glueglue

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO and founder of Roofus, a dog services marketplace with a mobile application. 

What challenge were you trying to address with glueglue?

We hired glueglue to develop our mobile application. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, glueglue developed our cross-platform mobile application based on our IoT requirements. The app allowed users to find our automated IoT dog houses and scan and open them. Once the mobile app was done, we worked with glueglue's team to develop a web-based app that connects dog sitters and walkers to dog owners. 

Currently, we are working with glueglue to evolve the product they've developed for us. 

What is the team composition?

I work with two teammates from glueglue, including Fabian (Senior Digital Product Designer) and Federico (UX Engineer). 

How did you come to work with glueglue?

I found glueglue on Clutch.co. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around €60,000 (approximately $65,000 USD) with glueglue. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership with ​​glueglue began in January 2021, and it's ongoing. 

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

We got a lot of customers through the app, which allowed us to grow into the dog services marketplace. We launched the second phase of the project a few weeks ago, and it's going quite well. 

The success of the partnership cannot be measured easily. However, this is the first time in my career that I've worked with a vendor that acts as a partner. This is more than a transactional partnership — glueglue wants to help us develop the best product possible. We have a fantastic partnership. 

How did glueglue perform from a project management standpoint?

At the beginning of the partnership, we communicated through Google Meet, but we've since moved to a Slack channel. Through Slack, my team and I can connect with the many experts from glueglue. glueglue always ensures that we're up-to-date on the project's progress. Outside of Slack, we occasionally communicate through WhatsApp. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I'm impressed by glueglue's commitment to the project. They're interested in the project's success — they know if they develop a good project, it's an excellent advertisement for their services. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think glueglue should scale up their team because sometimes they can't deliver projects within shorter timelines.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I'd advise customers with small- to mid-sized projects to hire glueglue and explain the project clearly before beginning a collaboration. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Apical, an online travel platform startup. We’re a SaaS company.

What challenge were you trying to address with glueglue?

We had an internal designer that left the company before completing the project. We only had a couple of months left to design before our deadline. We needed additional help to speed up the process.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We collaborated on the design of the user experience and user interface of the platform. They’re working on two environments. One is a dashboard which is the backend for the companies. On the other side is the booking engine which is for end-users. It’s a web application. We didn’t start from scratch but the final outcome is very different from where we started with them.

The most complex part was designing the dashboard. Our approach is based on combining different services with one, single experience. If you’re the end-user, you can pick up different packages, select an accommodation, add activities, choose transportation, and sign up for travel insurance. The frontend is developed in vue.js.

What is the team composition?

Our main contact was the CEO. We also worked with his partner and a designer,  

How did you come to work with glueglue?

We found them when their CEO was involved in another project before he founded glueglue. He knew an engineer working in my company. We trusted glueglue because of this. Out of the different companies we looked at, they were the only ones able to provide us the solution in a short time frame.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about €14,000 (approximately $17,125 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from July–September 2020.

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

We’re happy with them. They have the ability to work really fast which is what we needed. We’re now testing and getting feedback. So far, the majority of what we did together is correct. I like the outcome, and I like the way we worked together.

How did glueglue perform from a project management standpoint?

They were really committed. They worked through August and September without taking any breaks. They were always available to fix anything. We completed the design and started testing with real clients. We found out some of the solutions in terms of user experience weren’t optimal. We turned back to them asking for corrections and they were always available. The communication was great and everything was well planned. 

We had a couple of meetings per week using InVision. It was easy working with them. We also used email and Google Meet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I like the way they’re organized.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They jumped into a project that was complex without having specific knowledge of the industry. It involved a lot of conversation at the beginning but that’s normal.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re a great company. I recommend working with them. When you have a complex project like the one we had, it’s very important to make everything crystal clear from the very beginning. It takes a little longer to analyze the project but when you’re aligned with your expectations and their expectations, they can handle the project without any problems.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the product manager for Dreamin101, an e-commerce site that’s a new branch of Minardi Piume srl. In my role, I’m responsible for the design and production of our duvet, sheet, and blanket lines.

For what projects/services did your company hire glueglue?

We wanted to further promote and develop our platform because our online store’s conversions were below average. Glueglue joined the project to review our e-commerce site and revamp the UX/UI.

What were your goals for this project?

Our main objective was to improve conversions from our platform by reviewing the overall UX/UI. We also sought to transform the platform into a usable site that would better communicate our value proposition to users.

How did you select this vendor?

A mutual colleague referred us to glueglue, so we scheduled a brief call. They immediately started reviewing some of our pages and found major flaws that prevented users from buying items.

Describe the project in detail.

After our first call, we met at our office, and they interviewed us extensively to really understand the difference between buying a duvet offline versus online. The questions focused on our general business strategy, competitors, and final customers.

They then inspected our site and presented a PDF with the identified usability flaws. The document listed hundreds of risks divided into nine main areas, including trust and credibility, writing and content quality, and page layout and visuals. Thanks to their assessment, we had a better idea of where to change our general design and how to improve conversions in overall. We also realized that our previous homepage didn’t invite users to discover our products and needed to update it.

Afterward, glueglue’s team completely redesigned the UI, creating mock-ups without color to concentrate on our main message and functionalities. They shared an interactive prototype through InVision, which allowed us to browse the site and collect initial feedback from potential customers before proceeding to development. The final platform included an updated color scheme, new fonts, icon sets, and improved functionalities.

What was the team composition?

We worked with a UX designer and a UI designer.

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

After a few months, we’ve increased our conversion rates and sales by 300%. There are still some improvements to be made, but we’re happy with the results so far.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was effective. They used InVision to facilitate the feedback process, allowing us to see the designs at different stages before committing to development.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their layout suggestions for our main product presentation helped improve our conversion rates. By giving the customer the option of choosing from three duvets instead of two, we learned that some people were willing to spend more to get the highest-quality product.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the co-founder and creative director of an industrial design consultancy. 

For what projects/services did your company hire glueglue?

We wanted to refresh our website design because, as a design firm, the visual aspect of our brand is critical. We needed a responsive design and clear product categories that accurately represented our work.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to improve the usability of the website’s front- and backend, which had been slowed by the installation of many different plugins. While the plugins solved individual issues, they eventually degraded our system and made it somewhat unstable.

How did you select this vendor?

They’re local, and they designed our old website. We still liked their approach when it came time to rebuild.

Describe the project in detail.

glueglue decided to preserve our current WordPress CMS to maintain our SEO positioning and some of our old content. They started by defining new use cases and user stories and then delivered a prototype within a few days, which had significant backend modifications. We offered them feedback, and then they defined our pages with a new color, font, and layout.

What was the team composition?

We worked with two UX designers, a UI designer, a frontend developer, and an SEO expert. One of the UX designers acted as a project manager and handled all the team’s tasks.

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

We’ve only been using the website for a month, so it’s too early evaluate its impact on our business. However, we’ve already received comments describing our clients’ appreciation of the site’s usability and appearance.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Project deadlines and tasks were available on Asana at any time, which let us know what design or development stage we were in. We also had numerous team meetings to help accomplish challenging tasks.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I loved how we could communicate with all their team members directly even though one of their founders oversaw the entire development. They also customized our WordPress backend so we can update and add projects to it independently—even those with sophisticated layouts.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There’s precious little they could improve. If I had to name something, I'd say that we wished they offered social media management in addition to UI/UX.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the COO and the founder of beSharp, one of the very first cloud system integrators in Italy and an Amazon Web Services (AWS) advanced partner. I am in charge of implementing new business operations and managing relationships with partners.

For what projects/services did your company hire glueglue?

I first got in touch with glueglue during a business school workshop where we collaborated on the rebranding strategy for our company. We conceived a new logo and a visual style guide. We later decided to work together on the UI design for the Noovolari web app, an online platform for scheduling snapshot-based backup for cloud infrastructure.

What were your goals for this project?

With Noovolari, we are trying to bring order into the cloud backup solutions on the market. The idea was to create an intuitive interface that makes it easy to use for both the tech geeks and regular users. We wanted to focus on the usability of the platform to offer an outstanding UX. 

How did you select this vendor?

I enjoyed the way they provided a detailed description of every phase of the project in their proposals—with a very straightforward and "no-frills" approach. They defined the costs for each step and specified the expected results. They made it very easy for me understand the value of their work compared to other proposals. 

Describe the project in detail.

After the project approval, glueglue conducted an introductory meeting at our offices. We described our goal in business and design terms and then presented them a working prototype of the application. They asked us about the technical background and the characteristics of the product to fully understand what the real benefits for the users were. Their team defined functions with us so that they could start wireframing the core layouts.

After two weeks, they shared the first interactive InVision prototype, so that it was quite easy for us to understand the concept and to precise feedback. We made our first round of feedback and they reviewed their work accordingly.

Then, they conducted a meeting about the look and feel, and helped us select the proper illustrator to come up with the visual identity designs. After a few rounds of feedback, we selected the ideal illustrated logotype followed by the user interface design. They developed the material design framework as a proper starting point and a bedrock for the product. This was particularly insightful on the app's characteristics and the common uses.

What was the team composition?

We worked with two UX/UI designers and a graphic designer.

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

Our web app is now running and anyone can visit to register a free account.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We worked with prototyping tools like InVision and Zeplin, and had conference calls. They set reasonable deadlines and asked for feedback when needed.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their straightforward approach and responsiveness impressed us—whether it was for creating a complex digital project or communicating with the company.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, everything was fine. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the head of startups at Fashion Technology Accelerator (FTA), an accelerator for fashion technology startups based in Milan, Seoul, and Silicon Valley. FTA has an active role in the early stage investment market and offers consulting services. I am currently responsible for managing the FTA acceleration program.

For what projects/services did your company hire glueglue?

Startups in Italy—especially those emerging on the market—do not have UI/UX designers on their founding teams. This lack of UX awareness, inextricably linked to brand’s performance and image, may lead to poor results and considerably impede the company’s growth. For this reason, I suggested glueglue’s co-founders, Fabian and Matteo, as ongoing UX mentors for all the startups participating in our accelerator program.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed to find a scalable way to provide startups with some UI/UX background knowledge and help them develop a consistent strategy through improving their skills (especially for e-commerce platforms) and sharing industry best practices. 

How did you select this vendor?

We first met glueglue at a startup event in Milan. I was impressed by their empathic and problem-solving approach. Before FTA, I had worked with them on a brand design project; after being hugely satisfied with the results of our work, I decided to start a new collaboration. I selected glueglue largely because of their flexibility and willingness to help each customer.

Describe the project in detail.

The latest project we worked on with glueglue was a website redesign for LaClassica, an Italian brand that creates and distributes top-quality cycling sportswear. We held the first meeting at the FTA headquarters, and they immediately asked for an overview of the whole business and the goals for the website.

In the second phase, they conducted a usability inspection through three UX designers. This step identified potential problems and allowed comprehensive recommendations for the website's latest version. Glueglue put together a 10-page document with around 50 ideas for improvements. They also conducted an additional SEO inspection to power the new platform with SEO best practices.

For the third phase of the project, glueglue wireframed the new website's structure and organization, considering the user funnel and main calls to action. Then, they designed the UI along with a fully interactive InVision prototype.

What was the team composition?

We worked with a senior UX designer, a project manager, and a junior UX designer. 

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

This specific website is still in test mode, but we expect to reduce the bounce rate consistently thanks to the restyled homepage layout and main calls to action. Overall, I believe we fully accomplished our objective with glueglue, as the five startups we worked with last rated their contribution to our accelerator program last year as 4.5 out of 5 stars.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We were able to work efficiently through remote and in-person meetings. They handled the work well and respected the initial timeline.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I appreciate their empathic approach and ability to understand the bigger picture from both design and business perspectives.

Are there any areas for improvement?

More than anything, they could expand and delegate more team members to focus on new areas of mobile development. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CMO of BHOHB srl, an Italian company that offers innovative solutions and technologies for the health and wellness sectors.

For what projects/services did your company hire glueglue?

We hired Glueglue for the UX / UI design of a web application that allows our network to configure, manage our postural screening services and distribute them to end customers.

How did you select this vendor?

We searched online for the best UX/UI developers in Italy and we found Glueglue on the website sortlist.com

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

The task entrusted to Glueglue consisted in designing the UX and UI of a complex application designed for both business and customer users.

The web application included various tasks: the configuration of services and technologies, the registration of partner users with their relative personal data and, the design of the interface for using the postural screening software, as well as the booking and payment of services by of end users.

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

The vendor's team consisted of 4/5 figures, including UX / UI designers and an internal project manager.

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

We are more than satisfied with the results produced by the Glueglue team which went well beyond our most optimistic expectations. The UX / UI is currently the basis on which the development team is proceeding with the implementation of the application.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project was conducted in close collaboration between our project manager and the Glueglue team. The scheduled work was always carried out on time and verified through constant and periodic meetings. It is important to underline that any unforeseen problem and any additional request made by us has been satisfied with great availability even though it is not included in the spending budget.

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

What makes glueglue an exceptional partner lies both in their competence, experience, and professional capacity, as well as in the flexibility and speed in the management of every work process, even when unexpected. Last but not least is that it is a team of nice and very pleasant people.

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

No. Everything was done in a workmanlike manner!

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Product Owner of NOD, which is an online platform for learning English developed by Norma’s Teaching , described by Vanity Fair as the most famous English teacher in Italy

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

We hired glueglue for the following activities: defining personas and use cases, designing the user experience and the user interface of the platform , and for back end and front end development of the first mobile web application. The main goal was to create a playful and user-friendly experience in line with Norma’s distinctive teaching method, all within a 3-month timeframe.

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

We found glueglue among other interesting companies on Clutch, then asked for a quote and arranged dedicated conference calls to better select our partner.

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

The main steps of our project can be summarized as follows: We first defined the use cases and user flows for the web application, to get a better idea of the big picture and define improvements from the get-go. At the same time we conducted surveys and one to one interviews to better define the personas.

We entered the design phase with a co design session focused on the wireframe definition of the application. After defining the main structure for the final user and the content managers, glueglue designed an interactive prototype to simulate the overall experience before the development phase. After that, they developed a high performance digital product based on an architecture able to serve thousands of connections at the same time.

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

We worked with 2 UX/UI designers, a Front End and a Back End developer.

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

We have thousands of active users that share very positive feedback about their overall experience on the platform.

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

We worked together with glueglue’s team following the Agile method, with weekly updates/meetings to respect the tight schedule. We used InVision to stay in sync with the team and see the progress of the product thanks to interactive prototypes.

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

Their strategic process and approach, their ability to understand problems and communicate to us with honesty and transparency were impressive.

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

I would have liked to have more time at the beginning of the project to conduct more research on our target, but that was not an issue for the project's success.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the managing director of FMS Tax & Law firm, we are 15 lawyers offering consultancies in different areas of interest.

For what projects/services did your company hire glueglue?

We hired them to design our new corporate website, with the main goal of designing something disruptive for our sector. Law firms suffer from very strict regulamentations and controls in Italy, our country. We wanted to introduce a brand new digital showcase in order to enable new connections and leads coming from the web.

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

They were recommended from a contact of ours who already worked with them in the past.

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

After a first kickoff briefing, glueglue started with the research phase, collecting interesting and inspiring examples from our sector and other relevant ones. We had a meeting in which we defined the visual positioning we were more happy with, an informal but professional look and feel that gave the idea of professionalism, innovation and agility at the same time. The website prototyping started with the wireframing phase, when we were able to navigate a prototype to simulate the main user flows. After a couple of meetings they started designing the graphic components of the user interface, completing a full interactive prototype we could easily navigate. They also took care of a photo shooting at our headquarters in order to represent the authenticity of our business at its best.

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

We worked with 2 UX/UI designers, a Web developer and a photographer.

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

Thanks to our brand new website and blogging platform we kicked off a new way to collect new business opportunities.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The communication was agile and straightforward, we used tools such as Google Meet, InVision and sometimes phone calls to check the project progress and share fast feedback.

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

They have the ability to understand and solve problems. The way they actively share new ideas bringing value to the project.

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

Nothing that comes to mind, we were very happy with our choice and we are still working with them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Product Owner and co-founder of Terapico, a SaaS that aims to simplify the therapy monitoring for physicians.

For what projects/services did your company hire glueglue?

We involved glueglue to design a fresh new brand identity and to redesign the user experience and the user interface of an already existing prototype of our medical software. They also took care of the Front End development and design system repository. We felt the need to rebuild our software from scratch in order to elevate the experience and define a unique positioning in the Italian market and hired glueglue with this goal.

How did you select this vendor?

We started from a web search to select potential partners. We then asked a few quotes and evaluate them with the whole team.

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

We started with the branding phase, through which glueglue’s team gathered 3 interesting directions we could go for depending on the positioning we would have liked to define. After selecting the desired mood they sketched 10-20 logo concepts sharing the progress at every step and discussing with us our options. Once the concept was selected they crafted the proposal with online / offline mockup examples.

We then started with the wireframing phase defining the new structure of the product. In this phase they reviewed the architecture and main hierarchy of the elements defining a modular and scalable approach. They shared a full interactive InVision prototype to simulate the selected use cases. Once the wireframe was defined they went on designing the whole design system and User Interface design.

After that they started developing the Front End of every component and the main layout sharing a well organized repository to enable our Back end developers to link it to the applications main logics.

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

We worked with 2 UX/UI designers and a Front end developer.

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

The product is still in the beta mode but we are already collecting very promising feedback from stakeholders.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We worked with tools like InVision, FreeHand and other collaborative tools that allowed us to always be in sync with the team and share our feedback almost in real-time.

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

We were impressed with their collaborative approach and problem-solving capabilities.

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

We could have spent more time at the beginning of the project in order to better define our specific needs for the Front End development we hired glueglue for, but that was not a real issue since we found a solution together.