Brief:
Streamtime is project management software for the creative industry. If you have clients, manage jobs and have a team providing a service (to said clients), then Streamtime could be for you. But in a world where there seems to be a new project management software business popping up almost everyday, how can a 14 year old business like Streamtime compete? By reinventing itself to rip-up the past, start again from scratch – and to build software that competes with the tools of the future.
Streamtime is project management software for the creative industry. If you have clients, manage jobs and have a team providing a service (to said clients), then Streamtime could be for you. But in a world where there seems to be a new project management software business popping up almost everyday, how can a 14 year old business like Streamtime compete? By reinventing itself to rip-up the past, start again from scratch – and to build software that competes with the tools of the future.
Challenge:
Streamtime had one goal – to be better. You see, Streamtime was software that needed to be installed and it was ageing by the day. It had suffered (like many other ‘mature’ software companies) from feature creep. Trying to satisfy requests for bespoke functionality, plug-ins and reporting had created a tool that was hard to maintain and build upon.
We needed to:
– Design a project management tool for the creative industry of today and the future
– Address a much-maligned feature that’s been a source of pain for many a creative: $%*&ing timesheets
– Understand the working practices of the modern company, and meet with the needs of the users.
– Redesign an entire product in 3 months, to get it to market in 4 (ok, maybe 5) months.
Solution:
Welcome to a new Streamtime. Where to-do lists are the new timesheets. Where a behaviour that many people already practice, replaces a routine that many of us reviled. Every time you complete a task in the new Streamtime, a time entry is recorded on the job. No timesheet entry to be seen. Your to-do list is scheduled for you – by simply clicking a button. You can create a job, quickly and easily – the using a simple mechanism that replicates the simple spreadsheet calculator. Then, a click of a button turns that job plan into a quote. Another click, and it’s an invoice in Xero. Simple.
The interface and all communications have also been completely revitalised. The new identity builds on that new foundation of the product, the to-do list. And because the product is the main point of contact for the brand, every aspect of the identity lives across the product and all communications to create a seamless experience. The logo gives a subtle nod to the idea of time. The tone of voice of Streamtime challenges the notion that work and life are separate, proving that humanity and humour improve your office-hours experience too – delivering a frank, wry and disarming perspective infused with pop-culture references (past and present).
And last but certainly not least, a newly developed character guides the user through the onboarding experience, introduces them to new features, and celebrates with them when they achieve certain milestones. He's even the star of his own video game, ‘A Run Through the Timestream!’, that appears as an easter egg on the website – check it out at http://streamtime.net/timestream .All these elements come together to communicate and celebrate the new Streamtime’s behaviour-focused approach to project management – making workflow and time management simpler, intuitive, and more engaging.
