ROSSUL

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive director of Prep101 Inc; we’re developing a new on-demand medical college admissions test platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ROSSUL?

We needed a partner to design our new platform’s UI/UX.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our company provides complex services, so ROSSUL initially spent time learning about our business and our different service lines. Once they were familiar with our offerings, they helped us with everything from defining our user personas to designing the platform’s UI/UX. After sharing design mock-ups in Figma, they coded and developed the UI/UX. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with three team members from ROSSUL.

How did you come to work with ROSSUL?

We researched potential development partners online and found ROSSUL on Clutch. We interviewed three companies, and ROSSUL seemed to be the best fit for us. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested roughly $40,000 CAD (approximately $30,000 USD). 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with ROSSUL between July–August 2022. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We haven’t launched yet, but ROSSUL did an excellent job understanding our business, customers, and service lines. They worked diligently to uncover best practices within our industry, which they combined to create the final UI/UX design. We wanted something clean, easy, and simple, and they delivered. 

We’re accustomed to working with service providers who simply execute our requirements. Instead, ROSSUL asked critical questions far beyond the project scope. They went the extra mile to flesh out our requirements and find more complex solutions, ultimately improving the project. 

How did ROSSUL perform from a project management standpoint?

ROSSUL did a great job managing the project, and they delivered results quickly. We held weekly video meetings to keep the project on track.

What did you find most impressive about them?

ROSSUL dedicated significant effort to learning about our business, which stood out to me. They went above and beyond to understand our customers, which enabled them to deliver a successful UI/UX. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have nothing ROSSUL could improve on. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d highly recommend using ROSSUL.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a product manager for a supplier of scientific equipment, consumables, and laboratory materials for scientists around the world. My role involves interacting with customers and our sales teams to understand customer needs to translate them into product requirements.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ROSSUL?

We needed to find a graphic design team to develop software UI for our instruments. Our partner needed to be able to follow our brand guidelines, including fonts and colors.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

ROSSUL designs the UI of software solutions for us. They’ve worked on five projects with our company, and I’ve worked with them directly on three projects. At the beginning of each project, we discuss the software’s features and what problems it solves for our customers. We also provide them with documentation about design guidelines. In cases when we’re replacing older software, we give them access to the previous version so they can see what our customers are used to. 

What is the team composition?

Throughout the engagement, I’ve worked with several individuals, and Elia (Founder & Creative Director) is always our point of contact. Depending on what other projects ROSSUL is working on, they’ll assign supporting team members that change according to the project. 

How did you come to work with ROSSUL?

Although I didn’t personally find them, I believe our former manager found them on a contractor database. 

How much have you invested with them?

For our latest finished project, we spent $15,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Their first project with our company started in 2017. My most recent project with ROSSUL lasted from September 2020–June 2021. Currently, they’re working with other teams within our company, so our partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I value ROSSUL’s ability to think of creative design ideas that streamline workflows in ways we hadn’t considered. Scientific instruments frequently have complicated ways of structuring their runs, setups, and parameters. ROSSUL can understand the intricacies and design an interface that’s as easy to use as possible for our customers. Moreover, they consistently deliver their products on time, and that’s a very valuable quality. 

How did ROSSUL perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very organized. Over different projects, the team has used various project management tools. Regardless of the platform, I’ve always felt I could track the project and see what’s coming up next. 

For example, they’ve used Jira, which worked out well. Overall, their tools have been very effective, and ROSSUL always hits their deadlines. Additionally, there’s always a lot of transparency about what questions they have for other subject matter experts or me. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciate ROSSUL’s ability to listen, absorb, understand, and then put their creativity into projects. The team really provides value when it comes to design; they can take something complicated and make it simpler.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they need to improve. Any time we’ve had feedback or requests for them, they’ve always been open and accommodating. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to be clear about how your customers need to use the software interface. The more detail you can provide regarding customer desires and key features, the happier you’ll be with the product. ROSSUL really considers customer-related feedback.

BACKGROUND

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.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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.

SOLUTION

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.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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.

BACKGROUND

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.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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. 

SOLUTION

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.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO at Human Automation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ROSSUL?

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

SOLUTION

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.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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.

BACKGROUND

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.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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.

SOLUTION

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).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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.

BACKGROUND

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.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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.

SOLUTION

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.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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.

BACKGROUND

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.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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.

SOLUTION

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.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the global discipline director for a privately owned, global engineering firm. We provide engineering and consulting services to the mining, metals, and infrastructure industries, and we operate on four continents. I’m responsible for the development teams here at Hatch working on custom-developed web applications, mobile applications, and third-party configurations and reporting.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rossul?

We develop custom mobile and web applications here at Hatch, and we do a lot of reporting. We wanted to create a consistent UI across our applications and reporting. We recently went through a rebranding process, which was quite significant. We changed the look and feel for the organization externally to clients, and we wanted to incorporate that new image into our applications.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rossul helped us with incorporating the rebranding image into two things. One was a reporting and guidelines standard, in terms of how we develop and deliver static reports to the business, as well as analytics, graphs, and heat maps. We used the rebranding colors, positioning, and fonts to create a standard guideline for the organization to follow, to ensure a consistent look and feel for our internal reporting.

We then created a web application, mobile application, and UI design standard guideline based on the material design framework, using the same branding. We tried to create that consistent look and feel across our platform. Most recently, Rossul has helped us with user experience. They conducted a workshop here for our teams to get an introduction to user experience best practices and principles.

We’ve also worked with Rossul on a few projects around user experience. They helped to design mockups and wireframes of two things. One is an internal, SAP Fiori launchpad. They helped us create a mockup of a new image for that landing page, as well as our SharePoint homepage. Those designs are then given to our internal team to implement and develop.

Throughout our relationship, I’ve worked mostly with Eli. Recently, we’ve also been working with Will Patrick, who was engaged in the UX workshop and helped with the SAP Fiori launchpad redesign.

How did you come to work with Rossul?

I wasn’t involved at the time, so I’m not sure how the connection was made.

How much have you invested with Rossul?

We’ve invested $30,000-50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in 2015. As of last week, we finished the engagement for the SAP Fiori dashboard redesign. We don’t have anything upcoming, but we will continue to work with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We have successfully implemented the reporting guideline standards, as well as the material design web application framework. We’ve had very favorable results within the organization compared to what we had before. The organization is now set on the right path, being able to provide a consistent look and feel now, which we didn’t have before.

Most of the work Eli does for us is internal. The feedback we received from the web redesign was very favorable. People are very happy with it. It’s very clean, and it follows our branding. The workshop was well done. The deliverable from the workshop was really an introduction, and they did that.

How did Rossul perform from a project management standpoint?

The projects we do with them are not that long, so we don’t go through project plans or deliverable dates. We flesh those out together. Eli is very attentive in terms of immediate response whenever I reach out to him. The turnaround time is very quick. I’ve never had a situation in which he wasn’t available to actively start working on it for us, which is a good thing.

What did you find most impressive about Rossul?

I haven’t worked with other design firms, so I can’t compare. However, I have nothing but good things to say about them. They’ve been very professional and attentive. Their designs have definitely met our needs, and I would definitely work with them again.

Are there any areas Rossul could improve?

No. I don’t have any concerns.