Eight Bit Studios

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the deployment coordinator at MiKashBoks, a social enterprise organization. Our main goal is to digitize offline financial transactions in the developing world. We're mostly focused on Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Ghana, but we have plans to be in Taiwan and the US. 

Often, there's offline saving and lending that's happening at a community level. It’s challenging because this information isn't captured in any cohesive or coherent way. Even though these financial consumers have several positive things in their lives, they can't use that information. They have no way of making it available to any financial services provider to access a bank account or credit products.

What challenge were you trying to address with Eight Bit Studios?

We needed help with our app’s UI/UX design. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Eight Bit is rebranding our platform — they've come up with a new color scheme and other design assets, and they've also revamped our pitch deck. We gave them pages of requirements that had to be included in some form or another to meet regulatory restrictions.

Our app was poorly designed, and Eight Bit improved our UI/UX. One of the things they worked on was the process of account creation. It wasn't super complex, but it had multiple steps, which might be difficult to follow for someone using a smartphone for the first time. They improved that.

Additionally, some of our customers only use mobile money, and that had a pretty complex design. Eight Bit came up with intuitive and easy-to-use approaches for this.

Currently, Eight Bit is helping us on the main dashboard. It's the page that displays various information like how much money they have in their account. Whenever we finish improvements within the app, we send them to Eight Bit, and they provide feedback. They make sure that we’ve followed their design suggestions.

What is the team composition?

I’ve been on calls where there are 7–8 teammates present. Their team consists of a project manager, a design manager, designers, executives, and other resources.  

How did you come to work with Eight Bit Studios?

We reached out to several UI/UX design firms, and Eight Bit had the best project plan and resources. They had a bright team, and they were good at communications. They gave us a sense of what they could accomplish and helped us understand what we could get done for the money we had. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2021, and it’s ongoing. 

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

We haven’t yet rolled out the app or conducted A/B testing to have quantitative feedback. That said, when we speak to investors and show them the mock-ups that Eight Bit designed, we can see their attention popping up. We feel we’ve received a lot of value in engaging with them.

How did Eight Bit Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

Eight Bit has completed everything within the timeframes they gave us, and they are communicative about delays. They respond to emails within an hour, and they've never missed a call.

As far as budgeting, we've got what we paid for. Eight Bit is amenable to moving hours from one part of the project to another; they always find a way to accommodate our requests. 

We're kind of at a seed phase as a startup, and Eight Bit understands where our funding stands. They've delivered a lot of value and are super flexible in finding ways to fit everything we need into their scope. 

We communicate using Basecamp, Slack, and Zoom. They also share files through Google Docs and Figma.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Eight Bit is very good at helping us understand what we want and translating our goals into designs that meet our needs. 

They don't just take and varnish what we had; they've broken it down into its parts and helped us understand how those parts would fit together to different users. They've even conducted user interviews and used that information to build a much greater form factor and a more intuitive feel.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We wouldn't hate it if they were a little cheaper. That said, I think they're very fairly priced. I can’t think of anything that they could improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ask a lot of questions and be clear about what you’re looking for. If you ask a question, you’ll get a really thoughtful answer. Engage with them at a great depth, and you’ll receive good information.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a program manager in an IT department at UL, a company that mainly focuses on product safety. In my department, we work on a specific internal application that handles project fulfillment and public management/fulfillment.

What challenge were you trying to address with Eight Bit Studios?

Essentially, we wanted to reinvent our internal project fulfillment program. Its initial intended use was for a smaller population, but we determined that we wanted to use it across our enterprise. 

As the program grew, it lost some flexibility, so we needed to revamp the UX. The goal was to carry over most of our data into something that was a bit more user-friendly. That’s why we contacted Eight Bit Studios.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Eight Bit Studios helped us conduct user research for our project fulfillment app, looking to prepare initial mockups that could go into an MVP. The team interviewed our internal users to see how people used the existing program and to understand what they could improve.

Toward the end of the project, they provided a few details on how we could best organize our app. We didn’t get too deep into the wireframing phase, mostly because we have an in-house UI specialist who’s working on the prototypes. But, they worked with us to deliver the user research.

What is the team composition? 

In total, there were about five team members, though we only worked with 2–3 people at any given time. One person did most of the interviews himself before working with his team to deliver the final results. Then, there was a program manager who helped keep things moving along as well as a technical designer.

How did you come to work with Eight Bit Studios?

We considered them along with another company, both of which had worked with UL before on similar projects, just not with our department. After gathering some information, we interviewed them and decided that we liked Eight Bit Studios more.

How much have you invested with them?

Toward the end of the engagement, we saw that we were running over our budget and couldn’t allot more funds. Our program was actually in the middle of renewing our entire budget, which took a lot of time and is still ongoing today.

We ended up explaining the situation to their team and asked how we could transition their work over to us so that we could make the most of our remaining budget. However, they were so generous that they ate some of the costs to continue working with us. That allowed us to finish the project as initially intended, which we were extremely grateful for. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from February–May 2020. 

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

Eight Bit Studio did such an amazing job with the research — everyone who had the chance to work with them had good feedback. Our internal users responded positively to how the interviews were conducted and the kind of questions asked. And, our team gave them perfect scores across the board on our vendor survey.

That’s proof of how professional Eight Bit Studio was. They were dealing with some difficult concepts, not to mention our users had various uses for our program, which made things a little complicated. Regardless, they were able to pick things up quickly and gave an easy-to-understand final presentation on their findings. 

How did Eight Bit Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

Their ability to communicate their work and collaborate with us was amazing. Their program manager, in particular, was on top of everything. If we had any questions or concerns, she addressed them immediately, and they did a great job of keeping to our deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Again, I’d just like to highlight their professional communication skills. They would usually deliver a PDF of their research along with doing a presentation, and it would always be so seamless. Some of the concepts were a bit harder, so they focused on making them easier to understand. 

Besides that, they made us feel like part of the family. I’d never worked with a company that was so good at building rapport with their clients.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t even know what we could say because they were so great. I wish we had more time and budget to allocate toward working with them for our next phases.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s important to be able to communicate honestly because they’re very receptive to any concerns you might have. There was one time when our UI specialist felt a little out of the loop. Once we let them know, they swiftly pulled him into the conversation and resolved the problem.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of an organization called Kenechi. We offer a streaming service to help underserved youths and young adults attain the skills needed to be successful in life.

What challenge were you trying to address with Eight Bit Studios?

We had a landing page, but it didn’t have any keywords or phrases.

What was the scope of their involvement?

To start, Eight Bit built our marketing website. They created the platform and a style guide from scratch.

In addition to a website with content and podcasts, their team came up with the idea to provide a streaming service. Their team identified a streaming platform for us to use to provide our audience with videos.

Currently, they’re conducting research into our target audience. Their team’s helping us to better understand and qualify the needs of our target audience as well as establish relationships with agencies that serve them. Their team will create our mobile app and continue to expand the platform as time goes on.

What is the team composition?

We’ve touched base with 8­–10 people from Eight Bit. We have a project manager who’s our main point of contact. She works hand-in-hand with an account manager who has a lot of experience.

How did you come to work with Eight Bit Studios?

We sent out an RFI to about 15 different providers across the US. Eight Bit was local and had all the experience needed to develop a web product and a streaming service. When we first met with them, their team was tuned into our mission. They could relate to our mission through either life experiences or past clients. Their team had our best interest at heart and offered a competitive price.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent in the neighborhood of $150,000, and we have a lot more to go.

What is the status of this engagement?

We initially met around October 2019 and launched the website around June 2020. However, this is a long-term partnership.

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

The real impact will be from their research. They help us to interview agencies that serve our target audience. By making those real connections, we’ll have an instant audience of youths to serve.

People like our mission and website, specifically the platform’s color scheme and simplicity. We like the site, and it receives positive feedback.

How did Eight Bit Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

We have weekly meetings to review the project’s status, which is ahead of schedule. We use also Smartsheet.

Our project manager coordinates the project and watches its cadence. She ensures that the calendar’s correct and handles any project-based questions. Our account manager helps us with product-based questions.

As a result of COVID-19, we had to work remotely. Eight Bit stepped up to that challenge without missing a beat. They’re accessible and dedicated.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of their work distinguishes them from other providers. Their creativity, flexibility, and empathy also set them apart from the competition. Eight Bit cares about their clients’ missions and goals. Their team ensures that their clients are well-served. They have a good sense of humor and don't take themselves too seriously. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of any way that their team could do better. They provide top service and should continue doing what they’re doing.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Present what you want to do and then let their creativity take control. Their team will come up with ideas that will enhance your goals.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO and founder of Rigfish, a gear app for musicians. The app initially is geared towards guitarists but we plan on expanding the platform. It serves as a social network for musicians to trade best practices around the gear they use and have a personal workspace to manage their gear.

What challenge were you trying to address with Eight Bit Studios?

The existing prototype I had was a nice illustration, it just needed a design enhancement. I wasn’t happy with that iteration so I decided to bring in an outside team.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Eight Bit Studios designed both a clickable prototype and an actual prototype for development for the app. I explained my requirements to their team in a few initial meetings, including the strategy of the business and how the design would best reflect that. We walked through the old prototype so I could point out what I saw as deficiencies I wanted to optimize.

Our teams put together a statement of work and went through our requirements at a kickoff meeting with the entire project team. They ensured that we all knew the scope of the project, the areas of focus, and the timeline. Eight Bit Studios then provided UI/UX design services to the iOS app.

What is the team composition?

I worked with 6–7 members of the Eight Bit Studios team, depending on where we were in the project. Their project manager ensured resources were allocated properly on both teams and made sure the trains were running on time. We also had a team of multiple UX and product designers.

How did you come to work with Eight Bit Studios?

I did some online research and also reached out to some contacts in the industry. I had opening discussions with different design and development shops and spoke to their past customers. Ultimately, I decided to go with Eight Bit Studios.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with Eight Bit Studios ran from April–September 2019.

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

I’ve met with a number of end-users that I reviewed the application with and they all came away with positive impressions of it. All of them had seen the earlier versions of this app and felt that we had delivered something that met their needs. 

I also attended a conference that included not only end-users, which are the musicians themselves, but manufacturers and retailers. I shared the app with them at the conference and they were all impressed with it.

How did Eight Bit Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They were exceptional at project management. I always knew how were actually doing as far as planned activities versus what had been completed or how far we were budget-wise. I knew how we were tracking and who was working on what at what time. This was helpful because if I had questions, I knew who to go to to get answers. It made us all a lot more productive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Eight Bit Studios is an incredibly tight team. They’re passionate about delivering a good product, which sounds like a throwaway marketing line but happens to be true. They personalize their projects and made sure I was extremely happy with the results. Eight Bit Studios is always willing to put in extra effort to make a rock-solid product.

They weren’t afraid to share their opinions, even if they disagreed with me. Their team would strongly advise me when they felt I was going in the wrong direction. I almost always ended up following their advice but if I didn’t want to they would respect that. Their experience and expertise mattered to me.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I knew that I was selecting a big-time reputable design shop with a history of strong and efficient projects. For a bootstrapped company like mine, it was a little overwhelming. I was used to working with one designer at a time and all of a sudden I had a relatively big project team. There’s a reason they do things that way, and I learned that later. They could communicate to a bootstrapped company about how they go about the project and why they do that. In the end, I saw the value in their approach.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust them. They’re good at what they do. Eight Bit Studios runs the project very effectively and have, in my opinion, the best designers around. Let them do what they do, ask questions, and collaborate. Know that you’re getting a great experience with people passionate about delivering a solid project. Allow them the space to give you what you want.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of Affect X Technologies. We use machines to understand people's cognitive and emotional states.

What challenge were you trying to address with Eight Bit Studios?

We wanted to make sure that our interface resonated with our consumers, so we were looking for a vendor to help us design the new interface for our machines.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Eight Bit Studios created the UX/UI design, focusing on the nature of the experience we were looking for. We're breaking new ground in order to communicate with consumers in the ways that haven’t been used before. We take complex technical concepts and simplify them, making it possible for our consumers to understand them and interact with them. Eight Bit Studios provided the UX research and strategy, helping us bring our idea to life.  

What is the team composition?

We had a project manager and there was a team of people working on our project.

How did you come to work with Eight Bit Studios?

We found them through Clutch.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them between November 2018–June 2019.

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

We have the first iteration of our software, and we've received very positive feedback on it.

How did Eight Bit Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They were excellent. They laid out the whole plan at the beginning and communicated with us regularly. We used Slack and video conferencing to stay in touch, and we also met them in person.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They didn't take a prescriptive approach. Our project was complex and fairly confusing, but they stepped into it with an open mind and tried to understand us. Other vendors that we interviewed wanted to tell us what we needed, but Eight Bit Studios listened to us and tried to think about the end consumer.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. They did a great job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They made the whole process easy for us.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the vice president of The College Board. We are a national nonprofit that helps advanced students have successful college experiences.

What challenge were you trying to address with Eight Bit Studios?

We engaged Eight Bit Studios because we needed to upgrade a native app that was not working as well as we needed it to. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

We relied on Eight Bit Studios to determine the root of the user experience problems within the application and make technical updates as necessary. The app is built for iOS in Objective C and for Android in React and JavaScript.

What is the team composition?

Their team consists of 4–5 people, but Brett (Managing Partner, Eight Bit Studios) is our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Eight Bit Studios?

If I remember correctly, Eight Bit Studios simply responded to our RFP, and they were the best company for the work.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in July 2018 and remains ongoing.

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

Overall, they’ve been very efficient in fixing and updating our application. They’ve supplied higher-quality work faster and at a more reasonable price than our past vendor.

How did Eight Bit Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very responsive. We maintain a shared Jira account to track their progress, and we’re happy with the communication. At one point, they needed to exceed the allocated work hours, but that was communicated well in advance, so we’ve had very few issues.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve done the best work I’ve seen from an outsourced development team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’ve met all of our expectations.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They are experienced in their space, so I would trust their ideas on features as well as maintenance work.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our parent organization is an association whose members are in financial services. I manage a new sister association for financial advisors who don't yet have the necessary qualifications to join our parent organization.

What challenge were you trying to address with Eight Bit Studios?

We wanted to provide resources and tools to our audience to help increase their productivity and gain long-term success. We needed help to develop offerings that would resonate with our audience.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hoped to offer digital resources and community content to our target members. Eight Bit helped us develop an app that delivered the resources, tools, and community that would enable this audience to learn and grow. It was developed for iOS, Android, and also as a web app. They came up with all the designs and wireframes for us.

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with about six people. Most of our contact was with a project manager.

How did you come to work with Eight Bit Studios?

We researched different vendors and reached out with RFPs. Eight Bit was one of the three agencies on our final shortlist. All three did presentations for us, and we ultimately decided to work with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started around March 2017, and the project is ongoing.

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

We're in a test phase now and have intentionally limited our audience. Metrics we measure include the number of test users and the average daily user time spent in the app. Both metrics are generally above our goal, and we're very pleased with the outcomes.

How did Eight Bit Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well. We had a quick turnaround on our launch, and this was a huge undertaking. The entire offering from our association is the app, and they were essentially responsible for our whole value proposition. They did an excellent job. We have weekly calls with them, and they come into our office monthly to present their designs or projects they're working on.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They took the time to really learn about our complex organization. This is a brand-new audience for us, and they researched everything on the frontend and learned a lot about us. Once they understood what we wanted to deliver, they used their intelligence and creativity to develop a product that was above and beyond anything we expected.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Having never worked with an app developer in this way, we're constantly trying to hone the project management. We're still working on making this collaboration as efficient as possible.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the vice president of product and UX at Echo Global Logistics. We offer transportation management and brokerage services using our own proprietary technology.

What challenge were you trying to address with Eight Bit Studios?

As part of a larger initiative to redefine our digital solutions, we engaged Eight Bit Studios to help us in two primary areas. First, we worked with them to develop a mobile app for one segment of our market—specifically, the truck drivers that work for the carriers we interact with. Secondly, we have used resources from their staff to facilitate some of the UX and information architecture projects we have.  

What was the scope of their involvement?

The mobile application has been developed for Android and iOS and functions as a digital load-management system that allows drivers and carriers to communicate more seamlessly. As part of their preparation, Eight Bit Studios conducted field research to learn of the pain points troubling many drivers and their managers. Eight Bit Studios participated in the discussions of technical requirements and ensured that the products would connect with the API we built internally. They developed the final application and the frontend templates for a web portal.

What is the team composition?

At its peak, the team has consisted of 8–10 people, including mobile app developers, a project manager, a UX designer, a frontend developer at times, and a QA technician.

How did you come to work with Eight Bit Studios?

Our CEO was familiar with their work from other initiatives he’s been involved with.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in 2016 and remains ongoing.

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

We’ve seen a lot of positive results since our app’s launch. It has been adopted at a very encouraging rate. This market, just like any other industry, is in the midst of digitization, and I think we’ve been able to provide a reliable product that can be a part of the changing behavior in the space.

How did Eight Bit Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re straightforward to work with. They feel like teammates within our organization. It’s nice to see that they have the same values as us when it comes to customer satisfaction. Their project management methods—including how they give us updates or break down the billable work—are a definite strength.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s common for a long-term vendor to exhibit a drop-off in quality after a while, but we’ve never experienced that with this team. Eight Bit Studios has been able to maintain the level of quality that initially attracted us to them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’ve been a great partner for us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

This is especially true if future clients decide to augment resources to their team, but we’ve found it’s best to outline the responsibilities of each person at the start of the process. That will facilitate a perfectly integrated team and working atmosphere.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of UX for an online ticket marketplace.

What challenge were you trying to address with Eight Bit Studios?

We approached them to modernize the UI elements for our core native apps, update the browse experience for our product’s home search function, and build UI kits. The project was less about feature creation and more about refreshing the existing experience for our mobile apps.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with a kick-off session and initial discovery workshops so that they could better understand our business. This also posed an opportunity for us to align our brand internally.

From our discussions, they created a set of style tiles that demonstrated different visual directions. We conducted perception tests, comparing sample screens based on their designs with our existing app as well as our competitor’s.

The team applied the new visual direction to our happy path flow before solidifying the sketch UI kit. They looked at the components that didn’t show up on the main screens and bundled the assets into the kit.

What is the team composition?

The team consisted of the director of product design, a UI designer, a UX designer, and a project manager. Occasionally, there was also an account representative.

How did you come to work with Eight Bit Studios?

We went through the typical RFP process, engaging several local Chicago shops. Eventually, we heard of them by word of mouth through my colleagues. They had a good vibe and focused on app work, so we felt comfortable moving forward with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

Their work lasted from April–August 2018.

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

We’re currently redeveloping the apps using their designs, so nothing is live yet. That being said, both our internal team and perception testers have been receptive to the new visual direction. It’s bolder, modern, and more impactful. We’re using their work to help standardize the look of our web products.

How did Eight Bit Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

For the most part, we did weekly design sprints, and they delivered everything on time. The team would send us work for review, and we’d meet the following day to talk about it and brainstorm tasks for the next sprint. After each session, the project manager would post our meeting notes. They would also send out reports on the overall project status. We coordinated the project using Basecamp, setting up checkpoints to ensure constant communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re a smaller shop with a quirky, more casual culture.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything specific.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re looking for a lean team that’s quick and responsive, Eight Bit Studios would be a great fit. They’re a small, boutique shop that’s appropriate for startups and have a more organic process, overall.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Chore Check, an app for parents to track their kids’ household chores and pay their allowance on prepaid debit cards. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Eight Bit Studios?

We had another company build us a very basic first version, but wanted a development organization to help us with complicated new tech integration and enable a new piece of functionality.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with an intake meeting where we described the existing functionality and gave them access to review our code. We outlined our goals for growing the business and they came back with an estimate for the first round of development. We had a long list of things that we wanted to prioritize for a customer-facing iOS app for the App Store.

They started with our existing app and rewrote or embellished over 80% of it, including all the functionality for integrating the prepaid debit cards. They connected all the financial services, then we had an iterative process to make minor changes. There were a lot of pieces and services to add, including at least three financial technologies necessary to make the whole thing function properly. They also did all the UI/UX design on the web and iOS versions.

What is the team composition?

We have a project manager and three people who worked on iOS development. We started with one project manager and were assigned a new one after a reorganization. We also have a principal person who did all the backend and API development work. We also had a senior designer and a couple of account assistants. In all, we had a team of about 10 people.

How did you come to work with Eight Bit Studios?

My partner knew them from a previous project. We did talk to a couple of other companies but didn’t do a lot of quoting. Eight Bit had a strong lead, thanks to my partner’s knowledge of their work.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around May 2016. Development is still ongoing and we just recently completed a small update with them.

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

The version of the app they completed was our first real revenue stream, which had a dramatic impact and helped monetize our business. Getting all the financial pieces into place was no small task and we’re really pleased with the result. They were pivotal in scoping the whole project out and running tests. Their methodology was very systematic and they were really careful about timing updates so we didn’t interrupt our users.

Families love our app and find it useful. They can assign any kind of task to their kids and some parents get very creative with the chores or behavioral things they choose to incentivize for their children. They like the friendly interface that is easy to work with.

How did Eight Bit Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

Their real strengths lie in communication. If I put something in Basecamp, it always gets attended to. Even if they can’t update something immediately, they put it into their schedule and it doesn’t get overlooked. Their internal organization and discipline are extremely helpful to us and they keep our projects on track.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They really believe in the projects they work on and are selective about what they accept.  Even though they were vendors, they act like a partner. When a user has a problem and our support can’t figure it out, we can loop them in and they are just as determined to fix the issue as we are. They really care about us, which goes a long way in making the collaboration enjoyable and effective.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything offhand they should improve. It took us a while to get used to how militant they were about putting everything into Basecamp. We resisted for a while, but once we got into the habit, we saw how useful having one system to track everything was. It kept us from overlooking tasks and operated as a central hub for the project.