StartupWind

Throughout this endeavor, my framework includes user-centered design because I wanted to consider users' needs to create a positive product experience. This way, I could help them efficiently fulfill their goals, while creating value for the business.

Research: Literature Review

In terms of the problem I was addressing, some business articles and resources from my literature review shed light on the fact that founders of startups and SMBs generally tend to have much difficulty in starting and sustaining their businesses. 

Challenges of Entrepreneurs

• Difficulty starting and sustaining their businesses

• Key issues include the lack of mentorship, business planning, and general business know-how

Key Statistics

• To overcome such obstacles, for instance, entrepreneurs can greatly benefit from having a mentor who can guide and help them take their knowledge to the next level. 

• In fact, a study by Endeavor Insight revealed that “33% of tech firm founders who are mentored by successful entrepreneurs went on to become top performers”

• In another study, researchers looked at over a thousand startups, and discovered that entrepreneurs who plan are more likely to create viable new ventures. Specifically, “entrepreneurs who write formal plans are 16% more likely to achieve viability than the otherwise identical nonplanning entrepreneurs” 

UX Best Practices + Design Principles

Additionally, I referred to an informative article on UX best practices for mobile app design and Don Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things. I applied the guidance they shared by considering user needs to create a product that balances aesthetics and functionality, and is as intuitive as possible.

• Consider user needs to create a positive product experience 

• Balance aesthetics and functionality

• Design consistency (layout, color, typography)

• Prioritize UI elements

• Intuitive scrolling - Horizontal (catalog of items), Vertical (page content)

• Bottom navigation bar (5 icons max)

• Make interactive elements recognizable (eg. buttons)

• Beyond just logic, psychology and art play a role as well (eg. affordances, signifiers, etc.)

Overall, the literature review helped me get some important context about the problems that entrepreneurs face and how to create a UI that could solve their problems with as little friction as possible.

Research: Comparative Analysis

Through a comparative analysis, I was able to see how my organization differs from direct and indirect competitors. These included those that provide a smaller portion of features and offerings than our organization. With this knowledge of similar products, I tried to make my solution as unique and meaningful as possible. 

Research: User Interviews

Prior to this project, StartupWind had already initiated research on the mobile app idea by conducting customer interviews. Leveraging these existing findings provided me with valuable insights into user backgrounds, experiences with the web platform, motivations, goals, challenges, and preferences. Combining this with my literary analysis and comparative research deepened my understanding of the market and user needs.

Research: Insights

For example, here is one of the insights that showed me which features users value most. When asked about the single most helpful feature, 3/6 Entrepreneurs said courses, 2 said mentoring, and 1 said Accelerators. As for the Mentors, 4/6 valued mentoring most, while the other 2 said Marketplace.

Knowing these preferences helped me see which features to include in the app.

When asked about the importance of a new StartupWind app, 83% of Entrepreneurs and 67% of Mentors ranked it very important. Meanwhile, 17% of Entrepreneurs and 34% of Mentors ranked it important

Findings like these continued to reinforce to me that my solution is necessary. 

However, this was the most surprising finding. The feature that most Entrepreneurs stated they would not use on the mobile app is Business Plan creation. 

One notable quote from an SMB Cofounder in the Healthcare industry is that:

“I really can't imagine editing my business plan on my phone. I usually do that on my computer and I'm used to it. My time is limited, but if I could free it up by doing simple things like checking my inbox or accessing courses, I'd appreciate that.”

This insight showed me that people want to be able to do quick yet essential tasks from their phones and do longer tasks like business planning from their computers.

Define: User Personas

Overall, by compiling my findings from the research, I constructed and defined user personas. This way, I was able to better empathize and understand their motivations, challenges, and goals.

Ideate: User Flow

After taking the user personas into account, I constructed a user flow that allowed me to see the bigger picture at a high level. With this perspective, I was able to create viable navigation for the product and minimize friction in the overall process. Another key benefit was that I could avoid causing unintentional dead-ends for our users.

Ideate: Sketches

Next, starting with rough, initial sketches gave me an understanding of how to visualize the features and icons in our interface.  It also provided the flexibility to make quick changes and get feedback on my ideas.

Due to limited time, I had to skip some sketches and directly build some screens in Figma, which led me to low-fidelity wireframes.

Ideate: Lo-Fi Wireframes

Constructing low-fidelity wireframes using my existing sketches was beneficial because I could further refine the layout by moving on to Figma. 

As for the other screens without sketches, I tried adapting to the constraint by skipping this step and starting with high-fidelity.

Although I’m quite familiar with Figma, it was challenging to not have sketches to rely on. Still, I would say that being familiar with the StartupWind product definitely helped me get my designs done in time. 

Ideate: Branding

As I made the wireframes, I made sure to keep branding in mind. In fact, Startupwind was planning to rebrand soon, so I was allowed to experiment with the styles. Because of this, I kept our primary and secondary colors but did create 2 linear gradients and used them in the designs and logo.

I also changed the typeface from a bubbly Gotham Rounded to a more sleek PingFang that has more versatile font weights and better aligns with the sharpness of our logo.

Ideate: Hi-Fi Wireframes

Over time, by constantly building upon the initial concepts, I eventually got to the high-fidelity wireframes.

Ideate: Interactive Prototype

My entire design process led to one of my most important deliverables for this project, an interactive prototype made in Figma. Paying close attention to detail while keeping the bigger picture in mind, I carefully crafted interactions for Onboarding, the Entrepreneur Flow, and the Mentor Flow.