Carmine Cloak

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and majority owner (and business dev lead) of Ovio Care, company situated in Serbia, but looking to expand in Europe and the rest of the world that deals with providing a platform for finding companionship for socially isolated elderly people with gerontological communication, occupational work therapy and neurological screening incorporated into it.

For what projects/services did your company hire Carmine Cloak?

We hired Carmine Cloak for basically everything, from branding, design, user stories, wireframes and the like. They provided complete design, with UI and UX as well as brand guide and marketing strategy guide for Ovio, landing page which will launch soon, online web marketplace, Android and iOS. They provided the whole nine yards, from font, color scheme, logo, branding, design, wireframes, user stories.

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

Number one decision was based on their culture of work which was recommended and that we can confirm is great. Secondly, we picked them because they didn't try to attach needless services. They listened to what we needed, offered certain things that made sense for us to get from them as well and we felt like they actually made a service tailored for us. Lastly, price to quality was excellent, exceeding expectations

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

We had a series of discovery meetings followed by mockups for brand, logo, general design direction. After that we went into user stories and setup for the wireframes for the UI and UX. They had a team dedicated to branding and a team for UI and UX, both of which were VERY responsive and we'd have moments where we'd post something on the weekend as comments on the shared file and on the Monday meeting it would be incorporated into the design.

Later stages, once we settled in on the branding were mostly about wireframes for web-based marketplace platform and Android and iOS UI. this process was a bit longer since they managed to catch three situations that we didn't predict and have insisted we resolve it to have a good design.

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

Team lead Product owner UI/UX designer Brand designer

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

Since the development is being done by a different team, the site didn't launch, but so far everything was clear to the dev team, and also based on the mock-ups done by the designers at Carmine Cloak we had enough to show for three investors to secure more funding.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was excellent, they were really responsive and patient when they pointed to us we missed certain situations during the UI and UX design stage. We had to gather our team, which for Ovio wasn't easy since it's 3 people working on this side of the company, all three working their main jobs while being entrepreneurs at night. Carmine Cloak was flexible and adaptable almost always

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

The fact that they didn't try to sell us their work but that they felt like a part of the Ovio team, understanding our offer to the market, our clients, our market analysis, and so forth. That's why they managed to help us with the stuff we missed in our initial setup.

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

Honestly, I can't think of anything. They didn't only provide excellent work, but they also delivered during crunch time. They were great all around.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO

For what projects/services did your company hire Carmine Cloak, and what were your goals?

We needed to redesign and redevelop our website, create new content, third party integrations, CTAs, tags etc.

How did you select Carmine Cloak and what were the deciding factors?

We had worked with some of the guys at Carmine Cloak previously so we knew that the standard of work would be excellent and that communications would be transparent and completely reliable.

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

The website was redesigned from scratch. Once designs were approved, the dev team built the site using Webflow. They added live chat and live calendar features, using Hubspot and Calendly.

They developed a wizard tool to help visitors easily find the content most useful for their requirements. They created customised templates that would facilitate our marketing team to easily add fresh content in future.

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

Four. Their Chief Executive, 2 developers and a designer.

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

The new site has been exceptionally well received. Visitor numbers, retention and conversions increased significantly immediately.

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

We use Trello for task management on the project. Comms were managed via email and regular Zoom meetings.

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

The guys are very easy to deal with. They are attentive to detail and keen to go above and beyond. They found creative ways to fulfill various feature requests. Nothing was a problem.

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

There is nothing in particular that I had any issue with.