Started by two Singaporean serial entrepreneurs Ben Ho and Melly Fong, MockVault is a platform which lets you manage your designs before presenting them professionally to your clients.
It was launched just a couple of weeks back on February 17, and is Ben and Melly’s third project together. They are also running a web design business at Hex and web application for project management at SUBERNOVA. The idea didn’t just fall from the sky just like that — rather it struck them after numerous rounds of iterative efforts on their presentation interface to build a backend administrative platform to upload, arrange and annotate mockups. They wanted to share this application with other designers and to help them improve their workflow.
Ben elaborates:
To increase the the likelihood of your client approving your design, it is crucial to guide your client through the design to make them see it the way you do. With MockVault, annotation features are built in so that you can easily add explanation notes over your design. Discussions can also be done right in the presentation interface which provides better context than email. MockVault is built on PHP, HTML, CSS3 and Javascript.
MockVault is a platform designed by designers for designers. They have tried several ways of presenting their designs to clients, and they found that different methods actually yield different approval results. Ben says that MockVault was the best way to present designs to their clients. Prior to releasing this, they were already testing the presentation interface with clients for more than a year and it appeared to improve approval rates drastically.
At present, MockVault works on a freemium model and allows upload of one design with unlimited pages and versions. Users can upgrade to one of three paid plans should they need to upload more designs. The paid plans also let users upload their own logos or use their own domains. This allows designers to maintain their identity while presenting their designs to clients.
This startup reminds me a little of Mocku.ps which participated in our recent Startup Arena, but offers more features needed to manage and present designs. Users can look at how their designs have evolved over time and keep track of their version history, which allows them to have a little self-discovery as they become more experienced with designing.
In Ben’s words,
Extra care is taken on the presentation interface so that it is easy for clients to view, make comments and ultimately, approve the design.
Designers, take a tour of MockVault below and let us know what you think.