Branding & Web Design & Dev for Financial Software Company
Featured Review- Branding Graphic Design UX/UI Design Web Design
- $50,000 to $199,999
- June 2022 - Jan. 2023
- Quality
- 5.0
- Schedule
- 4.5
- Cost
- 5.0
- Willing to Refer
- 5.0
"They constantly put our needs and wants first and offered helpful guidance when needed."
- Software
- 51-200 Employees
- Online Review
- Verified
Cue Studio developed a WordPress website and brand guidelines for a financial software company. They created page templates, migrated blog posts, integrated the site with HubSpot, and hosted the site.
Thanks to Cue Studio's efforts, the client's "Request a Demo" page became one of the five most visited on their site. The new site's functionality saved the client time and received positive feedback. The team successfully managed several vendors and communicated well through third-party delays. This review is an update by the client company. The original content is located below the new review.
The client submitted this review online.
BACKGROUND
Please describe your company and position.
I am a Director at YCharts
Describe what your company does in a single sentence.
YCharts is an investment research and proposal-generation software for financial advisors, asset managers, and investors.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What specific goals or objectives did you hire Cue Studio to accomplish?
- Create a website that speaks to multiple audiences and segments traffic for conversion tracking
- Add flexibility and control to our wordpress environment, which was previously lacking
- Update our visual brand to match the evolving direction of our product
SOLUTION
How did you find Cue Studio?
Referral
Why did you select Cue Studio over others?
- High ratings
- Pricing fit our budget
- Great culture fit
- Good value for cost
- Referred to me
- Company values aligned
What was the size of Cue Studio’s team?
2-5 Employees
Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.
Cue Studio assisted YCharts with the following activities and deliverables:
- Information Architecture Diagram to define structure and content organization
- “Key” Wordpress template pages and modules, high-fidelity design, considering Desktop, Tablet, and Mobile. These key page types and modules can be reused and modified across pages, or even on new Wordpress pages yet to be created
- High-level style guide for Digital Creative practice within marketing org, provided via Figma and PDF.
- Content definition support, which will match new information architecture and flow Cue Studio and another Tech Partner also collaborated to implement a responsive Wordpress site across Desktop, Tablet, & Mobile. All blog content was migrated and restyled, executing the site using best standards and practices for Wordpress.
This work translated into the following activities and deliverables:
- New, optimized marketing site delivered on Wordpress platform with fixed number of modules to reuse and create new pages.
- Hubspot integration
- Migration of all blog posts
- Hosting management (recommending WP Engine, which includes staging environment)
- Availability for follow up and consultation for enhancements/maintenance post-launch
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?
- Our "Request a Demo" page is now one of our top 5 most-visited pages due to increased CTA placement & visibility
- Time savings across marketing team thanks to more flexible, usable site that we are not constantly "hacking"
- All maintenance and bug requests routed away from our internal engineering team to new 3p partner
Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?
While there was a slight delay due to another vendor involved, Cue Studio remained highly communicative and re-worked our plan to meet moving targets. Cue served as a "general contractor" for all other vendors involved and did an excellent job managing contributions from several other teams.
What was your primary form of communication with Cue Studio?
- Virtual Meeting
- Email or Messaging App
What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?
The overall design of our site and brand is amazing and receiving rave reviews from employees and customers. But potentially even more impressive was Cue's commitment to our success; they constantly put our needs and wants first and offered helpful guidance when needed.
Are there any areas for improvement or something Cue Studio could have done differently?
N/A
UPDATED REVIEW
This review was published on July 28, 2020.
Caleb Eplett
VP of Product Management, Financial Services Provider
Financial Services
51-200 Employees
Chicago, Illinois, United States
$200,000 to $999,999
Jul 2017 - Ongoing
Project summary
Cue Studio provides design services to a financial research platform to make their user experience accessible. The team uses spec sheets to create prototypes. They also perform user testing for feedback.
Feedback summary
Throughout the engagement, Cue Studio has become part of the team. Their resourceful team is efficient, responsive, and creative. They work independently with the aim of going above and beyond for their clients.
BACKGROUND
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the VP of product management at a website that researches financial information & securities used by investors to make investment decisions.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What challenge were you trying to address with Cue Studio?
We use them for our design work. We wanted our clients to have a great user experience when interacting with the tools and data we present.
SOLUTION
What was the scope of their involvement?
Cue Studio provides us with full design services. We’ll give them with spec sheets and information on a project. They’ll take that and run with it, creating prototypes and getting feedback.
Throughout different iterations, it becomes a collaborative process. Sometimes, they’ll even conduct user testing to get feedback from our users or people in the market before we ship the designs off to our dev team.
What is the team composition?
We primarily connect with two people, but a third person jumps in occasionally. Our two main contacts are Selma-Rachel (Founder & Creative Director) and Omar (Product Designer).
How did you come to work with Cue Studio?
Someone at my company found them. After talking to them and other candidates, Cue Studio seemed like the best fit. They seemed to have the knowledge and could fit within our culture. Selma-Rachel also had good experience that seemed relevant to us.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent between $250,000–$500,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
Our engagement with Cue Studio started in July 2017.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Cue Studio is part of our team at this point. Their work quality has had a great impact on the business. They’re pretty good at providing resources that would help us continue projects if they’re not around.
Throughout the process, they’re responsive. It’s easy to set up meetings. Back when we were in the office, they would come by when we needed them to. It’s been a great experience.
How did Cue Studio perform from a project management standpoint?
Selma-Rachel manages the projects. They do a good job. We collaborate quite a bit through Asana. We do have separate boards, but we both have access to each other’s, so it makes it easier to track projects.
The design files are typically started in Freehand or InVision. Then they make their way into sketch files, which are shared on Zeppelin so that everyone can access them.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Cue Studio will take projects and do a lot of research, even within our data. There’s not a lot of handholding along the way. Their team independently creates work within the guidelines we give them. They also go above and beyond to ensure the designs fit within our website and overall workflow. They do the extra work to make sure that what they’re producing fits well within our market.
Are there any areas they could improve?
Not off the top of my head. If there was anything, I could bring it up to them, and they’ll address it pretty quickly.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
If you’re working with someone outside of your organization, stay organized. Make sure you have frequent meetings. We meet once a week to discuss the status of the projects and go over any questions we may have. The constant communication and organization with the systems are always helpful.
Star Ratings
Overall rating: 5
Quality: 5
Cost: 5
Schedule: 5
Willing to refer: 5. Unless it means they have less capacity for us.
RATINGS
-
Quality
5.0Service & Deliverables
-
Schedule
4.5On time / deadlines
-
Cost
5.0Value / within estimates
-
Willing to Refer
5.0NPS
"Cue is an amazing partner to work with!