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B2B should be fun!

It is sad that you often recognize a business to business company at a glance.

Grey colors, stock images and sterile tones characterize most of the B2B companies we see around. I remember many of my designs being criticized with the statement: wait we are a B2B, we can’t use a smile icon for a success message.

That’s because companies usually want to keep a serious facade.

Bringing fun into the B2B world

Why does it sound so strange to bring fun into the B2B world? One reason is probably given by the fact that established companies are likely to think that showing that you are having fun connotes you aren’t serious.
But, as Levitt and Dubner say in their ‘Think like a Freak’ book, being serious doesn’t mean that you are good in getting your job done.

Having fun means that you love the way you work. And if you enjoy it, you’d also want to do more and therefore improve faster getting better results.

It is hard to understand what is the proper tone of voice for companies: should we be friendly and easy-going or formal and technical? I always try to keep in mind that in the end, every product and service is meant for humans and success stories like the Slack one demonstrate that people-oriented design could be groundbreaking.

Having fun means that you love the way you work

The Slack case

Slack, one of the hypest company we see around, made the process of corporate internal communication easy and fun. It could sound as a minor thing but if we take a look at the state of the art of internal communication services made for companies it is crystal clear it is not.

The ‘Slack approach’ is known as the consumerization phenomenon, that means bringing B2C inspired experiences to B2B products. It means to always keep in mind that at the end every product should be designed for humans.

How Slack came to this?

The company behind Slack was first designing a collaborative video game project.
They then shifted to creating this brand new ‘company chat system’ after realizing their first idea was not appreciated by the public. One of the keys to their success was probably (aside from not being too much in love with their original idea) bringing the gaming framework into the work one: the easy and fun approach is common between gamers, less common between employees.

In the end B2B products are designed for companies, and companies are made of people made of feelings. The Slack team simply considered what people, not companies, really like.

Designing for people

The name, the colors, the way we talk and show pictures of the teamare nothing but conventional, enabling this company to emerge and communicate both the passion and innovative approach that distinguish it.

It was fun that brought us again together to develop Waynaut – something our stakeholders largely appreciate!

I am personally and professionally trying to evolve myself by not being afraid to show that I am actually having fun, because I simply love what I do, and I do believe that if B2B companies will dare to consider what people really like the results can be amazing.

Our replies
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Why choose glueglue?

We are a digital product agency with more than 10 years of experience and highly specialized skills in both design and development.
Over time, we have consolidated an agile and effective method to work best with all types of clients: from the start-up that needs some kind of support to the multinational corporation that wants to integrate a team with design and executive agility, our most appreciated peculiarity.
We are positioned in a medium-high market segment and are able to offer excellent value for money. Direct supervision by glueglue's founding partners of each project ensures the highest quality of service and finished product. We are on the top list of the best User Experience and digital product agencies on Clutch, the most widely used database of digital consulting agencies in the world.

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How does glueglue work and what are the areas of expertise?

We always start with a careful analysis of the customer's needs considering not only the product needs but also the medium and long-term business objectives.
As a first step, we often deal with the visual identity, evaluating the positioning by analyzing the competitor and identifying areas for improvement in terms of branding and image.
Then, we move on to the UX/UI area: we study the user experience of your product or service through a UX Review with 3 dedicated professionals to identify the points which it is necessary to act to improve the usability of the site or app examined.
In the following phase, we design the User Journey Map, i.e. the map of all the paths that the user follows, interacting with the product and the brand . Identifying all the contact points is of strategic importance in order to immerse ourselves in situations of real use and understand where value can really be created for the end user and therefore for the product.
We will then move on to the phase of creating the wireframes, with the sharing of an interactive prototype that will define the functionality and structure of each single page and interaction of the product.
Once the wireframes have been consolidated, we will move on to the design phase of the graphic interface, with attention paid to the smallest details in so as to ensure a positive and truly satisfying user experience.
At this point, our developers come into play for the implementation part. We use the most current technologies such as React, Flutter, Gatsby JS, Symfony, Node.JS and others to create products with high standards of quality and stability, working and pixel perfect.

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What distinguishes glueglue from other top design or product agencies?

To offer maximum value, the glueglue team works on a limited number of projects. In this way, our professionals can dedicate an uninterrupted focus to always obtain excellent results.
Each project is managed on the basis of precise deadlines and intermediate meetings with the client. We take care of the unique needs and potential of each product and consequently, each solution created is exclusive and highly customized.
Thanks to the experience of 10+ years in the digital sector, we have developed a successful method to achieve the highest goals in the areas that matter: strategy, design and development.

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Can you do web design?

We work on all types of digital products, from iOS and Android apps to webapps and complex platforms.
Furthermore, part of the team specializes in creating marketing websites, i.e. websites totally focused on promoting the product or services.

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Do you also do branding or should I look for another agency?

Being a full-service agency, we also offer branding services such as naming and logo design. Among the products we create for our customers, the brand guidelines stand out, i.e. the detailed guidelines document for the corporate image. We are totally comfortable working on existing guidelines or in collaboration with a branding agency.

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How much does it cost to entrust you with a digital project?

We like to always be as transparent as possible and we believe that talking openly about the budget is important to understand how to get added value from the partnership for both parties. Given this, since each customer has its own peculiarities and presents different challenges, we do not use a price list, but we invest time to understand the customer's reality well and provide a specific approach and an appropriate price.
Indicatively, the price of user experience and graphical interface design projects can vary in a range between €10,000 and €30,000, depending on various factors such as the client's needs and the complexity of the project.
The cost of the projects in area Branding is positioned between €5,000 and €15,000, always taking into account any possible peculiarities.
As regards the more technical part, the cost for the development of iOS and Android web and mobile apps ranges from €20,000 upwards .
Website development starts from a minimum of €10,000. Our average hourly rate for single consultations is €60 per hour.
If you want to get to know us better, you can schedule 30 minutes free by appointment.

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Do you also work with early stage startups, therefore with limited resources?

Of course, we love startups! Over time we have met many enlightened and highly talented entrepreneurs.
We have invested in some startups, preferring work for equity. Our experience has always been positive, contributing to the achievement of various rounds of investments for a total value of over 30 million Euros.

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