SUMMARY
There is a hole in the market for finding black owned businesses, and this needs to change. I want to create an application that allows users to find, locate and support local black businesses in their area. In addition to helping users locate and support black businesses we want to increase and boost black entrepreneurship.
MY ROLE
I was the sole UX Designer responsible for ideating solutions, creating a high-fidelity prototype and testing for future iterations. I utilized the double-diamond process, which involved 4 phases:
1. Discover
2. Define
3. Develop
4. Define​
Roles: UX Design, UX Research, Prototyping & Testing
Deliverables: Competitive Analysis, Personas, User Flow, Empathy/Journey Maps, Digital Wireframes, Hi-Fidelity Prototype
Tools: Google Forms, Miro, Figma
HIGH LEVEL TIMELINE
4-Week Design Sprint
MAKE OF THE TEAM
Sole UX Designer
KEY GOAL
Deliver the hi-fidelity prototype to the client
PROBLEM
There is no application that is widely used, that locates black businesses in one location. The market currently requires users to type “black” before locating a business.
AUDIENCE
SOLUTION
Our targeted audience is quite broad, as the goal is to be as inclusive as possible. However, after conducting research we found the majority of participants fall under the 18-35 age range. Overall we are targeting those who want to help support black businesses.
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​Design an application that allows users to easily locate black businesses near their location, with different categories and location markers.
Discovery & Research
SURVEY DATA
I conducted this survey with 42 participants and received vital information. Some of the key takeaways were:
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71% of participants feel that black businesses are not currently represented in the American business world
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95% of participants feel that there is NOT an app that currently focuses on black entrepreneurship
Based on these key takeaways I concluded that users want an application where they can locate black businesses around them, find/ be able to write reviews, and be directed to that company's website or social media pages. I kept all of these things in mind when building my MVP while ensuring that I keep a minimalist and simplistic design that can be used for the scope of my audience which ranges from 18-35.
Another take away from my data that helped me further develop HB4U was user feedback that I needed to include what this application would look like from a business perspective and show how a user would go about listing their business
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USER INTERVIEWS
I found our user interviews to be a bit better at fully understanding the pain points of our users.
USER INTERVIEWS
The following are some quotes from our interviewees:
"I am tired of having to search black in front of everything”
“I shouldn’t have to go to multiple different platforms to find one thing”
“I want an app that knows me, knows that I like to get my nails and hair done, and knows where I like to shop.”
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
(S) Plethora of options to choose from.
(W) Not inclusive in those options, only show black businesses during Black History Month.
(O) Create a platform that locates black businesses; entrepreneurs and corporations. We want to implement an option that allows users to "follow" certain businesses that they are interested in and receive updates, sales, etc.​
(T) Miiriya has similar platform but only shopping and similar to Etsy.
PERSONAS
Our personas came from our research and share similarities. Their motivations:
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“I want to increase awareness of black businesses”
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“I want to connect with other black business owners”
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“I want to have an app that hosts all types of black businesses in one place”
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I created two personas for this project:
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Consumer
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Business Owner
DEFINE
USER FLOW
The user flow deliverable is a universal document that product managers and team members can agree upon. It is detailed higher than the user journey map and shows the clearest way through our product in the simplest way. This document also takes all design out of the equation and focuses on pure action.
Here we went through 2 flows:
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The first flow shows a user finding a black owned restaurant
The second flow shows a user who is trying to list their business on HB4U
SKETCHES
I took the most popular categories from my surveys/interviews and decided to add a more screen, something that can still be used without the location but if you want to personalize the experience you do need to allow the location and create an account.
DEVELOP
WIREFRAMES
PROTOTYPE (V1)
As I was designing the prototype in Figma, I wanted to confirm that the users' needs from the user stories were met.
DEFINE
USABILITY TESTING
WHO DID WE TEST?
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People who want to support black businesses but have trouble finding them
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Black business owners in RVA
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Small entrepreneurs in RVA
WHAT DID WE TEST?
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How did the flow of the app feel?
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Take me through how you would find a black owned business.
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Were the pictures necessary for helping you navigate through the app?
KEY TAKEAWAYS
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Covered all the main categories
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Easy to navigate through
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Simplistic but provided the information participants were looking for
AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT
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add a “back” button
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add “all categories” page
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Add a “me”/ profile page
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Add an entrepreneur page
PROTOTYPE (V2)
Final iterations of prototype:
TITLE OF THE CALLOUT BLOCK
LESSONS LEARNED
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Inclusiveness in tech is just as important as any other UX/UI feature.
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It’s ok to not be a perfectionist and it’s okay if a design does not work out 100% perfectly
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Sprints show that all designs have merit but some may not be feasible in its current form and/or may need more research
NEXT STEPS
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Focus on developing what app would look like from a business/entrepreneur side
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Inserting a way for businesses to list themselves
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Incorporating an analytics section
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Screening process to list black businesses to prove authenticity
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GPS system to locate businesses near user