The launch of Ckw.ch in February 2023 marked a milestone in the collaboration between Ginetta and CKW, according to a press release. "Ginetta is our partner in the field of human-centered design. We want to offer our customers the best possible experience when it comes to our digital products - together with Ginetta, we are setting new standards in this area," says Carlo Schenker, Head of Digital Marketing & Experience at CKW.
The new CKW website has a completely new information architecture and user interface and is optimized for mobile use. With the new website as a digital gateway, the basis for a customer-centric, digital ecosystem has been created, it continues. The focus was on the revised, topic-oriented information architecture, new user guidance, revised SEO content, improved performance and optimized mobile use.
After the relaunch, several new projects are on the roadmap for 2024, which are to be rolled out gradually.
Harmonization of all digital touchpoints
Ginetta is working on a design system to seamlessly integrate other CKW products into the new design across all digital touchpoints. "After a holistic analysis of all digital products, we have created an advanced design system that is consistent for all digital touchpoints and scalable for the future," explains UX Designer Kenji Nguyen.
The Design System is a collection of reusable components and clear standards for creating any number of applications. They are intended to help with the efficient design and development of digital products - such as mobile applications or websites.
New customer portal "MyCKW"
The customer-centric customer portal "MyCKW", with which CKW wants to offer its customers a "simple and clear tool" for administrative matters and for saving energy, is also to be developed this year.
From a customer perspective, the requirements for the portal are diverse: from simple households that want to check their electricity consumption and bills once a year, to power users with their own solar system, to companies that pay close attention to their energy consumption. The agency therefore focused on an intensive, multi-stage testing process with users. "This allowed us to ensure that we integrated all customer needs and maximized the user-friendliness of the portal for all target groups," explains Mila Sevilla Zhou, UX Designer at Ginetta.
Intelligent energy networking through ZEV
In another project, Ginetta is working with CKW on a participant portal for self-consumption associations (ZEV). This involves several end consumers joining together to use their self-produced electricity from a solar installation.
The participant portal is designed to provide various insights. On the one hand, users can see their consumption of electricity, heat and water at a glance and compare it with different time intervals such as days, weeks or the previous year. On the other hand, the app gives them an overview of the solar system's electricity production and ZEV's grid consumption. Helpful summaries round off the app: information on how many bathtubs of water have been used or when the best time is for electricity-intensive appliances, as there is a lot of solar power available.
Responsible at CKW: Carlo Schenker (Head of Digital Marketing & Experience), Angela Steffen (Head of MarCom Analytics & CX), Viktoria de Koning (Manager Web Development & Integration), Deniz Erdal (Manager Marketing Web Content), Marco Korradi (Product Owner App & Portal), Thomas Haas (Customer Life Time Manager), Mira Caso (Head of Customer Contact Center), Laura Odermatt (Digital Marketing Manager), Martin Waldau (Senior Digital Project & Campaign Manager), Debora Baumgartner, Andreas Pfister (Product Lead Energy Management & Billing), Marcel Weder (Business Engineer). Responsible at Ginetta: Mila Sevilla Zhou (UX Design), Niklas Mellmann (UX Design), Jiske van Straaten (Strategy), Franziska Luthiger (UX Research), Kenji Nguyen (UX Design), Alexa Stirnimann (UX Research), Corina Bertschi (UX Design), Kilian Hodel (UX Design), Leila Strebel (UX Writing), Maïla Wyssmüller (Project Management), Andreas Strebler (Visual Design), Sofian Bettayeb (Growth), Stefanie Mocka (Client Partner & Head of Business).
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With Frank Neff, Ginetta strengthens its management with an expert in software and product development. He takes over the technical management and completes the management team: In addition to founder Simon Raess, Ilona Dürler (Design), Philippe Wicki (Strategy), and Benjamin Gütt (Business), who has been on board since February, are part of the team. (advertisingweek.ch reported), to Ginetta's management team. Neff joins from Docbox, where he also served as CTO. The company specializes in the digitization of the healthcare industry.
After completing an apprenticeship as an EFZ computer scientist, Frank Neff initially worked as a software developer for various agencies and Swiss radio and television. His further path led him into product development, especially in the field of eHealth and digital media. Later, Frank Neff worked as a team leader in a software agency, which became the Digital Accelerator of PwC Switzerland.
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Benjamin Gütt brings more than 15 years of experience in the digital industry and business development. As Managing Partner at Ginetta, he takes over the leadership of the business team, which consists of Marketing and Sales.
Yet his background for his new role is anything but usual: Gütt started his career in the hotel industry at the age of 14 and worked for several years as a chef in restaurants in various countries. "During this time, I acquired important qualities such as commitment, perseverance and creativity," says Gütt. In addition, the hotel industry taught him the importance of attention to detail and customer service, which he believes are essential qualities for success in the digital world.
After graduating in Business Administration from Les Roches Crans-Montana Global Hospitality management school, he moved to Berlin for a few years where he scaled various startups. Most recently, Benjamin was Vice President of Sales at Orderfox, a digital platform for buyers and manufacturers in the CNC industry.
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For several years, various Basel-based companies such as Endress+Hauser, Roche, BIS and Bayer have been in Ginetta's portfolio. In order to be closer to its local customers, the agency is establishing a location in Basel in 2023. "We want to strengthen digitalization in the Basel area and are convinced that with our expertise in digital strategy, UX design and software engineering, we can ideally complement the thriving local digital business," says Ginetta founder Simon Raess.
Peter Whinyates will set up the new site. The 44-year-old Basel native with English roots joined Ginetta in mid-November. Most recently, he was Managing Partner at the Wondrous agency in Basel and Global Creative Strategist at Art Basel. Prior to that, he spent almost five years at Team Marketing in Lucerne, where he was responsible for the design of the UEFA Champions League. Since graduating in Process Design at HyperWerk, Whinyates has been involved with several start-ups and, since 2020, has been working on the digitalization of the art world on the side as co-founder of the association "The Literoom".
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As founder of the Bern-based agency Achtung! in 2002, Urs Heer actively helped shape the digital revolution and provided both strategic and creative advice to well-known companies. Among other things, he was responsible for the overall global presence of the FIVB Fédération Internationale de Volleyball, for which Achtung! prevailed in a pitch against major international agencies such as Ogilvy. When he felt the urge for a change of scenery after sixteen years, Urs Heer first considered retraining as a paramedic. But then agency life didn't let him go.
"What excites me most about Ginetta is the prospect of working with an international team to implement cool, holistic projects - from strategy to the finished product," explains Heer. He is also looking forward to further expanding the site in his hometown. "We believe that Bern has a lot of potential as a business location. With our team, we can offer our customers a personal, high-quality service on site. As an experienced and extremely successful creative strategist, Urs is the perfect fit," emphasizes Simon Raess, founder of Ginetta.
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The PostFinance app is designed to give users the feeling that banking processes do not have to be complex and tedious. "Mobile banking mostly happens on the go. You don't have much time there. That's why we wanted to make the app as efficient as possible," explains Martin von Siebenthal from Ginetta. On the home screen, only those actions are displayed that are actually used frequently, such as account balance, payment and transfer functions, and notifications.
Banking app as a digital flagship
Mobile banking is playing an increasingly important role. This is also changing the significance of banking apps. For banks, they are becoming an important digital flagship. "The app stands out not only in use, but also visually. It clearly feels like PostFinance without putting the brand too prominently in the foreground," explains Jessica Müller, designer at Ginetta. Ginetta deliberately stuck to the familiar PostFinance yellow and complemented it with the contrasting color petrol.
50 Shades of Petrol
One of the important new features is the Dark Mode, which allows users to comfortably operate the app in the dark. However, instead of the usual black and white, different shades of dark petrol were used.
Blume studied psychology in Germany and the USA, specializing in industrial and organizational psychology. From 2001, he led the User Centered Design team at Swisscom Innovations, where he met Ginetta founder Simon Raess. In 2007, he moved to Stimmt, where he first worked as a project manager, later as a methodology specialist. From 2014 to 2020, he taught and researched at the Institute of Marketing Management at ZHAW in Winterthur as a lecturer for Customer Experience Management.
In addition to his position as Senior User Researcher at Ginetta, Blume continues to teach Qualitative User Research in the CAS Service Design & Innovation and the CAS Business Analysis and Methods at the ZHAW. At the University of Applied Sciences in Rapperswil, he also supervises students of the MAS Human Computer Interaction Design (HCID) in their master's theses.
As a psychologist, Blume is always diving deep into the world of the user to explore habits, needs and goals of different application groups. At Ginetta, he will use the findings from his studies to work with designers to create customized user interfaces. He has already been contributing his expertise to initial Ginetta projects since March 1, 2020, such as those for Ikea and Endress+Hauser.
Founders Simon Raess and Frank Salathé had already been busy building up a team for the capital since 2018. On Thursday, the Bern office was officially opened in a central location.
The six-strong team in Bern now forms Ginetta's second Swiss location alongside Zurich. The little Bernese sister of the headquarters in Zurich offers twelve workstations and also specializes in user-centered design and front-end development.
Ilona Baier is the new Managing Director at Ginetta. Simon Raess is once again increasingly taking care of strategic tasks.
With just under fifty employees in Zurich and Bern, Ginetta is now one of the leading digital agencies in Switzerland. In the future, founder and owner Simon Raess would like to focus even more intensively on the strategic development of the company. That is why he is handing over operational management to Ilona Baier.
Ilona Baier is a longtime employee of Ginetta and has been instrumental in the digital agency's success, according to a statement. "Ilona is the right person for this role. It's a good feeling to have such a competent person as managing director of Ginetta," Raess explains. Now he is looking forward to being "less involved in day-to-day operations and thus having more time again for strategic tasks," Raess says.
Ilona Baier joined Ginetta in 2015 as Senior Interaction Designer. She holds an MAS in Human Computer Interaction Design and teaches all aspects of digital product development at several Swiss colleges and universities, including HSG St. Gallen. Baier has been taking on responsible tasks at Ginetta for a long time: She has overall responsibility for several successful large-scale projects, provides strategic advice to customers and supports the management team. Founder Simon Raess has systematically prepared her for her new role over the past few years. The change to Managing Director is the next logical step.
Last Friday evening, the agency celebrated its tenth birthday with around 200 guests at the "Daizy" in Binz in bright weather. Ginetta looks back on an eventful ten years and a journey full of challenges, insights, successes and above all joy. Simon Raess founded the company exactly ten years ago - more as a crazy idea, as he likes to call it. Back then, a team of two moved into two desks in a studio in Bern's Matte district. Today, Ginetta has over 40 employees at its offices in Zurich and Bern and is one of Switzerland's leading digital agencies.
Simon Raess thanked those present and expressed great gratitude that he has to deal with inspiring people every single day: On the one hand, talented colleagues who put their heart and soul into exciting projects, and on the other hand, committed clients from all industries in Switzerland who drive digital innovation - what more could you want?
Back to the roots: Simon Raess founded the digital agency Ginetta in Bern over nine years ago. The head office has been in Zurich since 2012. Today, Ginetta has forty employees, two of them in Porto and one in Hamburg. Now Ginetta is returning to its roots and building a new team in Bern.
"As a native of Bern, I know that many Bernese companies prefer a local partner. They appreciate the regular, personal contact," says founder Simon Raess. "We had been toying with the idea of offering our services in Bern for some time. With Frank Salathé as our design strategist, we have found the right person to set up the new location." Salathé, also from Bern, previously held management positions at several renowned agencies and completed a Master's degree in Human Computer Interaction Design at the University of Applied Sciences in Rapperswil in 2013.
Since December 2017, the digital agency in Bern has already acquired its first new clients and projects. A small, powerful team offers the same services in the federal city as in Zurich: Ginetta advises companies from all industries on digital product development and creates fast, beautiful and intuitive apps and websites using user-centered methods. The search for additional talent in research and design for the Bern location has already begun.
Filmcoopi Zurich has been synonymous with high-quality film enjoyment for 45 years. The legendary Filmcoopi rental credits from 1992 is known far beyond the Swiss film industry. The Filmcoopi Zurich is associated with long, entertaining movie evenings. The digital agency Ginetta was commissioned to redesign the website. The aim was to create a user-friendly website with a film library and sophisticated search function and to simplify the booking process. On a visual level, the unique aura of the traditional company was to be conveyed.
On the new platform, cinemas can browse through the entire film library online, view trailers, photos and film details and submit a request for a film screening using a simple form. The catalog can be easily searched by keyword or filtered according to specific criteria.
Ginetta has used a new backend technology to enable Filmcoopi Zurich to manage content conveniently online - a so-called "headless content management system" (Cockpit). This not only offers more creative flexibility when creating a page, but the user experience for content administrators is also much more intuitive than with conventional CMSs.