Guidea

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the managing partner and founder of MapRight, a web-based GIS program.

What challenge were you trying to address with Guidea (A Theresa Neil Design Company)? 

We needed help on a major redesign of the way we handle users. As our interface gets more complex, the challenge is to make it seem easy.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Guidea (A Theresa Neil Design Company) led an overhaul of the UI on our website. They helped redesign about 70% of the site. To start, they flew into Austin, Texas, for a multi-day in person meeting with our design team. Their process required them to interview our users, but generally, they worked directly with me. They provided design mockups, and then our internal team developed out the design changes. 

What is the team composition? 

We worked with three members of their team.  

How did you come to work with Guidea (A Theresa Neil Design Company)? 

One of my business partners actually had Theresa (Founder & Creative Director, Guidea (A Theresa Neil Design Company)) 's design book on his shelf. So he knew of them and the quality of their work. We reached out to them and they were nice enough to work with us. 

How much have you invested with them? 

To date, we’ve spent $80,000–$90,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The project took place from February 2018–May 2019.

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

We released their design in mid-March, so it's only been out for a few months. All of our users are very happy with the improvements. We got positive comments right from the initial release, which is rare. Usually, people are unhappy when you change the interface. The fact that it rolled out so smoothly, and been so well-received right from the start, is really exceptional. I would definitely use them again. Guidea (A Theresa Neil Design Company) will be one of the first groups that we contact to design the third major component of our site.

How did Guidea (A Theresa Neil Design Company) perform from a project management standpoint? 

I was very impressed with Guidea (A Theresa Neil Design Company). I've been thinking about this redesign for years, and they were able to help me produce the vision I had in my head. We're a specialized niche. Their designers came in completely unaware of GIS yet were able to catch up quickly to my thinking. They always delivered what they said they would, and did so on time. They used Basecamp as a communication tool and to host designs. We had weekly meetings, and I could contact them on Slack or email at any time in the process. 

What did you find most impressive about them? 

I've worked with several marketing and design groups in the past and I've always been thoroughly unimpressed. I felt like I was just telling them what to do, but I wanted more of a collaboration. Guidea (A Theresa Neil Design Company) was the best. Their people could keep up with me and had thoughts on the way things should work. Not only did they have ideas that I’d never thought about, but they were also an improvement to my thinking. Not many people can do that in this realm.

Are there any areas they could improve? 

I really don't. They're the best design team I've ever worked with, and it's not even close. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

They're really good at what they do, but you also need to have an understanding of what you want to accomplish. It’s your responsibility to convey your vision to them. They’re good at giving suggestions on how to improve ideas. As with anything, you have to still run the show and make sure things get done efficiently.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the product manager for a software platform that manages complex genome sequence data and related annotations and experiment data. Based in Basel, Switzerland, our company is a leading provider of bioinformatics solutions for biopharma, agribusiness, and industrial biotechnology industries.

For what projects/services did your company hire Guidea (A Theresa Neil Design Company)?

Our web application needed a new UX/UI design. 

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to release a new web application that was more engaging, and that increased efficiency and productivity for our customers. We also wanted to reduce the effort needed to bring new users onboard our platform.

How did you select this vendor?

Our team performed a search and narrowed the selection to a handful of candidates. A primary reason we chose Guidea was their experience in working with complex scientific use cases.

Describe the project in detail.

We started by building a stand-alone application for a specific use case. Guidea participated in strategic discussions to help us define effective epics and stories. They also developed wireframes and visual designs to create a friendlier UX for our customers. At each step, we reviewed, iterated, and tested with potential customers to make sure it was on the right track. I also reviewed the designs with our internal team of scientists and business managers. 

What was the team composition?

I worked primarily with 2–3 contacts at Guidea who could bring in specialized help from their team as needed.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The response from our existing customers has been overwhelmingly positive. We were able to address many of their concerns about our previous web portal. Users are working more productively in the new web application. Software demos are also more successful, allowing us to onboard new users and expand the user base. 

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Projects and expectations were managed well. We would frequently measure our progress in order to catch risk points early. Guidea was so helpful when we needed to make changes to address issues that came up unexpectedly.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The team at Guidea works very well together. Collectively they have a tremendous breadth of knowledge in various creative areas. I was impressed with how they’re able to think through challenges involving complex biological data. There was no problem too difficult to for them to conquer.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, no areas for improvement come to mind.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the head of product for BrightInsight. We offer a medical-grade IoT platform that integrates with connected medical devices to provide real-time intelligence to pharma and med tech companies where privacy and security regulations are managed globally. Our pre-built and pre-validated capabilities allow both our clinical and commercial customers to accelerate their time to market, reduce costs, and minimize risk.

For what projects/services did your company hire Guidea (A Theresa Neil Design Company)?

We have worked with multiple Guidea teams on a number of projects to address challenges in the healthcare regulated solutions our customers are developing. These solutions, which include sensors, wearables, implantables, and algorithms that make clinical recommendations and predictions, often involve multimodal user interfaces, non-deterministic workflows, and complex data analysis. 

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to understand our customers’ users and unmet needs in order to help them develop optimal digital health solutions. By understanding the user—be it a patient, caregiver, healthcare provider, trial provider, trial sponsor, trial investigator, brand manager, or product owner—we can create solutions that not only improve patient outcomes but fit seamlessly into their digital lifestyles.

How did you select this vendor?

We compared Guidea with many other strategy and design agencies. They impressed us with their experience in the digital health space specifically as well as their work in general. 

Describe the project in detail.

The first phase was a design thinking workshop. Guidea conducted research (recruiting, interviews, observations) with patients and providers to understand their pain points and opportunities. From there they developed six user archetypes with specific unmet needs and concerns. These requirements were reviewed and then categorized using an evaluation framework based on needs and constraints. Guidea then conducted in-person workshops, managing over 20 participants to collaboratively design and prioritize conceptual solutions. They field tested the solutions with patients and providers and made a final recommendation.

The second phase was UX/UI design. Guidea applied best practices to design an optimal user experience involving a connected drug delivery device. This solution, as a clickable prototype, was enhanced over several formative studies. Final deliverables included high fidelity visual assets for development.

What was the team composition?

The team consisted of a creative director, a researcher, an experience designer, a UI designer, and a relationship manager. 

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Our best measures of success to date are the high quality of the deliverables we were able to input into the commercialization process as well as end-product customer satisfaction.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was smoother than anticipated. Guidea integrated well considering their involvement and deliverables were part of larger and longer projects. As a partner, they demonstrated great interest in our success, maintained accountability, and remained flexible, accommodating all of our last-minute requests. 

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Every staff member with whom we have interacted possesses deep expertise within his or her respective fields. 

Are there any areas for improvement?

There are no areas for improvement at this time.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of experience design at Humana. We work in the health, wellness, and insurance fields.

What challenge were you trying to address with Guidea?

We were creating digital solutions for provider practices, and we didn’t have a design language suitable for payer-agnostic situations—many times, provider practices want to brand online and physical materials with their own brand language rather than leveraging Humana’s branding.  We needed to create a flexible design language system that enabled quick modification of material appearance to support different practices’ brand identities.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Guidea created a design language system that enables us to quickly brand digital and physical materials for our provider practice clients.

Our work with Guidea began with Discovery. They sought to understand what we wanted to achieve and conducted a design inventory of representative digital, print, and web assets.

In the next phase, Guidea explored different strategic directions for provider and patient materials. We eliminated those that didn’t align with our vision. Once a direction was chosen, they developed design principles and prototypes, which we further refined before testing.

Guidea then conducted consumer research with patients and providers to explore what each audience expected visual and digital collateral to look like from a health and wellness brand. They investigated two potential executions and determined which one or which combination of them rose to the top. They shared the results with us, and we aligned on what their recommended direction was.

Based on the research learnings, Guidea began constructing the digital and print components for use when creating websites, mobile apps, wearable apps, and physical print materials. As part of the component library, they included behaviors, examples demonstrating proper execution, and explanations so users of the library understood how the components should be applied. The end result will be a cohesive set of digital and physical assets for each provider client.

The collateral library Guidea helped us build is located in a centralized online application that people can access when building a new website, digital application or physical collateral. Components can be easily dropped into applications for convenient construction of digital or physical assets.  In addition, this library enables users to rapidly change the design language. For example, if a provider’s practice is acquired by a competitor, their materials could be transitioned to the new brand language in about a week.

To ensure the component library maintained its consistency, Guidea recommended we establish a gatekeeper and a governance committee.  They worked with a pilot team to demonstrate how to use the design language system and trained the gatekeeper on how to grant access, educate others, etc.  Once the team understood how to use the system, they launched it and it’s now in use.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 5–7 Guidea staff with UI/UX, Interaction Design, Developer and business backgrounds on the two workstreams.
 
How did you come to work with Guidea?

I identified five design consultancies as potential partners for this work. Guidea came recommended by a senior design leader I knew at another company. Their response to our RFP was solid, and once I discussed their proposal with them in more detail, it was clear they were the best fit for the project.

Guidea’s proposal reflected a best in class process with delivery of valuable materials in a format that made the most sense for our organization.  Humble and supportive, they explained technical details in an easily understood way, and they proactively provided recommendations based on lessons learned from past projects. They also had extensive experience creating design language systems for complex situations, which the other candidate firms didn’t.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Guidea in January 2018. They’re still working with us on projects, but I’m no longer involved.

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

People were delighted with the outcome. As a result, Guidea received a follow-on project to apply the design language system to a digital application alongside our team. That follow-on engagement gave our team experience with the new system and enabled us to ask Guidea questions as we were learning how to apply it. It was an important project, and it was essential that the work be done quickly and to high quality.

Now that the design language system has been launched, multiple digital groups within our company have a central repository that they can leverage when creating digital and physical collateral. Broad use of the system is still ramping up. Thanks to Guidea, we have a shorter turnaround time when building digital and physical assets, as well as increased consistency and speed when changing brand languages.

How did Guidea perform from a project management standpoint?

Guidea was incredibly flexible during a time of uncertainty at our company. Expectations changed during the project, and Guidea rolled with them. Sometimes, they gave us more leeway than we deserved, but I appreciated that generosity. I truly felt they cared about our relationship and were looking out for our best interests. They managed well, delivered on time, and produced high-quality deliverables. I’ve worked at several top tier design firms, and I found Guidea’s work to be thoughtful and visually compelling.

Throughout the bulk of the project, I was in constant contact with Guidea. They never disappeared. We had weekly status meetings, and when questions arose during the week, I could reach out as needed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Guidea’s talents are extraordinary, and the quality that really distinguishes them from other consultancies is their lack of hubris. They aren’t shy about sharing recommendations based on lessons learned from past projects, which is refreshing. The team was upfront about offering this guidance when we were trying to make important decisions, which established them as a trustworthy partner. Guidea helped us avoid several costly mistakes, and we’re in a great spot because of their guidance.
 
Are there any areas they could improve?

No. They did an excellent job across the board, and I always felt well-informed. I have nothing but good things to say about them and would certainly recommend them to anyone else who’s looking for someone to help with this type of work. I’ve already recommended them to another senior design leader at a different company.
 
Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients shouldn’t be afraid to ask questions. This project wasn’t in my area of expertise, so I asked lots of questions and am much wiser as a result. Even though we got a great result, the most valuable takeaway for me was what I learned about this space from Guidea.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CEO of Edthena, an education technology company. We focus on teachers’ professional development, serving clients primarily in the US education system.

For what projects/services did your company hire Guidea (A Theresa Neil Design Company)?

Our core user interaction is leaving timestamped comments on videos. Our beta platform allowed us to gather data that would guide the design of our production interface, and we needed to bring those ideas to life.

What were your goals for this project?

We set out to develop a new version of our product that solved the beta version’s limitations.

How did you select this vendor?

A former colleague recommended them to us based on their founder’s significant industry experience related to UX design and video interactions.

Describe the project in detail.

We started with several interactive scoping sessions to define project goals. Then, they iterated on UX diagrams before ultimately translating them into UI specifications. I say translated because, in a very good way, the UX specs didn’t try to answer UI questions. This ensured that our functions and flows were strong before we started exploring specific UI techniques that could help us achieve our necessary interactions.

What was the team composition?

We worked with their CEO, CTO, and UI designer, as well as with the founder herself, Theresa.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Good designs age well, and, six years later, we’re still using key ideas developed in our engagement.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Theresa was good at communicating and managing a design process remotely.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their depth and breadth of experience stood out to us.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, not that I saw.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of a health tech SaaS company.

For what projects/services did your company hire Guidea - A Theresa Neil Design Company?

We are building a networked hub platform that enables doctors to communicate with pharmaceutical manufacturers. Guidea designed the UI for the doctor facing portion of the platform.

How did you select this vendor?

We were referred by a colleague.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Their team conducted research interviews and built out workflow scenarios.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked directly with two designers.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We're very pleased with the results - our platform now has a very attractive look and feel and simple, easy to understand screens.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We interacted using Basecamp, phone calls, and Figma - overall it was very easy to work together - they were responsive and very helpful.

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

Their UI/UX skills are excellent. They had a deep understanding of the healthcare landscape, which was impressive.

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

No

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a consumer goods company and I’m the digital product lead for a new mobile application.

What challenge were you trying to address with Guidea- A Theresa Neil Design Company?

We hired Guidea- A Theresa Neil Design Company to do a general usability test of the app to determine if we had put the right version in the market. We partnered with them on the design prior to the launch of the app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were rebuilding an already existing app from scratch with a new design and tech stack.  We took some of the insights and analytics from the previous app and then started building out user stories and MVP requirements to put the product to market. I provided them with our user stories and some of our goals and they did the initial design for the app. Once the design was approved, we built the app and launched it. Then they did usability research to make sure the design was automating with consumers.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three people from their team including a UX/UI designer, account manager, and researcher.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $150,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from May–September 2019.

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

By putting the MVP version of the app on the market, we doubled our organic monthly active users and increased our ratings almost right away. We’re seeing significant improvements in our metrics just based on their design. Everyone was really happy with the new platform.

How did Guidea- A Theresa Neil Design Company perform from a project management standpoint?

They were wonderful, especially from the design side. They were very proactive and we rarely had to ask for anything because they anticipated what our needs were anyways.

When we got into the research phase, it was similar in that they never brought us a recommendation or anything that wasn’t thoroughly researched or vetted, so we felt confident in approving things quickly, which helped us move faster. During the eight-week design period, we were in contact multiple times a week and then during the research period, we were in contact about three times a week for about six weeks.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The amount of thought they put into anything before it even came across my desk was really helpful. They just took the lead and ran with it and didn’t need attentive feedback along the way. They were doing things readily and surely, which was really great. They’re one of the best partners I’ve ever worked with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there isn't anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Having a good idea of what you want to learn and how it supports your business would be helpful because that’s really all they need to get started.