DePalma Studios

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of operations at a software development shop. We put together backend data file security technology.  

What challenge were you trying to address with DePalma Studios?

We needed help visualizing what a modern-day implementation of our backend processes would look like.

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, DePalma Studios took in all the information about what we do. I gave them a basic box of what we could integrate in as a frontend for cloud providers. We gave them white papers and a copy of our software.

The team put together the minimum number of steps that would be required for our customers. Using our branding and color palette, they produced a prototype for what our system would look like for customers in InVision.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two project managers and three people working on the mockup.

How did you come to work with DePalma Studios?

Our team used them before on a different part of our company. We were pleased with their work then and decided to work with them again.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

This project took place in December 2020. It took exactly a month.

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

We were very happy with the prototype. The look and feel integrate extremely well into our website. The team delivered the prototype exactly when they said they would.

How did DePalma Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

We had weekly meetings as needed. If anything, their project management was too good.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team didn’t take any shortcuts during the requirements process. They were very disciplined in making sure that they had all the requirements correct before they started to get everything done.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind. DePalma Studios really went the extra mile.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Let them work through the process. Their processes are good. Let them do their work; you won’t have to push them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a company called Kallaco. Our organization is a software company that provides health care analytics and services to colleges, universities, and businesses across the US.

What challenge were you trying to address with DePalma Studios?

We needed to upgrade our software solution, making it more user-friendly and adding more features. Although we had a great development team, it wasn’t as experienced in UI/UX design as the project required. We brought DePalma on board.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We asked DePalma to focus on our end-user web portal and the end-user mobile app. Their team studied our users and user personas, looking at both platforms’ UXs on a computer and on a mobile phone. We relied on them for a lot of the strategic thought around the experiences. They gave feedback on the experiences and how users would approach our application suite. Their team focused on the UX, user design, and application screens.

We wanted to move from a paper-based test ordering process to a fully digital process. That required a lot of sequences and steps in the application, which could be complicated for a user. Their team focused on making that experience smooth for desktop and mobile users. They made sure that we would have a successful order placed each time by our users. The app’s available for both iOS and Android.

What is the team composition?

On a regular basis, we worked with four people from DePalma, including a project manager and development resources. The CEO of DePalma was involved in our early meetings and checked in along the way. We worked with another person to ensure our agreement was met.

How did you come to work with DePalma Studios?

I worked on a project with DePalma about 5–6 years ago and had a good experience with them. It was a skunk-work project that didn’t make it to reality, but they did a lot of work with us on it. I liked their approach and focus on UX design. They had a lot of knowledge about how to build products that would work well across different platforms. Based on that experience, I wanted to engage them more. When this opportunity popped up, I reached out to them.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent about $40,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started this project around June 2020, and it ended. We’re now looking into the next phase of the project. We have another administration portal and may ask them to overhaul its UI/UX.

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

They successfully delivered the first project. At every meeting, their team clearly showed the deliverables’ progress. They hit the timelines that were set in the original project plan. If we asked for a feature that was outside the project scope, they were quick to show the impact that our requests would have on the overall timeframe. That made the project really successful. There were no surprises along the way.

How did DePalma Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

The initial budget was $45,000, and we came under it. There were no surprises with the budget. We used Asana, and they did a great job using it. We also developed specific spreadsheets to show exactly where the project stood. They also sent a project deck throughout the course of the engagement to show how their team was meeting the project plan.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Two qualities make them stand out from other providers. Their project lead was superb. She had a handle on the project, the development team, and the designers. We felt confident that she understood our vision and could translate it to her team.

The quality of their design and UX team was top notch too. They created professional and high-quality designs. We didn’t have to ask for many changes along the way because they understood what we sought.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I felt that they did a great job. One concern is that they’re highly-priced. I don’t mind paying their prices because they deliver premium products. However, I’m asking myself if their prices could prevent us from doing more expanded work with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clearly describe to them what you want. They’ll listen and help expand the project’s vision.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a software company that will be used in career fairs at universities.

What challenge were you trying to address with DePalma Studios?

They developed a mobile app and a web app for us.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed a web app and a mobile app is for Android and iOS.  In the ideation stage, we were able to mess around with everything from different color schemes and logos to various web functions.

Then every two weeks, they sent us the app in a testing environment. We were able to go through the app to see if it was working as we wanted. Then we recorded any bugs we found in an Excel sheet. Using our feedback, they fixed any problems we found. We did that for about three months before we launched.

The app lets each student and recruiter that attends a career fair can make a profile. The student’s profile generates a QR code that can be scanned by the recruiters. Once the recruiter meets with a student, they can take notes, rate the student on a scale of 1–5, and view their resume. After the career fair, companies can easily export all of their scanned students on our web app so they can include the information on an applicant tracking system.

What is the team composition?

We had a project manager based in Nashville, Tennessee. We also had 2–3 developers working on the project overseas.

How did you come to work with DePalma Studios?

We shopped around and met with a few companies. We chose DePalma Studios because they seemed like a good fit. They had an entire team working with us and they were very involved. We really appreciated how they communicated with us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $90,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project in February 2020. Although the app is complete, we will continue to work with them when career fairs resume after COVID-19.

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

We launched the app once we were certain that the app is perfect. Although they guided us in the right direction, they left major decisions up to us. We were really able to decide on what we wanted to do, and in the end, we received a product we’re really happy with. Unfortunately, our apps aren’t being used much because career fairs aren’t happening due to COVID-19.

How did DePalma Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

We met with our project manager every week, and she kept us updated on what was going on. Usually, the developers attended as well. We always knew when there was a problem or if something good happened. They were in touch with us regularly.

They worked hard to meet our deadline, but the project took a little longer than we expected because we were focused on fixing certain bugs. Still, we knew about when they would finish up.

They also knew that we were a startup and didn’t have a ton of funding, so they worked with us to determine the price of the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with the different technologies they used. We were able to see the changes they made in real-time and we were able to leave notes. The best part about working with them was that everything was very transparent. They worked with us to make it perfect.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they need to change.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We came into the project knowing what we wanted, and that helped us get a jump on the development. Clients should be prepared with an idea of what feature and color schemes they’re looking for. That will help the discovery phase move quickly.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder & CEO of a mobile payment platform.

What challenge were you trying to address with DePalma Studios?

We needed a mobile app developed.

What was the scope of their involvement?

DePalma Studios was responsible for the UX/UI development for our custom mobile application. Now, they’re working on the development phase, which includes a backend web component.

What is the team composition?

Initially, Floyd (Principal) was the primary contact. On a daily basis, we interact with Sushmitha (Head of Engagement), the project lead. 

There are 5-7 additional people on the team, which varies in size depending on the current needs of the project. There’s a scrum master, project manager, UI/UX, API experts, QA testers, and backend developers involved.

How did you come to work with DePalma Studios?

I was looking for a company that was strong in UI/UX design. Through recommendations, I interviewed several companies, and decided the DePalma Studios team was the best fit to help accomplish my goals.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $200,000 - $410,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together around July 2020, and the project is ongoing.

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

We finished the UX/UI phase, and just completed 5 of approximately 12 sprints in this phase, putting us roughly halfway through the project. I was ecstatic with the results from the UI/UX development phase. 

Everything we’ve seen so far indicates that DePalma Studios is building out all the functionality we requested. The true test will be users of the app — the target audience. However, I couldn’t be happier so far.

How did DePalma Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They are doing great. We communicate via phone, text, and email. We have Slack and do Zoom calls. We have sprint calls every two weeks. 

During the UI/UX phase, we did Zoom calls twice per week. They also use several project management tools. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

DePalma Studios is very process-driven. They pay attention to detail and emphasize the frontend design and requirements gathering phases. I’ve been impressed with the entire management of this initiative, and the tools they use. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I asked them to help come up with some initial branding designs for the company. It was a bit of a struggle, and while they were close to the mark, I ultimately went another direction. It’s not really what they do, but it would’ve been nice to get everything from one company.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of engineering at Keypoint Intelligence. We conduct tests and provide data to manufacturers and sales representatives in the copier, printer, and scanner industry.

What challenge were you trying to address with DePalma Studios?

We wanted to create a new sales engagement product.

What was the scope of their involvement?

DePalma helps us to design our e-commerce platform for sales representatives to us as a daily sales tool. We gave them basic requirements, and they did the entire design for us from wireframes to the final version.

As a big project, it’s split into multiple phases. We’re now in the middle of phase two.

What is the team composition?

We work with three people from DePalma.

How did you come to work with DePalma Studios?

I found them through a general internet search. Originally, we weren’t certain if we would hire a firm or an individual engineer. I came across one of DePalma’s blogs which talked about the differences between an individual designer and a design firm. I liked what I read, so we contacted them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $50,000–$60,000 on the project so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

The first phase of this project occurred between March–April 2020. We started the second phase in June 2020 and plan to finish it next week.

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

Their team’s fast, and the quality of their work’s good. We haven’t had any complaints. They’re excellent.

How did DePalma Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Slack, and their team uses a virtual whiteboard where we’re able to view their work offline. We have two meetings per week via Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s easy to work with them because they’re a great team of people. When we have discussions, they’re open to our ideas. If we disagree, their team doesn’t just force their opinion on us but explains their position. It’s been a collaborative effort.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t have any complaints about our experience with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them a chance.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of digital for an advertising agency.

What challenge were you trying to address with DePalma Studios?

We needed a full audit of our current website. It needed an evaluation to give insight into how it should be redesigned and restructured.

What was the scope of their involvement?

DePalma Studios provided a full audit, including an evaluation, a Google Analytics audit, and a competitor analysis. They did a comprehensive review, providing insight into digital strategy. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with three teammates on this particular project.

How did you come to work with DePalma Studios?

They did some work for our other office, who recommended them for this project. I was looking for work similar to the project they did with that office.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from April 2019 – May 2020.

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

It’s too early to see the impact. However, we will take the information they provided for the internal redesign and restructure of the website. They did a good job, and we’re pleased. We would work with DePalma Studios again on future projects.

How did DePalma Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

The team did very well. We had weekly meetings and were in constant communication. We used Slack and Miro boards.

What did you find most impressive about them?

DePalma Studios’ process was very good, and they asked a lot of questions. I liked that they sent recaps, as well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The final declarations needed some language editing done. Their findings were good, but it was written by someone on the team whose native language wasn’t English, so it was hard to interpret the conclusions.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be specific about your goals for the project. Give DePalma Studios access to tools like Google Analytics to allow them to do better work for you.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a payment platform startup. Within the payment platform, we also do inventory management for products based on the vendor and employee tracking based on sales.

What challenge were you trying to address with DePalma Studios?

I wanted to come up with a storybook wireframe to be able to then sit with my angel investors and go through it with them. 

I also wanted to be able to give them a good visual of the customer journey and the mobile app, which would give them a good feel of what we were offering and what they would be investing in.

What was the scope of their involvement?

DePalma Studios worked with us to develop wireframes for the React Native mobile app. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with four teammates.

How did you come to work with DePalma Studios?

I found them online and they seemed like they were a good fit. After talking to their VP, I submitted what I wanted to achieve. DePalma Studios seemed to be a team I could work with because they were so accommodating.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June 2018–March 2019.

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

The work was exactly what we asked for, and I was proud to present the work to our investors. 

How did DePalma Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was great. They were very attentive and their project manager did a great job. I traveled to their offices in Nashville and met them personally. DePalma Studios was extremely accommodating. We communicated via slack and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team was very communicative, keeping me abreast of what was going on and any changes they made. Since this was a creative process, there was a lot of back and forth communication, which I certainly appreciated.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing that stands out particularly, and they did a good job. I had do have one nitpicky comment which is that there were some misspelled words on the UX screen. There was definitely a language barrier with some of the UX developers. If I had to pick anything, that would be the only one. Other than that, it was a really good experience. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust them, communicate a lot, and definitely do a site visit.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m VP of product management at a software company. Our system manages mobile devices in the workplace.

What challenge were you trying to address with DePalma Studios?

I needed assistance with both graphical design work and UX in the development of our mobile and web applications. Initially, I was looking for a partner to help with more of the UX and larger projects, but as the rebranding began, we shifted that focus to design work. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

In early 2019, we did a very significant rebranding: new name, new logo, new colors, etc. Through that, we did a full redesign of our mobile and web platforms. DePalma Studios assisted us as we quickly converted all of our systems. In the early stages, they helped us from a design standpoint, building out new mobile screens as well as themes and styles on the web side. They helped us throughout that process of rebranding.

The scope of our work entailed the full redesign and setting standards across all of the platforms. Over the course of the year, we’ve also done a number of smaller projects with them that have gotten into UX elements, such as designing dashboards and revamping some of the management workflow wizards we’ve done.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 5–6 people in total, including support folks, project management, and 2–3 hands-on designers.

How did you come to work with DePalma Studios?

I interviewed and dug in deep with about four different vendors. I narrowed it down and got to the point where I chose DePalma Studios. I thought they’d be a good fit based on their design portfolio. Additionally, they appeared to have a culture that matched ours, and it seemed like they’d be flexible to our projects and the type of work we needed. It all proved to be true. 

How much have you invested with them?

My company has spent $25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with DePalma Studios in January 2019. We worked a great deal on the redesign in March, and then the rebrand happened in April. We’re not actively working on anything at the moment, but we have a project-by-project partnership. We have several projects that we’re working on for Q2 that we designed earlier in the year with DePalma Studios.

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

All stakeholders involved from our side were pleased with the outcome. At some points along the way, we had a few more iterations than we might’ve liked to get it to the right spot, but generally speaking, their work was well-received. 

They definitely understood our goals and what our business is doing pretty well. They brought real value to the table, especially with some of the UX elements that were a little less defined. They were able to come up with good feedback on some of that. 

How did DePalma Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They did very well; I have no complaints. They kept in touch, and we were constantly connected. We communicated through Slack and other avenues. They always provided updates as they progressed through their development. We had live boards where we could go and see their progress and make comments as they were developing things, so that we could shift if needed. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

All of their designs came out very clean and current; it was definitely the new look that we wanted. From a UX standpoint, they quickly understood the goals that we were trying to lay out and our direction with the product, and they were able to echo that with some of the designs that they provided.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing in particular. They were timely and helpful. When we had priorities that needed to be turned around, they stepped up and did that, so I wouldn’t critique anything as a negative experience with them.

Any advice for potential customers?

The clearer you are in the description of the project’s fundamental goals, the better. That’s probably true of anybody, but I think that was very positive with how we were able to kick things off. We demoed our systems to DePalma Studios to make sure they understood how it worked and what we were trying to accomplish. They were able to step up and really echo that in the projects we put out.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of digital transformation & experience for a healthcare company.

What challenge were you trying to address with DePalma Studios?

We hired DePalma Studios for UX/UI design work.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Over the past year, we’ve done five to six projects with DePalma Studios. The work has included system design, machine-learning UX, exploring modular, reusable designs, and exploring different product campaigns.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with about ten from their side, and three people from ours.

How did you come to work with DePalma Studios?

One of my team members found that they were well-rated on Clutch. We cold-called them, along with a few other organizations. The team at DePalma Studios sounded the best in terms of capabilities and services. We carefully reviewed the profiles of their team, which were solid.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with DePalma Studios started in December 2018.

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

We have retrospectives and KPI calls. They’ve been responsive as well in taking constructive feedback and making course corrections, or giving internal rewards when good work was done.

How did DePalma Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

From a project management standpoint, the team at DePalma Studios is extremely excellent.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team has a boutique mindset when it comes to UX. They understand the design operation process well, adapting and evolving based on the best practices. Because we have such a strong understanding of the overall process, output and creativity become part of it. We operate in a new field, so there’s a slow maturity when it comes to working with large enterprise clients.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’ve been improving based on our retrospectives. Their team could have more UX-led innovations and ideas around that.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re great for all clients, especially ones that have DesignOps processes in place. Their team’s talented resources can add capabilities to any organization. The services that come as an outcome are amazing. They’re open to feedback and have a quick turnaround time.

The team at DePalma Studios integrates well within its toolchain and their client’s tools. From a relationship perspective, everyone participates in calls. They also have an open culture that’s quite rewarding. We know almost everyone. In terms of transparency and openness, they’re excellent.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior UX analyst for a healthcare company.

What challenge were you trying to address with DePalma Studios?

We needed an experienced design firm to help us create an in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment support application.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The initial project’s scope involved creating an MVP. However, we decided to build a proof of concept (POC) application instead. DePalma Studios performed essential research and provided UI/UX design services. We sent them our feedback after receiving each deliverable. They also developed several prototypes of the final product. We operated on a tight timeline, but they managed to complete everything as promised.

What is the team composition?

At first, they assigned three UX designers and a UX manager. But the project’s scope kept growing, so the team eventually expanded to include seven UX designers. Their UX manager was our primary point of contact throughout the engagement.

How did you come to work with DePalma Studios?

I found DePalma Studios on Clutch.co. Their excellent reviews and healthcare experience stood out to me. I researched their designers further through LinkedIn and found that their portfolios include high-quality work. Their asking rate was agreeable with our budget, so we hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent under $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Their involvement with this project took place from November 2018–January 2019.

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

Depalma Studios joined this project shortly after it began, so they were tasked with creating a new product using the research provided to them by our medical partners in the IVF field. They utilized multiple variables to create a complex system that guides users through the IVF process.

The team considered the emotional state of patients when designing the app’s visuals. We’re impressed by how quickly they produced the final interface. They delivered nearly 90 screens and more than seven user workflows. They executed everything effectively, so extensive iteration rounds weren’t necessary.

How did DePalma Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

We had daily stand-ups with them in addition to weekly design reviews with the project’s stakeholders. They’re extremely communicative and willingly shared management tools with us to ensure transparency. They also used a RealtimeBoard so our stakeholders could view daily updates at their digression.

I usually have to act as the project manager whenever we use third-party vendors. Luckily, I didn’t have to worry about that while working with DePalma Studios. They created a project plan, updated me twice a day, and kept the engagement organized.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They deliver excellent work and have exceptional communication skills. Their team managed to accomplish more tasks than we expected. I have nothing negative to say about them. Working together has been a great experience. We’re currently in the process of hiring them for future projects as well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I can’t think of any notable suggestions.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a detailed plan in place and set realistic goals.