ROSSUL

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company develops enterprise-grade solutions using a full suite of technology. The highlight is the blockchain architecture as opposed to a standard server and database structure.

What challenge were you trying to address with ROSSUL?

We needed services for our existing platform that was going into implementation. We created a freight-based solution for Walmart, Canada. We integrated our solution with carriers who use it to carry goods. Any products that hit a shelf in Walmart are processed through our application, which needed a facelift.  We engage more than 70 carriers across the country and wanted to provide them with an optimal UX.

What was the scope of their involvement?

ROSSUL provided us with UI/UX services for our web-based application. We explained to them what we needed and gave their team use cases for how we use the application right now. Then, they created different personas for who they thought would be using the application. This is a specific deployment application, but it can be leveraged by different sources. ROSSUL built different personas to support future users in different industries. Their team created a UI/UX from scratch that sits on the application's blockchain technology.

Our application aggregates data and provides Walmart with visibility into shipments so that we can calculate an invoice for them. The carrier uses our platform to evaluate costs. It’s important for the carriers so that they can get paid based on the invoices produced through our system now.

What is the team composition?

We communicated with Elia (Founder and Creative Director) and one of his designers, Chris (UX Designer).

How did you come to work with ROSSUL?

We researched local companies on Clutch because the platform provides really good customer feedback reviews. We found ROSSUL on there and saw that their team focused on UI/UX. We reached out and they were interested in the project. We interviewed about 4–5 different UI/UX firms but Elia was a pleasure to work with. He followed up almost instantaneously. ROSSUL seemed interested, unlike other agencies.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost between $10,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We kicked off the project with ROSSUL in January 2020 and it wrapped up around February. Since then, we’ve had back and forth with their team to complete small changes. Recently, I spoke with Elia about working on another project.

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

The ROSSUL team goes above and beyond. They didn't just provide a great, professional service. Rather, they also gave us their opinions and challenged our ideas. 

I'm happy with the end product. I showed the design internally and everyone loved it including my CEO and CTO. We had to make small changes because certain features had to operate in specific manners but that wasn’t a limitation on ROSSUL. When I told Elia, he came right back with a great sketch. 

How did ROSSUL perform from a project management standpoint?

We tracked the project in JIRA where ROSSUL put together a full map, which allowed me to see different timelines for deliverables. ROSSUL followed the timeline as long as we gave them the information needed. We also used InVision to share screens and provide feedback. They set up meetings regularly to get feedback and share information. Their team provided updates constantly, which was great because I rarely had to follow up with them. They were visible and provided updates all of the time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They clearly have UI/UX experience. Their team doesn’t take what you say and regurgitate it. ROSSUL gave their opinions and UI/UX expertise. I questioned certain aspects of the project and they provided the reasoning behind why we could or couldn’t do certain things. What’s most impressive is their professionalism and experience.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they were great. ROSSUL continues to support us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You have to supply them with information because they’re not mind readers. You have to articulate your vision because their team’s limited to what you provide them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a software recruitment platform that connects software developers with pre-verified skills with employers looking for those skills.

What challenge were you trying to address with ROSSUL?

We conducted a lot of beta testing and identified that we needed to improve our mobile app’s UX, so we engaged ROSSUL to revamp that.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They redid all of our user flows and design. I gave them a bit of information on what I was looking for, personal mock ups and stuff like that. Ultimately, the work that they came up with was completely original. They worked with Zeplin and InVision, and the app is on iOS and Android.

They made the app more intuitive. Before, we needed to give users a lot of instruction on how to use it. That was a big hurdle for us, and they were able to solve it.

What is the team composition?

I communicated directly with their CEO, and I spoke a few times with one of their team members.

How did you come to work with ROSSUL?

I did some research on some companies out there and shortlisted a few. I contacted ROSSUL and a few others, but temporarily paused the project. Still, ROSSUL kept in contact with me, and it showed that they were eager to get the work done.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $10,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

It lasted from January–February 2020.

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

We launched the app a week ago, and so far, feedback from developers has been really good. Several users mentioned how intuitive the app is, so they clearly made a big difference for our UX.

How did ROSSUL perform from a project management standpoint?

They have project management nailed down. They use Jira and Slack to manage the work and communicate with us. They make sure the work comes through the right funnel, so they have a good handle on how they take on work. We had the timeline broken down into sprints, but they worked through everything quickly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Eli (CEO) was very accommodating, was very involved, ensured that I was up to speed, answered my questions completely and clearly. They helped me with several things that weren’t in our initial agreement just to make sure we had things sorted out. They went above and beyond what they needed to, and it was very helpful. Eli is very direct and straightforward because he is focused on what the project needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they get the work done properly, and clearly their methods work for them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you know what you want. They’re good at taking your ideas and turning them into a reality. If you’re not clear on what you want, it would probably drive up your costs. If you make too many changes, it will be difficult for them to operate.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a company that helps communities of patients with rare diseases. We aggregate health information to produce new data that researchers can use to identify and evaluate therapies.

What challenge were you trying to address with ROSSUL?

We hired ROSSUL to help us build an online portal that connects patients and families with their electronic health records (EHRs). We also wanted a custom survey tool that would allow us to collect additional information from our users. 

Our primary concern was ease of use because most of the patients using the platform have disabilities. Accessibility was a huge factor, and we also wanted our users to realize that providing the information is worth their time.

We wanted a product that could strike a balance between feeling like a game, in terms of being pleasant and fun, and being effective in helping us accomplish our goals.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project started with an initial conversation where we walked ROSSUL through what we were trying to accomplish. After that, we showed them some hand-drawn sketches and wireframe drawings that displayed the features that we thought were necessary. From there, we moved into breaking down the tasks that needed to be completed so that we could execute a contract with them. All of the deliverables were created from scratch.

What is the team composition?

They have three designers working on our project. We have a main point of contact for direct conversations, and the other designers have access to our feedback on Jira and InVision.

How did you come to work with ROSSUL?

My executive assistant knew Elia (CEO, ROSSUL) from a previous company. We went through an evaluation process with a few other designers—also ones that came in through our network—and we eventually decided on ROSSUL.

We chose them for a couple of reasons, the most important being their understanding of accessibility constraints and best practices. We knew that we could trust them to keep those considerations top of mind while designing. 

They were also sophisticated in their reasoning when they explained different approaches and collaborative in a way that showcased their design decision making. We appreciated early on how they were able to share new ideas and push back on our ideas in a helpful way.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in September 2019; that’s when we first started having conversations with them. Because of our internal decision-making processes, the contracting phase went longer than expected, and they didn’t officially start work until October 2019. The project officially wrapped up in November 2019.

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

Aesthetically, the designs are exactly what we were looking for. The product is easy to use, and it looks nice and professional. The graphing packages, in particular, were much better than what we were using before, and the portal seems to work well even on mobile interfaces, even though it’s designed for laptop web browsers. ROSSUL addressed all of our concerns about the mobile view.

How did ROSSUL perform from a project management standpoint?

They were transparent and persistent, which made for consistent progress. They were also respectful about gathering necessary feedback from us to keep the project moving forward. The visibility was also helpful; we knew what they were working on and what needed to be reviewed at every stage. 

The process was very iterative, much more so than past projects that we’ve done with other designers. All of the feedback and commenting was done in sync to save time. We captured all of that on Jira and InVision. 

I would often get busy with other projects for 3–4 days, and I’d go back and see that 20–30 items were already prepped for review. Most of the time, ROSSUL also included comments explaining specific design choices with questions about our goals and preferences. I would go through those items for the next day or two and then wait for them to send me more deliverables.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with their ability to take underdefined concepts and translate them into usable designs. For example, when we started, we were trying to make a product that pulled information from electronic health records (EHRs), but we hadn’t thoroughly thought out how we wanted to display that content. ROSSUL had a fantastic idea—about 3/4ths of the way through the project—to break that content into different pages. Because of their creative thinking, we now have screens that are both easy to navigate and useful to patients.

I was also pleased with their ability to scope out the project. When we started, the scope was over budget and outside of our timeline, and we were worried that we wouldn’t be able to work with them. ROSSUL was flexible and creative in finding ways to end the project with a finished product that hit our constraints while excluding unnecessary components that drove up the cost and timeline. They were able to do that while still providing something that meets our initial vision.

The initial conversations were fantastic in many regards. They brought in a few of their designers to ask additional questions to get a feel for what exactly we were trying to do. ROSSUL recorded those conversations so that they could go back and review them to ensure fidelity with our original plan.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so, everything looks great. The project has moved along consistently; I don’t have anything negative to say.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’ll be flexible and supportive if you explain what you want. You can always ask them to make changes, and they’ll help you think through the decision in a logical manner, always trying to align with your business goals. Be transparent and know what you’re looking for, and they’ll work hard to make it a reality. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of dissemination for a nonprofit specializing in education, science, and culture. Basically, all of the customer-facing technical systems are under my responsibility.

What challenge were you trying to address with ROSSUL?

We had a web presence that was not ideal for our organization. We developed a new website and wanted to know if the new website met users' needs. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

ROSSUL worked to validate one small part of our migration to a new web presence. We were developing a website, which is a small piece of our process to build a web presence. The team directed an evaluation of our platform and gave us recommendations to put us on the right track.

First, we reviewed their approach to the tests and their timetable. We developed a heuristic evaluation and a user interview. For the heuristic portion, their team created a report based on the evaluation and noted three areas for improvement. We had a person on site who was the focal point for the user testing work. Our team selected users based on our target segments and they supplied some of their non-expert users. Their team facilitated users through the process detailed in the proposal.

Lastly, they extracted the point of view of different users, which were reported. Based on their findings, ROSSUL gave us a list of recommendations. We’ve assessed all of their recommendations and identified the ones that we can and can’t execute easily.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two members of their team. Elia (Founder and Creative Director, ROSSUL) was the project manager and Chris (UX Designer, ROSSUL) executed most of the work.

How did you come to work with ROSSUL?

We put out an RFP and they responded with a proposal. We ranked all the responses and ROSSUL were at the top of our list. We worked with their team to make sure the proposal met our needs. Then, we went through a contracting process and they signed onto the project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $10,000–$50,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We collaborated from the beginning of October 2019 until the middle of November.

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

One of the main reasons we wanted them to do this assessment was to validate the direction we were taking. Their work helped us with executive management, making sure they were supportive of what we were trying to do. We’re very happy with the work ROSSUL did. Their team found quite a few insights. They were obviously experts in their field. We felt that we got a decent quality product back.

How did ROSSUL perform from a project management standpoint?

They implemented project management software—JIRA— and performed well. It was good to have an idea of what they were doing and when they were doing it. Compared to past contractors, ROSSUL did that quite well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team was quite clear about what they were and weren’t able to do. They provided good customer service and we worked well together, which can be difficult with contractors especially when conditions aren’t clear. The project was well planned out.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Go over the expectations on both sides. Make sure that you know what you’ll be delivering and what they will be delivering for the project.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO at Human Automation.

What challenge were you trying to address with ROSSUL?

We wanted to outsource the UI of our SaaS app from start to finish.

What was the scope of their involvement?

ROSSUL was very process-driven. We had a few user stories that they took and executed the full design of the app and UI. First, we had to make sure their team understood the user stories and their meaning. After walking through the concepts, they started with rough drafts and wireframes, talking us through that process. Based on those conversations, we were able to flesh out our user stories more.

After several reiterations of that, their team built multiple iterations of hi-fi prototypes. Beyond what we provided their side, they added concepts and functionalities to our app. After the final handoff to our developers, we coded it.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two designers.

How did you come to work with ROSSUL?

I found ROSSUL on Clutch. I narrowed it down a global search to three or four companies that I ended up reaching out to. I received a proposal from two of them. ROSSUL’s fast response stood out. I talked to the owner about my concerns and questions, which he addressed. He also led me through their InVision app to showcase their previous designs and examples that mirrored my user cases.

How much have you invested with them?

The work cost around $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We finished the project in July and started the process about eight weeks earlier than that. It went longer due to changes on our end.

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

Even after the project was completed, their team insisted we have a final meeting to provide additional feedback. They didn’t have to follow up, but they felt the need to make sure everything was done correctly. The design looks great and functions well. All of our prospects and customers present during the demo seemed to have liked it. It’s easy-to-use and intuitive. There have been no negatives so far.

How did ROSSUL perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management style was exceptional. On our end, we used phone calls and emails for correspondence. We communicated with the designers twice a week. They were open to using our Jira with our developer. We also used InVision heavily where we would comment on work and reply to notes.

What did you find most impressive about them?

ROSSUL has a thorough team that keeps timelines moving. From a project management standpoint, they were also very strong. The team at ROSSUL was invested in delivering a solid UI.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not really. For us, it was a lot of money, but that was the proposal we signed. Everyone wants more for less, but there have been no issues whatsoever.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

ROSSUL does an excellent job of leading customers through everything.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the principal of The Future of Publishing, a consultancy and market analysis firm. We study and advise those in the publishing industries, including books, magazines, newspapers, etc.

For what projects/services did your company hire ROSSUL?

We hired ROSSUL to create our website. We needed about 24 minisites with anchoring features.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted the site to help us establish our firm as a leader in the publishing consultancy field.

How did you select this vendor?

I followed a recommendation from a trusted colleague who had a successful engagement with ROSSUL in the past.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

I worked with ROSSUL to define the scope of the project. Once we decided on the structure we wanted for the site, Elia (CEO, ROSSUL) translated our ideas into a platform and focused on UI. They also incorporated a blog. Our site is now over 12 years old, but ROSSUL continues to refresh the platform and enhance its responsiveness. We’re currently working on a redesign with them.

What was the team composition?

I primarily work with Elia and Tom (Lead Developer, ROSSUL).

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

ROSSUL has helped transform our company from a concept into a business with a strong position in the market. We’re able to be a leader in the field of analysis. Our credibility has significantly improved since beginning the work with their team.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We’ve had no challenges in how they manage the project. Everything has been delivered on time and within our budget. Their team is transparent about any offshore maintenance and they’re very responsive to our needs.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

ROSSUL continuously finds a solid balance between their UX design and pragmatic mindset. They maintain my inspirations and ideas while bringing them into reality.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Some of the initial architecture limited me to needing expert support, but it was the right approach. The structure has evolved with technology over time.

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I’m the SEO and SEM specialist for a travel insurance company. Our customers visit our website to find the best travel insurance plans for them.

What challenge were you trying to address with ROSSUL? 

We needed to redo our website because the look of it was a quite dated. We want to have a modern site that is full-width, mobile-friendly, and easy to use.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

ROSSUL helped us redesign the entire website, including the UX/UI. They created wireframes in Adobe InDesign and then shared them with us through that platform. We were able to go in and make comments on the different designs and where things need to be fleshed out. 

They actually went ahead and helped us to code the frontend (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) as well. They also helped with gathering images for our blog. Once the code and the design was complete, they it passed off to us and we took it from there. We integrated it with our backend and got everything up and running.

What is the team composition? 

We started out working with Eli (founder, ROSSUL) and the head designer. They had several other team members working behind the scenes. A few developers came onboard when we started the web design portion of the project, so we worked with a total of seven people. 

How did you come to work with ROSSUL? 

We looked at a number of different firms at a variety of price points. ROSSUL was an amazing fit due to the price that they offered and the work that they were willing to do. All the other firms were more expensive, and we weren't too impressed with their portfolios. ROSSUL has a great portfolio and the price was right in our budget. 

How much have you invested with them? 

The initial project to have 40 pages redesigned was between $20,000–$25,000. After we onboarded a couple more projects, the total price a bit more than $45,000. 

What is the status of this engagement? 

The work took place from March–November 2018.

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

The new website just launched. In addition to making our site the leader in travel insurance, it's very important that we're relevant to our customers. The most important KPIs are bounce rate and time spent on site. Our bounce rate has decreased from 46% to 35%, which is great. Time spent on site has doubled. While being brand new might lead to more time spent exploring, users are consistently spending much more time on the site. The conversion rate has gone up as well. We're really excited by these early results. Every metric we’ve seen so far has been impressive.

How did ROSSUL perform from a project management standpoint? 

ROSSUL was able to meet our demands very quickly. We mostly communicated through email. They used Google Calendar for setting up meetings, and Google Hangouts for our calls. They were always available to discuss any sort of issue that we had. They’d quickly get on the phone with us to address the problem. ROSSUL used their expertise when we were at an impasse and didn't know what to do next. They led the project forward in terms of what we needed to do to get through those crucial points. 

What did you find most impressive about them? 

ROSSUL had an impressive ability to solve problems. If we didn’t like something about the design, they were able to quickly come up with a new design that we thought was really awesome. Previous designers would only be willing to make a small change, such as to a button. ROSSUL would make significant revisions if we asked them to. Then we’d work together to determine what looked best. They provided a lot of variety in their designs, and their opinion was really helpful. 

Are there any areas they could improve? 

Nothing comes to mind. We had a great time working with them, and we'll definitely use them again in the future.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CTO of a fixed-income inter-dealer brokerage.

What challenge were you trying to address with ROSSUL?

We’re building a trader application, and needed a professional partner to design the proper visuals.

What was the scope of their involvement?

ROSSUL met with our stakeholders to understand our challenges and asks. They sent us a set of questionnaires that my team filled out to identify our use cases and personas. They quickly put together a prototype using InVision. We use Google Hangouts and in-person meetings to give them feedback and help them understand our capabilities. We repeated the process until we had a working prototype. They’ve been patient in tweaking things and reaching our goal.

What is the team composition?

Three people are involved in the project, and their CEO steps in whenever a decision needs to be made. A couple very professional designers do most of the work.

How did you come to work with ROSSUL?

I’ve known their owner for over 10 years. I’ve been following his career, and he has worked for us for some time.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with ROSSUL in February or March 2018, and we finalized the initial scope last week. We are working with them in support mode to explore the possibility of contracting them for a few more tasks. We’ve been very pleased with the service.

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

All feedback so far has been internal. They’ve expanded the work to provide the exact feedback we want. Before starting the project, ROSSUL asked us for metrics. We mentioned contrast, compactness, and the ability to find things on the screen. We run through all these metrics internally on a regular basis. The deliverables meet them. Our team, and everyone who’s used a demo of the product, has given similar feedback.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are professional and knowledgeable about design. Their CEO has taught a UI course at the University of Toronto. It’s rewarding and pleasant to deal with an expert.

They go out of their way to understand us, spending extra time to read about our business and understand what we do. They approach it from the perspective of real users, which is always refreshing.

We never feel rushed, and there are no conflicts or edge cases. They’re always available. They always pick up the phone and follow up. They take just enough time to resolve any issues we might have. Overall, it’s been a positive experience.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve gotten all the attention we need, but I wish they had upward growth and hired more employees. The downside of this would be getting less time with the CEO.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of Vista Health Solutions, which is an online health insurance brokerage. We serve individuals, sole proprietors, and small groups, operating primarily in New York, although we are beginning to expand nationwide.

What challenge were you trying to address with ROSSUL?

We needed to set up an intuitive website that would allow our customers to easily understand what they need to do in order to generate a quote. I do not have a UI/UX background, and I have no experience with designing a website. Although I had a general idea of what I wanted, I did not know how to relate that to a developer.

What was the scope of their involvement?

ROSSUL designed and developed the entire website from scratch. The biggest challenge was for them to make sure that our users would go to the site and be able to generate a quote within seconds, which they were able to achieve. I am not the strongest with technology, so although I believe they used standard languages such as PHP, HTML, and CSS, I could not tell you more than that. The website itself includes such features as a drop-down menu, a zip code entry field, and a “go” button, all of which is geared to enable an easy quote request transaction for our users.

That simple concept has carried our business for over 10 years. The site has required periodic cleaning up and updating, but the main concept still feels fresh because it didn’t use one of those canned templates you find on a lot of other business websites. Once they completed that initial design and development project for us, we have continued to use their services for additional development work. We might engage them for site expansions in the future.

What is the team composition?

I interacted directly with Elia Kanaki (CEO, ROSSUL), who acted as our de facto team lead and project manager. I don’t know the composition of their development team itself.

How did you come to work with ROSSUL?

I was referred to them by someone who told me at length about Elia’s talent and skillset. At the time, I was somewhat overwhelmed by the idea of needing to design a website. When he and I had our initial interview, however, I got the immediate sense that he was able to visualize what I was trying to get across when I wasn’t even able to do that myself.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested somewhere around $50,000 USD.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first engaged them to design and build the website back in 2007, and the relationship is ongoing.

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

Although I do use Google Analytics to see our monthly page visitors, I believe the results from a different third party analysis service, which shows what buttons customers press, best demonstrates the impact of ROSSUL’s work. Those analytics demonstrate to us that the layout is intuitive and allows people to know exactly where to go on the site and what to do.

How did ROSSUL perform from a project management standpoint?

Their approach to project management was very professional and was facilitated by the use of Basecamp. We also had regular meetings and a weekly phone call. We never had any problems communicating with them, although they are located in Canada while we are in New York. It never felt like their location was important. The most important thing to me was the initial phone call in which we learned about each other and built the level of trust and knowledge needed to successfully complete such an endeavor.

The steps Elia orchestrated for working on the project were well thought-out. At the outset, he asked me to condense what we needed into something between the length of one sentence to one paragraph. After that, he asked me about the overall market, the business and product itself, our own timeline, and, most importantly, for a distillation of what we were trying to achieve.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Elia knew what I needed when I didn’t even know it myself, which was absolutely amazing, and then translated that into the website’s design. He has a special talent for this business. Building a website for a health insurance brokerage is not the same as doing so for any other industry, and he was able to understand that and tailor the site to our specific needs. In my entire business career, I have never before encountered such a quick and intuitive design response.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Before the start of the collaboration, try to get across what you’re doing in no more than one paragraph. If you can’t distill your goals into something that length, then you don’t know what you need and you’re not ready to embark upon this type of project yet. As for ROSSUL-specific advice, just be willing to allow Elia to go through his process and listen to what he has to say. He’s very talented when it comes to being able to take your idea and bring it to fruition; you just need to let him run with it.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder and CEO of a startup. Our company has 40 members, and we’re headquartered in Minneapolis. We’ve built an industry-first cloud platform that’s proprietary and patented.

Our platform helps large organizations get a 360-degree perspective of the thousands of applications and databases available within their enterprise, allowing them to understand the dependencies between each, down to the code level. Organizations can then conduct impact analysis and assessments in real time around what would happen if they were to change one or more components. Our platform lets them see what else would be impacted within the organization.

What challenge were you trying to address with ROSSUL?

We had a running backend that was performing as expected, but we did not have a professional user interface for our technology. Initially, we had built one out ourselves to conduct tests and make an initial prototype, but we fully understood that it was not what we should be going to market with. We needed a professional design firm to help us create a frontend and help with user experience so that we could gain market acceptance.

What was the scope of their involvement?

ROSSUL designed a professional-looking UI for our technology and helped define our user experience. They had a good framework to start with, keeping in mind that startups are never good with documentation—much of the thought process was in the minds of the founders and the key engineering folks, but not necessarily on paper.

ROSSUL was able to quickly extract the knowledge and information that resided not only with me, but also with key members of my team. They translated all that into our technology’s look and feel. They delivered what we called wireframes or UI skins, which we integrated into the existing backend technology.

What is the team dynamic?

They assigned 3–5 members. I didn’t have an exact view of the total team size, but I recall a few names from our emails. We used JIRA for project management. The implementation was handled by our internal team.

How did you come to work with ROSSUL?

We created a shortlist of potential firms to help us do this. The initial list came from market research consultants who were helping us with business planning, the validation of our technology, and a few other things. Our consultants put together a list of 6–8 firms that could help us with UI design, and ROSSUL was one of them.

We reached out to all candidates and shortlisted three. After researching numerous UI design firms, we chose to go with ROSSUL. They had a framework and knew how to get the information they needed from us. The rest of the firms we evaluated were unable to commit to our timeframe.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of their work was $25,000–$30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them around the middle of March 2017. We were done by the middle of May.

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

Internally, the impact has been phenomenal. We accomplished a number of things we couldn’t approach before the UI design was implemented. We’ve also gotten good feedback from external customers. While our technology won’t be available for commercial release until October 15, it has already been demonstrated to a number of Fortune companies, around six so far. The feedback has been positive and encouraging from potential customers. We have also determined what can be improved in the next releases.

How did ROSSUL perform from a project management standpoint?

We had no issues in this regard. ROSSUL was able to communicate with us during the RFP [request for proposal] phase that they would be able to deliver within 10 weeks at most.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The biggest advantage was that ROSSUL had a framework for extracting undocumented information and knowledge. From our perspective, this was one of their biggest accomplishments.

Eli [Founder & Creative Director, ROSSUL] and his team were very professional and had a plan to get started. We got a fresh, modern yet very simple and intuitive UI in less than 10 weeks. We are extremely pleased and will be happy to work with them for all of our future UI needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Creativity is an area where there’s definitely room for improvement. However, we knew from the start that implementing a UI for a technology as complex as ours would not be easy. It wouldn’t be perfect from the first pass. There would be additional iterations needed, but so far, so good.