PIXEL'S HIVE
Pixel's Hive is a Graphic Design SaaS that specializes in providing art services for different printers around the globe.
Here you will see different projects that I created as the Product Designer.
THE PROBLEM
Selling to a country you don't know is challenging. Pixel's Hive was my first approach to the US market. A market which we know is demanding and requires top-notch quality service in order to succeed. I was in charge of redesigning the entire SaaS in order to improve the clients' experience.
Pixel's Hive is an Argentinian company that provides graphic design services for different apparel businesses such as screen printers.
Pixel's Hive struggled to scale alongside the new printing technologies, providing multi-services for different printing techniques such as vinyl, digital printing
All information in this case study is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pixel's Hive platform.
TIMELINE
I was with the company for 3 years.
MAKE OF THE TEAM
I was the Product Designer and Product Owner.
KEY GOAL
Meet US Market expectations.
MY ROLE
I was the only Product Designer involved in the project working alongside 2 Engineers and 1 Project Manager.
One of my points in favor was having experience in the field, so my challenge here was to redesign the entire Art Portal to meet the new look & feel of the brand and also improve the client's experience while requesting a design.
I led the design of the platform experience between February 2017 and November 2019.
In addition, I worked alongside the CEO, Project Manager, and 2 engineers. I stopped working on the project when I left the company.
The platform is still active at art.pixelshive.com.
UNDERSTANDING THE USER
The platform was transforming from being only a B2B model to including as well B2C. Making an accesible order form was the challenge of the platform.
The challenge, in this case, was to get any user to enter the platform and order a piece of graphic design ready to be printed following all the necessary requirements of any printing press and for different printing systems.
The user could be a person who understood graphic design or not, who understood printing systems or not. This was the real challenge.
The research was made not only to understand the users but also to understand really well the differences in all the different printing systems in order to request the exact information needed and provide a top-notch service.
Aesthetic
The visual identity of the platform was given as a result of the brand image which refers to bees and their hives.
Icons and illustrations were created by 2 different illustrators.
BREAKING DOWN THE PROCESS
We interviewed different printers in order to understand the different printing system requirements and tested the existing site with different participants to find the points to improve.
We used different research methods in order to determine, align and understand the customers' priorities that we should resolve first.
The United States apparel market is huge. If the new experience is needed to help any type of customer, the request form is needed to inspire confidence and show all the information needed in order to get the best quality while printing.
A key design challenge was having to show technical information to potential users who did not understand things such as color mode, file format, and color separation.
Multiple decisions were made to fill this gap. Please click over the images to read more about each decision:
TITLE OF THE CALLOUT BLOCK
LESSONS LEARNED
The redesign of the platform has opened up the service to minor customers. They can now easily submit a request and receive it after 1-2 days (depending on complexity).
Users have responded well to the platform's features and the simplistic redesign.
They can now submit a request and pay a minor fee in order to get a printable file. Pixel's Hive still has B2B customers, but B2C service equals the monthly earnings of B2B customers.
The platform will need to continue to mutate as print technologies advance.