Flatstudio

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Product of a betting software company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Our company offers the most comprehensive odds comparison tools and betting tools, including Positive EV Betting Tools, Real Time Odds Comparison, and more!

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Flatstudio to accomplish?

• Develop a new “Trends” module to attract a new audience, specifically beginners in betting.
• Implement a homepage with filters and detailed market information, ensuring that the interface is visually appealing and functional for screenshots.
• Create a unified header and navigation for different modes within the app, accommodating a new bottom bar layout as per the client’s request.
• Design “Upgrade blocks” for subscription plans with a focus on allowing users to compare different tariffs and select subscription periods.
• Develop an Onboarding process with two variations, including location requests, notifications setup, and guiding users through the registration and login process.

SOLUTION

How did you find Flatstudio?

Referral

Why did you select Flatstudio over others?

Their Prior Work

How many teammates from Flatstudio were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Introduction of a new betting tool to our mobile app and the modification of our onboarding, UI/UX, and navigation to incorporate it. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Increase in user engagement, particularly among new users who explore the “Trends” module.
• Improved user feedback and higher ratings for the app’s visual appeal and ease of navigation.
• Higher conversion rates from free to paid subscriptions due to the effectiveness of the “Upgrade blocks.”
• Successful completion of the Onboarding process by new users, leading to higher retention rates.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Yes, they had a dedicated project manager who openly communicated. 

What was your primary form of communication with Flatstudio?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their focus on the sports betting industry and best-in-class UX/UI design are impressive.

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

Nothing to specifically call out. 

BACKGROUND

I’m one of the co-founders and CTO of Outlier, a sports betting analytics company. We partner with a sportsbook and help betters make better bets. Our business model is SaaS; customers pay a monthly subscription for our toolset.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Flatstudio?

We’re a team of strong engineers, but none of us have strong design skills, and we wanted our mobile app’s design to be professional.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Flatstudio owns the design strategy piece of our company. They’ve created wireframes and used Figma to design the UX/UI of our mobile and web app and designed two websites. We’ve only given them an idea of what we want rather than strict requirements. We sometimes disagree and get pushback from them, but we ultimately trust them as the design experts.

We conducted research before developing the mobile app. We spoke with about 100 different sports betters and sports book employees to identify pain points in the digital sports betting industry. Then, we executed a stack ranking exercise; we sent a survey to an even bigger audience of a few hundred to ask them to rank the different issues. We had ideas around solutions for these issues, and Flatstudio figured out how our solutions should function from a UX standpoint. They continue to iterate on the mobile app to incorporate our feedback and ideas. There are still some major feature sets we need to build, so they’ll help with that. We’ve run usability tests with a UX tweak.

They’ve designed our web app, which we'd developed quickly without considering the design. The web app and mobile app are complex, feature-rich products. 

They’ve also helped us rebrand from Colorcasat to Outlier. They’ve helped a bit with our messaging and stepped in heavily on the visual and emotional side of our brand. We’ve written copy and defined company values internally due to the language barrier. We’ve described what emotions we want our brand to evoke and showed them how we relate to other brands. They’ve turned this data into a brand book with advertising and marketing collateral. The brand book they gave us explains how to use the brand assets they created, such as a color scheme, color palettes, and digital media assets. We’ve used Prolific to test our new brand and brand assets.

They’ve also designed two websites for us, one simple marketing site using raw HTML, PHP, and CSS and the other in WordPress. They’ve migrated all our media assets and redirects and redone our Google Analytics, sitemap, and support system intercom. They’ve incorporated a blog and SEO on the WordPress site, which contains our merchandise store and an educational research section tied to our wiki. The WordPress site includes a scrolling animation explaining the mobile app's features. 

Our marketing team now maintains the WordPress site, which Flatstudio updates as needed. One of our go-to-market strategies is building Discord bots, so they will design and implement a way to request one on our site. We’ve given them administrative access to WordPress so they can make changes directly. 

What is the team composition?

We work closely with a project manager, and we’ve worked with 6–7 others depending on the project. We’ve worked with a teammate during the wireframe stage, a designer on the mobile app, and a teammate who helped develop our brand identity.

How did you come to work with Flatstudio?

I found them on Dribbble while looking for a design company with sports betting experience; I didn't want to have to hold their hands and explain specialized requirements. I was impressed with their work. We’re a small team, so we didn’t want a lot of overhead. 

The fact that they’re based in Portugal is another reason I chose them. I have family there, so I’d be able to meet with them in person.

They gave me an initial estimate on the mobile app design after I reached out to them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $65,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The ongoing engagement started in May 2022. We launched our mobile app in December 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re super happy with the quick top-line revenue growth we’ve experienced. Immediately after launching the app, we received a reception that exceeded our expectations. The conversion rate to paid users is over 20%. We already have over 1,000 paid subscribers after only a month and a half without advertising. The app is $20 per month, making it a more expensive app, so we’re very happy with the amount of paying customers. We've also received a lot of positive feedback on the app.

There have been very few areas of confusion for users noted in our usability tests, which speaks to Flatstudio’s expertise.

Our brand surveys have returned the same words that we told Flatstudio we wanted our brand to evoke. The surveys provide quantitative confirmation of their brand design skills.

The web app and websites haven’t launched yet, but we believe those will each get a great reception.

Our partnership has grown as Flatstudio continues to prove to be really effective for us. We were really happy with their mobile app design, so we continued working with them on our branding, which also went well enough that we decided to build our web app with them. We plan to continue working with them for a long time; we’re super happy with them. They’re a huge asset for our marketing and product design.

How did Flatstudio perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very proactive about communication. We primarily communicate asynchronously through a shared Slack. They send us a deliverable; then, we look through it, gather feedback, and send our feedback back to them. Then, they send a finalized version. We also have multiple standing meetings focused on design, website, or branding work. I’ve met with them in person a couple of times when I visit family, and it’s nice to get some face time and build our relationship.

We’re happy with their delivery pace, so we don’t often give them deadlines. However, we wanted to launch the mobile app on an aggressive timeline, so they put together a detailed calendar and hit all the deadlines noted there, which helped us move forward to a successful launch.

We use Linear internally, and they’ve referenced a tool that looks like Jira, but we don’t use a shared tool.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a really deep understanding of our user’s psychology, including where they may get confused or where there are opportunities to delight users, differentiate us, and create value.

I like that they challenge us sometimes and work collaboratively with us; I think this leads to better results for our users.

Finally, I can tell they’re proud of their work and enjoy hearing our business updates. They enjoy influencing our outcomes and believe in what they do, which is the best quality in a partner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was some friction initially as we built up trust, but since then, we’ve been very happy. It would’ve been nice to take a trip out to them earlier, but that’s not always feasible.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust their process and don’t put too many constraints on their work. Let them have a lot of creative power so they can flex their expertise. Focus on solving problems as partners. 

Remember that building the relationship is important, so make sure you have face time or meetings that aren't always focused on work.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Responsible Gambling

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a media platform dedicated to giving players objective information, expert insights grounded in research and the support they need to make safe and knowledgeable decisions on their betting journey.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Flatstudio to accomplish?

• Create great design that reflects our mission and values
• Build a new project from 0
• Build comprehensive and logical design system

SOLUTION

How did you find Flatstudio?

• Referral
• Other

Why did you select Flatstudio over others?

• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Great quality

How many teammates from Flatstudio were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

The goal was to build a new product – media website and all the brand identity from 0.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Ease in building media relationships due to quality and trustworthy design – more than 70 ongoing relationships with media
• Average organic session duration 04:31

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

All communication and project management was done great and in case of any misunderstandings all needed measures were taken. There was no delay in the delivery of the design and the communication was transparent and timely.

What was your primary form of communication with Flatstudio?

Virtual Meeting

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

Quality of design, great and positive communication

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

Don't think so

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a product owner of an online platform that provides up-to-date statistics on sporting events. We cover every major sport in the world and contain all the betting and statistical information a user might need.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed an all-inclusive and innovative design system, UI/UX design work as well as branding.

SOLUTION

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

One of the founders and stakeholders of our company worked with Flatstudio on a different product. So when the first idea of Scores24 appeared, we contacted Flatstudio right away.

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

We’ve been working with Flatstudio for 6 years and during this time, as the process was changing according to different project goals and requirements, the tasks assigned to their team varied accordingly. When dealing with simple and straightforward tasks, we would rely on Flatstudio completely and let them make a few options for us to choose from.

In case of approaching complex tasks or creating a completely new functionality, the process was rather cooperative: we were working together on writing technical descriptions, drawing wireframes, creating different concepts of key components and adjusting them to web and mob.

These stages were followed by finalisation, adaptation and actualisation of all the components. It is worth mentioning, though, that every design has its strict rules and often we were limited in our desires by them.

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

Throughout 6 years of our work the team varied according to our needs and deadline/limitations. While working on delivering big redesigns or new features up to 7 people were involved (UX designer, UI designer, graphic designer, promo designer, brand designer, project manager and art director).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website is running and actively developing, attracting more and more users. Thanks to the functional and at the same time attractive designs we can display more statistics than our competitions and the interface still remains user friendly. That helps us to stand out and our retention rate is really high.

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

We went through different stages working on our project that included both short-term and long-term planning and in both cases it was a collaborative process. While it was not always easy to create a roadmap for delivery, Flatstudio kept us up to date and considered our requests.

Their team even created a website for us with all the necessary links to Abstract, Figma, Dropbox files and technical description documents so it was easy to navigate through and find all deliverables. For managing tasks their team used Jira and we were constantly given updates on them. For communication, we mostly interacted through Slack and Zoom.

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

We were really impressed with their creative insights and UI/UX design skills, more precisely - Flatstudio’s ability to show complicated data in a simple and informative way, not overloading the interface. We are also grateful for their readiness to dive deep into our project in order to better understand it.

All their team members were engaged and involved, and because of their expertise in the field they contributed to the project a lot.

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

As we started working with Flatstudio from the moment of its foundation, we saw a progress and contributed to it by providing feedback which was considered and implemented within these years. I could only wish to keep the same involvement in projects as now.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

My name is Viktor Titov, Stavka TV CEO. Our project is a social network for tipsters. Users create forecasts on sport events and compete each other in tournaments. So they can achieve a free experience that can be used further in real money gambling.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We made a decision to cooperate with Flatstudio in everything: from general concept and first prototypes to promo-design support. Flatstudio had been ready to take over the whole cycle of proccecces and it became the main reason of our decision. Our site, mobile app and promo-materials were designed and redesigned by Flatstudio. The main goal of our cooperation is making a resource for tippers who will spend some time and communicate there.

SOLUTION

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

Flatstudio was advised by other gambling companies. Flatstudio already had an experience of creating gambling projects, futhermore they combined european work style and understanding of russian speaking users, which was necessary for our project development.

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

First of all we got few welcome meetings, where we set up goals of design and created a technical task. After that designers prepared few different concepts of design. We choosed one we liked most and started a process of creating web site. Eventually we got a top level design and great progect support in the future. We used Slack for communication, Abstract and Figma for design cooperation, tasks were set by manager.

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

At different times, from 5 to 10 Flatstudio representatives worked on our project at the same time: CEO, Project manager, ux/ui designers, graphic designers and promo designers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our nubmers have grown to 1 000 000 MAU and 3 000 000 of sessions. We consider that it became possible including through Flatstudio work and support. We share our metrics with Flatstudio. According to these numbers they take part in developing of new features improving our nubmers.

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

Flatstudio is always very affable and deeply interested in success of our project. We use Zoom and Slack to communicate and even meet in person to discuss our ideas more intensively. In terms of deadlines Flatstudio is very punctual. They always follow the deadlines and try to perform the task as soon as possible.

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

The desire to develop the project, which leads to additional assistance. In addition to the design, Flatstudio actively helps the project with new features and ideas.

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

I don't think that Flatstudio has to improve anything. I am satisfied with all types of cooperation.