Helu is a startup offering next level financial planning & controlling by delivering better and faster insights to financial teams – without the hassle of tedious spreadsheets.
The company first reached out to us in their idea phase with the need for a Minimum Viable Product. They wanted to showcase this MVP platform to potential investors so our pre-agreed guidelines were to first make it work then make it nice then make it fast.
Helu opted for material design elements, a design system created by Google to help teams build high-quality digital experiences. At this stage of the project there was no specific branding yet and we started off with the bare wireframes to give their desired product a viable structure first.
Establishing a stable, easy-to-understand structure with all the necessary functionalities.
Helu’s product is aimed at making the reporting process as efficient and collaborative as possible. They want to provide financial officers with a transparent tool that truly helps them and thus the company’s operations too.
The necessary functionalities were agreed to be forecasting, a digitalised spreadsheet and other sheet functions - all seamlessly usable. The product also needed a clear and easy-to-understand dashboard where scalability and responsivity were also key factors.
A fully functional product without Brand identity. After finishing the wireframes, our team created the final interface - at this stage without branding.
As mentioned before, the initial goal was to make it work; so we handed over the Helu team a high-fidelity prototype without Brand identity.
Our biggest challenge at this stage was to solve two vital questions: how to enter data in the most user-friendly way possible and how to display analytics well on such an interface.
As for entering data, we decided to use clear and concise language, minimising the number of required fields, while providing helpful input examples, and allowing for flexibility in input formats (such as date and time).
We also added features such as autocomplete, inline validation, and clear error messages to make the process smoother for users.
For displaying analytics, we opted for clear and understandable visualisations, like graphs and charts that allow users to easily see patterns and trends.
Furthermore, we created interactive elements like hover-over tooltips, legends, and filters that allow users to customise their view of data. Additionally, we used dynamic displays that can update in real-time to reflect changes in data immediately. To make the analytics more accessible, we enabled users to export data to a variety of formats, such as CSV or PDF.
Throughout the project, Helu’s internal Product Designer colleague was working on the product from a visual perspective. We’re always happy to collaborate with internal colleagues of our partners to create the perfect digital solutions!
We are currently working on Helu’s new website and providing them with an art direction, redesign of the user experience & the whole structure, a complete website UI redesign for 20+ pages while implementing the site using Webflow with several integrations like Hubspot, Weglot and Zapier.
Soft tones and gradients reminding users of the
Hawaiian breeze.
The startup’s name Helu has Hawaiian origins, as the company wanted to radiate a peaceful and joyful feeling. Their programme replaces complex and time-consuming Excel operations which otherwise would be difficult to complete. Helu gives overwhelmed finance officials the warm Hawaiian breeze they need.
Based on this, ff.next updated the company’s key visuals with softer tones, which strengthen the mentioned joyful feeling instead of a strict-looking, sterile, corporate interface, implying a more pleasant, kinder approach.
We also introduced gradients, and along with updating key visuals we provided Helu with brand guidelines, a new typography and brand colours, accents and rules to use the existing materials the best way possible. We used these newly designed key visuals for their online communication materials later on.
Online or offline? We’re in line!
Helu’s designer colleague worked closely together with our team when creating their marketing collaterals too. With their help, we were able to design all sorts of online and offline materials necessary to showcase their amazing product on different channels.
The biggest advantage of our design team is having diverse experience in different fields so ff.next can handle every design need in one hand, whatever it may be.
Social templates
An extensive template system created in Canva, easily usable and modifiable by the Helu team later on when creating content for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Youtube. As our client provided us with a great brief including all the different types of posts they wanted to share we were able to develop these templates to suit their exact needs.
Sales deck
We provided all sales decks in Google Slides format for easy online access and collaborative editing. Helu had several different types of sales and pitch decks as they also needed materials for fundraising besides attracting users. We worked an extended amount of time on their fundraising deck which was also published by TechCrunch! A marketing brochure was also prepared in Google Slides to properly inform potential customers.
Offline marketing material
As the ff.next team has extensive experience with print, we were excited to help Helu establish a strong offline presence too! Our team designed printed brochures, flyers for events, several roll ups with different layouts and themes and a booth design too. We also created merchandise design for Helu for their event participations: now the company has branded pens, t-shirts and even gumdrops!
“Brilliant agency! Very easy to deal with and they nail the brief every time. It's rare to find a creative agency that can so effortlessly bring your brand to life. I would definitely recommend ff.next.”
manager
It was a great pleasure to support such a great idea and help a dream come true! Helu serves a true market need and we really hope that our contribution to this product can help to elevate the weight off the shoulders of many SME CFOs in the future!
However, our work might not be done yet. The startup regularly holds strategy meetings, and might consider a repeated brand refresh in the near future too.
Helu is constantly revising the company’s visual strategy, the market trends and upcoming changes as well which is a very forward looking approach from a design point of view. We wish them the best of luck with their plans and hope to collaborate with them again soon!
