh, preservative-free meals, and we deliver them right to your doorstep.

Skip the kitchen and still enjoy something delicious and healthy. Think of us as your foodie matchmakers, making sure you always have something tasty, homemade, and ready to savor!

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire 500 Designs to accomplish?

• Design and flow of the website
• Understanding customers and market
• To make sure we are focused on target market and change things accordingly.

SOLUTION

How did you find 500 Designs?

Online Search

Why did you select 500 Designs over others?

• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from 500 Designs were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The scope of work involves creating a comprehensive Figma design that is ready for both front-end and back-end development. This includes ensuring that all screens necessary for the application are covered and that they have the proper flow required for ordering, signing up, and other essential functionalities. The key deliverables of this project include:

• Detailed Wireframes: Create wireframes for each screen of the application, outlining the layout and placement of elements.
• High-Fidelity Designs: Develop high-fidelity designs based on the wireframes, incorporating colors, typography, and visual elements.
• Interactive Prototypes: Build interactive prototypes to demonstrate the user flow and functionality of the application.
• Design System: Establish a design system that includes components, styles, and guidelines for consistent design implementation.
• User Experience (UX) Considerations: Ensure that the design prioritizes user experience, with intuitive navigation and clear calls to action.
• Responsiveness: Design screens that are responsive and optimized for various devices and screen sizes.
• Feedback and Iteration: Incorporate feedback from stakeholders and conduct iterative design improvements as needed.
• Final Design Handoff: Provide the final Figma design files and assets to the development team for implementation.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success include:

• Completion of Wireframes and Designs: The timely completion of wireframes and high-fidelity designs for all screens indicates progress in the design phase of the project.
• Interactive Prototypes: The development of interactive prototypes that accurately represent the user flow and functionality of the application demonstrates progress in visualizing the design concept.
• Design System Establishment: The creation and implementation of a design system with components and styles ensure consistency and efficiency in design implementation.
• User Research and understanding Market. 
• Implementation Feedback: Constructive feedback from developers on the feasibility and clarity of the design for implementation shows progress in collaboration between design and development teams.
• On-time Delivery: Meeting project milestones and deadlines indicates progress in project management and execution.

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

Timely and efficient. Nothing was delayed and team took great care of product and implemented feedbacks accordingly. 

What was your primary form of communication with 500 Designs?

Virtual Meeting

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

Communication, efficiency, talent, creativity and involvement were the unique aspects and apart from that team went above and beyond to make sure the things were in place. Discussions and opinions were highly valuable. 

Are there any areas for improvement or something 500 Designs could have done differently?

Not really. I really enjoyed the experience of working with 500 Designs and would love to continue working further. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the marketing manager at Rebello’s Towing Services. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 500 Designs?
We hired 500 Designs to serve as our web design team and rebuild our website. Our goal was to increase our brand awareness, among others.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?
We’ve had informative discovery calls. From there, we’ve proceeded to design and develop the website. Figma is one of the key technologies they use. 500 Designs is rebuilding the website while taking some aspects of what we currently have. It will be a completely different website once it’s launched. For features and functionality, our website will allow customers to upload their information onto a data sheet. That will be sent to us through our general website.
What is the team composition?
I work most frequently with three teammates, namely Alexia (Project Manager), Gabriella (Design Producer), and Fernando (Technical Project Manager).
How did you come to work with 500 Designs?
We found 500 Designs through Google.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve spent at least $35,000 so far.
What is the status of this engagement?
Our engagement started in July 2023, and it’s ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
500 Designs has definitely exceeded my expectations. The whole process has been good. It’s taking a bit of time, but it’s only because there are many parts to what we’re trying to accomplish. Everything has been good from start to finish, and they’ve been a lot of help to us.
How did 500 Designs perform from a project management standpoint?
They’ve delivered tasks on time and within our budget, and the team has been outstanding. They’re using tools that I haven’t used before, and they’ve been super helpful. To communicate, we mainly use emails and Zoom.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Their attention to detail is great. They’re thorough — their teammates take their time to get things done right. I highly appreciate that they’re not rushing the process. Instead, they ensure they execute the project properly.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, there weren’t any. I enjoy working with them.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Be open to suggestions and willing to do the work. It’s time-consuming, and it can be overwhelming at times, but your outcome will be grand as long as you stay committed.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m an executive at a self-storage software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with 500 Designs?
We needed a partner who could help with product and web design and development according to our vision while meeting our budget constraints.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?
500 Designs helped us design and build our marketing website and other products for our software platform to increase the brand awareness of our company. Regarding the process, we started by having a discovery process where we sat down to discuss our goals and built a style guide for the design profiles so they could get a sense of what we were looking for. We also defined different personas and the emotions we wanted to evoke with our products and looked at user flows and other icons and graphics we would use throughout the platforms.

In addition to that, we implemented previews of our team members with links to their LinkedIn profiles and integrated Greenhouse to showcase our open positions.

In terms of tools, 500 Designs’ team used WordPress and Figma as their main platforms for this project.
What was the team composition?
We’ve worked with 3–6 members of 500 Designs’ team, including Stephen (CEO).
How did you come to work with 500 Designs?
We found 500 Designs through a Google search.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent $122,000 with them on this partnership.
What is the status of this engagement?
We worked together from February–September 2023.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
500 Designs work increased site traffic and brand awareness. Moreover, we got positive feedback on the platforms’ fresh, modern, and intuitive look and feel. Overall, the team exceeded our expectations.
How did 500 Designs perform from a project management standpoint?
500 Designs project management was great; the team was proactive and actively managed us, which we appreciated because it was easy to get lost in the timelines. Regarding tools and communication, we used Slack, Zoom, and Google Drive.
Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?
Stephen took ownership of the engagement.
What did you find most impressive about them?
500 Designs’ ability to take ownership of the outcome was impressive because they ensured that their work accomplished our needs and goals as a customer.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I didn’t think there was anything they could improve on.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Be clear with your expectations so 500 Designs’ team can take care of the rest.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an executive at a software company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a software company to builds solutions for self-storage facilities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire 500 Designs to accomplish?

• Design and build a marketing website
• Design our software platform

SOLUTION

How did you find 500 Designs?

• Online Search
• Clutch Site

Why did you select 500 Designs over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fits our budget
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from 500 Designs were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

We hired 500 Designs to design, build and deploy our company's first marketing website. We are currently working on a second engagement where they are designing the UI/UX of our entire software platform, from scratch.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Delivering the website and UI/UX designs on schedule, and with the quality we were looking for.

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

500 Designs assigned a project manager to our engagement, who ensured that we were making progress in line with the initial plan and constantly kept us informed of any risks that put the timeline in jeopardy.

What was your primary form of communication with 500 Designs?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They are very responsive and detail-oriented. They go over the allotted hours to ensure that our stakeholders were happy with their work. They are also extremely receptive to feedback and any requests for course corrections. Their CEO and team flew out to our office for a 2-day project kickoff, and I'm always able to get their CEO on the phone when needed.

Are there any areas for improvement or something 500 Designs could have done differently?

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an executive of BAY Foundation Repair

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Crawl Space & Foundation Repair Contractor

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire 500 Designs to accomplish?

• Design New Logo
• Utilize Elements of Old Logo

SOLUTION

How did you find 500 Designs?

• Online Search
• Clutch Site

Why did you select 500 Designs over others?

• High ratings
• Other

What was the size of 500 Designs’s team?

6-10 Employees

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

I had 500D redesign our logo, primarily to be high visibility, easy to read & attractive on our billboards & website. It was critical that the new design contain many of the same brand elements as our old logo. They stayed patient and helpful through several rounds of revisions. Very professional. I ended up getting more than expected.

The final deliverables package contained every file type of every configuration of the new logo, with several color options. I had worked with 500D on another large $50,000 design / branding / website project previously and chose to work with them again. I made the right call.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Long distance legibility
• Maintain brand elements

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

They were very prompt with communication from start to finish. We started and completed the project within 1 month. I had special requests and was always accommodated.

What was your primary form of communication with 500 Designs?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I really liked their design process. They were able to capture my abstract initial vision better than I ever expected. They provided multiple design options at every stage of revisions and allowed me to steer the design towards my vision. The process enabled a great final product.

Are there any areas for improvement or something 500 Designs could have done differently?

No issues on this project. The lead project manager even went on vacation towards the end of the project and the project still closed out strong.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an administrator at a surgical educational podcast and learning platform for medical students, residents, and practicing surgeons. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 500 Designs?

We wanted to improve our website’s Google search rankings increase — we needed 500 Designs’ help with SEO. We also needed to compete with our competitors on several products we offer. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We offered a robust, free podcast with a corresponding website, which housed a library of over 500 episodes of our surgical education podcast. So, 500 Designs implemented SEO efforts to improve our Google rankings to increase traffic to the site from an audience looking for content like ours. 

A course we sold, made up of audio files that serve as a study guide for a general surgery test, also needed to improve its competitive edge on the market. So, 500 Designs also implemented SEO efforts for that course. They also focused on the rankings of our book, which was listed on Amazon and also served as a test study guide.

For all those SEO efforts, 500 Designs designed subpages within our website. For example, they created an entire subpage dedicated to our book to promote it on Amazon. Creating those subpages was meant to improve our search engine rankings. As part of this partnership, 500 Designs’ team showed me how to work on the backend of our WordPress site and make changes to the metadata of our podcast episodes to improve our SEO. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with two teammates, including an SEO lead. 

How did you come to work with 500 Designs?

Someone who used to work for us found them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $6,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The main SEO project was from February 2021–September 2022. However, they’re providing ongoing maintenance services. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After 500 Designs implemented their SEO efforts, we saw a significant improvement in our rankings across our website and two products we were focused on. 

How did 500 Designs perform from a project management standpoint?

500 Designs communicated well with us, providing PDF reports via email that showed our site traffic, where the traffic was coming from, searches we were popping up in, and what users were clicking on. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

500 Designs understood our business well — they had a good understanding of our products and the competitors we wanted to compete against in our efforts to improve our product rankings. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was nothing for them to improve — we were happy with their services. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am one of three founders and the Chief Operating Officer of a private wealth management firm servicing high-net-worth individuals and institutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire 500 Designs, and what were your goals?

We needed a new website for our firm which was dawned from an existing wealth management business. Our goal was to create an extension of our brand through a website, offering additional insights to who we are for prospective clients.

SOLUTION

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

We searched online for top rated web design firms within our price range. From there we narrowed down companies based on their own website and project examples they showcased online. After this we reached out to these firms to confirm our budget would work and if so scheduled a meeting. During the meetings our primary focus shifted to their organizational structure and their outline for how the project would be managed. This led us to our final selection.

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

From a high level we had an intro call and then broke out into working with the design team. There were multiple calls upfront and videoconferences to discuss our vision. We homed in on our design and moved through to the structure of the site. Once this was complete it was the UI team than saw the project through the finish line.

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

A project manager, two representatives from the design team and two from the UI team along with cast of support people on each team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Clients loved the look and professionalism of the site. The end result was exactly what we were looking for.

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

The communication was seamless as we went directly through our project manager who then distributed our message or request to the correct people. If needed the team specifically would reach out to me.

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

Their organization and professionalism were up to the standard we were looking for.

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

The UI development was the only area we had more hiccups than expected but this could very well be the par for the course when developing a new website. That said it was not bad at all.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Director of Marketing. We have multiple b2b websites in the wholesale general merchandise industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire 500 Designs?

We desperately needed to update both the look/feel as well as the usability of our main site as it was painfully outdated. We hired 500 to modernize the aesthetics of the site as well as improve the overall user experience.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We found 500 on clutch and the manifest. We interviewed multiple candidates, but what won us over was their emphasis on helping our business succeed, not just giving our website a makeover. The comprehensive audit of the entire business was invaluable and led to more informed and confident design decisions.

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

To start, we filled out a discovery document. This helped 500 gain a complete understanding of our business (who we are, our values, our brand personality, how we make money, our target market, etc). Every detail in this doc was used by 500 to make a design that fit who we are as a company, from color and font choices to website copy.

After reviewing the doc, the team then started their business audit, which was broken up into 3 parts:

1) UX Audit and Strategy Pt 1 This audit dissected our brand position and personality, the visual aspect of the business, our market and audience, website behavior, and an SEO summary. This audit was 57 pages long.

2) UX Audit and Strategy Pt 2 This dove into our target audiences (including user personas and user journeys) and our Product Usability. This audit was 213 pages long.

3) Competitor Research

Lastly, this deck went over our direct and indirect competitors. Who they were, what they did well, how we could emulate some of those qualities, etc. This audit was 87 pages.

After the audits, 500 had a full grasp on where we stood and where we needed to go, so it was time to start designing. We went back and forth on the designs as it progressed, and we were able to see updates in real time on figma. We went through multiple iterations, and 500 was always happy to make changes, even when we were being somewhat indecisive and difficult. Eventually, we got what we wanted and are extremely happy with the end product.

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

My team worked directly with the CEO, CCO, multiple UX/UI designers, and Project Manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Everyone on the team was extremely easy to work with and responsive. The team met every deadline throughout the project. The communication and willingness to meet on short notice were extremely impressive.

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

The UX/UI design was top notch, but equally as impressive was their genuine desire for our business to succeed. They were just as excited about the project as we were, and that was very much appreciated on our end.

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

I couldn't think of anything they could have done differently.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the administrator for a surgery podcast with five hosts focusing on medical training for medical students and residents. We also have listeners who are out of their training, including surgeons from all over the world.

It started as just a podcast with some YouTube videos, but we've grown globally, increasing our number of listeners and content over the past couple of years. Now, we have the free podcast, our YouTube channel, books that we sell on Amazon, and premium studying materials for tests that surgeons need to take for their specialties. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 500 Designs?

We wanted to work on our branding and needed to update our logo and website. We had a lot of content on our old website, including old podcast episodes, making it difficult to filter specific topics. Our main goal was to create a new website to facilitate easy searches.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

500 Designs developed our branding and marketing materials. We gave them some ideas about the logo we wanted, but didn't have anything specific in mind except that we wanted a knife graphic. They then gave us several different options for logos for us to choose from. We provided some feedback before their team finalized the design. 

Once we had the main logo, we decided to commission a premium logo. We wanted it shiny and platinum, and cooler than the other. We wanted to have a two-second video with a related sound in the background and a glint on the knife graphic. 500 Designs delivered on our new logo requirements and then developed new branding materials. Then, 500 Designs created two short promotional videos. For one video, they produced a five-second video with a surgeon walking into an operating room, with the logo flying in. We also asked them to create some thumbnails for social media and templates for our Mailchimp newsletters. 

They also built a new WordPress website for us from scratch that categorizes all of our 400 old episodes. We needed the site to be user-friendly — because we had different series and categories, we needed the site to be easily searchable. 500 Designs' team gave me access to the site, so I could upload our weekly podcasts and ensure they're added to the correct category and playlist. 500 Designs also linked our merchandise Printify, Mailchimp, Amazon, and Teachable accounts for users to utilize. 

Although the website was completed in September 2021, we've had them go back in and make new changes. 500 Designs has also helped us set up our Google Analytics portal. We've just signed a quarterly maintenance package, where they will check our plugins, ensure the site is up-to-date, and fix any problems that may arise.

What is the team composition?

I've worked with three teammates from 500 Designs from their website development, branding, and troubleshooting teams. 

How did you come to work with 500 Designs?

My former teammate, who developed our original website, found 500 Designs through Google. Their price was better than the other quote we received. 

How much have you invested in them?

We've spent about $22,000 with 500 Designs. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with 500 Designs began in April 2021, and it's ongoing. We've just signed a contract with them for SEO and marketing services. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I regularly check Google Analytics, and since working with 500 Designs, our site traffic has increased every month and user feedback has been positive. We're really impressed with the logos, 500 Designs' creativity, and the new website. The site is easily searchable and has been well received by users. 

How did 500 Designs perform from a project management standpoint?

500 Designs uses monday.com for project management — we can submit requests via that platform. Their team is very responsive to our changes and is available via video call or email if we have questions or need something explained. 

The website development process took longer than initially estimated, but we understood it because of the complexity of the podcast categorization. 500 Designs underestimated how much work it would take to categorize the episodes and ensure they were properly labeled.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were the most impressed by the logo and promotional video ​​500 Designs created. Everything they delivered looks very professional. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were some bugs when the website was released, and while they did fix them quickly, they should've been taken care of before the site went live. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I'd advise customers to have clear expectations about what they want to include on each website page and where they want each link to go. Also, customers should give 500 Designs some leeway for branding and logo design because they're a very creative team, and their options can really open doors.