ROSSUL

I’m the product director for a mobility planning and scheduling company. We provide enterprise software for public transit agencies for scheduling purposes. Essentially, our software determines where buses go, how often they stop, and other data items.

We hired ROSSUL for their UI/UX design services.

ROSSUL took our extremely old UI/UX designs and determined the product requirements with a business analyst’s mindset. From there, we leveraged the material design framework to reorganize and improve upon the existing product. We used Jira and InVision to create the prototype design, and our teams conducted plenty of knowledge sharing and collaboration sessions.

We’ve worked with four people from ROSSUL. Our points of contact change depending on where we are on the project.

We found ROSSUL through serendipity and not by referral.

We’ve invested around $200,000.

We started working with ROSSUL in June 2020, and the engagement is ongoing.

We’ve received universally positive feedback for the redesign of the product. We won’t have any interesting quantitative data until we start selling the revamped software and acquire more user data.

To be honest, the ROSSUL team has taken on more than I thought they would. This product is feature-rich, and it’s 25 years deep in development. Given that, they’ve had to police the scope quite a bit more — their level of work at the start of the first project was higher than it was toward the end — though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. From a project management perspective, that’s what they’ve had to do.

Two things distinguish ROSSUL from their competitors: they have the ability to understand hard problems, and they’re great at coming up with novel design solutions to such problems.

They should lean more toward time- and materials-based engagement styles given the nature of our projects. There’s no exact scope, so I’ll pay them for every hour they’ll work. We’ll do what we think is valuable. This technique will work for our engagement because ROSSUL is great at tracking their time and using it productively. In fact, we’re doing this in our second project with them.

Devote enough time to talk to ROSSUL. The more information they have, the better results they’ll provide. The team can handle complex, deep, and difficult tasks as long as they’re given accurate information. Moreover, they dig and ask questions because they’re high inquisitive; they know they need such details to be successful. This takes time, but it’s time well spent.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

We spent between $10,000–$25,000.

It lasted from January–February 2020.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

No, I can’t think of anything.

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.