Creative 27’s design expertise shone through: all stakeholders were impressed with the quality of the user experience. Although added functionalities led to some rushed final months and a timeline overrun, Creative27 had strong project management skills and reliable updates. Creative27 provided an InVision prototype that we could load on our phones. We’re using it for display purposes, showing it to investors and to actual development companies with the intention of building a real-life working app. We had a basic prototype, so Creative27 defined the majority of our user experience. As we continued with the development firm we chose, there were additional screens and flows which had to be accounted for, but around 75% of the work was completed by Creative27. From a quality perspective, the design was well-received. Everyone we showed it to was impressed by it. A few flows were not thought of, but, given the complexity of our app, Creative27’s work was very high. Our contact was on top of everything, from the scheduling of the meetings to letting us know what would be completed each week. The responsiveness was great, with our email being answered within minutes, usually. The main form of communication was GoToMeeting, through which we had screen shares, and saw what Creative27 had been working on. We initially saw wireframes, and, once that step was done, Creative27 started the actual design. Every week, we got to see what updates they completed. We put very tough guidelines on them, with a very specific budget and timeframe. Towards the end, the schedules weren’t matching up as much as we were hoping, and some parts were not thought about, but I don’t think anyone had had the foresight to think of those. Everything turned out great in the end.

They’re great designers. Going into it, we realized that Creative27 is more of a UI/UX design shop than an actual development one. From what we understood, the majority of their designers are based overseas, and their principal’s expertise is definitely in design. When it comes to the more technical side, there is another team member whom he utilizes.

From a scheduling standpoint, towards the end, we started feeling that the project was becoming rushed. It may be because of the amount initially quoted to us, and Creative27 may not have realized how much work would be involved. Towards the end, it seemed that they had other projects which had to be started or continued, so it seemed like Creative27 wanted to close our project and get to the next steps. It’s not that they didn’t want to continue with our project, but the initial expectation was a bit different to what ended up happening, from a scheduling standpoint. Instead of four months, the project ended up taking five or six because of all the changes and adjustments which needed to be made.