Hasbro approached us with the idea of creating a platform where the general public could submit their ideas for toy inventions. To accompany the platform, they wanted us to communicate what this was through a fun story. Hasbro asked us to come up with the ideas for a marketing page. We wanted to use their oldest and most famous character, Mr Potato head. We decided that he could tell the story of invention and show the steps that a typical inventor goes through.

Storyboarding

Once the storyboards were finalised, these were moved into the visual design where the website user interface was laid out and the illustrations were created. The site atmosphere was looked to be colourful and vibrant, with large sections showing each step on the invention process, told through Mr Potato Head. During design, animation ideas were experimented with for developers to implement during the build.

Design & Illustration

Previously we built an entire inventor management platform for Hasbro’s professional inventors. Hasbro required a way to import these amateur invention ideas into the platform. Because the system was built from the ground up, bespoke to Hasbro, we were able to modify the system to allow this. After completing a series of questions about their invention, the submission is sent off to the external inventor management platform for review. If their submission is accepted it becomes a normal submission alongside the other professional inventors.

System Integration

As a project, Hasbro Spark has allowed us to combine our expertise in UX design, development and copywriting to create a truly engaging website, that seamlessly integrates a beautiful, interactive front page with a bespoke submission management platform.

Summary

We'd love to help solve your challenges and build a fully supported product not only providing great user experience for you customers but also an intuitive system for your colleagues to use with ease.

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More Work

We worked with Hasbro on a new product which allowed the general public to submit their toy invention ideas.

Hasbro US was looking to welcome amateur inventors to submit ideas for new toys and games. Historically Toy giants were accessible only to professional inventors and Hasbro wanted to change this perception. Si digital was handed total creative control over the direction, branding and visual design. We would need to create an inspiring platform that encouraged and enabled inventors to submit ideas to Hasbro.

We worked with Hasbro on a new product which allowed the general public to submit their toy invention ideas.

Hasbro

An app for

cyclists to log

close passes

Close Pass

Cyclist know just how scary it is getting passed too close by a vehicle when out on the roads. We wanted to build an app to track the worst locations.

The Problem

As an internal project we have been able to use this project to trial new tools and solutions. Over the years, we have tinkered with different mapping providers for the user to interact with. To prevent abuse we also integrated a registration and validation system to ensure users aren’t spamming the app.

The Solution

Shoot Walter White

in our hack project game

Breaking Bad Shooter

We were all massive fans of Breaking Bad when it was on. So we thought we pay tribute to the awesome show by releasing a mini shooter game.

Once we had illustrated Walter White, the oil drums and the desert scene, we got going on the coding. To make it fun and engaging, we kept the game play as simple as possible. Players could try and shoot Walter but they would lose points if they hit the oil drums filled with money. They had 60 seconds to score as many points as possible.

We launched this game at just the right time - just before the finale was being aired. We captured the moment with an incredibly simple, fun game which was also very shareable.It got featured in publications like <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/josephbernstein/this-breaking-bad-computer-game-lets-you-shoot-walter-white" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buzzfeed</a> and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/technolog/breaking-bad-game-lets-you-do-what-jesse-pinkman-wouldnt-8c11323113" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NBC News</a>. If you fancy taking your shot at Walter White, you can <a href="https://sidigital.co/breakingbad">play our shooter here</a>.

The Results

Bespoke Case

Management System

Bespoke Case Management System

This company works with hundreds of professional toy and game inventors. They needed a complete case management platform to track the progress of submissions and to digitally store related paperwork. The bespoke software system needed to greatly improve the efficiency with which they managed the whole process from start to finish.

After an extended discovery stage, we collated the requirements of the various departments and people using the system. This included things like managing many access rights and privileges, collating and centralising information and making group communications simpler.We designed a completely bespoke system to make the whole process easier and more robust. We also suggested additional features, like digital signing and storing, along the way to add extra value to the project.

The completely bespoke system we built for them has become integral to the way they manage their business. It has significantly increased the number of cases they can manage, while greatly decreasing the amount of time spent on admin.We continue to support and develop the system in line with the company's changing needs.

Operating 140 sailings every day means huge traffic to Wightlink’s website, where passengers can check crossing times and book tickets. However, the existing site was slow and lacking in the functionality necessary for a smooth customer experience. Wightlink, a long-time client which was aware of our proven track record, asked us to develop a new mobile-optimised, user-focused and innovative website.

To fully understand Wightlink’s requirements, solve its problems and to ensure we were meeting expectations at each stage of the process, we held regular in-person meetings. This worked well until the country shut down due to Covid-19. Forced to experiment with new ways of working (Zoom), the project continued apace and a new project manager was installed to ensure Wightlink received all the support it needed.Crucial for successful UX design is extensive user-testing and feedback, which in this case meant staff and customer insights. We held workshops on board the ferries (before lockdown) to trial different layouts with different groups, enabling us to gather genuine responses on the new design.

There were several elements which we added or enhanced, to create an intelligent website for Wightlink and a seamless journey for its customers. These included:<ul class="list-bullet"><li value=1>Adding personalisation for logged-in customers</li><li value=2>Vastly improving the site architecture to display live service status information and easy-to-use, logical navigation</li><li value=3>Redesigning the homepage booking widget, enabling customers to purchase tickets quickly and far more easily</li><li value=4>Introducing a price estimate tool for customers looking for indicative sailing costs </li><li value=5>Re-designing all core pages to help Wightlink communicate more clearly to passengers</li></ul>

The Highlights

Ultimately, using valuable customer insights and collaborating with the client, even during the difficulties of lockdown, we were able to build what Si digital founder, Steven Piper described as “an attractive user-centred website that places Wightlink at the forefront of their industry”. The resulting streamlined site is faster, far easier to navigate and future-proofed. Internal, back-end activities are now less cumbersome. Being mobile-first, it also enables users to access the site in more convenient ways than ever before.

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Taking a existing massive website, auditing all the content, carrying out large-scale UX research and ultimately delivering an easy to use website experience for Wightlink ferry operators.

Wightlink is an award-winning ferry company which transfers 3.8 million customers annually between ports on the Hampshire coast and the Isle of Wight. Founded in 1972, it is a progressive operator whose care for the environment is evident - its flagship ferry is an eco-friendly hybrid and its efforts in reducing carbon emissions have earned positive recognition.Read about how we created the  <a href="/mini-case-study/creating-a-tourist-information-hub">Wightlink Explorer</a>.

Building a new site for Wightlink

Wightlink

Custom

Magento

Development

Advanced Magento Customisation

This exclusive perfume company provide exquisite scents in elegant bottles to customers around the world. Known not only for the scents inside, but also the beauty (and recognisability) of the bottles themselves.To provide an next tier gift offering, Boadicea the Victorious wanted to offer their customers a way to create a truly unique bottle, customising almost every part of it. And it had to work with Magento!

We wanted to take the customer on a journey of discovery. Step by step, selecting and honing their unique gift bottle. We worked hard on the user experience to find the perfect flow to the process.Then came the customisation of Magento. Although incredibly powerful, straight out of the box Magento does have its limitations. We've wrestled with Magento over the years and have been able to create custom products within the system.

Generating the image of the bottle as it was being configured also provided another challenge for us. Because you can customise the bottle colour, shields and stopper, the number of possible variations are huge. We had to find a way to create the image as it was being built.Although it was a big technical challenge, it was vitally important to encourage sharing of the end product on social channels.

From day one, the Boadicea Bottle Configurator started generating not only sales but social sharing and therefore greater interest and reach for the brand.

The Resuts

Integrating & Optimising

Salesforce Data

for Harwin

Integrating & Optimising Salesforce Data for Harwin

Harwin needed a seamless and high-performance method to integrate their product data with their new website, using Salesforce as the primary data source. However, direct integration via the Salesforce API was not an option due to speed constraints and API restrictions.

We developed custom middleware to fetch and index product data from Salesforce into ElasticSearch, bypassing the limitations of direct API usage. The middleware development involved the creation of a robust API to serve data swiftly to the frontend application, which also means that Salesforce remained the single source of data.

Our approach of building a custom middle layer removed the issues around going direct to Salesforce - namely the impact it would have on site speed. Harwin can continue to use Salesforce as their primary data source while achieving exceptional site performance.

Si digital has been working with Harwin for close to three years now and in simple words, it has been a joy! Every project we have worked together on, and there have been a few, has been on time, on budget and most of the time even enhanced by the input from Si.

What They Said

An office robot

played with by

half a million people

Sid the office robot

At Si digital we’re always on the lookout for new and interesting ways to promote ourselves while learning something new. So we thought we would build a robot you could control over the internet.

The robotics were bought online, but required a few customisations to work within the constraints of our arena. We built a queuing system to handle the influx of people wanting to play. Two concurrent camera feeds live streamed the action to the player and the scoring system added a competitive element to the game play.

People from around the world were queuing for 4 hours to play with Sid. He kept going for 2 months and was played 500,000+ times. Being featured by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbVAKs1hF5o" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Vsauce</a> (4m followers) on YouTube and <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/3022056/this-office-has-its-own-robot-and-you-can-control-it-from-your-computer" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">FastCo</a> brought a huge amount of traffic. As profile raising stunts go, this hack project ticked all the boxes!

Work

We worked with Hasbro on a new product which allowed the general public to submit their toy invention ideas.

Mini Case Study

Close Pass

Mini Case Study

Breaking Bad Shooter

Mini Case Study

Bespoke Case Management System

Building a new site for Wightlink

Mini Case Study

Advanced Magento Customisation

Mini Case Study

Optimising Product Data Integration for Harwin

Mini Case Study

Sid the office robot

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