Spend less time searching for funding opportunities and more time building your business!
PROBLEM
How might we provide a streamlining process of researching and applying for non-dilutive, non-equity, non-debt funding and resources, often referred to as "free money” to pre-existing Runwei users.
.
Discover
The Process
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Runwei™ is a web application leveraging Applied Intelligence technologies to redefine access to opportunities for socially and economically disadvantaged individuals (SEDI), including entrepreneurs and small business owners. At its core, Runwei™ is designed to identify and address the unique challenges faced by SEDI entrepreneurs, paving the way for success that was previously inaccessible.
Explore opportunities tailored to your startup and current needs.
Calendar tracking and application improvement increasing your odds of success.
USER INTERVIEWS
Streamline the process of accessing funding and building capacity for every founder.
Your hub for all the details required to access key opportunities.
Our team conducted five moderated user interviews with pilot users who had established businesses to gain insights into the challenges they face as business owners. Each interview lasted 20 minutes and was done via video call.
USER PERSONAS
Define
DEFINING THE PROBLEM
Based off of user interviews and surveys our team synthesized three pain points that best defined the problem that entrepreneurs faced when searching for funds. These problems are what deterred experienced and unexperienced business owners from websites like Runwei.
SITE MAP
Post data synthesis from screener surveys and and the given screen designs Runwei provided my team came up with a sitemap that would easily display all available options on one everlasting screen. The goal is to organize all information for entrepreneurs in a way that it is accessible to users at all times and on one page.
GOALS
User Profile Flow
The main thing we changed about the user profile flow was the ability to customize the users profile to best fit their entrepreneurial needs. This way they could match with funding programs or mentos that would be fit their business goals.
Grants and Scholarships Flow
Users can now access all grants and scholarships on one page as well as bookmark both for future use. This eradicates the feeling of having to dig through the site to find what the user needs. The idea was to have all information accessible in three clicks in order to encourage users to explore their opportunities.
Develop
MY MATCHES
Users now have a page where they can see all tailored matches that fit their needs as business owners. They can apply and save matches all on one screen creating a streamlined process.
Deliver
FINDINGS
01 User found the questionnaire too broad and worried about the finding the correct matches.
02 User voiced concern with not being matched with the appropriate resources due to lack of customization.
03 Multiple users were confused by terminology such as “providers” and what the site meant by that.
HIGH FIDELITY SCREENS
DASHBOARD
Customized for users to check their progress on any pending fund applications or keep a track of funding matches.
THE SOLUTION
After engaging in conversation with Runwei pilot users and speaking to already existing entrepreneurs it was clear that majority of the time business owners feel overwhelmed by the amount of information funding platforms contain. Therefore, it was important to create an easy to understand website where all information was available to entrepreneurs at their finger tips. The key highlights are:
Streamlining; creating a seamless and effortless experience for all entrepreneurs to use a funding platform.
Accessible Resources; users were not always aware of the resources readily viable to them and Runwei attempts to combat that issue.
Beat the competition; allowing entrepreneurs to feel as though they have a chance to obtain the funding they require by providing a multitude of opportunities on Runwei.
MEDIA KIT
Our team was given a media kit with a pre-defined look however, we took it upon ourselves to change the color palette in order for the website to better match with the brand attributes.
LOW AND MID FIDELITY SCREENS
Seeing as that Runwei was already a pre-existing company a design template and layout screens were already handed to us. We were then made to build on top of that given the research we had conducted
USER PROFILE
A questionnaire for users setting up their profile to better help their needs and wants. This allows for customization to better fit entrepreneurs goals.
MY RESOURCES
To better help users find the appropriate funding, resources and scholarships that fit their needs.
USABILITY TESTS
Our team ran five moderated usability tests each test lasted between 20-30 minutes. Given our timeframe for this project we were unable to apply the feedback from usability tests to out wireframes. However, we did transfer over all information to Runwei for future changes.
SOLUTION
01 We provided a multi choice option to users for the questionnaire. As a result, it avoided limited them with having to select just one industry.
02 Filters on each page (resources and matches) were created to narrow down the search.
03 Created overlay definitions so that the users hovered over certain clickable the definition of the term would appear.
After conducting usability tests we used user feedback to make changes to the low fidelity screens and then prototyped high fidelity screens with the help of the engineer and delivered to the final screens to the CEO for approval.
TOP BAR NAVIGATION
The original design consisted of a limited top bar navigation. With our revised design users could now access all pages available simply through the top bar.
APPLICATION TRACKING SYSTEM
Users could now keep a track of which grants and scholarships they had applied for and manage the status of their application.
GRANT MANAGMENT
Though the original design did consist of a grants page we utilized user feedback and added contact information and closing date of the grant so users could better prioritize which grants to apply for.
PROFILE CUSTOMIZATION
Users now had access to a customizable profile that consisted of all grants they were matched with, application status and mentors they were working with readily accessible on one page.
NEXT STEPS
Due to time constraints our team ended our work at the low fidelity screens. However, If time allowed there are a few things I would have liked to implement to better streamline the process:
01 Design - Improved the design system, integrating the rule of thirds layout.
02 Navigation - I would have had all navigation go to and from the main portal dashboard. This way the user can access all information and track all progress from the dashboard alone.
03 Terminology - Users repeatedly voiced their concern with lack of knowledge on terminology and therefore I would have liked to create a screen that linked to videos that better explained the syntax.
04 Usability Test - I believe in always running at least three usability tests to cross check user feedback success.
SOLUTION
Enhance the user experience of the Runwei™ platform.
Streamline the application process for small businesses to access capital resources.
Increase user engagement and satisfaction.
Apply user-centric design principles throughout the project.
Revamp the website to enhance user experience with user feedback to improve navigation flow.
ROLE
Worked on a team of three UX Designers to help deliver the following:
Screener Surveys, User Interviews, Wireframes, Usability Testing and Low Fidelity Screens
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
The competitors lacked a system where all resources were readily available to users on one everlasting screen, causing frustration and an overwhelming experience.
Keeping in mind that excessive amount of content was deterring users away from registering for funds or looking for new opportunities we analyzed industries that provided an array of resources for entrepreneurs. We found that majority of the websites contained valuable resources but in an unorganized manner.
My team wanted to build a deeper understanding of our users' goals, needs, experiences, and behaviors. We came up with two key personas that represented the beginner entrepreneur and the experienced business owner. These persona’s were based on user interviews and screener surveys.
USER FLOW
Keeping Runwei’s business goals in mind, we reconstructed three user flows we felt best fit Runwei’s’ needs, taking inspiration from websites that we had compared during competitive analysis.
