Introducing Significa, the design-led agency for Product Development
Significa is a digital product agency based in Porto, Portugal.
It all started in 2016 — back then, the team worked in a small improvised office fueled by coffee and passion. Seven years on, Significa is today an award-winning digital agency that creates digital products from inception to launch.
We take ideas and product concepts as input and work with our partners to develop the entire product lifecycle. Our expertise allows us to guide our clients from a standpoint where we clearly see what’s in their blind spots, bringing it to light and using it as raw material to create smart, beautiful solutions.
Human-centred design at the core
We are Design first, but Design is not just something we do.
Design is the core element of our identity but definitely, not an end in itself. As a digital agency, we are also committed to pushing the boundaries of engineering by establishing a set of high-quality standards that command our development efforts to deliver the best digital products.
Significa’s approach is based on the principles of human-centred design. We take on a problem, break it down into smaller parts and come up with solutions — solutions that are elegant but uncomplicated. Solutions built based on a thorough understanding of the needs and behaviours of users. This allows us to create products that are intuitive, effective, and enjoyable to use.
As a company, there are different goals we pursue daily within different scopes. The remaining we will keep for ourselves, but there are two that we think are worth sharing.
The first one is related to our aspirations as a digital agency. We strive to be one of the best product development agencies in the world. This may sound a bit cocky but bear with me — we don’t state it from a presumptuous standpoint but rather from a place of endless passion for what we do. And where there is passion, there is ambition. There is no other way. That is why we are always looking for new ways to be challenged and get our hands dirty.
Human-centred, also as a business
Our commitment to being human-centred extends beyond just creating digital products. Indeed, our company’s goals list opens with “Being a place where people love to work”. Much has been said about the importance of people in any business or company, so instead of delving into such a platitudinous topic, we will share some principles that guide our decision-making to foster a workplace where people feel engaged, supported and appreciated.
This year, we started the year with a sort of “open mic” event. This is something we do with due periodicity, and our goal is to hear every team at a department level but also every team member at an individual level. We collected information about what we are doing well and what needs to be improved — the ultimate goal was to use this as input to establish yearly goals. After all, having input from the people who better know our business — our team — is the best way to ensure we are getting closer to improving as a business and as a workplace.
This initiative captures the 3 core principles that uphold our philosophy:
- Empathy, obviously, because every team member’s contribution to the business is just one tiny sliver of who they are.
- Creativity, a most valuable asset, be it for business development, problem-solving, or employee engagement. Creativity is indispensable for every facet of the business, really.
- Business growth, the ultimate goal of any company. The challenge is to do it in a sustainable manner, where business goals, culture and people are factored in.
Naturally, for every decision, each one of these principles is weighted in different proportions — some decisions have business growth as a prerogative, and some decisions require empathy to lead the way. The bottom line is that each decision requires a different balance of these principles, but these are the values we stand for.
Industry-agnostic beautiful solutions
At the moment of writing, our team has just over thirty employees. This is a deliberate decision — by staying small, we are able to offer a dedicated service, which allows us to keep our attention on every client rather than becoming too big with a toll on authenticity and focused commitment.
We have specialised in creating user-centred designs for websites, mobile apps, and other digital products. We provide services that include User Research, User Experience Design, Interface Design, Product Strategy, Brand Strategy, Back-end and Front-end Development.
We have worked with a diverse range of clients across industries like healthcare, blockchain, and cybersecurity, just to name a few. We have also developed solutions for e-commerce businesses like Mishmash, an innovative office supply brand that looks for new ways to design office supplies contrasting a clear taste for the minimal with a meticulous choice of materials.
Mishmash, a minimal office supply brand.
Within the healthcare industry, Dia is a project we are particularly proud of — it gave us our first Red Dot award, one of the most prestigious awards in the Design industry. Dia was created for TFP (The Fertility Partnership), one of Europe’s most renowned fertility organisations, to empower women with knowledge and a deeper insight into female health topics. This connection between Significa, Dia, and TFP allowed us to provide a full-circle experience to the users and create an app that is the first of its kind.
Dia aspired to become a companion App, a lifestyle tracker, and a deeper insight into female health topics. The Product Design and Development ended in a Red Dot award.
We also count a few projects in the Food & Beverage Delivery industry, allO being the most recent. Our team worked on creating a brand and enhancing the product to address the challenges faced by restaurant owners when managing operations across different platforms and devices. Following the redesign of allO, sales increased by five times, which is something that makes us immensely proud.
allO is an all-inclusive online platform that provides various services related to the restaurant industry with fast, on-the-go interactions on any device.
SlashId is a cybersecurity platform we developed that handles Authentication Security for Developers. As for Zoko, it is a tool for businesses that allows customers to purchase through direct chat on Whatsapp. We have also Bion, a digital platform for aspiring football players. These are just a few of the projects we have delivered recently, but our experience and skilled know-how enable us to take on challenges in the broadest range of fields.
Zoko has been adopted by many companies. Millions of messages, countless orders, and payments are swapped daily.
To learn more about our portfolio and the services we provide, please visit our showcase. We are proud of the work we have done and look forward to continuing to create innovative digital products.
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