Wishu Labs

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Senior Lecturer of University of Kent

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Education and research

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Wishu Labs to accomplish?

• Build data protection and GDPR into the dataflow by design and default
• Design a custom app to implement a survey experience for 500,000 people across the UK
• Implement bespoke design elements such as illustrations and gamification

SOLUTION

How did you find Wishu Labs?

RFQ

Why did you select Wishu Labs over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Wishu Labs were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Background and context

The Psychology and Public Policy Research Unit (PSYPOL) is an interdisciplinary research group at the University of Kent led by Dr Nikhil S. (https://research.kent.ac.uk/psypol/). PSYPOL investigates how public opinion about social and political issues develops and changes over time, and how it shapes society. 

To further this research agenda, Nikhil S. was recently awarded funding from the European Research Council to conduct a large-scale, annual, public opinion survey in the UK over a five year period (Sept 2021-Aug 2026). Named the ‘Voter Opinion and Insight on Current Events’ (VOICE) survey, it will primarily ask participants to report how much they agree or disagree with a range of statements/opinions (e.g. “on a scale from 1-5”). 

It will also ask for some demographic information. For reference, it will be very similar in content to the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (https://auckland.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dimOWFcarp237hA). Participants will be recruited by sending out postal invitations to 500,000 individuals, asking them to volunteer for a 30-45min survey. 

Invitees will be randomly selected from the UK electoral register and will be offered the chance to win one of fifty, £100 vouchers as an incentive to participate. The postal invitations will offer participants three ways of completing the survey: (1) filling out a paper version included in the mail pack (2) by visiting a website or (3) by downloading an app. 

We estimate that between 5% and 15% of invitees will agree to take part (resulting in a participant pool of between 25,000 and 75,000 individuals). A major aim of the research project is to retain as many of the initial participants as possible over the five-year course of the study. Retention would mean that a participant agrees to be recontacted, and then subsequently completes a nearly identical version of the VOICE survey once per year. 

A secondary aim is to get a high uptake of the online channels (web and app versions of the survey). This will reduce the administrative burden of the project, by requiring less manual data entry. It will also enable better participant engagement with those who download the app. The additional participant engagement enabled by the app is envisioned to take the form of:

1. personalized in-survey feedback such as a personality profile
2. notifying them of incomplete/unsubmitted surveys
3. notifying them when the next round of the survey is ready to be filled out
4. news and updates about the project and its findings
5. invitations to participate in smaller scale research surveys between the annual waves of the main survey. 

Invitees will be encouraged to use the online channels with the promise of a more enjoyable survey experience, personalised feedback, and news and updates on how their data has been used. To be a success, this study needs to attract and retain as many of the initial 500,000 invitees as possible over a five year period. We are aiming for a 5-15% initial response rate and an 80% year-on-year retention rate. 

We are looking for an agency partner who can design, develop and maintain the online survey tools, and the survey branding, required to enable this study to be successful. Desired deliverables NOTE: There are four deliverables detailed below. You are welcome to request to be considered for any one, or a combination of these. We are open to working with multiple partners to achieve the best outcomes for the project. 

Part 1 - Design of the online survey experience 

Our ask - we are seeking design support for the digital tool that participants use to engage with the study and submit their survey responses. Our intention is to have web and mobile app versions. 

An experience designed to create long term engagement with the survey - we need to ensure maximum (and repeat) engagement over multiple years. We have some ideas of using gamification and design, but would like to work with you on enhancing these ideas. 

These could include: o Live “results” as a participant progresses through the survey, e.g. personality and political profiles, how they compare to the population of different demographics. o Badges for progress through the survey and for repeat engagement with the tool over time. o Use of visual design and storytelling to differentiate the experience from a ‘typical boring survey’ 

Part 2 - Development of the online survey tools 

• Our ask - once the design has been confirmed, we are seeking development support to build the online survey tool. It should be available in three forms: 
• web version (desktop and mobile friendly), 
• iOS app
• Android app. 

We would be interested to discuss with you the benefits of using a cross platform technology, such as Flutter, to accelerate our development. • Ability to collect survey data - the most important functionality is our ability to collect survey data. o Our current intention would be to manage the survey itself via the Qualtrics platform. 

We will need to connect our web and app experiences with the Qualitics API (https://api.qualtrics.com/). o Therefore, we will need to build a frontend experience that connects with the Qualtrics survey platform. There will likely be parts of the tools that need to be managed from a separate backend, such as authentication and user management. 

Manage participants - as participants will be able to engage through multiple channels. o We’ll need to be able to identify users and connect them to our participant database. o We will have strict data protection requirements for participants’ personally identifying information. o Participants should be able to view and update their profile information in the tool 

• Update contact info 
• Update and change preferences 
• View personality and other profiles 
• View earned badges/achievements 
• Remove themselves from the study 

Communicate with participants - this is a long term study, so we’ll need to be able to regularly communicate with participants. We will need to collect permission to, and have the technical ability to communicate via: push notification, email, SMS, as well as news and updates within the tool itself. Related considerations 

Thin clients - we’re keen that as much logic and configuration is backend controlled, to enable easier changes after the project launches and ensure consistency across the tools. 

Data protection - as well as standard GDPR compliance, there will be data protection requirements to ensure that participants’ personal information and survey responses are kept separate from survey responses, and a principle of only collecting data that is strictly required for the study will be used. This will be critical to maintaining the integrity of the study and complying with our ethics requirements. 

Development restriction - due to our funding rules, we require that the majority of development is undertaken within the United Kingdom, the EU or a small number of affiliated countries (Albania, Armenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey and Ukraine). Please confirm in your response that you would be able to deliver this. 

Ongoing maintenance - as this study will run over multiple years, we will need an ongoing maintenance agreement to ensure the products continue to operate and to enable us to further develop them. 

Part 3 

• Visual identity and branding for the project 
• We require branding guidelines for the survey (VOICE) and the associated research group (PSYPOL). 
• The VOICE brand needs to have a very broad appeal, as we are attempting to recruit a representative sample of the whole UK population. 
• We will not be targeting any particular demographic characteristics or combination of characteristics. 

The brand would need to evoke a sense that the project has ‘scientific legitimacy’, while also being ‘fresh’ and ‘polished’. We want participants to see the project very much as a scientific enterprise, without triggering negative connotations of science being boring or drab. 

• Also, we would like participants to do our survey out of a feeling that they would be contributing to something important that will benefit society - so a brand that evokes ‘community spirit’ or ‘civic responsibility’ would be beneficial. 
• Anything that could lead participants to misinterpret our invitations as having a commercial angle or motivation should be avoided. 
• Finally, we want the survey to be a ‘fun’ experience for participants, so the brand should not be ‘too serious’.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The app and website have been developed to an exemplary standard implementing our branding needs, creating bespoke illustrations, adding gamification elements, and providing a robust data security infrastructure.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Wishu have been an absolutely pleasure to work with. From the outset, they showed a deep curiosity and enthusiasm for the nature of the work we were undertaking, and sought to implement our needs based on a thorough understanding of all of the key elements. James and Lavena have been excellent and highly effective project managers, communicating with us in immense detail on a weekly basis (and sometimes more frequently) on updates and iteration. 

This allowed us to co-develop the vision of the project in a way that was perfectly aligned with the core deliverables. Wishu have also been extremely collaborative in working with our large team and other project partners, implementing and enhancing branding elements designed by a separate agency. They have responded to every request with an enthusiastic willingness to help in whatever way they could. 

This is especially commendable because we have added many different layers of complication in the scope of the project throughout its lifetime. These have all been taken in stride and with the ultimate project aims in mind. In this context, the timeliness of delivery has also been above-and-beyond expectations. Finally, Wishu Labs are very professional, friendly, and experienced.

What was your primary form of communication with Wishu Labs?

Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The deep level of engagement with our project needs to co-develop a shared vision

Are there any areas for improvement or something Wishu Labs could have done differently?

None

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Customer Success Lead of micro1

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We help companies hire the best remote software engineers easily who are the top 1% in the world.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Wishu Labs to accomplish?

• Building an application
• The application must have expertise on product & engineering

SOLUTION

How did you find Wishu Labs?

• Referral
• Other

Why did you select Wishu Labs over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Wishu Labs were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Development of an application with expertise on product & engineering as well as design.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The development work has been of high quality & customised per the client's needs met with deep focus.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Timelines have been taken care of no issues at all. The team has been incredibly responsive to needs & offer the desired help.

What was your primary form of communication with Wishu Labs?

Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Catering to client needs with focus on quality.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Wishu Labs could have done differently?

No areas for improvement that come to mind, they have been a great partner for us.