Creative Navy

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director and owner of triOpsis, a software company that does full-force management and scheduling for utility companies.

What challenge were you trying to address with Creative Navy?

Our UX reached the point where we couldn’t scale appropriately across users. We had a user base with expert super users, but it didn’t scale beyond the initial supergroup. The challenge was improving our UX so our clients' adoption rate would be easier. When we deploy our software to a client, it’s easier for them to adopt it and scale across the organization. Therefore, our opportunity was to get our UX right to scale faster.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Creative Navy worked on UX/UI for this project. The deliverables were a lengthy collection of wireframes and a complete style guide for the application, including all the buttons, colors, graphic icons, and so on. When we started, the team had a clear structure in terms of the tools they’d use: Notion and Figma. It was a ten-week process; we did weekly sprints and had a deliverable at the end of each week.

What is the team composition?

Our principal points of contact were Dennis (Managing Partner) and Alexandra (Product Manager). Alexandra was in charge of UX and project management. She coordinated everything with the studio; we didn’t interact with anyone beyond her, which was incredibly efficient. If we required a director, we escalated to Dennis.

How did you come to work with Creative Navy?

We found them through general research on Google for UK-based agencies with good reviews. We talked to a few agencies at the end of 2021 and picked three to go through the selection process. In the end, we gave the contract to Creative Navy.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent £65,000 (approximately $81,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the work in March 2022; the initial project was ten weeks. We’re now planning further projects, so our relationship is ongoing.

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

Unfortunately, we don’t have metrics yet. We now have to code all the wireframes they did. Once we get all that work done, we’ll see how it transfers to the app. However, the internal feedback was highly positive.

How did Creative Navy perform from a project management standpoint?

They were excellent; everything was structured from the start. We did everything remotely, so we used on-screen share, videos, and shared information via Notion and Zipline. 

We had a project plan for every week, and the communication was very clear. Alexandra ensured that we had two meetings set up every week. We caught up on Tuesdays and Thursdays and communicated daily on the Teams channel. Also, the feedback loops were fast. They’d give us a selection of wireframes on Tuesday, and we’d provide feedback by Thursday. Overall, we hit all the milestones and completed the project on time and within budget. It was a well-managed process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They had excellent knowledge and examples of case studies of complex software applications and how to make them more transparent to the end user. When we went through the process, they had a strong portfolio within our domain — it was their main differentiator.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, the project succeeded overall, and the management was excellent. They did a great job, which is why we’ll continue working with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Firstly, be as straightforward as possible about your expectations and what you want from Creative Navy. Secondly, be very pragmatic about the level of uncertainty in the project. We’d never gone through a UX/UI project before, so it was a learning experience for us.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a manufacturing business that is in the global, high-performance materials space. I’m part of the abrasives business unit, which works under northern operatives in the US.

What challenge were you trying to address with Creative Navy?

At the time of this project, we were migrating our entire digital estate from our legacy system to a more modern infrastructure. With that, we needed to update our content as well as the content production processes within our company, so we engaged Creative Navy.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Creative Navy updated our content infrastructure, which spans our various websites. Their team was also in charge of designing the visuals to match our new content production process. The interface they created streamlined what data needed to be managed, who needed to manage it, and how it needed to be managed on a regional or global level. 

What is the team composition?

There were at least two people involved from their side. We also had a main contact person who directed the team and managed everything.

How did you come to work with Creative Navy?

Our procurement team was the one who sought potential partners. They arranged the scoring process as well as the selection committee. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $300,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership ran from May 2021–March 2022. They still offer support to this day, but everything is basically ready on our end.

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

Since the redesign of our UI/UX, we’ve seen better engagement across our websites. We have yet to do a complete evaluation on top of the qualitative testing that we did prior to launching, but we have noticed that people can now find what they need more easily. What Creative Navy delivered has allowed us to pursue a lot of opportunities that we could not pursue before. 

How did Creative Navy perform from a project management standpoint?

The way we collaborated was really good; it always felt like we were on the same page. Creative Navy was very transparent—always openly telling us what they were thinking without trying to impress us. That went a really long way. 

Overall, the team delivered on time and within budget. Everything went smoothly, and their designation of a single point of contact worked really well for us. They even adapted to our existing system and used Jira and Slack to manage the project. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Creative Navy’s transparency really stood out to us. They always explained everything openly and presented us with various options and alternatives. We liked that they tried to hear out our ideas as opposed to convincing us to use their design. In that respect, they’re definitely different from the other designers that we’ve worked with. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would have helped if they had hired a French representative since most of our team is French-speaking. Other than that, I don’t see anything that could have been done better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It will be really helpful to establish a transparent and open working relationship with Creative Navy.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the lead solution designer of corporate solutions at one of the biggest insurance providers. I’m the interface between our business and the IT department.

What challenge were you trying to address with Creative Navy?

We needed to design a completely new web page and user journey. We needed a fresh view.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Creative Navy provided us with two services. Based on our input, they designed the UX for the flow of screens and basic concept of how the screens look. Once it was done, they also made the UI, establishing the color design, animations, etc.

Their team handled the whole frontend. They did some research and made some solution options from our problem description. Then, we discussed what we liked most, which was quite an iterative process. Creative Navy did their homework.

They had to design a floorplan including a risk assessment of a factory. A factory where we have production lines that interact with each other. We had to visualize the risk of the factories to the client and needed a forum to display that. That was one of the big challenges.

Other challenges were highly complex configuration screens. We have some insurance automation for the financial industry where we automatically approve or decline certain offers or applications. This logic is configurable. This isn’t that easy. We needed the screen to show this.

What is the team composition?

There are two people we're in main contact with. I’m sure there are others in the background as well.

How did you come to work with Creative Navy?

We shortlisted the 10 best-rated companies in Europe from Clutch because we didn’t want to have time zone issues. Then, we asked 6–7 for an offer. We had two rounds and Creative Navy came on top.

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested £100,000 (approximately $137,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2020, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

We’re not live yet but we finished the UI/UX design. Now, we have quite a bit of work to do to implement all the things they designed for us. Creative Navy delivered the design plus the whole technical framework of the design. Now, we can just take their designs and implement the business logic below it. We don’t have to reimplement the whole screens. It’s very helpful.

How did Creative Navy perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re extremely efficient. We use Zoom and Slack for communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

About 99% of the time, we talk about topic content and what we really want to do — not organization or contract. I never have to bother with nonfunctional people processes on their side. It was simply working. Creative Navy does what I’d expect from an excellent company. They take work from my desk and don’t add or replace it with other work for me to do. They’ve been very professional and efficient.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be a little bit more creative. The screens are really good. We do something very complex, and there should also be some solutions outside the box.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Think about your business first. We were lucky because we had Christmas and New Years in the middle of the engagement. The challenge on our side was that they move so fast that we can hardly follow. When you make a UX design, you really ask detailed questions such as what kind of data really has to be there and what happens if you click on a particular button. If you don’t know, it gets hard for the UX team to design something good. Before you engage any UX company, think hard about what you want to achieve.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the head of product for Beissbarth, which is a technology company. We design and build automotive measurement systems, such as wheel alignment and tire calibration equipment. Our primary customers are automotive shops. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Creative Navy?

My company has lot of different machines with different interfaces. We wanted to coherently bring these machines together using a contemporary and forward-looking UI.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Creative Navy helped us create the UX concept for our product range. They designed a new visual interface with the look and feel that is representative of our product range. The team designed interactions and animations.

They helped design a wheel alignment system that is currently under implementation. The team also provided prototypes, concepts, and designs for our car alignment system.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Dennis (CEO) and Alex (Project Manager), who is a great project manager. Their team included UI and UX designers. Motion designers helped design the interactions and animations for the interface.

How did you come to work with Creative Navy?

I think my colleague put out an RFP. Creative Navy made the shortlist, but they convinced us with their systematic methods. We felt their approach would apply well to our challenge, as our product range includes more than 10 types of equipment.

How much have you invested in them?

My company spent around €300,000 (approximately $359,200 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together around August 2020, and we received some of the final deliverables in January 2021.

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

So far, we have released a few of the new product interfaces to a test group of customers, and they are all over the moon with how easy the new system is to use. 

Customer feedback is that the system makes their lives easier, which is exactly what we wanted. Our equipment is used daily, so its usability is certainly a value-add and a market differentiator. One of our customers said that the new interface saved them in trading costs for new stock.

How did Creative Navy perform from a project management standpoint?

From a management perspective, it was frictionless and transparent. They stood on their own two feet, and we didn’t have to spoon-feed them anything. They were autonomous and involved us just enough to keep us updated. It was nice that I didn’t have to micromanage them.

We had meetings every few days, and our team had access to a repository of documentation and designs. We also had real-time connection through Microsoft Teams, and they used Notion. Alex did a great job as a project manager.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our equipment is very technical, and it’s used by automotive technicians. Creative Navy was able to understand how the measurement of our calibration system worked and then made that easy for someone looking at the system for the first time to understand. We were impressed by that. Their technical capabilities set them apart.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Separating the irrelevant from the relevant early on in such a project is important. Otherwise, it is bound to get overwhelming.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the founders and COO for a company that specializes in mental health research, software systems, and consulting. We develop and curate data sets and analyses pertaining to dementia. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Creative Navy?

We were in the process of rebuilding our data analysis platform, so we hired them to help with the redesign and UX to ensure that our new platform was high-impact.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They started with several user interviews to better understand the needs of our audience. From there, we collaboratively developed user stories and personas through the user research process. Once that was validated on our end, they started developing and designing their information architecture and user flows. 

We verified that as well. Then, they created the system functionality, wireframes, and design solutions. 

What is the team composition?

There were five designers, one project manager, and one researcher. 

How did you come to work with Creative Navy?

We ran a competitive bidding process. They submitted a fantastic proposal, so we ended up hiring them for the work. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $100,000 on their work.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked from May–October 2020.

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

Working with them has been fantastic, as they’ve provided deliverables to match our standards if not exceed them. Additionally, they’ve come to the table with exceptional design ideas that they’ve executed on time and according to our budget. It was refreshing to have their input and scientific approach to user research.  

How did Creative Navy perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate through email, telephone, and video calls, which allow us to collaborate on designs or ideas. They were strong project managers, providing regular progress updates and a monthly report on their deliverables. We felt that they were very well-managed, using Jira and Slack for quick communication. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They deliver truly exceptional design ideas. They’re good at what they do. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, it was a refreshing experience during which they delivered exactly what they promised. We enjoyed working with them.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s helpful to work closely with them and engage in the design process. That’s how we got so much out of their services.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a project manager at IDEXX Labs. We are the leading supplier of lab testing analysis software and diagnostics systems for veterinary practices in the US and Europe.

What challenge were you trying to address with Creative Navy?

They helped us to run user research and UX design for our vet clinic management software. Some of our users have been on the platform for a decade, so the challenge was in making our product more user friendly to someone new without damaging your existing user base.

What was the scope of their involvement?

In the time that we worked with them, they handled two major things. Their first goal was to conduct thorough user research of both our existing and new customers. From there, they combined the findings into actionable items that would hopefully satisfy both groups.

Their team also provided UX design work based on their findings in order to implement the changes that we had determined would be beneficial to the program and its users as a whole.

What is the team composition?

I worked directly with a team of two researchers, two UX designers, and one project manager.

How did you come to work with Creative Navy?

When we first looked for a partner to help us with the project, we spoke to multiple agencies and ended up selecting Creative Navy for their experience with enterprise software design, particularly in the medical sector.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent a total of $160,000 over the course of our work together.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from August–December 2019.

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

We were very pleased with the results of the project. We were initially expecting it to take 3–4 months to release the first UX changes because of how entangled all of our features are, but their team was able to turn around the first results in a little over 2 months.

Feedback from our users has been excellent as well. We prepared for a flood of incoming calls to our customer support center when the changes were rolled out, but it never came. Of the users who did get in touch with us, it was almost entirely to report being pleased with the changes that were implemented.

How did Creative Navy perform from a project management standpoint?

They handled all of the progress on their end, which was really helpful for us because I didn’t have the time to micromanage their team. I received weekly updates, which they coordinated really well, but for the most part, they handled everything from coordinating international calls with customers to the actual implementation almost completely independently.

We had some initial meetings in person, but throughout the project, we primarily used Slack and Zoom to keep in touch. We found that the mix of remote and face-to-face communication helped to maintain consistent updates and keep everyone on the same page.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our software is very complex, including multiple different user roles with very specialized needs, but they were able to come on board and understand what users wanted from the system in a very short time. They put together a strategy document for us that was not part of the scope but that they thought would help us move forward in the future, which we really appreciated. They do a great job of taking big picture business strategy and user behavior into account in all of their work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think we could have benefited from more brainstorming sessions with our team. They certainly got a lot of insight from their user research, but I did wonder if thinking through things with our team wouldn’t have been helpful too.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Every project is unique, but the most important first step is to be absolutely clear about what you want from them so that you can set clear priorities and objectives for the rest of the project.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a software company. We’re a reasonably small software provider of financial services systems We provide a SaaS platform for banks and finances across the world.

What challenge were you trying to address with Creative Navy?

We’re growing and looking into new marketplaces, and one of those led us to Creative Navy. They’re working with us to build a new product for the consumer space in cloud accounting products. They’re also helping us expand our current product sets.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They put together the whole wireframe and style guide, informing and consulting for us in the creation of our new product. Deliverables included UX design principles and UI components that we developed.

Initially, we had several weeks of workshops where we outlined what our product needed to do and what we liked from other systems we’d interacted with. Then, we gave them a broad brief and left them to it to come back with principles for us to consider. Then, they walked us high-fidelity wireframes, describing the internal conversations they had that led to these decisions. It was very informative for us.  

Afterward, we went through a weekly call process. We’d provide feedback on screens they would share with us. Then, they’d refine the screens and create new ones. We went through this 3–4 months of nipping and tucking all the aspects of the system until we had a final result in Zeppelin. Once we confirmed everything, they put together the style guide and we started putting everything together into a complete frontend interface.

What is the team composition?

I think there were 3-4 people. I’m not entirely sure who was working behind the scenes, though. From a client-facing perspective, Dennis (Managing Partner, Creative Navy) was our main contact for talking through wireframes. Another resource joined him on calls and was well informed. They were probably the project lead under Dennis. We also had regular contact with an account manager.

How did you come to work with Creative Navy?

I’d brought on a new frontend developer in-house, and this project was his first task. He did some market research and found Creative Navy, along with a few other candidates. We put them through an interview process, and it was clear from the get-go that

We went through an interview process, clear from the get-go that there was synergy in how they approached design. They have a heavy psychological research background and brought that to computer interface designing. I also have a psychology background, so I was very interested.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between £50,000–£70,000 ($64,300–$90,100 USD) with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from October 2018 until February 2019.

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

We’re in the launching phases, so, at this point, no, we don’t have any results. Regarding aesthetics though, the design is really clean—not noisy or busy at all. From a user perspective, you can see where you need to go and how to navigate the site. There’s not a lot of explanatory wording.

People aren’t going to jump out of their chair at amazing colors, but it’s not designed for that. It’s a processing system, and it looks good for what it is. It’s definitely a step up from our existing products in terms of fidelity and cleanliness.

How did Creative Navy perform from a project management standpoint?

They set up a Slack channel, and we spoke almost daily for a while. We also had weekly roundup meetings that eventually turned into biweekly meetings.

It was evident at some points that our timescales were not aligned, which led to some delays. A few resulted from them pushing forward faster than we wanted to, as well as vice versa. Generally, everything was fine, though. Nothing was missed. They finished what we asked them to.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their grasping of concepts was amazing. They quickly understood our market and needs, and Dennis in particular had a strong hold of our problems, quickly coming up with solutions. I didn’t have to spoon-feed them anything. It took some people in our organization years to work some things out, but Dennis got it done quickly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would appreciate more visibility about what they’re doing behind the scenes so I could know what they’re up to a bit more. When you’re outsourcing things, you can’t say simply asks what’s going on. We’d go through periods of where a lot would happen, and then we wouldn’t know what was going on for a little bit, but then a lot would happen again. So, overall, visibility on what’s happening internally would be nice.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be really clear about what you want upfront, which is just a classic project issue. Have a lot of documentation about what you want. Additionally, make decisions and be decisive about what you want to do. Finally, if you’re going to pay for something, make use of it and give it the time it needs. Don’t get distracted.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a product director at a company that offers a project management and presentation tool for complex projects. Our tool enables stakeholders to see aggregated data on the project progress, across all issues that are being tracked.

For what projects/services did your company hire Creative Navy?

We have developed a beta and signed up more than 100 customers. The UX we have designed for the beta was a good starting point but it proved to be too complex for most users. They all loved the features, but scaling with the UX would have been impossible. We hired Creative Navy to propose a set of user experience design concepts that would help us solve the most important usability concerns.

What were your goals for this project?

The objective was to create a library of design patterns and a design logic that we can roll out gradually.

How did you select this vendor?

We chose them based on conversations with multiple other agencies and we really liked their flexible approach.

Describe the project in detail.

Creative Navy proposed potential design solutions for all the interactions we had listed. They created designs to show what the new interface could look like if we were to choose one solution or the other. We gave them input and asked questions, upon which they adapted the design to fit our needs.

What was the team composition?

We worked with two designers from their side and had a steering committee on our end, made of myself, the CTO and two developers.

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

We were able to implement several of their design solutions in the months after the project. We received good feedback from the customers, the usability issues were at least mitigated if not solved. The library of ideas they supplied us with are still useful to us and we will keep them for the future when we will be able to make more changes to the platform.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Creative Navy were very quick to catch on. They did their own introduction to our software by setting up test projects. We then had a briefing session where they asked questions and we explained the intent behind certain features. Most of the work they did after that was independent, we just provided occasional input.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Our tool is very complex and unusual - you have to use it for a while to understand how it can add value. They were able to understand a complex tool in a short time, and then think creatively about it.

Are there any areas for improvement?

It was a good project, it was a shame we were not able to bring them on for longer.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work at Mazda Motors Europe and I am a project manager. Obviously we are in the automotive industry and I deal with the intersection between our IT and Marketing.

For what projects/services did your company hire Creative Navy?

We had them work on a mobile application to be used for our marketing, to present our offers and latest car concepts in an engaging way.

What were your goals for this project?

The point of the project was to create some design ideas that would enable us to validate an approach and create specifications for the development aspect of the project.

How did you select this vendor?

We reached out to agencies in Europe with a proven track record in automotive and then they submitted respones to the RFP. The selection was made by a committee of 3, representing marketing, IT and acquisitions.

Describe the project in detail.

Creative Navy did 3 sprints for us, each with a separate design concept. The project was intense, because we had to participate almost daily in sessions with them, but the goal was to get everything done in 3 weeks. They provided the structure for the sessions and involved us in workshops to provide input and feedback.

What was the team composition?

Two of us participated in their sessions and at the end of the week we had more stakeholders review the outcome of each week. From their side, they had a team of 4, with a PM and 3 design specialists.

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

One of the 3 concepts was a weird experiment at best, but the other two were very relevant and we're using both to figure out what we can build with a reasonable budget. We were pleased that we had two good concepts, when we started we were hoping to get one and were fearful that none would be ok.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I liked that they used all sorts of tools, but ultimately adapted to our needs and didn't force us to use the tools. This was important because the duration was short and we were very busy so we would not have time to study a new tool.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

It was great to work with people who have a lot of experience and I really felt that this made a difference. It was both the little things, like being always prepared and more profound things like understanding the market and nuances or our capabilities. It felt like we've been working with them for a long time.

Are there any areas for improvement?

It was good given the short duration of the project, I can't wish for more.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We manufacture passenger information systems for public transports. Our customers are in Europe, Asia and the United States. We have been in existence for 30 years.

For what projects/services did your company hire Creative Navy?

We hired Creative Navy to design a new user experience for our display controller which is used by bus drivers to configure the displays and for the performance of maintenance. We changed to a new display type for the controller so we needed a comprehensive user experience including the graphics.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a user interface that is easy to use by anyone, regardless of location, familiarity with IT or language.

How did you select this vendor?

We reviewed 5 companies and selected them based on the proposals they submitted.

Describe the project in detail.

Creative Navy have performed research and collected the requirements for the interface. They have used the previous software versions and input from our team to document all the details and then they created a UX wireframe prototype in a few weeks. Ultimately they used this prototype to get feedback from users and to improve it until the delivery of the graphics.

What was the team composition?

We spoke to the project manager only, but the team was made up of multiple designers.

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

We received very good feedback from our customers, they were impressed with the contemporary design and the ease of use.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

it was easy for us to work with them, we had only one point of contact and they were very independent. We provided input every now and then and towards the end of the assignment they organised 2-3 sessions with our developers to fine tune the delivery for development using Crank.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We were impressed with how quickly they were able to understand the complexity of our product. they were able to organise it into a more straight forward system.

Are there any areas for improvement?

It was a good experience