Another exciting year at Human Element has come to a close. Before we say good-bye to 2015, we’d like to take a moment to look back at all the success we had this last year and savor the goodness one more time. Here are our top ten wins for 2015, in no particular order, of course.

1. We brought lots of new employees into the Human Element family.

Human Element Holiday Finery

This is all of us in our holiday best.

Human Element just keeps growing. Over the course of this past year, we hired two new full-time project managers, as well as three new full-time developers. We hired a store manager to help our Magento clients manage their products more efficiently, and she quickly moved from part-time to full-time. We also hired an intern to help out around the office with the hard stuff, like changing passwords and washing dishes. Our team has grown even smarter and more collaborative over the past year, and it’s awesome to see everyone get better.


2. We launched a new Magento website for Andalou Naturals.

Andalou_Naturals_and_Untitled

Super responsive, super moisturizing.

Andalou Naturals came to us early in the year looking for a fresh design and new functionality for their Magento store. We’re really proud of how this project turned out, and we continue to work with Andalou on a monthly basis to help them build new functionality.

 

 


3. We won our second consecutive Fast Track Award from Ann Arbor SPARK.

Human Element Fast Track Award

We look good when we put our fancy pants on.

Ann Arbor SPARK is one of the sponsors of the Annual MLive Deals of the Year event. Every year, they honor the Ann Arbor-area businesses that display exceptional growth by presenting them with a FastTrack Award. For the second year in a row, Human Element won one of these awards for growth. Nearly the whole Human Element team attended the black tie event. We decided to call it Nerd Prom.

 

 


4. We helped Gem Network right their Magento ship.

Gem Shopping Network

Up next… Studs!

Gem Shopping Network came to us in the spring looking for help. Their site was slow, buggy, and they were having trouble using some of the native Magento functionality.  We put on our consulting caps, and we were able to help them resolve a number of their issues. Their site runs much more consistently now that we’ve helped them smooth over some of the day-to-day hassles they were experiencing with performance. We’re working closely with them these days on new functionality and recently helped them build a new homepage template. We’re really proud of the fact that we were able to help them stabilize their site so they can focus on growing and marketing their business.


5. We became Bigcommerce Enterprise Certified Partners.

Bigcommerce Certified Partners

Tajer and I are really excited about this.

Human Element sent team members to Austin in November for Bigcommerce Enterprise team training. We are one of the first companies to be Certified Partners. We believe this exciting platform is poised to explode in 2016. From Stencil (their brand new templating engine) to their robust native features, to all the off-the-shelf integrations available in their app store, this platform is a real contender for Enterprise clients to consider when building a new store. On top of all that, we’ve developed a strong relationship with the Bigcommerce team, and we’re looking forward to working even more with them in 2016.

 


6. We launched a new Magento website for BankSupplies.

BankSupplies wanted a basic Magento website to offer their products to B2B customers. We worked with their team to design some custom product types to accommodate their needs, as well as a near-to-realtime integration with Netsuite. We launched the new website this summer, and continue to work with BankSupplies on new functionality and maintenance.

 


7. We on-boarded a ton of new Magento support clients.

Expressions Vinyl

Our Newest Client: Expressions Vinyl

Often, we’ve found that ongoing monthly support and maintenance for complex Magento websites is just as important as a large build for a new store.  This year, we grew our portfolio of monthly maintenance clients with some impressive brands, including Title Boxing, Cherry Republic, Expressions Vinyl, Forshaw, and Uckele. We’re excited to continue these new relationships into 2016 and see how they evolve.

 


8. We launched several cool new stores for the Homedics brand.

Sol Republic Headphones - New Magento Store

Slick, right?

You may know Homedics only as a relaxation and massage company, but the Homedics umbrella includes a ton of other cool audio and home good brands, including The House of Marley, Jam Audio, HMDX Audio, Salter, and most recently Sol Republic. This year, Human Element launched two new stores for Homedics, including BlissBeautyTools.com and SolRepublic.com, as well as a redesign for JamAudio.com. Human Element continues to work closely with the Homedics eCommerce team to develop and release new functionality, and is working on several big projects for 2016.

 


9. We released updated templates for long-time clients GW Kent and Hannoush.

GW Kent - Redesign

Makes brewing look even cooler.

Human Element has been working with both GW Kent and Hannoush as a Magento maintenance partner for some time. This year, both companies decided to pursue a more modern, responsive look and feel, as well as an upgrade for the GW Kent site. Both saw significant improvement in their user experience by moving to a responsive template, and we are proud of how both of these projects turned out.

 

 


10. Siena Heights won a Major Award for a thing we built.

Siena Heights Award

A Major Award!

Siena Heights University has been a Human Element client for more than 10 years. Naturally, we were stoked when they won an Honorable Mention award for the Find a Program page that we built for their website last year. The feature allows potential students to find out what programs are available by campus, interest, and different activities.  They were up against some fierce competition, including University of  Michigan, Notre Dame, and others large schools. Congratulations to our friends at Siena Heights on their win.

 


What will 2016 bring?

We see more rip-roaring adventures on the horizon for Human Element. Our staff and client roster continues to grow. Soon we’ll be looking for a new office space to fit all these new people and ideas. We’re excited about the evolving partnership we have with Bigcommerce, and we’re looking forward to expanding our existing partnerships – Nexcess, Bronto, Nucleus Commerce, and others. Growing our knowledge of Magento 2 will be an important piece of the puzzle in the coming year.

We can’t wait.