Arounda

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder of Teachinguide.com and have been building an e-learning and e-teaching startup. Its main purpose is to help online instructors to focus on the right topics to teach, sell their courses, improve course quality, reach students more effectively, and improve on bringing together online teachers and students.

The startup is focusing initially on Udemy, the largest eLearning space. The Udemy online instructor is my target audience, and there are about 60,000 instructors on Udemy. The Teachinguide is a platform to help them excel on Udemy and selling their courses.

What challenge were you trying to address with Arounda?

The main challenge I'm addressing with Arounda is the website, web application design, and user experience.

What was the scope of their involvement?

After some trials, I figured out that the product wasn’t bad, but it takes a lot of demos, help, and interviews with prospective clients to sync the product up with user needs and understanding. Realizing that I had a UX problem and needed to make the whole product easier, I searched for a company that offers both design and UX services.

The solution is a web app that supports mobile devices and tablets, which was very important to me because I wanted an application that works on mobile.

We worked on milestones early on. Initially, it was a review engagement where I challenged them to review the current application, UX design, and my research on the target audience. I did some heavy research about my target group in terms of personas and descriptions needed for UX, so I wanted them to check on the initial package.

I realized my main issues with UX were also problems of design. What I implemented wasn’t consistent, and it had various shortcomings. The second package was about rebuilding the full design system and applying that to the main screens for my developers.

It was centered around harmonizing and optimizing the design of the existing application. They built the whole system and all the controls. I can send things over to them, and they will implement pages in Figma so that my implementation team can apply them to the app.

We're now in the third phase: optimizing parts of the overall user experience and focusing on the full registration and onboarding flow experience. For that, they created user story cards in Figma for different personas and suggested various new onboarding and registration flows.

What is the team composition?

There were five or six people on the project. One person was responsible for the commercial part. They also assigned people to project management, customer interaction, and customer success. From there, they have an expert in UX design and other people that implement the design.

How did you come to work with Arounda?

I found them on Upwork. I used Upwork before to find talent and freelancers. The most appealing thing to me about them was their ability to address a combination of my requirements. They're an agency that can provide me with a full team with the skills I need. 

They have the expertise and references both in terms of design and UX. In our early conversations, they also offered implementation solutions. I haven't used it so far, but it was nice to know they also have implementation capacity in Vue.js. The price, experience, and professionalism looked attractive to me, so it was a good match.  They weren't too expensive but offered everything I needed in their portfolio.

How much have you invested in them?

By now, I have spent about $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in October 2020, and it's an ongoing partnership. We have made great progress.  

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

I'm happy with their work and feel that I've found the right partner. The overall communication is great. I have a responsive point of contact that gets back to me on time and takes my problems seriously. I'm confident they're working on tasks and giving me timely feedback on everything I request.

The screens, deliverables, and designs are good. They've provided design work that's ready for my development team to implement. I've collected early adopter feedback on the design, and it has been good. I'm pretty confident that we have the right team and will make some big improvements on the app here.

How did Arounda perform from a project management standpoint?

They keep to schedules and the cost is predictable, which is very important when considering whether new ideas will make the budget slip. With Arounda, I know I can count on what we have agreed on.

If I have new requirements and extend the scope, we talk about it so everyone knows what to expect in terms of the budget. They deliver on time, and it's great that I can count on that. I have a specific point of contact that is responsible for communication and project management. I'm also in touch with the designer.

They understand my requirements and target audience to provide better designs. From a project management perspective, I don’t feel like I am sharing their time with other clients. They can handle the workload and schedule, which we're quite demanding about. I'm quite happy with the project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their reliability and consistency truly stand out.

Are there any areas they could improve?

That's a hard question because I'm quite happy right now. You always can improve, but I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s not specific to Arounda, but you need to be prepared with a general understanding of the scope of work. It is best to have clear ideas in writing for early structured discussion. The better I'm prepared, the better the job they do.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the project manager of a software startup that delivers digital advertising campaigns.

What challenge were you trying to address with Arounda?

We needed a partner for UX/UI design.

What was the scope of their involvement?

At the beginning of the project, we provided a very structured briefing and a predefined logic. Then they designed the UX/UI in Figma where we could collaborate and provide feedback. Since then, they’ve been able to implement our requirements.

What is the team composition?

We talk to one designer and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Arounda?

We found them on dribbble. We were looking for an agency that was easy to work with and offered a reasonable hourly rate. They checked all of our boxes.

How much have you invested with them?

They originally gave us a quote between $11,000–$30,000, but we’ve added several additional features. So far, we’ve spent about $17,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project in October 2020 and we’re still working with them.

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

They’ve completed about 90% of the project scope. Their design is on-point and reflects our vision. We’re very happy that we found a productive partnership with them.

How did Arounda perform from a project management standpoint?

Overall, Arounda is very easy to work with. They implement our requirements and feedback quickly to deliver on-time and on-budget.

They communicate very well, too. We’re always in contact with them over Slack and they’re very responsive. Every Monday, they outline the scope for the next two weeks and plan each milestone. Occasionally, we have video calls using Google Meets.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They implemented our vision perfectly. I’ve been impressed by how well they’ve implemented our feedback. In the past, we’ve worked with other design agencies that didn’t understand what wanted and delivered some strange things. With Arounda, our partnership has gone smoothly and they’ve delivered what they promised us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have anything for them to work on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I will always advise new clients to have a clear vision of what they want, communicate frequently, address requests immediately, and give precise briefings.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of an online travel agency. It’s a full trip builder. Users can search for hotels, change locations, plan experiences, and schedule transportation.

What challenge were you trying to address with Arounda?

They redesigned the UI on our website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They redesigned everything on our site. We provided the UX and they streamlined UI on all the pages. We sent them sketch files and then they designed it on Figma and provided us with new files. They broke the project up by working on each section of the platform, starting with mobile, and then moving to the desktop version.

We established milestones and estimated how much time each section would take. Then once a section was done, we moved on to the next.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two designers and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Arounda?

We found them on Dribbble. We were looking for an international team because we wanted a partner with a reasonable hourly rate. Then we did an RFP and had several providers work on 2–3 pages so we could get a good sense of their work.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $35,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from June – October 2020.

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

The project was really successful. The design looks really nice and the entire site is cohesive. They achieved what we were looking for. The platform has gone live, and we’ve received a lot of really positive feedback. Not only do we like it internally, but it makes sense externally.

Every once in a while, their deliverables didn’t align with what we wanted, but they responded well when we requested changes. They were very thoughtful about implementing our feedback.

How did Arounda perform from a project management standpoint?

They met deadlines and communicated daily over Slack. It was a good collaboration. The project ended up being more expensive than we budgeted because we kept asking for additional features. So, I appreciated their flexibility.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were creative and imaginative, they produced beautiful designs, and the platform was easy to navigate. On top of that, they were reasonably priced. Overall, they were a great value.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They did a great job. I don’t have any particular requests for improvement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have clarity on what you want and where you want them to be innovative. You should also communicate with them frequently because they were very responsive to feedback.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a telehealth company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Arounda?

We had launched our app without illustrations and wanted to add some.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We asked Arounda to use a different style for illustrations, and they created a general feeling for the UX. They had a small space to work in, as the app is simple, and we didn’t want too many illustrations. 

They worked on one style of general illustration, and then specific illustrations to generate desired feelings in users, including security, strength, and parenthood. They used Figma.

What is the team composition?

We interacted with two people, but there was a team working behind the scenes, as well.

How did you come to work with Arounda?

We searched online. We liked some of Arounda’s work and decided to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent less than $4,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from April–June 2020.

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

The app is not fully live for another 1–2 weeks. We have implemented about 20% of their work, including the landing screen, so far. It’s hard to create a feeling, but they did a great job. We’re very happy with what they’ve provided for us, and it was a great success.

How did Arounda perform from a project management standpoint?

The team did well and was responsive. It was simple and straightforward. They took our feedback and applied it in the following iterations.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Arounda did a good job of creating what we wanted and creating a feeling without being given a lot of specific information beforehand. The work they produced fits our brand well, so we would love to work with them again in the future.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes the order was a bit messy, so perhaps they could organize all the illustrations in Figma better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be specific about what you do and don’t want without providing too much information. They’re good at what they do.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a product manager and designer for an event discovery app.

What challenge were you trying to address with Arounda?

For one project, we wanted to design our blog website. During the other project, we wanted to design a new mobile version of our platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Arounda basically provided product design services. Their team created a mood board for the design inspiration using Miro. They critiqued the existing design, helping to improve the UI.

From there, their team created wireframes and designed the product in Figma. There were two iterations. They made the blog website responsive to both desktop and mobile platforms.

The second project followed a similar process. Instead of creating the blog's UI, they designed the interface of the event discovery platform. Their team designed the mobile homepage of the website, including event listings and search functions.

What is the team composition?

We spoke with a product manager and a designer.

How did you come to work with Arounda?

We posted the job on a freelancing platform. We received many applicants, but Arounda’s portfolio was phenomenal.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the engagement in April 2020, and they finished the second project at the beginning of June 2020.

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

Arounda produced modern, high-quality designs. They're both awesome.

It’s hard to find great designers, and Arounda’s on the cutting-edge of industry design standards. Their style’s up to date. We’re going to work with them again.

How did Arounda perform from a project management standpoint?

It’s common to worry about giving feedback to designers but Arounda took our feedback well. They were always on time for meetings, which hasn’t always been the case with previous service providers.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Arounda completed quality work quickly, which is a differentiator. Design projects usually involve many revisions, so it takes a long time. But with Arounda, we only went through 1­–2 versions for the designs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make your requirements clear. Follow the general principles of design management. Ask questions and talk with them to make sure the project’s organized.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of an early-stage startup.

What challenge were you trying to address with Arounda?

Initially, we needed a partner for UX/UI design work.

What was the scope of their involvement?

During the first project, Arounda designed the UX/UI of our tool using Sigma. In the next project, their team provided input on marketing strategy and UI design. They researched similar tools, best practices, and how to optimize our visibility in the market. 

What is the team composition?

The team includes a project manager and two main designers. Occasionally, another designer works with us too.

How did you come to work with Arounda?

We found them on Instagram. We liked their portfolio and reached out to them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent roughly $70,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in September 2019, and our engagement’s ongoing.

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

I’m satisfied with Arounda's performance. They use the latest technologies to create quality designs. Their team works well with the developers.

How did Arounda perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate via Slack. They’re responsive, so projects run smoothly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They use the latest technologies, which are exactly what our product needs. The value of their work is good — an improvement from that of past vendors

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t areas for improvement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Listen to their marketing suggestions; they're valuable. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a startup with an on-demand delivery platform. I'm the CEO.

What challenge were you trying to address with Arounda?

We hired them to help with design and general business strategies.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We discussed our strategy, they gave us some guidance, and we started on first drafts of our UI/UX designs. They built the entire framework of our app, and they've done brand guidelines, vision, and brand books. The whole app was designed in Sketch.

After the app was finished, they created marketing materials, icons, and stationery design. They created newsletters, flyers, business cards, and other small print materials.

What is the team composition?

We're in contact with one or two individuals, but there were also two or three designers and one or two people who worked on our brand guidelines.

How did you come to work with Arounda?

We found them on Upwork. We looked at their portfolio, and we liked their style. We reached out to them, and they were very easy to communicate with. They were willing to take the lead, which we liked.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent €150,000-€200,000 (approximately $167,000-$223,000 USD) over the course of our engagement.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working in January 2018, and they finished the big project in September 2019.

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

We receive good reviews from our userbase, and the design is modern, fluid, and self-explanatory. They realized our vision, and we love the results. They have high standards, and they always delivered excellent work. They help us stand out from our competition.

How did Arounda perform from a project management standpoint?

We really liked their project management, and they sent us regular updates with explanations of the decisions they made. They offered a lot of transparency, and they met most of our deadlines. They used InVision to share prototypes, and we worked a lot via Google Drive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They often took the lead, and their designs are very on-trend. They always tried to make us the best in our field.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Because they expanded so rapidly, we didn't always know who to contact. After a few days, we expressed our concerns and they assigned a fixed account manager. They could still work to manage their scaling a little better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They have high-quality standards, so be prepared for them to take their time. If you are looking for a fast solution, look elsewhere. They take their work very seriously, and they dedicate time to their projects.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the director of marketing at Metricly before it was acquired by Virtana. We were a SaaS IT company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Arounda?

We were looking for a partner to lead the design and user experience of our website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Arounda provided us with UI strategy, design, and development. They also created graphics for us. We were building on WordPress at the time. Arounda used Bootstrap to create the frontend frameworks and designs that we’d then implement on WordPress.

For each task, we came to Arounda with an idea for a new page on the site and an outline of the content we wanted. Arounda came back with some light UI sketches that we modified or improved. After that, they gave us high fidelity mockups. Once we gave our approval, they moved into the development phase to build and publish the page.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 3–4 people, including a UI designer, a UI developer, and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Arounda?

I originally worked with them on some personal projects. I brought them in to work on our company’s UI.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $10,000–$20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The collaboration ran from June 2018 to May 2019.

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

Arounda delivered enterprise-grade work that outperformed anything we’d had before in terms of design and functionality. The blog they built as part of our site directly contributed to a 400% increase in SEO traffic (combined with our own content strategy). They brought our site and aesthetic to a new level that we couldn’t have achieved on our own.

How did Arounda perform from a project management standpoint?

They were highly organized and paid very close attention to detail. They provided us with a project management system where we could log in and view progress for each task.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Arounda was extremely flexible and quick to pick up a product’s requirements. In many cases, we gave them minimal direction, and they’d take that and turn around something that fully matched our vision.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had to collaborate with them at first to work out some issues in project management. We wanted more precise expectations about costs and timelines for specific pages. Overall, however, it was good.

Any advice for potential customers?

Absolutely work with Arounda. You won’t be disappointed.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of the app, which purpose is to help people develop mental strength, boost motivation, make better decisions and improve performance.

For what projects/services did your company hire Arounda?

Mobile app UX/UI development. Landing page UX/UI and development.

What were your goals for this project?

Design user attractive yet intuitive mobile app. The challenge was to organize right structure of many sections that app has, so the user won't be lost.

How did you select this vendor?

I made a search on Upwork and saw high rating for this agency and affordable price.

Describe the project in detail.

I gave them design from the previous company which I did not like that much and also made my own iteration based on it suing Sketch. Decribed to Arounda the whole idea and asked to improve it. After they gave some thinking to it they proposed to start from scratch and work on the prototype screens and focus first on UX, test them, iterate and then work on the UI.

After many iterations, we have agreed on the final prototype and started to work on it, which also had quit many iterations. Some of them I did not asked for and they were coming up with new ideas and always trying to look with fresh eyes and challenge it. This obviously made design much better.

What was the team composition?

Project manager, designers and developer

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

The app is now in the final stages of development. 

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Super effective. Arounda Project manager always in contact with me and patiently answered my requests and came proactively with some proposals.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Ability to challenge me, my ideas, think proactively, test assumptions. This is quite a rare skill. Most would do what is asked. They focus on delivery of great quality work.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing that comes to mind

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're an adult video on-demand company. I'm the co-founder and CEO.

What challenge were you trying to address with Arounda?

We didn't have a set team of designers, and we outsourced various parts of our design to separate individuals. As a result, we didn't have a uniform image. We wanted a team that could join us, understand our products and our brand, and create a more professional, consistent brand.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They do all of our website design. That includes the backend and our admin area, email design, and various offline assets like flyers and event materials. They also do some code work for us. We have our own in-house development team, and they work along with our staff. They do some of the frontend code of their designs, and our developers work on the backend elements that go along with them. They fully realize the designs they provide, and they often take on entire tasks from start to finish.

They use InVision and Sketch, but I'm not sure of the other technologies they use. InVision is helpful to share those designs with our team. We recently sponsored a film festival, and they did all the design for those related materials. They also do some animation, and we've added their graphic work to some of our videos.

What is the team composition?

I have one main point of contact, but I was originally onboarded by one of their directors. They have various departments, so we also work directly with a UX lead and a traditional branding team for logo design.

How did you come to work with Arounda?

I found them on Dribbble, along with a few other possible agencies. Because of the nature of our business, we're fairly restricted. They were willing to work with us, and we had a few conversations with them. We started with some low-level tasks, and we went from there.

How much have you invested with them?

We pay for features as they arise, and we work anywhere between 10-40 hours a week with them. Our most recent contract was about $8,000 at a rate of $28 per hour. I'd estimate we've spent somewhere between $50,000-$200,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February or March 2018. The collaboration is ongoing.

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

They have a very modern approach for an affordable price. Their quality is comparable to UX firms that charge more than double their hourly rate. They never compromise, and their work is cutting edge. They've helped us improve our conversion rates, but I don't have any solid metrics to share offhand.

How did Arounda perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a Trello board set up, and we create tickets for them in their incoming task list. Our main contact then assigns tasks to the designers on their team. We also communicate regularly via phone or Skype about anything outside the brief or anything that is unclear. In general, their project management and availability are major strengths. I never wait longer than an hour for a response, and our product manager fully understands our products and our needs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I've worked with other design firms, but this is definitely my most positive experience. Their turnaround is quick and efficient, and we rarely need to change much. We can usually trust them to come back with something we'll like, and they often go beyond what we initially had in mind. They have knowledge our team doesn't have, and they come up with good solutions. Their initial results are almost always what we want, and we never get locked into endless iteration.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They're not as comfortable on the phone as they are via text. That may be due to a lack of confidence in their language skills and might be an area of improvement for them. There is also occasionally a lack of communication in the design process. The rare misunderstandings could be avoided with a little extra clarification. That's only happened once or twice, and there's very little they could improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you're looking for a designer, look over their portfolio. Everything they present is as it seems, and they're a very good team. Their process is straightforward and self-explanatory.