BULB Studios

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am part of the senior leadership for Higher Horizons - a partnership of universities who deliver widening access activities to schools and colleges in areas with low rates of university participation, to boost the number of disadvantaged young people accessing university study.

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

We hired Bulb during the Coronavirus lockdown in the UK to quickly redevelop our website to be able to host educational resources for the schools we work with, which were now closed for face-to-face study. We needed the website to be easy to access and engaging for young people and teachers, and we needed it delivered quickly so we could keep supporting the young people we work with through schools closures and lockdown.

How did you select BULB Studios and what were the deciding factors?

We had worked with Bulb before and always found them great to work with - they take the time to understand the brief, present solutions, bring us into the development and take our feedback on board, and deliver on time and to spec.

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

Bulb conducted an online discovery day with us to understand the brief, then worked up a solution and presented back their plan. They delivered wireframes of how the site would look and gave us the chance to feedback, and then developed the site in line with our feedback.

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

We mainly worked with Jenny and Lee as project manager and lead designer, though I know there were also developers in the background making it happen!

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

The site launched and allowed us to share resources with our schools weekly during the summer term of 2020. We received great feedback from teachers about the resources and how accessible they were and we saw our web traffic increase significantly once it was launched.

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

Great communication throughout the project with a clear plan that was followed. Jenny and Lee stayed in touch with regular (virtual) catch up meetings to check on progress. Always felt that we knew exactly what was happening and where the project was up to.

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

They always take the time to check-in and make sure we are comfortable every step along the way. They have a way of making complex technical issues easy to understand. Our target audience is time poor and they always keep this at the heart of any web development they do for us, so that teachers can easily access our site.

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

None that I can think of.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the head of group product technology for a property technology (PropTech) firm, and we are a group that specializes in a mixture of finance tech, insurance tech, and health tech products and solutions.

What challenge were you trying to address with BULB Studios?

I go to BULB studios any time I need exceptional UX/UI work done. I need to be able to simplify complex problems to present to the user in a very simple way.

What was the scope of their involvement?

For every project, I provide a brief on the situation and we went through discovery and investigation from there. They take the time to understand the market, its segmentation, and the potential users and stakeholders. From there we follow a standard process, usually revolving around identifying key workflows for the product and then wireframing the journey using industry standards.

Following the wireframing, we move into a higher definition piece of work that focuses more on UI and develops into the first full product prototypes. Their team spends a lot of time on design, delivering fully developed assets to enable my development team to focus on the digital aspects of the project. They stay on top of the latest trends in technologies, using InVision as a prototyping tool in order to collaboratively develop the final results with our team.

What is the team composition?

I work with one project lead specifically, and then also with the designers to create all of the workflows that they follow for the projects.

How did you come to work with BULB Studios?

I was introduced to BULB Studios around 2015 and have been really satisfied with their work since then and have continued to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

I would estimate that we’ve spent around £120,000 in total since the beginning.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began to work together in 2015 and are working on many different projects continuing today.

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

On one of our most recent projects, they updated a workflow for a particular business problem that has now seen increased user traffic by 700–800%. With a project we were working on with a large blue-chip company, we improved the workflow of a particular product, which increased the call flow capacity in our call center by 75%.

On a more general level, in all of our projects, they take a very complex business problem and simplify it to enable faster processing, and increased service to our users from that particular workflow, and that’s exactly what we look for from them.

How did BULB Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They are very strong performers in project management. Their team keeps me regularly updated on key deadlines and deliverables. Over the years we’ve obviously adjusted certain projects, but they’ve met every single critical deadline we’ve set for them. We use tools to communicate like Trello and Slack, but we also use email for more regular or longer messages. Across those platforms, they are consistently very responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of the things they’re particularly good at is getting under the skin of the problem and the facts that we’ve given them. If we say that we are looking to improve a user experience, they dive so deeply into the intelligence on market segmentation in the problem that they are able to come up with creative solutions that nobody else could think of. That’s why I’ve used them time and time again, and why I will continue to do so.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There isn’t anything that springs to mind. They are one of the most dependable companies that I have ever worked with.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the owner of a utilities software company which provides software and services to gas, electricity, and water utility companies to help protect their buried assets from accidental damage.

What challenge were you trying to address with BULB Studios?

We wanted a new platform to help owners of buried assets to improve their data about those assets in order to avoid accidents. I needed outside help for the project.

What was the scope of their involvement?

BULB Studios did logo design, UI, wireframing, and implementation of the public-facing website. They also did design and development of the web and mobile platforms to the point where we have a minimum viable product. I worked on the backend and database while BULB Studios worked on the frontend. We’ve primarily used the React JavaScript library, including specialized Geospatial JavaScript libraries such as OpenLayers and Leaflet.

What is the team composition?

I initially worked with the digital director, managing director, and operations Director. Earlier in the engagement, I worked with UI/UX designers, and later had a direct working relationship and communication channel with the software development team.

How did you come to work with BULB Studios?

I had met one of the founders in a different context, and my local network strongly recommended BULB Studios, so it was a happy coincidence. Contracting locally is important for the agile development process. They also embody the discovery process that we were looking for.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in 2017 and the relationship is ongoing. We are developing the product past MVP to a full launch version this year, and we'll be continuing our close working relationship.

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

We couldn’t have succeeded without their expertise. We’re now engaged with several large utility businesses.

How did BULB Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They were highly responsive to feedback we received on the platform from test users, which helped us make progress. We worked under an Agile development process and used Bulb Studios’ established systems for managing tickets, backlog, and communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They made us feel like a partner. Our problems became their own problems, and they did everything to try and solve them. Their range of skills ensured they could take ownership throughout the process.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Customers should become comfortable with the design foundations at the start and trust the BULB Studios process.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am Technical Director of an Air Quality company offering innovation solutions to a range of private and public-sector organisations.

For what projects/services did your company hire BULB Studios?

We were looking to develop an app which enabled users to understand air quality risks, and make appropriate lifestyle decisions, including routes taken.

What were your goals for this project?

The development of a demonstration app.

How did you select BULB Studios?

We had worked with Bulb in the past, and had been impressed by their work.

Describe the project in detail.

As above, an app to demonstrate air quality data integration into mobile platforms, including demonstration of routing advice.

What was the team composition?

EarthSense specifying the app, Bulb leading on UX/UI, and development.

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

A very smooth and attractive app was developed, and which attracted a number of users.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

very effective - used teams and slack to manage development very smoothly

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The UX/UI was completed to a very high level - obviously professionals at delivering effective user experiences.

Are there any areas for improvement?

not really- it was well-delivered.