Fuzzy Math

Please describe your company and your position there.

VP of Product in charge of new product releases for e-Commerce Product.

For what projects/services did your company hire Fuzzy Math?

We hired Fuzzy Math to help with process flows, design kit and wireframes for our next generation e-Commerce product.

How did you select this vendor?

We searched online and interviewed a half dozen firms

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The project had three stages: Discovery, Process Flows and Wireframing.

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

We worked with 4 team members. Project Manager, Head of Design, Company Owner and a design associate.

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

We couldn't have been more pleased with how project turned out. Mark engaged at the beginning to make sure that the SOW was detailed and the timeline was thoughtful and representative of the work that we would complete. The time spent pre-contract resulted in a project that was delivered on time and on budget. The team members were A+ and adjusted to what the needs of project where and we not afraid to regroup and revise our sprints when needed. I know we will have future projects with Fuzzy Math.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective. Our project manager was a great communicator and organizer. She also was amazing at taking constructive criticism and adjusting the project

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

We were impressed with the entire process and results. From Mark putting in the hours pre-contract to set project up to success to the do-ers providing us with great deliverables. The team impressed at every level.

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

Not for this project

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My organization is a nonprofit in the healthcare space. We develop educational content and support programs for people living with chronic disease.

I am the director of technology and data services. My job is to manage all of the technology aspects of the work that we do.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fuzzy Math?

Fuzzy Math provided UX/UI support for our smartphone app which is focused on data collection from patients.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’d developed the Android- and iOS-compatible app several years prior, and Fuzzy Math went through a design process with us for a new version of the app, which would include added features. The team also conducted user interviews, testing, and market research to get more information about our user base.

From there we had a discovery portion, where we did a full review of the product as it existed. We looked at features, marketing materials, and surveys of existing users. Next was a vision and planning section where Fuzzy Math took their findings from the user research and did some interaction concepting and refinement. They did feature audits as well as UI design.

The UI design portion included information architecture, looking at the visual foundation, navigation, and all of that kind of thing. There were several sprints of wireframes and visual design composition. The final deliverable was like a clickable prototype of the wires, static wireframes for each of the wires, and a production and style guide document.  

That included all of the bits of the user interaction in the app, data visualization, and workflows for existing users, legacy users, and new users.  

What is the team composition?

I work with four people. I work directly with Mark (Co-Founder) on planning and costs. He has several folks on the UX front that I work with, as well as project management, and one or two people that focus on the design.

How did you come to work with Fuzzy Math?

We initially found them on Clutch, but we were looking for recommendations from other partners. We did quite a bit of research and wound up finding several candidates for the project.  We set up some interviews with key stakeholders within the organization. 

We compared and contrasted the proposals, competencies, and our confidence in them. In the end, we felt that Fuzzy Math would be the best fit culture-wise, as well as skillset-wise. At the time, we felt it would work well, and at this point, I would say that we made the right decision.

How much have you invested in them?

We have worked on projects ranging from about $80,000–$130,000, as well as some smaller projects that were about $20,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We brought them on officially in October 2019 for one project. We worked with them in the 1st  quarter of 2020 on another project, and then the 3rd quarter and 4th quarter of 2020.

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

Most of the work we did was for informing internal decision making. However, the work on the app, which is customer-facing, is still in the implementation phase so we don’t have hard metrics in terms of actual app usage. 

What we do have is qualitative information from user interviews with regards to experience with the app versus the concepts that we did. We had some of our user base weigh in on the concepts and the designs; the navigational system, the look and feel, as well as the feature set. The response was overwhelmingly positive from our patient community. It was pretty evident that we were going in the right direction.

How did Fuzzy Math perform from a project management standpoint?

Fuzzy Math does a pretty good job. We haven’t had any issues with delays or costs. We have been on budget for all our projects. 

The team is very good at shifting gears when we need a little bit more time to get feedback internally or are otherwise delayed getting back to them. In those cases, they’ll go work on something else in order to keep the cadence and the project going at a good pace. 

They use Basecamp as a project management tool. For the most part, communication is either through Basecamp or through weekly scheduled meetings. They have always been available to me when I have needed them to. 

As our relationship with Fuzzy Math has matured, it’s continued to be extremely positive. They have become more effective now that they have been able to ingest a lot of our internal business practices, the needs, and all of that kind of thing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I found Fuzzy Math’s methodology to be very effective. The team was very focused on their process and method during the interviewing process. 

They have a wide range of skills and expertise. They’ve worked in the healthcare space as well as the corporate space. They have data visualization experience, but really where they shined was in the user testing and user interviews. 

For every round of testing and every major feature set and milestone, we made sure that we had actual patients give their input to make it a really user-centered design. The concepting that they came up with all stemmed from the user research that they performed. They weren’t looking to fix a problem that wasn’t there. They were pretty flexible, and they have always been adaptable to any feedback that we have provided.

Fuzzy Math doesn’t rely on thinking or guessing. They actually sought clarifications, feedback, and data from our users in order to inform their choices.   

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t say that I have anything specifically. As we are going along, we are getting more and more effective. I can’t think of any particular downsides. The working relationship has been very positive and congenial, and the work product has been stellar. So far, all the internal stakeholders are very pleased with their work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Prepare for a robust onboarding process. The more you involve them in some of the earlier decision-making processes or the more communication you have, the more effective they are going to be. If you are going to use a firm like Fuzzy Math, the more information you arm them with, the better the outcome will be.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at DePaul University, where a nonprofit educational institution of higher education in the Chicago area. But we serve the world basically via online education, too. And my position as associate director of digital experience and analysis.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fuzzy Math?

We were talking a lot about journey mapping and how students find out about our university and work through our digital channels, specifically for graduate school. So we wanted to make sure that our communications and processes were effective for our prospective audience. So we brought Fuzzy Math in for a user research project, focused on the journey of prospective students.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started by providing them with a list of students who had recently applied and enrolled, so they were in our communications funnel and were familiar with our digital channels. Then we worked with Fuzzy math to come up with questions that would help us understand how our students were seeing us. Then we did a competitive review and they provided a report. They expanded that to include some aspirational competitors as well to show where we sit in the market. That helped us reframe some of the questions for incoming students. Then we synthesized that and created another journey map.

After that we met with them again, they showed recommendations where we can improve. So that included opportunities within the user journey where we could improve. We reengaged them to have a workshop to discuss design and brainstormed where we could improve those offerings.

Ultimately, they presented us with the findings from interviews and a visual journey map.

Originally, we worked together for one school, but expanded the project for another school as well.

What is the team composition?

We worked with about five people across each project.

How did you come to work with Fuzzy Math?

They're a Chicago consultancy. And one of the founders is actually a DePaul alum. We had a normal procurement process so we requested an RFP across a bunch of different vendors. Ultimately, Fuzzy Math put in a submission and won the project.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $100,000–$150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started talking to them in February 2018 and we wrapped up in June 2018.

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

At least one of the suggestions and recommendations that we got from them, ultimately paid for the work itself. Fuzzy Math saw an opportunity for us and highlighted it. Once we were able to implement changes, enrollment went up significantly. That’s why we brought them on for another school as well. We’re net positive on the work and they showed their value immediately.  

How did Fuzzy Math perform from a project management standpoint?

It was great. They followed up with us very rapidly. We worked on a bunch of different projects at the same time, so they were on top of everything and reminded us when we need to give things to them. They were also responsive to our feedback. We had a symbiotic relationship. It was really good communication. We worked together on like a project plan, but they also gave us milestones and deadlines in order to keep the project on track.

We mostly used email and Dropbox for deliverables.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re definitely experts in their field and provided us with various suggestions. They recommended a few strategies that would make the project easier, without charging extra.  They thought about things strategically to make sure the outcome is what we wanted. Then they helped us take action by hosting a workshop that outlined our next steps.

When they came in to present their findings, they also adjusted to suit who was listening. For example, admissions doesn’t understand the digital experience the same way as our leadership does.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We don’t have anything negative to say about them. We had to adjust a bit to figure out how to communicate with an outside vendor. For example, some people on our team wanted to see the impact this had on marketing, but that wasn’t part of the scope. Otherwise, everything else went very smoothly.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Pay attention at the beginning of the process and make sure that you’re communicating effectively about the outcomes and goals for the project.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the SVP of client solutions at a talent management platform and managed service provider. We help clients manage their contingent and non-full-time employee workforce.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fuzzy Math?

We have a platform that our clients use to manage their non-full-time employees, so contractors, professional services, resources, or people that are assigned or attached to a statement of work. For example, a consulting firm might do some work for an information security project for a client. There are people that are part of that project that belong to the consulting firm, but they’re actually doing work on behalf of the client. We help manage those resources, and our platform basically helps manage the requisition to check process, so identifying and then helping hiring managers hire temporary workers, and also ensuring that they get paid.

We needed to update our platform, and we hired Fuzzy Math to help us understand what the market was looking for. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fuzzy Math conducted stakeholder and business leader interviews with our client to understand what they were looking for from our technology. Fuzzy Math did a lot of homework to understand what business the client was in and what they were trying to achieve. An impartial third party conducted the interviews based on Fuzzy Math’s knowledge of the space of the industry and their previous work. 

They also provided a series of recommendations that we could leverage as we tried to enhance our overall platform and UX. These recommendations largely derived from the feedback they received in the stakeholder meetings. We sought to make our UX frictionless, and they provided some concrete examples of how end-users of our system thought the application was hard to use. They made a series of recommendations on how to potentially solve for a better experience with those specific examples. The recommendations allowed us to consider how we were going to enhance our platform in future releases. If you’re familiar with the software industry, every platform goes through feature function improvements, and the recommendations that they gave us were focused on what our client wanted to see us do in terms of those improvements.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three folks from their team: Ben (Co-Founder) and then two of his colleagues. What was interesting to me was that there didn’t seem to be a hierarchy; they all rolled up their sleeves and got the work done. They probably received direction from Ben, but I think that given their previous experience, they knew what to do and the types of questions to ask.

How did you come to work with Fuzzy Math?

I’d worked with Fuzzy Math at a previous company that was in the same space and used similar technology. I knew from this experience that they’d provide the feedback we really needed to make improvements to the platform. I needed some additional executive buy-in, so I introduced them to my company’s CIO, and they had a couple of discussions. My executive team and I agreed that this was the right time for the kind of structure, approach, and culture that Fuzzy Math brought to the table in order to get a deliverable that would make sense.

How much have you invested with them?

My company spent around $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in July or August 2019, and it was a two-month project.

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

The guideposts that we used to measure their impact included how receptive the client and our senior leadership were to them. I shared their report with key leaders at my client, and it was very well-received. We’ve been able to incorporate a lot of their recommendations into the UX development we are doing as part of a feature release. My technical leadership identified 3–4 significant items to incorporate into the platform moving forward. Some of it's been implemented, and some of it is planned and under development.

How did Fuzzy Math perform from a project management standpoint?

Fuzzy Math was fantastic. They communicated often and well. They were very clear about where they were in the project and what was coming up next. We’d agreed to a certain budget, and Ben was able to show me that we were on the right track and that we wouldn’t go over budget. When he ran into issues with the client or someone on our team in terms of scheduling, he was very forthcoming. They were very regimented behind the scenes; whenever I asked questions about timing or cost, they were always on top of it and had the answer. 

They were very open to receiving guidance from me. I let them know what we were trying to accomplish with our platform and with our client, as well as things we’d heard that just didn’t work. The guidance was completely neutral and meant to provide some kind of context as they walked into the meetings. One of the things I really liked about how that team of three worked was that they appreciated my perspective, but they also really dug into the details with the client to get their perspective. That's really why we had hired Fuzzy Math: to go in and find out what the pain points were, validate some things that we knew, and uncover some new things for us to consider. That team of three folks really worked well together. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to find creative solutions in a space that lacks creativity sets them apart. They were able to help us understand where we stood vis-à-vis our competitors, but then they didn’t allow us to settle for good enough. Their combination of creativity and aspirational goals really made the difference for us. As a company, we want to get ahead of the curve, and they gave us the opportunity to see how to do that.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think so. They were given a lot of loose guidance, and they were able to focus well and get stuff done. They were always very responsive.

Any advice for potential customers?

Provide appropriate context and visibility into the actual client problems, but also allow the Fuzzy Math team to go in and ask the questions that they need to ask. There’s no sense in hiring a company and people of that quality to hamstring them. Let them know what you’re trying to achieve, but ask them to determine whether that’s feasible. Empower them to ask hard questions. I could’ve very easily set an agenda and told them what I wanted them to find, but I allowed them to exercise independence and leverage their market expertise for a better-quality product.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the SVP of analytic product development for a company that provides sales tracking services to the general merchandise industries.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fuzzy Math?

We wanted to rebuild our web-based application. We not only had a number of user complaints about usability but also the look and feel. It was difficult to navigate through the screens and select products. The final reporting was also difficult because we had two reporting modules that existed in two separate applications. If we went from one to the other, users had to reset the module.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fuzzy Math conducted internal and external client interviews to collect feedback on their largest pain points. They reviewed the application to understand how it worked and its challenges. Then, their team created a design document that listed style guidelines, which covers how the app should look and feel. Their team reviewed the past and created the visual design for our new application. They redesigned the basic navigation for the application and designed pages. Their team combined the capabilities of two applications based in Tableau into one application based in HTML.

What is the team composition?

In total, four people worked against our project.

How did you come to work with Fuzzy Math?

Members of my team had previous experience working with Fuzzy Math. We interviewed them and one other vendor. We had a good rapport with their team and decided to engage them.

How much have you invested with them?

All told, we spent around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project had two phases. The initial phase started in April 2019 and went through to July. Their team followed up in September to review our current status and completed their work in October.

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

We reviewed their work internally when we considered the app's ease of use and users' abilities to find content that couldn’t be found before. The internal feedback has been tremendous. We’re just getting to the external feedback now.

How did Fuzzy Math perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Basecamp to communicate. Their team included a point person who orchestrated all of the check-ins and posted information on a shared site. They ran meetings and sent agendas over to us ahead of time. Fuzzy Math was excellent.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Fuzzy Math translated what we said into proposed designs well. They listened to our feedback on the initial designs, so the process was collaborative and open. They listened to us and translated our ideas into creative designs that met our needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We wish that we could've moved faster. They had to complete tasks to ground themselves in the existing app, which probably took longer than we wanted. However, I know that they were necessary to move forward.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about what you want and concise with your feedback. Fuzzy Math won’t know what you want to accomplish unless you communicate that to them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

The New Arab or Alaraby Aljadeed is all news websites Arabic and English, based in London, UK. Both publish news around the clock. The Arabic site is one of the leading news source in the Middle East. I'm the Head of Digital at The New Arab

For what projects/services did your company hire Fuzzy Math?

Fuzzy Math were contracted to to redesign both websites and create new UX designs for both websites.

What were your goals for this project?

We have expanded our content and services, and we had plans to grow vertically and horizontally. Since we als place a great value for user experience, we needed a design that fulfills that goal and at the same time allows us to add more services, and we content and micro-sites.

How did you select this vendor?

It took us nearly 9 months to land Fazzy Math. We have created a criteria for the UX design agency. The main weight was a vendor with extensive experience in UX design. We have received nearly a dozen of offers. We then shortlisted them, Fuzzy Math stood out amongst all vendors, given that they are specialists in UX design.

Describe the project in detail.

First the current status of the sites needed thorough evaluation. A user research was needed as part of the process of understanding the current audiences opinions and how can we attract new audiences categories. FM has planned and executed a massive research using both questionnaires and focus groups. The as well as meeting with stakeholders to understand their point of view for the project. That was the first part of the project. At that point we had a holistic view of our audiences as well as websites analysis which allowed us to identify and refine our needs. Based on that they helped us to outline the design framework and they have done it impressively in terms of communications, and quality of design and timing. They always delivered sprints within the time frame they have set.

What was the team composition?

We had a team of 3 initially in addition to the project manager. And then 2 more joined briefly depending on the project stage. But our impression was that every member of the team knew exactly what is their role and successfully managed their tasks with a fantastic level of communication.

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

The Arabic website was due to launch on the 6th anniversary of the website, which was yesterday, but given the current situation around the world (the coronavirus pandemic) the management took the decision to postpone it for a few weeks. But we have a soft launch to a selected groups of audiences, the impression so far is very positive. Also stakeholders and all editorial teams are quite happy with it. We are hoping to be able to inform you about the performance after the launch. I'll be able to share with you the results in 6 months from now

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Since we had one point of reference at our end and a platform to share all communications from FM end, I can't recall that in any point we missed or misunderstood or misinterpreted any communications. Same when FM team communicated with the development team. I never imagined as the project owner, that we will complete the project without hiccups. But indeed that what happened, clean complete projects. (2 projects)

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Where I should start from! They are all highly professional and they know exactly what they are doing. Committed, well-knowledged. I'd highly appreciate their flexibility, understanding and patience. Impressively, I they managed to keep the time frame they committed to although the delays occurred were from our end entirely. Most importantly the the cost of the project were only increased based on our additional requirements. Apart from that they kept it within the budget.

Are there any areas for improvement?

It would be rather on our side not theirs. It's worth mentioning that this project was mainly for an Arabic website and also a smaller English website. It was effectively their first one on that massive scale. I must say they executed it as if they are native Arabic speakers. Absolutely impressive!

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of product development at a medical device startup.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fuzzy Math?

Since we're a startup, we had zero in-house branding. We needed an outsource team to create an ergonomic, intuitive UI that can be used by different users in different settings. I wanted the UI to be consistent with our branding. We wanted to have something quickly done to go to the tradeshow with it.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We designed the software application with a specific tool in mind that can translate from a Photoshop or Sketch drawing into a usable interface. Fuzzy Math created the UI and image assets for the page. We then imported it into our application and completely restructured the UI. It’s an embedded device that will eventually be a kiosk application.

It’s still running on exclusively on Windows. We program everything in C++ and we’re using a Qt framework for the UI. Fuzzy Math had never worked with Qt, but they quickly adapted to it and learned how to convert their sketch files into metafiles that we could import into the framework.

We also wanted to have a logo and theme for the company. They investigated how we feel about our company and what our brand should represent, formalizing the brand idea and creating a concrete deliverable with branding and style guidelines. They found the right fonts and colors for us.

What is the team composition?

They had several people working on the project. There was a lead UX designer, a secondary UX designer, and a visual designer. The visual designer helped with creating the brand and styles. One of the co-founders acted as a project coordinator. He helped keep the project going and answered questions. I mostly worked with the designers.

How did you come to work with Fuzzy Math?

We looked at different large design companies. We found Fuzzy Math through a Google search for a UX designer in Chicago. We had a few calls with them, and we wanted a local company so we could have in-person meetings.

How much have you invested with them?

Overall, we’ve invested $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2019 and the work is ongoing.

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

We’ve finished the initial phase of creating the UI for the tradeshow. We had such a good experience with Fuzzy Math that we want to continue and push this project forward. We’ve asked for their help in finishing the UI and the final product. I told my CEO that they may be the best contractors I’ve worked with.

How did Fuzzy Math perform from a project management standpoint?

They were professional and supported us by working independently when needed. When they needed feedback from us, they asked for it. They kept us on task as well, which was very much appreciated. We had several in-person meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their professionalism was very impressive. We have a very complex workflow, but Fuzzy Math was able to understand the workflow immediately and even make suggestions to improve it. They picked it up very quickly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I can think of that needs improvement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust them. They know what they’re doing. They’re experts in UX design.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior director of UX organization for a software company. We create a variety of data-oriented products.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fuzzy Math?

My company has many products, but we hadn't invested heavily UX. We started looking at different product sets and aimed to create synergies across different product lines. The CEO asked me if we could modernize the UI of the entire product set, which was an astronomical task. We first needed to understand our UX strategy, so we searched for a consulting firm to help us with that.

We selected two product lines and Fuzzy Math helped us with the user research phase for that.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first stage was a kickoff involving internal stakeholders from the different product lines (data integration and data quality). We had a one-day workshop where we tried to understand the challenges around the UX and potential synergies. We also collected customers and companies that we wanted to be part of this user research project.

After the kickoff, they performed 30-minute interviews with the stakeholders. In the months after that, they conducted interviews with different companies and users. The next phase was a heuristic evaluation of the products. They went through the training courses we had so they could get a better perspective of the products, identifying opportunities for improvement. There was also a proposal for a “voice of the customer” program.

They then started to put together the work product. Their team built journey maps and archetypes for our personas. The final item was a strategy roadmap for the UX.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Mark (Founder, Fuzzy Math) from the beginning. The project had three primary figures—Mark and two other researchers. They did an incredible job running workshops with stakeholders and conducted customer interviews.

How did you come to work with Fuzzy Math?

We used Clutch to find qualified companies that could help us. Eventually, we narrowed it down to three and chose Fuzzy Math. They were at the top of the Clutch list I looked at. We looked at other companies from other referral sources, but after significant analysis, we determined that Fuzzy Math would be the best partner.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $325,000–$350,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They began work in October of 2018. The final wrap-up was in the summer of 2019.

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

We began some of the strategic recommendations they had. Their suggestions were wonderful, but some of them haven’t gotten funded yet. The things we were able to do have gone well, and we’ve made progress. They advised us to start a design system and acquire a modern technology stack. We’ve initiated a project to focus on one product line and put extra resources on it. They’ve helped clarify UX opportunities to the executive leadership team.

How did Fuzzy Math perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a SharePoint site and used Basecamp to share information and communicate. We met with them on a regular basis, and they stuck to the schedule. If there was anything not on schedule, it was something out of their control. Overall, we stayed closely aligned with the timeline of the original project proposal.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I felt a lot of compatibility and camaraderie with them. They had the same thought process that we do; it was like we’d known them forever and always spoke the same language. They were incredibly supportive of me and allowed me to voice any frustrations that I had. They also helped me communicate with the executive leadership team, which was good because sometimes the consultant has more weight in those discussions.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes they have issues with not being brief. They’d have 10 slides that I needed to reduce to a single slide. However, I get the idea of putting as much information as possible out there from their perspective. Afterward, I could take it down to the most germane points.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the president of an IT technology company that develops custom software systems for the Metals Service Center and manufacturing markets.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fuzzy Math?

We were working on a project to migrate our main application's Windows GUI to a modern web-based UI. Previously we handled all the UI design work internally; however, moving to a web interface required design skills we didn't have. Our application includes order processing, inventory and warehouse management, and a fully integrated accounting module. These modules encompass hundreds of screens (transaction entry, maintenance, reporting, etc.) that support numerous workflows. We hired Fuzzy Math to help us redesign the UI/UX by building a new UI pattern library and style guide .

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fuzzy Math began the project with a discovery phase. Their team traveled our office to better gauge our design preferences and overall project goals. They visited one of our local customers to observe how users interacted with the current Windows UI. They used this information to develop their design proposals. They used an iterative process to create POC designs, and they validated these designs with our local customer.  

Fuzzy Math created a comprehensive web UI/UX pattern library and style guide. Applying these deliverables to a few of our most heavily used screens, they created a series of templates bringing the patterns together into functional screen designs.

What is the team composition?

My team worked with four Fuzzy Math team members. We collaborated with their project manager and designer on mockups, workflows, and system performance. Another designer worked on the color schemes, high-definition design, and the overall look and feel. A final teammate assembled all of this design work into an interactive pattern library and style guide with detailed CSS and HTML documentation.

How did you come to work with Fuzzy Math?

I found Fuzzy Math online when I searched for local UI/UX companies.  I also looked at their review on Clutch. I put a bid out to three different companies before ultimately choosing Fuzzy Math.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent $180,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project spanned May–September 2018.

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

The pattern library enables us to create a consistent user experience. We’ve completed our first user acceptance tests, and feedback has been positive.

How did Fuzzy Math perform from a project management standpoint?

Overall, the project went well. We used Basecamp. A couple of times, we needed to regroup to clear up misunderstood requirements or timelines. Once we had a few conversations, we resolved the issue.

What did you find most impressive about them?

When we began working together, my team knew very little about practicing modern UI/UX techniques. Fuzzy Math took the time to educate us on what they were doing and why. We weren’t accustomed to this process and often wanted to speed it up, but they did a great job managing our expectations so that we didn’t rush the work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The CSS in their final deliverable didn't immediately translate to the web development framework we were using. A more detailed discussion on the technical aspects of the deliverables could have made the handover smoother.  Ultimately, it was a non-issue, and it was quickly resolved.

Any advice for potential customers?

Keep an open mind, be patient, and make sure they can speak to your customers or end users.  For instance, we have a very fast-paced user base. Observing our users helped Fuzzy Math see that some design concepts, such as a scrolling screens, wouldn’t work.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the VP of digital strategy, e-commerce, and product development at Hyatt Hotels.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fuzzy Math?

We needed to revamp our property websites across all 11 of our company's brands.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fuzzy Math spent a lot of time cultivating a thorough understanding of each of our brands. They interviewed departments within our organization that had a vested interest in the property sites. For each of our multiple brands, they met with our branding, digital, analytics, and product development teams for the individual properties. Our lead product developer informed their design decisions. They arranged meetings with our stakeholders to understand our standards and desired look and feel.

Our UX team ensured they were designing a digital design system that's compatible with the one we had in place. 

Our corporate site and 11 individual brand sites with over 700 individual properties each have a distinct personality. Fuzzy Math excelled at tapping into the needs of every single one. They showcased unique activities surrounding our resort properties and positioned our city-based hotels as suitably geared for conferences.

By extracting existing metrics and analytics, they showed us how our existing property sites were performing; most were outdated and broken. After studying user behavior, they determined what our audience needs and used those findings to inform our future designs. 

During the visual and structural refresh, we conducted user testing to see if flat or nested types of navigation performed better. They generated metrics for everything, down to the millisecond of time it took users to complete tasks or find information. Flatter navigation with a long scroll performed better and was highly preferred by our end users. 

By doing this project, we created a single website code base that uses responsive design. The information on the screen adapts based on whether you’re looking at a desktop, a laptop, a tablet, or a mobile device. The templates were optimized for SEO as well, which was paramount for us as we saw a huge uptick in traffic coming to our site.

What is the team composition?

For each brand, they assigned us an interaction designer and a visual designer. There was a design lead overseeing those teams. 

How did you come to work with Fuzzy Math?

We met at a conference in Chicago. My director of UX had worked with the team before and knew their co-founder through UX conferences.

Initially, we invited several firms to pitch and chose Fuzzy Math based on their expertise and UX design skill. They were capable of building responsive property templates with SEO for our individual property sites.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $850,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from September 2016–2017.

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

Fuzzy Math captured the differences between our brands using creative elements from the style guidelines. They were innovative without deviating too far from our image. While slightly bending the rules, they stayed true to the core aspects of what our brand stands for.

Fuzzy Math designed our property sites to help users easily find all the useful information we've always had in place. Their designs improved and simplified the navigation tremendously. Some of their ideas have started to make their way into our print material.

When we launched the new website for the first brand, we immediately received a lot of positive feedback. End users love the new sites and find them much easier to use without getting lost. Our individual brand managers are delighted with the designs. 

Another huge win was increased web traffic for our dining and entertainment sites, especially the special events sections. We've also seen more user engagement like filling out requests for quotes or more information.

One property’s general manager said they’re getting more requests for meetings and events. In 2017, there were 12–14 requests total. Within the first month and a half of 2018, we secured more than 30 requests through the tool. This was a huge bonus we were pleased to see.

How did Fuzzy Math perform from a project management standpoint?

The team's design method fit perfectly with our Agile development process. They were very flexible with us. We had a standing review meeting every week. I always looked forward to seeing the designs for each new branded template. It was exciting to watch them bring our concepts to life.

Communication was fantastic. The project lead was always in constant communication with our director of UX, who was leading the efforts. They were responsive to all our questions.

We had a cyclical schedule. As they completed the design of the brand, we moved that design to our development team. Then, our development team started creating the template within Adobe Experience Manager for that brand. As it was being developed, Fuzzy Math stayed involved for questions and supported us in figuring out the design challenges around those questions. Fuzzy Math was wonderfully attentive as questions popped up.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Throughout the project, we always felt like their number one client. They worked with other clients during our project, but it didn’t impede or infringe upon the velocity or quality of work we were getting from them.

The overall engagement from their team members was great. Every week, when we’d meet with them, we looked forward to hanging out with them. They’re great people to work with. That goes a long way when you have a long, grueling project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be as open and transparent as possible. They will be empathetic to your needs, but no one can read your mind. We immediately felt an inherent trust in Fuzzy Math, so we included them in a lot of discussions. Understanding us enabled them to step up and pitch in. They felt like an extension of our team.