Web Design, Dev & Testing for Graduate Recruiting Company
- Search Engine Optimization UX/UI Design Web Design Web Development
- $50,000 to $199,999
- Apr. 2022 - Ongoing
- Quality
- 5.0
- Schedule
- 5.0
- Cost
- 5.0
- Willing to Refer
- 5.0
“Plug & Play’s communication has been brilliant throughout — they’re efficient and quick to respond.”
- Other Industry
- London, England
- 11-50 Employees
- Phone Interview
- Verified
Plug & Play has designed and developed a new website for a graduate recruitment company. Their scope has included branding, wireframe and UX design on Figma, development, testing, and continuous improvements.
The new site has received very positive feedback from users, and it is slowly gaining new and better rankings. Plug & Play has been highly collaborative and responsive via Figma, Miro, Basecamp, Whatsapp, and ClickUp. Additionally, they’re brilliant and excel at problem-solving.
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
BACKGROUND
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the marketing manager for Give a Grad a Go Recruitment, a graduate recruitment company.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What challenge were you trying to address with Plug & Play?
We were looking for an agency to help us revamp our website. Originally, we were just going to use a design agency and work with the developers we already had.
SOLUTION
What was the scope of their involvement?
Initially, we went through an ideation phase, during which we told Plug & Play everything we wanted from the project and the ideas we had for the website's design, features, and functionality. Then, they came back with a detailed quote in a spreadsheet detailing each task and feature required, along with their cost. This helped us prioritize which features would be launched first and which ones could be moved onto phase two of the project.
Once we chose the most important features for the site, Plug & Play started with the design process. We required a whole rebrand for the site, so they came to us with three different concepts. We were able to choose elements from each one and adjust the designs until we were happy with the colors, the brand, and the logo.
After the design phase, Plug & Play worked with me to understand how our business worked and how each feature of the site would work according to that. Then, they put together the wireframes and ensured everything was working correctly. The wireframing phase took a few months, after which we did a lot of revisions to ensure we hadn’t missed anything.
Throughout the revision process, we also consulted with our chief operations director and other people on our team to get their input and ensure we weren’t missing something we hadn’t thought of before approving the wireframes. Once approved, Plug & Play started the actual website design on Figma.
Their team designed the main 20 pages of our site, and once we were happy with those designs, they moved on to the development phase. There was a lot of back and forth between Plug & Play and us during this stage as we were deciding between different drop-down menus, categories, content, and more.
Once Plug & Play developed the site, we went into the testing phase, during which we tested the site ourselves. Plug & Play also did some QA, in which we were involved to ensure the site worked properly. When we ensured that the site worked well and efficiently, they transferred it onto our server so that it was ready to launch.
Currently, we’re on a retainer with Plug & Play. We’re now working on phase two of the project, which includes refining the site’s features and addressing things we weren’t able to foresee before having customers use the site.
What is the team composition?
We’ve worked with 5–6 teammates from Plug & Play, including Dino (Commercial & Delivery Manager), who works as the project manager and is our main point of contact. We’ve also worked with David (Digital Strategist), as well as some designers and developers.
How did you come to work with Plug & Play?
We found them on Google, where they were ranking well. We had spoken to quite a few different agencies, but when we spoke to Plug & Play, they simply stood out way above the competition in all aspects. They knew what they were talking about in terms of SEO and UX design, and we felt that they would be able to build a website that would perform better than our current one. We also realized that we could trust them, and they showed us a lot of evidence of things that they had done. Their previous work included a lot of things we were looking for, so we ended up working with them.
How much have you invested in them?
We’ve spent between £150,000–£200,000 (approximately S179,000–$238,000 USD).
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together around the beginning of Q2 2022, and it’s an ongoing engagement.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Since launching our new site, we’ve received a lot of feedback via email from users saying how fantastic it looks. Regarding its performance, we launched the site in December 2022 and saw a slight dip in January 2023. It has been hard for us because we’re still setting up our conversion tracking, so we haven’t seen any efficiencies just yet.
However, changes in the URL direction and other modifications like that can commonly cause dips in traffic. Now, our traffic is increasing again, and we’ve gained our SEO ranking back for key terms. Additionally, we’ve achieved new rankings for other terms. Hopefully, we’ll get more accurate results once we set up our tracking systems.
How did Plug & Play perform from a project management standpoint?
Plug & Play’s communication has been brilliant throughout — they’re efficient and quick to respond. The design phase was a really fun phase where we got the whole company involved. During this phase, they were patient when we asked for renditions of things and changes.
Throughout the first phase of the project, we had at least weekly calls with Plug & Play to check-in. I also had a WhatsApp chat with Dino and another member of my team. On that chat, we sent voice notes to talk about new ideas and things that came up. That approach was very useful because we didn’t have to set up calls constantly.
We’ve also used Basecamp for project management, which has been handy as we’ve started a new thread for every phase of the project. Using this tool, we can refer back to each thread and search for certain elements if needed.
Additionally, Plug & Play has used Figma and Miro for the designs, which are useful because we can leave comments. Throughout the wireframing process, we were able to mark and pin our comments on different areas and designs, which was great.
Currently, we’re using ClickUp, where I can leave comments and tasks. Then, Plug & Play assigns different team members to those tasks. Those teammates can comment and reply to my comments, and we can have conversations regarding those tasks.
Although we’ve experienced some delays throughout the project, those were caused by things outside our control. For example, the launch was delayed due to an issue with the integration with our CRM platform. Additionally, we had to delay things at one point because we weren’t ready with the content. Still, Plug & Play was very understanding.
These types of projects always have unforeseen challenges. However, Plug & Play has been very good at constantly checking in and letting us know what is going on. Whenever we’ve had delays, they tell us exactly how long it will take to solve the issue.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Overall, Plug & Play is great at communicating, and whenever something doesn’t work as it should, they fix it instantly. They’re very quick at problem-solving. We’ve had a brilliant experience working with them — I wouldn’t have trusted this project to any other of the agencies we initially spoke to.
Are there any areas they could improve?
It would be great if Plug & Play was better at managing expectations regarding the launch and the dip in traffic. Initially, we weren’t made aware of the hiccups we would experience, although it was a little naive of us to expect that the site would work perfectly after moving it onto our servers.
Plug & Play could have communicated those potential challenges a little better when we were about to launch the site so that we were aware. Given that we never discussed those potential issues, we expected a seamless launch.
RATINGS
-
Quality
5.0Service & Deliverables
-
Schedule
5.0On time / deadlines
-
Cost
5.0Value / within estimates
"They’re more expensive than other agencies, but they provide good value for money. The quality of their service reflects the price."
-
Willing to Refer
5.0NPS