Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of Ditto, a live-video speed dating platform. We’re doing away with the swiping, ghosting, and all the negative things about the dating industry today.

What challenge were you trying to address with Halo Lab?

We hired them to help us with UI/UX design and to do a rebrand for our company.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Halo Lab provided branding, graphic design, and UI/UX design services for us. First, they did market research, looking into our current investors, ideas, and user base. They also interviewed my colleagues and me. From there, they helped us create user personas. 

The team created 30 different logo variations. They provided numerous color palettes and typography to associate with the branding and a huge range of different types of styles for the way the brand would look. Figma was the main technology they used. 

Additionally, Halo Lab created some templates for social media and posters. They provided us with a range of assets to use going forward.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Margarita (Lead Project Manager). Through her, we connected with many UI/UX designers, graphic designers, and illustrators, including Diana (UI/UX Designer). 

How did you come to work with Halo Lab?

I sent out an RFP to a number of potential UI/UX design agencies for the rebrand. Halo Lab sent back a fantastic proposal outlining what they could do, excellent examples of their work, and a link to their portfolio on Dribbble and Behance. Their proposal outlined how they could carry out the UI/UX design work over the coming months and how they would do the branding work, so we chose them. 

How much have you invested in them?

We invested about $55,00–$60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from May–December 2022. Currently, we’re wrapping things up for the project. 

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

Halo Lab was amazing. We've had feedback from users, investors, and employees, and everyone has said Halo Lab did a fantastic job with the branding, user flows, and UI/UX design. 

We're going to market with our new branding in January 2023, and we'll get firsthand information from customers about how they like the new look and feel. We'll use a number of KPIs to measure the success of Halo Lab's work.

How did Halo Lab perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was perfect; Margarita did an amazing job. They're based in Ukraine and worked through their power plants being bombed due to the Russian Invasion, and they went to coffee shops to find electricity and Wi-Fi to deliver the project. They went above and beyond what's expected of workers in a situation like the Russian Invasion of Ukraine. Therefore, I don't fault them for any issues regarding project management. 

We used Notion as our project management tool. For communication, we used email and Slack and had two calls a week with them. We also used Figma to comment on the UI/UX design and branding.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with Halo Lab's branding and project management. With one point of contact, they were able to bring together a team to pull together a complete project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was nothing they needed to improve; they were amazing.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Book twice-weekly calls and let Halo Lab have some reign of creativity to bring your brand to life. If there's something that you want to keep, they will be more than happy to accommodate that. Be proactive in stating exactly what you need; otherwise, just let them do their magic because they're amazing.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a coworking services company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Halo Lab?

We engaged Halo Lab to rebrand our logo and redesign our website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Halo Lab has helped us with a rebrand and website redesign. First, we met to discuss the project scope and share examples of designs we liked. Then, they researched our business model and tried to understand the rationale behind the rebrand. They also conducted competitor research to ensure we could set ourselves apart from our global competitors. We shared our previous logo, and the team helped us define new brand guidelines, including a new name, logo, and color palette. 

Then, they started designing our new website. After sharing numerous drafts using Figma, we chose the final design style and content we wanted to incorporate. The team has completed the website design, and now they’re helping us with the integration and development stage.

What is the team composition?

We’ve primarily worked with a project manager and one other teammate. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested roughly $34,000 in the partnership with Halo Lab.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Halo Lab in May 2022, and the partnership is ongoing.

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

Halo Lab has delivered really neat designs, and we’ve been satisfied with the new logo and website. Since we’re still working on the integration, we haven’t seen any concrete results yet. However, we’ve had a great experience working with them.  

How did Halo Lab perform from a project management standpoint?

Halo Labs has executed a smooth, organized process; they’ve been very cooperative and communicative throughout each step. Our project manager has been receptive to feedback and responded to our questions promptly. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve been impressed with Halo Lab’s process from beginning to end. They’ve tried to understand our needs and guided us through each step to ensure they meet them. Whenever we’ve shared feedback, they’ve implemented it. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have nothing Halo Lab could improve on. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend following their process and trusting Halo Lab when they provide time estimates. They know what they’re doing. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner and solutions developer at a software development company that provides software solutions for corporate, government, and court offices. We’re focused on the AV industry, designing and building the frontend of touch panels that users interact with. We also create the backends that control the systems and run on centralized processors.

What challenge were you trying to address with Halo Lab?

We’ve been working on a platform that allows our customers to record their system, including network devices, to ensure they have documentation of their system profile for future support. The platform also allows users to create a checklist to ensure the system is healthy through user acceptance testing. 

Recently, we decided to improve the platform’s UX, workflows, and aesthetics. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Halo Lab designed our platform’s UX/UI using Figma using our market research. They also researched our company. We wanted the platform to have a more intuitive UI and a more modern design. The design needed to be unique and stand out. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with four teammates, including a sales teammate, two project managers, and one designer.

How did you come to work with Halo Lab?

I found Halo Lab on Google. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $10,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

This project was from September–October 2022. 

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

Although we have the deliverables from Halo Lab, we haven’t implemented them on the platform yet. However, our team has been very satisfied with the design. 

How did Halo Lab perform from a project management standpoint?

Halo Lab provided constant updates and recorded videos through Loom to showcase their processes. Our team provided feedback via Figma. We had synchronous and asynchronous communication — we had scheduled meetings on Google Meet. They made sure to deliver on time. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

What made Halo Lab stand out was their user-centered design process. They were heavily engaged with us and the market research we did — I appreciated that Halo Lab’s team put in the effort to learn about and understand our platform. 

They essentially became experts on our platform and tools before they started redesigning the UX/UI. We are also very user-focused, which helped us align as partners. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Although I don’t blame their team for this issue, the pricing wasn’t solidified at the beginning of the project. I understand pricing changes, but having a realistic estimate of the project’s price before the project starts is important. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of an online education startup called TutorChase.

What challenge were you trying to address with Halo Lab?

We hired them for their web design and development services. We wanted to design a new website that was modern and professional-looking. We also wanted it to have a better UX and backend system that integrated with different third-party platforms.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Halo Lab helped us create a new website. They first conducted research to better understand our business and brand identity. After that, they proceeded with designing the website, which had 10 different main pages, using Figma. They then moved on to the development phase, building the site using Next.js.

Their team has already completed the website, and we plan to launch it soon. We will continue to collaborate with them on the future development of our website and technology.

What is the team composition?

The project manager is our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Halo Lab?

We found them on Clutch.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $45,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement started in March of 2022, and it’s still ongoing.

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

We’re very happy with the end product and look forward to launching it in a few days.

How did Halo Lab perform from a project management standpoint?

They've been very good and professional in this regard. We usually get on a call with them on weekly basis, and they always provide great suggestions and brand ideas. Also, we have at least one or two meetings where I comment on the design work. We mainly use Slack, video calls, and some pre-recorded videos for communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed with their professionalism and communication skills. Their team is also friendly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We would have loved to speak directly to the developers or designers instead of having to go through the project manager all the time.

Any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that you're good and quick at communication because they constantly message you and expect to get your feedback before moving on to the next step.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder and CEO of Baamboozle, a game-based learning platform. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Halo Lab?

We wanted to redesign our marketing website. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Halo Lab provided two primary services over two months. During the first month, their team used our original site design and conducted market research to develop several new site concepts. Before settling on a new design, we went through several research stages — they repurposed our old site for the new design. Once the design was finalized, they spent the second month of our engagement developing the site in React. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with a designer, and a team of developers worked in the background. 

How did you come to work with Halo Lab?

I posted an ad on Dribble and had over 100 applicants. I decided to hire Halo Lab because they were trending as a top design agency on Dribble and had past experience. 

How much have you invested with them?

I invested $16,000 with Halo Lab. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership with Halo Lab was from November 2021–January 2022. 

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

We’ve received Halo Lab’s deliverables, but we haven’t released them to the public yet. I have very high standards, but their deliverables completely exceeded my expectations. 

How did Halo Lab perform from a project management standpoint?

Halo Lab had fantastic project management and was easily contactable via Slack. They provided me with daily project updates, and I was allowed as many revisions as needed. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Halo Lab delivered a unique and original design that makes my company stand out from the competition — they didn’t provide a template-based design or something trendy. Their development is world-class and perfection itself. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m very satisfied with Halo Lab, so I have nothing for them to improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d advise customers to provide Halo Lab with as much constructive feedback as possible during the design process — their team listens to customers and will make drastic changes to deliver what the customer wants. It feels like they’d do anything to make customers happy. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Mobalytics, a company that provides analytics for gamers. We help people understand their strengths and weaknesses and how good they are in a specific game. Then we give them advice on how to improve. We’re a coach for video gamers.  

What challenge were you trying to address with Halo Lab?

We needed help designing the first version of our gamer coaching platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Halo Lab designed the first version of our product from scratch. They were primarily responsible for the design, but they provided us with some interesting ideas in terms of the UI, as well. They completed much of their work using Sketch and Photoshop.

What is the team composition?

We worked mostly with a project lead and a designer, but the team grew to accommodate our needs. For instance, when we needed to design icons for the interface, they added one more designer who specialized in icon designs.

How did you come to work with Halo Lab?

I found them on Dribbble and liked their portfolio.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $50,000-$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June 2016–February 2019, but we still go to them with small requests when necessary.

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

Our users have said that they like our design and are excited about the product. Many industry experts have said that we have the best design when compared to our competitors.

How did Halo Lab perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated easily using Slack. Though there is a significant time difference for our teams, we never had any problems. Halo Lab was always extremely professional. They were willing to get on a call with us whenever we needed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was most appreciative of their ability to provide us with designers for specific needs. They are talented professionals who are ready to propose their own ideas, which made for an exciting work environment.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they accomplished everything we asked of them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Understand what it is that you want to achieve. You need to have goals in mind, along with some type of vision. Being able to articulate what you’re trying to achieve will save you and the designer a lot of time.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of Need/Want.

What challenge were you trying to address with Halo Lab?

We hired Halo Lab to provide ongoing support for various design projects. Ultimately, we wanted someone who we could depend on for a regular basis. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Among the multiple projects Halo Lab supports, they design entire websites for us, doing the interface design and illustrations. They also help create the graphics for our packaging and do photo-editing for our e-commerce needs. We assign them a task and they return with a final product according to our requirements.

What is the team composition?

We’ve consistently had one main point of contact who we communicate with and assign tasks to. However, other key members handle projects depending on the expertise needed. 

How did you come to work with Halo Lab?

I came across Halo Lab after looking through various portfolios. We really liked their style and, after setting up a meeting, enjoyed their communication approach. They were the right mix of price, talent, and style. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spend between $1,000–$2,000 per month, on average. Over the two years, we’ve spent in the $10,000–$25,000 range. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in June 2017 and the engagement is ongoing. 

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

Having their support has allowed us to have a lean team with plenty of talent. Their efforts have been critical for us to operate and continue having ongoing projects for our business. 

How did Halo Lab perform from a project management standpoint?

Working with one main point of contact makes the process run smoothly for us. They liaise with their internal team and delegate tasks as needed. Primarily, we use Basecamp for all communication. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The value we get from them and their quality work set them apart from others. We get high-quality work from their team for a great cost. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I’d suggest they improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communicate with their team as much as you can. If they know the exact style you’re looking for, they’ll be able to replicate it. If not, they’ll produce something else amazing but in the wrong direction. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder at Vondy, a software startup. Our main product is a website builder, and I largely spend my time on software development and running the company. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Halo Lab?

We hired Halo to augment our engineering efforts.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, we bought Halo in to come up with more professional designs that we could incorporate by ourselves. Our team then realized how beneficial it was to keep everything within the Halo ecosystem. 

At present, their designer comes up with designs while interfacing with the project manager. That way, we don’t have to worry about the details and the communication between the designer and developer. Once the designs are good to go, their developer implements them. 

The design work is all in Figma, and we go back and forth on iterating the Figma designs. Once the designs are good, they flesh them out in the form of clickable prototypes also within Figma. On the development side, the code is on GitHub. We then collaborate on the same GitHub repository, where we can make comments and changes as we see fit.

What is the team composition?

In total, we work with four people from their team. We’ve been working with a project manager and decided to bring on an in-house Halo developer to accelerate the engineering process. We also interface with a business development representative. She’s helped us sort out the terms of our engagement in relation to the number of resources we use and how much they cost. She’s also been our point of contact for payments and administrative tasks.

To elaborate, the project manager’s role is to ensure that everything gets done. We communicate with her about timelines and project updates. Meanwhile, the designer comes up with the UI/UX designs of the app we’re building. Then, the developer implements whatever the designer comes up with; this is for frontend development — the developer mainly works on the app’s UI. 

How did you come to work with Halo Lab?

Our team found Halo on Upwork. We saw their portfolio online and were impressed by their past work. Their designs caught our eyes because they were beautiful. From there, we reached out to the team. At that time, we were still in the early days of our startup, so we couldn’t afford their services. After we raised money, we got back in touch with them and sorted out an agreement. That was the start of our engagement. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $20,000–$25,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2021, and the engagement is ongoing. 

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

Quantitative metrics are difficult to find because our app isn’t in production yet; we’re still essentially in the MVP prototyping phase. However, in the relatively short time that we’ve worked with Halo, the team has already come up with many good designs for our app. They’ve come up with 10–20 templates, and the developer has completed our entire onboarding flow within a week or less.

How did Halo Lab perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is a differentiating factor for Halo. For context, with our previous development agency, we had to interface with the designer and developer individually. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. As a result, when Halo told us that they’d assign a project manager to us, we were skeptical at first. We thought that things would get lost in translation. 

Luckily, they’ve assigned a solid project manager to us. She always understands the assignment and is great at communication. She ensures that everything is done well. The fact that we don’t worry about how the work gets broken up means she’s doing a great job. We simply give her a high-level view of what we want, and then we see results. She’s also extremely responsive. 

Overall, we’re paying per performer, but the price has a unique project management component built into it. In other words, we’re getting more than just simply a developer and a designer. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Halo stands out through their designs, which are beautiful. Incorporating them in our app elevates the perception of our product. In other words, bringing in the professional design team of Halo has been a worthy investment for us. Their work has resulted in a more professional-looking product. 

Moreover, their resources are creative. My co-founder and I don’t necessarily have the most concrete idea of how the product should work or what it should look like. We simply give the team our best rough idea, and they run with it. They’ve pleasantly surprised us in ways we never imagine. Overall, creative design is where they shine the most. 

Meanwhile, we’ve only started working with their developer, so we haven’t had the chance to truly understand the quality of his work. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

At least for a startup like us, Halo is on the expensive side. To be fair, the payment is worth the quality of their work; they bring in value. However, they can bring in more clients if they drop their prices a little. That way, they can appeal to a wider variety of startups.

Moreover, the whole payment process can still be streamlined. They insist on prepayment on a biweekly basis. While they’ve been flexible with us in terms of payments, we’ve still had issues with the whole fee structure. That said, this might be a problem that’s unique to a startup of our size. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re a startup that’s looking to do design and development work, it’s imperative that you leverage the whole project management component of Halo. You can gain a lot of value by keeping everything within their ecosystem. The communication between their designer and developer is seamless, and the project manager ensures that everyone’s on the same page.

More generally, it’s helpful if you can get into the weeds with them. You can mess around with the Figma design or look through the code that’s been produced. Simply put, you can get more out of their designer and developer when you speak their language. Getting into the nitty-gritty of the product is better than just verifying whether or not the app works. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of Glance Tech, a consumer electronics company based in Singapore.

What challenge were you trying to address with Halo Lab?

We needed support developing the UI/UX of our iOS and Android app, which was established internally. The app was designed to function as a back-pocket app, so the key experience is in its communication with the hardware device.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Halo Lab designed the UI/UX for our app which displays information from all of a user’s devices (e.g., wearables, smart home devices, web services). 

During the initial two-month design phase, the team developed a sleek UI. They managed the entirety of the app’s informational design, animating patterns of information appearance and disappearance, fade-ins and fade-outs, and length of the display. They streamlined the onboarding flow to display relevant information on the screen for each step. The team also built integration capacities to have the relevant information appear on its display.

The implementation phase involved simplifying designs, finding new approaches, and developing icons. Working with our manufacturing team, Halo Lab helped improve the design of the printed onboarding document which is the first thing customers encounter. The team redesigned our investment deck and developed an icon for Google Play in accordance with our guidelines.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two dedicated designers, a project manager, an accountant, and one other team member who provided support.

How did you come to work with Halo Lab?

Halo lab was recommended by a friend due to their responsiveness, creativity, and affordability. Their team also wanted to work with creative startups from overseas, so we decided to partner with them.

How much have you invested with them?

The initial commitment was a fixed cost of $3,000. We later spent around $100/hour, which totaled $300–$900/month depending on our needs.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Halo Lab from February–July 2017.

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

Users were excited about the design, describing the display as straightforward and clean. Halo Lab simplified the app’s interface to make the on-screen info more accessible at a glance. By creating special animations, they ensured that all information is both actionable and non-disruptive to users, which was everything we expected.

How did Halo Lab perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication was always clear. We mostly connected by Slack but also used Skype when we needed audio and Google Drive to share information. We developed specific channels between Halo Lab and our hardware team, which allowed our team to implement their designs. 

If they ran into any roadblocks, they weren’t afraid to address it, which is what I expect from partners. They communicated issues early to find solutions quickly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They know what to do. Transparency is the most important component when working with a team. Halo Lab was transparent about deliverables and any challenges their team was facing.

They followed our internal Scrum practices. The team delivered results iteratively, which allowed us to track progress and understand our next period of development. Going over the deliverables and tracking our cost allowed us to optimize on the fly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

This was my first experience working with a dedicated UI/UX team, and we’ve never been disappointed or regretted committing to our collaboration. There isn't any constructive feedback I could give them.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Make accurate requirements and don’t expect to receive more than what’s included in the proposal.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a digital health startup.

What challenge were you trying to address with Halo Lab?

We were developing the initial version of our product, and we needed graphic and UI design support.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Halo Lab has helped us design the prototype of our product. We started the project by providing them with a product requirements document, which described all the different features and details of what we wanted to build.

Throughout the project, we would typically meet with them every day to go over the requirements, and they would get back to us with design mock-ups. After we give them feedback, they would give us the updated versions of the designs. 

The final deliverables included high-fidelity mock-ups of our feature requests.

What is the team composition?

Halo Lab assigned two project managers to our team, and they’re our main point of contact. They’re in charge of understanding the requirement documents and passing them over to their primary designer, with whom we’ve only interacted once. They also have a senior design lead, who’s in charge of making sure that their work is up to their quality standards before they pass it back to us.

How did you come to work with Halo Lab?

We found Halo Lab on a freelance designer portfolio website. We reached out to them via email and scheduled some initial conversations before we started working with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We pay them $6,000 per month, so I’d say we’ve spent around $15,000 in total so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

We don’t have any metrics yet, but Halo Lab has been really consistent in providing us with high-quality deliverables. Their support has been very crucial in helping us quickly get our prototype into a logical state — without their help, we’d probably be two months behind in terms of getting our product out to a bigger audience.

How did Halo Lab perform from a project management standpoint

Halo Lab has performed really well in terms of project management — they deliver on time and communicate well. We have daily meetings with them, wherein we go over the requirements, features, and revisions. So far, they’ve been excellent in establishing and meeting deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The fact that Halo Lab assigned a team to us instead of a freelancer is a big differentiating factor for them. One of the advantages of working with their team is that they have a senior design lead who enforces their quality standards to make sure that the deliverables are of high quality. 

Aside from that, having their project managers analyze the requirements documents and ask clarifying questions ensures that their designer has everything they need to deliver designs that reflect our vision and makes communication between teams as smooth as it can be.

I also appreciate their effort in adding their own creative spin on the deliverables.

Are there any areas they could improve?

At the beginning of the project, we had trouble getting the raw source files for the design because they wanted to stick to the payment cadence before giving us the mock-ups. This delayed our engineering efforts in the first month or two, which caused some frustration on our side. We’ve since decided to prepay them so that we could get the source files more easily.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

When working with an international vendor, it’s always helpful to make sure that you’re as specific as possible with the product requirements document and your content strategy to ensure that you get what you expect.