Essential Designs

Our client in the field of mineral exploration and mining needed assistance in creating an advanced software solution. This tool would help them keep track of different stages of the exploration process across their multiple mining sites. They needed our advice on the best provider to work with to efficiently organize, uncover insights, and oversee the project.

From the initial stages of project discovery to the final phases of implementation, Essential Designs demonstrated a remarkable ability to align resources, streamline workflows, and maintain a clear trajectory toward project milestones.

The project advanced smoothly without any significant deviations from our deadlines, underscoring Essential Designs remarkable capacity to maintain oversight and coordination. As the project continues, our consistent success in meeting sprint objectives without major setbacks serves as a testament to Essential Designs exceptional organizational capability

Working with Essential Designs has been a truly positive experience for the Custom Application Developers at Saginaw County Chamber of Commerce. Their team's commitment to excellence, attention to detail, and innovative approach to custom application development have greatly contributed to the success of our projects. Essential Designs has consistently demonstrated a deep understanding of our organization's unique needs, and their solutions have significantly enhanced our capabilities. Their professionalism, responsiveness, and collaborative spirit have made the entire process smooth and enjoyable.

As a client of Essential Designs, I had a remarkably positive experience throughout the mobile app development process for Bolwell Corporation Pty. Ltd., a composite manufacturer with facilities in Melbourne and Thailand. Essential Design demonstrated exceptional professionalism, creativity, and technical expertise.

The team at Essential Designs exhibited a deep understanding of Bolwell Corporation's unique needs and challenges in the composite manufacturing industry. They were proactive in communication, ensuring that our requirements were thoroughly understood and incorporated into the mobile app development plan.

I provided them a line map, and walked them through all of the information required in terms of the environment. Then we had several conversations about user personas and required functionalities. They’re designing native apps for iOS and Android, as well as a version for a web portal. The goal is to add functionality that our competitors don't have to give ourselves a competitive advantage. I'm primarily working with one UI/UX designer. A couple of people have been on some of our phone calls in order to manage the project on their end. I'll work directly with a developer once the design is finalized. The subcontractor that I typically work with was booked, so I looked online for a new firm. I decided to give Essential Designs a call because they have a Toronto office. I was very impressed by our phone conversation, and thought they would be a good fit. The team is very good at keeping the project moving. A lot of times we’re waiting for the client to evaluate and respond to a design.

We came to Essential Designs with an idea of what we were looking for and provided initial sketches, and they provided storyboards based on our ideas. We worked together to start building the application screen by screen, and they went on to develop and design the Lifeguard Digital Health mobile app for iOS and Android. They programmed and implemented text-to-speech technology into the applications as well. We’re partnered with emergency responders and during our testing phase, they’ve found the application to be very user-friendly and reliable. The app will be ready to roll out this spring. The Essential Designs team communicated with me constantly and kept me updated on project deadlines. Scott was very warm, open, honest, and professional. They made me extremely comfortable with technical knowledge.

We had built the original system in-house, but the team at Essential Designs has now optimized it, adding newer functionalities. We gave them specific directions because we knew what we wanted.

It’s a basic customer account management application that integrates CRM aspects, which include managing database and contact information. They recently upgraded our credit card payment systems to more securely manage our credit card data.
We are relatively satisfied with everything they’re doing. All of our customers seem pleased and rarely complain about it. Our company has doubled in size since partnering with Essential Designs. They manage everything, staying on top of it. We use a program to track all of the projects that also goes into the smaller fixes and feature additions.

I found Essential Designs online when searching for software developers. I had reached out to multiple software development companies and Groovy Web was by far the cheapest and they clearly understood the goals of my project. They designed the software I required over the course of 10 weeks which was the timeline originally set out in our agreement. They used a variety of methods to collect all the data I require and display it on a website they provided for me. We were able to launch the project on time and with everything working as required. They provided quality assurance as well as a generous support period of 6 months where they will fix any bugs and help me as I adjust to using my new product. I would recommend them any day

Essential Designs provided low-cost resources that built a high-quality MVP with clean code. They used React Native for mobile development and ReactJS for web development. Their team built the app's web backend using typescript and a variety of AWS frameworks. As their services can be turned on or off, we have a flexible arrangement.

They’re able to lay-down code quickly. That code takes two forms including a scrappy MVP that effectively provides core functionality at low cost, meaning time in development hours. The second form that their code can take is a product that was built meticulously. For us as an early-stage company, success metrics include shifting to users, testing, and iterating rapidly. We’ve measured success by the output of code and the number of features built in a short period of time.

They participate in retrospectives with our team, which provides a good feedback loop. With us leaning into the team, they lean back and that creates a collaborative engagement.

The phase 1 project included our brand identity strategy, setting up wireframes for the site, designing the site, developing it and then launching it.

Everything was tested and then we went live. The phase 2 project will include building out a inventory management system and connecting to a few important tools we need like quickbooks. Our bookings rates have gone up tremendously. And our customer retention is much higher as well. Those customers now come back to the site whereas in the past, the vast majority of customers were not.

On a monthly basis we do a sit-down with the team to analyze what areas we can still improve on so it's an ongoing process to try and better ourselves each day.

Essential Design was involved from early user persona creation, through the design process, and ultimately completed development and deployment. Using our prototype and notes as a blueprint, they designed and developed our SASS MVP to completion:

User Research UI/UX Design (Figma)
Front-End Development (React)
Back-End Development (.NET Core)
QA Testing Integration of Third-Party API's
Deployment of MVP

A project manager was responsible for keeping things on track. We held regular meetings to discuss project status, answer questions, and demo features as they were developed. Essential Design was very good at keeping track of our requests, concerns, and questions and took care of issues promptly. During the course of this project, they were very willing to accommodate us in adopting a workflow that best fit our needs. The project roadmap was always clear, even as requirements changed.

We had a meeting a with their president and project manager. We provided them with a list of our expectations and a list of things that weren’t working. We asked them to make the pages user-friendly and bug-free as much as possible, as well as do some graphic design and layout for the UI pages.

We decided to go with WordPress for the main webpage because we want to be able to update it ourselves. For the webstore, they will be taking care of the design from scratch and it will be done through OpenCart.

We are looking forward to having functionality that isn’t currently part of the OpenCart site, such an inventory counting. We make and produce our own DVDs, and we need certain features for accounting and other departments, such as tracking transfers between warehouses or checking the stock. Essential Designs is going to develop those from scratch.

They’re doing a great job. Communication is great. Everything is documented and clear. I receive great support from them.

Essential Designs has helped us install infrastructure to help with cybersecurity and our entire cloud-based system. Before starting the work, we provided context about our company and any documentation they needed to learn about us and get the whole process started.
Additionally, they redesigned and developed our website. We already had a site in place but decided to scrap it and get a new one, which Essential Designs created from scratch. The platform is encrypted and has more modern features than the older one, with a more secure and contemporary look.
The quality of their work was incredible; each person we dealt with was extremely smart and skilled. Also, we could always see what they were doing and they held our hands at every step. Additionally, thanks to their work, we were able to brand out more as a business, make our website faster, and improve the flow of our website traffic.

They created everything from top to bottom. We went back and forth for what felt like two years and drew out exactly what I wanted the site to look like. They made templates and sent screenshots of where visual assets should go and the different layers underneath. They provided a skeleton of the entire site; then, we went into detail on each page.

There was a customer view and an administrative back page where I could keep track of everything behind the scenes and manipulate both sides of the platform. We were most excited by the live feed option. We could toggle between the back page and the broadcast page to see viewership spikes and loads. They made sure that everything was flawless, right down to the tiny details. They were very involved and offered a variety of choices for the CMS and other key features. We relied on their expertise.
We did a dry run with a few acquaintances to test it. Everyone felt it was well done and feedback is great overall.

We worked with two people, including Scott (President, Essential Designs), who organized the work. I worked with him on setting the scope, and I then worked with one of their project managers.

They took our app, updated its code to the latest Google API, and changed its font. Updating features wasn’t required in this particular project.

The process was pretty smooth; they were responsive and happy to make small changes that we required but hadn’t described in the beginning.

We had a timeline for the project, but we didn’t provide any documentation. We used a standard project management tool, Basecamp, which allowed us to send replies using email while providing an online interface. They were joy to work with.

Essential Designs is responsible for our product’s frontend development. They interact with a couple of our other outsourced development teams to produce the end product.

Essential Designs’ initial project was to build a web-based admin UI, or a web account center. My team provided documentation and presentations around the goals of our product and what was important to our buyers and users. We also had remote sessions with their UX designer discussing use cases. Their team built out full UX mockups based on those sessions and the information we provided. They’ve also developed an iOS and Android app for our end users. So far, the results are good. The functionality in general works and matches what we’re looking for. The team grasps the requirements.