Slide UX

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

As chief commercial officer, I was responsible for building a business plan to enter new markets and grow the business by developing a new SaaS product offering.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Slide UX?

Slide UX was responsible for delivering a top-notch UI and UX design for the new product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided Slide-UX with wireframes and functional requirements. Their role was to help us improve the design in terms of usability, look and feel, and streamlined workflow. We had a preexisting software system from which we wanted to re-use as much underlying functionality as possible, so the UI/UX design wasn’t a totally blank slate. The overall UI/UX design targeted the end-to-end workflow including order entry, planning and dispatch, tracking, delivery, invoicing, and payables.

What is the team composition?

We had a primary contact and a chief designer.

How did you come to work with Slide UX?

We started by looking online for vendors in our area. At some point, we received a referral from a colleague who worked with them in the past.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2018 and we wrapped up in November 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project hasn’t launched, so it’s hard to say how successful it was. Qualitatively, we were happy with most of the design and UX work that they did. We felt like it was pretty valuable and we wouldn’t have been able to do it ourselves.

How did Slide UX perform from a project management standpoint?

Slide-UX did a good job of project management. Project status was reported on a timely and detailed basis. Meeting notes and summaries were diligent. We used Slack for a lot of our day-to-day communication,  and Asana for project management. They also used a few additional tools to share design mockups.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Slide-UX was very thoughtful, diligent, and conscientious about the design and usability aspects of our project. They took the time to really understand and think through what we were trying to achieve. They held detailed design reviews and asked for feedback and clarification whenever necessary.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Overall our project with Slide-UX went smoothly. When there were differences of opinion on design and UX aspects, we had open discussions to weigh trade-off's and resolve any concerns.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s always important to have clear boundaries and scope so things stay on track and everyone involved knows what they’re working on.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the head of UX for a company called Aveva. We produce software for the engineering and operations sector of the energy and manufacturing industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Slide UX?

We have 14 UX designers on our team, but the company has over 125 products, so there aren’t enough of us to handle all of the work. We engaged Slide UX to help increase our capacity on specific projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

There were two main projects that their team worked on. One was helping us create a digital style guide for our gamut of web properties and product that could unify all of the different brands we had collected over the years.

The other target we gave them was to conduct customer research, at one of our company events attended by over 1000 customers, where we had targeted certain products and customers to get more user feedback on how to best market those.

What is the team composition?

We had a main project manager for each of the projects, each of whom had a team of 3–4 people working with us directly and a few more on the account behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with Slide UX?

Over the course of about six weeks of research, we looked into a few different companies’ previous projects and feedback from their customers. That helped us narrow it down to about seven potential partners, on whom we did some deeper research, including using Clutch. In the end we interviewed three teams, of whom Slide UX felt like the best fit in terms of enthusiasm and engagement, so we decided to move forward with them.

How much have you invested with them?

In total, we spent $185,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started with a kickoff meeting in July 2019 and was delivered in March 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

At the end of the project, we delivered a presentation to our management team about the results of the project, and they were very pleased with the results, especially given that they were delivered on time and in budget.

Internally, we were very pleased by the quality and clarity of what they designed and prepared for us, but we’ve also been applying the design principles they created for us to products in our portfolio, and the stakeholders around those have been just as happy with the work there as well.

How did Slide UX perform from a project management standpoint?

Their style of engagement is very personal and really makes them feel like part of your team. They do a good job of listening carefully, understanding the core problems, and paying attention to details in the work they deliver.

If we asked for something outside of the scope of the project, they would immediately get back to us with a quote and details about how they would incorporate it, as well as how it would affect the current project status and plan.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve been a UX designer for 34 years, and in all of that experience, Slide UX stands out in three particular ways. The first is their level of understanding and ability to capture exactly what we were looking for; the second was their engagement with our team throughout their work, which felt like they were a part of our own team; finally, their delivery made clear that they were as invested in our success as we were.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only issues we had with them were incredibly minor ones, but they were always good at picking up our feedback and making sure they did not repeat them. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be prepared to work at their pace and partner with them, because in the same way that they’re engaged and determined in the work, they need you to provide that level of support for their team in order for them to be able to operate and deliver at their highest level.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a privately-owned multi-service operator called Comporium. We’re a regional internet and phone service provider.

My official title is online channel manager, which means I handle everything digital. I focus primarily on our e-commerce website and our account portal.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Slide UX?

We hired Slide UX to overhaul our client portal. The site was built almost 20 years ago, and the design and functionality were completely outdated. We were pretty far behind in terms of offering self-service functionality to our users. 

Before Slide came on board, we partnered with another development firm to design and developed our e-commerce site. That launched about a year ago. We weren’t very happy with the UX/UI of that site and turned to Slide for help on that as well.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Before we started on the design work, Slide conducted user research to prioritize features from a navigation standpoint. We also asked them to uncover new, unaccounted for functionalities that our users wanted. Soon after, they delivered wireframes, navigation flows, and branding materials.

They revamped our self-service portal. We’d already designed the majority of the functional requirements, like bill payment, but we asked them to help us expand our offering. They’ve created several UI designs for new features that we hope to implement in the next phase of development.

What is the team composition?

Erin (Founder & UX Architect, Slide UX) and Hanna (Senior Consultant, Slide UX) handled the RFP process with me. When the project started, there was a project manager named Chad (Principal UX Consultant, Slide UX), and he had at least one person helping him with the user research piece. There was also a designer working on the project.

How did you come to work with Slide UX?

We found them through Clutch.co and submitted RFPs to them and four other agencies. Theirs was one of two that ended up being very thorough. We got the sense from Slide that they knew UX/UI very well. We felt confident that they could do the job after seeing their presentation. The other company gave a quote that was way too large, which made the choice easy for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $82,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We submitted the RFP to Slide in late April, and we informed them that they’d won the bid in late May. The project officially kicked off in June of this year and just ended in October. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don’t have any success metrics because the site hasn’t launched yet, but we’re all looking forward to that.

How did Slide UX perform from a project management standpoint?

The project management was the best part of the engagement. I’ve worked with several other vendors who didn’t even come close to how well Slide ran the project. They used the perfect amount of communication to keep us informed without taking up too much of our time. 

Chad, our project manager, was excellent. We could say something once and he would know exactly what to do. We never had to give detailed requirements, especially as the project progressed. He was quick to pick up on our needs and our vision. We had check-ins at various stages of the project, but there was always very little to change in terms of what was being delivered.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a sense of camaraderie that sets them apart from other remote teams. They’re very close despite not all living in the same town. Also, I think they were a great fit for us because of how small they are. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any recommendations. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Include them in your candidate search. Compare their prices to other vendors, and you’ll find that they will provide more bang for your buck. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a marketing executive for a food distribution company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Slide UX?

We were looking for a new UI for our menu services tool.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

At first, we were only going to do a UI change, but then we had to build it from the ground up because of internal challenges. They're very instrumental in the whole redevelopment process. It’s keeping us on track. They helped with the overall project, but they specifically were working on the whole user experience.

They interviewed many of the customers that use the tool and used their input in building the tool. After this, we kept iterating. They would design it. We’d build it, get more customer feedback, and integrate that into the project.

What is the team composition?

There are 4–6 people. There’s one key person and the others chime in when needed.

How did you come to work with Slide UX?

They were recommended to us. We did some due diligence. Out of the three companies I was looking at, they were highly rated based on feedback from previous customers.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $250,000-$500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2016 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The feedback is overwhelmingly positive. People are blown away and think the new tool is a game-changer.

How did Slide UX perform from a project management standpoint?

When we need them to be here, they come. We meet 2–3 times a week to review designs and do backlogs. It took us a while to get into a cadence, but it’s since been seamless.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I like their logical approach and the way they think through things that we probably wouldn’t have thought of.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’ve really been a good partner. I can’t speak highly enough about them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open-minded. You should establish meeting cadences upfront.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a people analytics firm that focuses on business consulting. We partner with enterprises and mid-market companies across various different industries to help them make better decisions. We do most of our work through data storytelling. As long as our clients have data, we can help them derive results.

My role is senior director of web strategy and digital marketing. I oversee all of our online experiences, including our website, our advertising, our social profiles, and our other digital properties. Everything that has to do with our online presence falls under my purview.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Slide UX?

Our site design and overall UX felt too much like that of a startup. We wanted to update our messaging and flow to show that we’ve matured as a company. The goal was to have a website that’s more geared toward the majority market, rather than just early adopters.

One of the largest problems we had to deal with was cutting down our content and messaging. We’d used a ton of industry jargon and marketing-speak on the site, and many of our pages weren’t clear or concise. The page flow was also very limited. We had too many dead-end pages on our site.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Slide UX started the project with stakeholder interviews and site research. Afterward, they moved into wireframing and high-level design work.

They focused on reducing the amount of content that we had on each page, as well as the overall flow of the site. For example, they gave us examples of bold, self-assured statements that communicated our message in a small chunk of text.

What is the team composition?

There were two core people assigned to the project. We had a main project manager who was also our principal UX researcher. She focused on keeping the project on task, scheduling and working on all of the interviews for the user research part of the engagement.

We had another individual who served in more of an administrative capacity. That person kept everything running on the backend.

How did you come to work with Slide UX?

I originally found Slide UX on Clutch several years ago. I engaged with them at my previous company for a site redesign, and I was pleased with the results there. I decided to bring them in for this project at my current company.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $45,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in earnest in May 2019, and the project wrapped up in August 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The site launched very recently, but we’re already looking at a variety of metrics. We’ve had to tailor our measurements because some pages are more geared towards having users complete an action, while other pages are purely for content. We’re predicting decreased bounce rates and more conversions.

From a qualitative standpoint, the feedback we’ve gotten has been immensely positive, both from internal teammates and external visitors. We’ve done testing with a few of our customers, and they’ve all expressed that the messaging is much more precise.

Overall, the website is more usable. The navigational elements and site architecture are much more in line with what users expect of a larger company. The site presents us as an industry leader, rather than just a startup player, in our space.

How did Slide UX perform from a project management standpoint?

They met every deadline. We set scheduling expectations early on, and they were very communicative and transparent. If there was ever a delay, it was usually because of our internal struggle to gather proper feedback from various teams. From an overall project flow and time management perspective, they did an excellent job.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re a smaller team, and this allows them to be agile and connect on a personal level. Other agencies will assign you an account executive and won’t give you access to the people doing the work. With Slide UX, we got to know their entire team. We valued that level of collaboration.

They were also willing to hop on a quick call or have a conversation over Slack, no matter the question or request. They were always very quick to respond.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We did experience some issues with invoicing. They had a new administrative person who wasn’t as familiar with the process and ended up invoicing us for the whole project all at once. That was more of an isolated incident, not an overall process issue or anything like that. It was fine in the end, we just had to address it with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure your team is ready to provide inputs and rally around a set timeline. Slide will always deliver as long as you give them the feedback that they need. Their success is dependent on your willingness to provide time and resources.

If you’re on top of everything and willing to commit to the project, they’re going to deliver a fantastic result. If you’re slow to respond or can’t gather consensus feedback, it’s going to be a little bit more challenging for them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a business architect at The American Board of Radiology.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Slide UX?

We engaged Slide UX for web development services in order to help us make our website more user-friendly. We wanted to create an online application that made our maintenance of certification program easier for physicians, while meeting our requirements.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided Slide UX with the project scope initially, but they also provided input on the overall architecture and design of our website. After we mapped out each page of the site and collaborated with their team on wireframes, they developed the site layout. UX, and individual sheets for each page.

What is the team composition? 

We worked with 3–5 people in total, including a project manager.

How did you come to work with Slide UX?

Our IT director at the time researched different UX firms online and eventually selected Slide UX. Although I wasn't involved in the selection process, I was extremely happy with the relationship overall.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them on the most recent project from around April 2017–January 2019, but we plan to engage on them on different projects in the future. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After launching our new website to a major part of our users, we've had about a 93% adoption rate. The quality of their work, including user-friendly designs, has been great and the project has been been a huge success overall, helping us provide an easier solution for our physicians to maintain their credentials. 

How did Slide UX perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very accessible and responsive throughout the engagement, and flexible in providing solutions that met our unique needs. They went out of their way to figure out creative solutions and did a fantastic job overall. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We're very happy with their willingness to take the time to understand our business model and unique challenges before helping us come up with solutions. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have nothing but positive things to say about our experience with them. I'm usually a very picky person, but they were solid partners throughout the project. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don't hesitate to work with them. They're not pushy, but able to provide a broad range of services. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I'm a senior marketing manager for a large technology firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Slide UX?

We had existing UX research from our internal team, but we wanted to dig a bit deeper. We needed to hire an external resource to create research to give us additional insights into our users.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Slide UX started by meeting with us to do a deep dive into our existing UX research and user personas. Then they sourced 25 users that fit those personas for one-on-one interviews. Next, they created a comprehensive study and questionnaire to walk these users through the learnings. Finally, they compiled all their research and systematic learnings together and shared those back with our team. 

What is the team composition?

I primarily worked with an account manager, a strategist, and then the person who conducted the research. 

How did you come to work with Slide UX? 

They were an internal referral. Someone on the marketing team highly recommended them to me. 

What is the status of this engagement? 

The project took place between April–July 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Slide UX met with us in person for a workshop to help us think about how we can message the information across our digital properties. Our internal team was extremely happy with their research. Everyone came back from the workshop with glowing reviews. We're still in the strategic phase, and the research is helping us inform the new messaging. 

How did Slide UX perform from a project management standpoint? 

Their team was excellent. Project management was one of their greatest qualities. Slide UX was incredibly organized, always on time, and extremely responsive. We used Asana as a project management tracking tool. We also created a Slack channel and used email for administrative tasks. 

What did you find most impressive about them? 

Their organization and follow-through were incredible. Slide UX was so thorough and detailed in their research. They were a pleasure to work with. 

Are there any areas they could improve? 

No, nothing I can think of off the top of my head. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

Stay engaged. Keep in the loop with them. Take in their learnings. You don't have to be super prescriptive, but don’t be afraid to ask for exactly what you need. They'll make sure to produce the outputs in a way that is valuable to your organization.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of product management at a software vendor for data management and integration. We have a single product, and this product has different modules. Some are more technically oriented for developers, and some are more business-friendly for end users. I coordinated the process of working with people from the development side to gather requirements, and then finding the right agency and explaining the scope of the project with them.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Slide UX?

We’re transitioning from desktop to web-based software, and we needed a UX agency to help us with that transition. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Slide UX worked on the two most important modules of our platform: the developer studio and a business catalog for business users. 

They did an initial feasibility analysis for one of the products. They helped us conduct interviews with existing users to see their pain points with user flows. They drafted the interview questions, and we made tweaks to cover all the technical aspects. They conducted the interviews and then prepared a summary presentation with video clips of users describing the pain points of the software along with recommendations to address them. Then, we went through a complete redesign of the UI to move from the existing standalone application to a web-based one and to modernize its look and feel.

We had a set of interviews at the beginning of the project and another one halfway through to show existing customers what we were working on and ensure that our existing customer base was understanding and happy with what we were doing.

For the design, we wanted to get an analysis of specific screens, which had to cover a variety of application elements. Slide UX also created a design guide for the basic components. We chose 12 screens for each application totaling 24 screens with the corresponding variations. They delivered notes, comments, and a style guide in Zeplin.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 5–6 people from their team, including a project coordinator, who focused on the overall relationship. We also had a project manager, who was present at every meeting and kept on top of everything. A graphic designer worked on screens and the style guide. The designer had an assistant who joined us for some of the meetings; I also worked with her directly. Two usability experts conducted the interviews and usability analysis, one for each application. 

How did you come to work with Slide UX?

We found them on Clutch, and they came up on the top three list in our research. We knew their name, and we also knew people who strongly recommended that we work with them, especially because they had worked with Slide UX on similar processes. When we talked to them, we could see they had a lot of relevant experience, which tipped the scales in their favor.

How much have you invested with them?

The initial estimation was $200,000–$250,000, but we came in below the estimate at $170,000–$180,000, which was nice. They were accurate with their estimations, but we were working on two applications, and some of the design elements and feasibility analysis were shared between the two, which reduced the individual work for each application significantly.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Slide UX in November 2018 and wrapped up in June 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They provided the design and the guidelines for it, and we’re currently working on development. The feedback so far has been excellent, but it’s still too early to gauge the impact on our business.

How did Slide UX perform from a project management standpoint?

They treated it like a proper project with follow-ups and milestones. We had a project file with all the dependencies between tasks, breakdowns, and task assignations. We touched base every 1–2 weeks to make sure we weren’t being delayed or had a critical problem. The project management was surprisingly good. 

They used Microsoft Project to share critical project files with us in PDF form. We used Asana for everyday communication and tracking tasks, and we had informal communication on Slack. They were open to having meetings with screen sharing anytime it was necessary. They provided a status update every week as a single-page PDF detailing how far we were into the project and how much had been spent of the time and budget. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The communication was extremely fluid, and they were nice and helpful, especially in the beginning, when we didn’t know what to expect. They were open to all of our questions. The human factor was an important piece, and working with them was extremely easy. That’s always appreciated.

We liked the quality of the deliverables. It’s always an iteration, especially with a technical product, and it’s hard to capture the nuances of the interface, but we worked that out through several iterations, especially on the more complex screens. I explained the technical aspects of the product to their designers, and they were good at understanding them. 

Overall, we were happy with the human relationship and the results of the work, from the design to the look and feel, the process, the iterations, and how it all worked out.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They matched our expectations. The project was extremely technical, so we had to go back and forth more than expected in the beginning. Translating technical terms into laymen’s terms was a challenge, but they caught up quickly. Other than that, everything worked out smoothly. The personal relationship with them was fantastic. They were quick to respond any time we had a question.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients should make sure the requirements are clear and understandable, including the use of illustrative videos. We did that, and we made the software available to them. That helped a lot, especially with the more complex parts of our software. Once the scenario was clear, translating our functionalities into particular screens was easy. They were also eager to start with design, but it was good to have the prep work and smooth the complexity.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of MapRight. We provide mapping solutions for farm, ranch, rural real estate, forestry, and other markets. We have a combined GIS (Geographic Information System) team that provides maps that we make available in a web format.

A standard user in those markets can come in and create an appealing map with annotations and different map layers, such as soil, hydro, and topo layers. Any small organization that might need to outsource GIS or mapping work can do so through our web-platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Slide UX ?

Internally, we had several conversations about rolling out new pricing. Our product is almost five years old, but we had never adjusted pricing, despite providing tremendous value with each release. Our goal was to think through a pricing strategy. We hired SlideUX to think through the challenges related to rolling out a new pricing scheme, as well as how we would go about actually designing and making that interface as appealing as possible.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The process was pretty seamless. We have two paths that we’re concerned about. First, is the new user workflow, in which they sign up for a trial, they use it, and then we pitch them on one of our pricing plans. Second, is for existing users, who might want to upgrade to an unlimited plan.

They created some mockups, and we went back and forth on various calls to discuss those options. They provided all of their information through a development collaboration platform called Zeppelin, which was great for us because at the end of the day we weren’t interested in Slide UX doing any sort of development; we wanted to allow our team to take the work that was done and implement it within our system.

What is the team composition?

Megan (Senior Consultant, Slide UX) was our main interface as it relates to the project side of things. She helped keep things organized and handled a lot of the communication. Cat (Senior UX Designer, Slide UX) was our project lead, as it related to actually doing design. She was on every call and understood our challenges; bringing our ideas into the design was where she worked a lot of her magic.

How did you come to work with Slide UX?

We used another group in Austin, previously for a larger project, really centered around our mapping tools. We wanted to have a definitive scope around our pricing rollout, and we found Slide UX on Clutch.

Their reviews on Clutch had a main input into our decision-making process. The other factor that we evaluated was location. We wanted someone local, even though we never met their team face-to-face. We understand that this kind of work can happen anywhere but I think it was just nice to know if we needed to get together face-to-face, we could.

We reached out to them, had a few calls to explain the scope to them, and they provided a proposal. Then, we kicked off the project and had an information gathering call.

How much have you invested with them?

It was a $25,000–$30,000 project.

What is the status of this engagement?

The work started in January 2019 and wrapped up in April 2019.

Some of that time was spent trying to figure out where we could best fit this design period in amongst our other competing priorities. Slide UX was definitely finished with this project before April.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re about one week away from deploying the design, and we’ve been doing tests.

Obviously, there’s a lot of challenges that they helped us think through, such as a flexible plan of having an easy way of billing a customer by scaling up or down. In terms of design, Slide UX did a great job in helping think through issues like that, but from with implementation, there was more work to tie that design into a billing system. They did a great job, and from a testing standpoint, things have gone well so far.  

How did Slide UX perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great from a collaboration standpoint. We were able to reach out to them with questions or feedback, and they’re very responsive. The ball was in our court more than it was in theirs. We have other priorities we’re working on, so from my point of view, they were very quick to respond to various tasks in question.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve worked with a lot of designers over the years. Slide UX’s design and expertise was great, of course, but where they really came through for us was in understanding the problem and what we’re trying to solve. We appreciated how they interviewed, researched, and understood our needs before starting the design process. That’s where they really shine.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing that comes to mind. We would definitely work with them again.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We put a lot of thought into this process and spent well over a year talking about it. We put together a document outlining all of our challenges; we found that the more information you can provide to Slide UX, the better armed you’re going to be when you go into the project.

Based on the amount of research, conversations with customers, and internal discussion we had, we allowed SlideUX to understand the problem. The fact that we didn’t go over budget is a testament to SlideUX, but also the pre-work we had done to establish the problem we were trying to solve.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the vice-president for marketing and communications at a higher education firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Slide UX?

We engaged Slide UX to provide usability insights into our website and how we help prospective students and their parents navigate the college search process. The project expanded into a longer engagement where we updated the site while Slide UX provided consulting services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Slide UX first helped us organize the usability study. We set up direct user interviews with parents and students; their team remotely conducted every interview for us and summarized the information collected. They also created wireframes for a new homepage. Slide UX gave us several options to consider and iterated those versions until they landed on something that matched our vision and met our needs.

The results of the study led to a larger website update project. Slide UX served in a consulting capacity throughout the development process, making sure we continued to iterate based on user feedback from the initial usability study. They helped us navigate the balance between providing information and encouraging site visitors to transact with us using calls-to-action.

What is the team composition?

We worked with their principals, account management, and UI/UX designers.

How did you come to work with Slide UX?

I had worked with Erin (Founder & Principal Consultant, Slide UX) and other team members at Slide UX in the past, so I was familiar with their firm before starting this project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from March–June 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website has seen more engagement with its web content, more conversions from site visitors, and more efficient transactions. Slide UX has helped us increase the right behavior among the site’s core users.

How did Slide UX perform from a project management standpoint?

Slide UX managed our expectations, kept us up-to-date on the project’s status, and measured the budget burn rate, which was helpful to understand our progress. They ran a predictable workflow, meeting all deadlines and delivering to expectations. We used Zeplin to navigate proposed design changes and Basecamp to streamline communication. We’ve even taken their methods and applied them elsewhere in our own teams and working with others.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Slide UX’s cross-industry experience and reliability have made them a trusted vendor for future projects. They were knowledgeable and enjoyable to work with from start to finish.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we didn’t run into any problems throughout the collaboration.

Any advice for potential customers?

New clients should try to be as open and direct as possible throughout an engagement with Slide UX. We had candid conversations with them about which wireframe iterations worked best for us, and they were responsive from start to finish.