Web Success Agency

ProofHQ has become a critical part of the way we manage design feedback and approval with Basecamp.

What are the key benefits of using ProofHQ with Basecamp?

Avin describes the key benefits of using ProofHQ with Basecamp as:

"Being able to quickly set up proofs for review, gather client feedback in one place and compare changes between versions before releasing new version to clients."

"Giving clients a fast, easy way to visually mark-up and comment on design work so that everyone is clear about what changes are being requested."

What does the Web Success do?

Web Success is a web design agency run by Avin Kline. Avin manages clients from the agency's offices in West palm Beach, Florida. Design and production are managed by a team of project managers with design teams in India and the Czech Republic. Clients are from the US and Europe in the consulting, technology and web application sectors. The team uses Basecamp's integration with ProofHQ to keep projects on track and get review and approval from clients on the design work that they produce.

"Having team members spread around the world lets us provide clients with a 24/7 design service that "follows the sun". This means that we can turn jobs around very quickly and have work on a client's desk overnight. However, this way of working does present us with some challenges as there is only a two-hour window each day when we are all online. We rely heavily on Basecamp for internal project management and on ProofHQ for fast feedback from clients."

How do you use Basecamp and ProofHQ?

Avin describes himself as "the greatest Basecamp evangelist".

"We set up a project for every job containing what we call the "Blueprint", which is a project description. Colleagues and clients are added as team members. "

"Once the project is underway everything is posted as a message in Basecamp. We never use email and are even cutting down on using IM. Basecamp messages are far less intrusive and help us makes the most of the two hours that we are online together."

Avin describes their design process:

"Getting accurate and detailed client feedback on design work is one of the most time consuming agency jobs. If we don't manage client feedback properly projects can run late and over budget. ProofHQ has become a key tool in helping us manage that feedback, and neatly ties everything back to Basecamp."

The design process follows a similar pattern for each project.

"The first stage of the project is done using private messages, as this involves concept development that we don't necessarily want the client to see. First we create wireframes in Powerpoint. Once we are all happy with the wireframes the designers begin work on the design concepts in Photoshop. These are posted to ProofHQ for internal review."

The second stage of the project is getting client feedback on designs.

"When we have a concept that we are happy to present to the client we create a new version of the proof in ProofHQ. From inside ProofHQ we can add the proof to the Basecamp project and choose team members from that project as reviewers on the proof. ProofHQ embeds a copy of the proof in a new message inside Basecamp. Clients get an email from me with a one-click link to the proof and they can also access the proof from inside Basecamp."

"ProofHQ gives clients and easy-to-use online proof where they can add comments and visually mark-up the design. Visual mark-up is one of the biggest time-savers as clients can show exactly what they want changed. The other big time-saver is that team members can reply to comments and create discussion threads throughout the proof. With up to six people in a review team this extra level of collaboration helps resolve issues and reach agreement very quickly."

"We can go through between three and ten rounds of revisions on a proof. ProofHQ lets us add each version to Basecamp and notify clients. Using ProofHQ we can all compare the old version and the new version side-by-side and check that clients' change requests have been done."

"Once the final proof is marked as "Approved" we then begin development of the web pages."