VENTE
MOBILE APP DESIGN
Vente connects women entrepreneurs globally to mentors, mentees, and investors to bridge the gap in funding for women-owned businesses.
ROLE
UX/UI Design
User Research
User Testing
SOFTWARE
Sketch
Invision
Photoshop
CLIENT
VENTE
DURATION
4 Weeks
Prototyping
Branding
Sources: Business News Daily- Women Entrepreneur Challenges
Inc-30 Surprising Facts About Female Founders
Census- Women Business Ownership In America On Rise
THE OVERVIEW
THE back story
The brief that was given to us was that the local scene is experiencing an overload of shareable information. Today's consumers are over saturated with local events, meet-ups, and group activities. Despite the endless sea of happenings, people continue to struggle to find activities that align with their personal interests. Instead of creating an app with broad groups, events and meetups, I narrowed it down to create a meetup app for women entrepreneurs and investors.
​
An annual report based on U.S. Census Bureau found that over the past five years, the number of women-owned businesses increased 21%, while all other businesses increased only 9%. 48% female founders report that a lack of available advisors and mentors limits their professional growth. However, a 2019 Columbia Business School Study found that female- led ventures are 63% percent less likely to receive Venture Capital (VC) Fundings.
THE problem
The challenges women-owned businesses face are the lack of Venture Capital funding, solid support networks, and access to resources like their male-owned business counterparts.
THE solution
Design an app that builds a community for women entrepreneurs to learn, grow, fellowship, and find investors for their businesses with the unwavering support to thrive.
EVALUATING THE USER FLOW
Vente provided the original wireframes that were reviewed and analyzed to improve the user's experience. Upon conducting the wireframe evaluation there were a few changes that needed to be implemented to tailor the user flow and wireframes specifically to the women's entrepreneur networking app. User flow pdf.
1
3
2
4
6
5
1.
The onboarding, search, and homepage needed a combination of grids, carousels, and highlighted targeted events for the user.
2.
The onboarding page accordion menu was replaced with simple back and next buttons.
3.
The interest page was redundant with the categories and the meetup onboarding pages were unnecessary.
4.
Visual interest was added to the navigation bar, including changing the message icon to be more user-friendly.
5.
The message page was changed to display message times, dates, and number of messages. The additional changes also highlighted people online and showed unviewed messages.
6.
A calendar was added to the alerts page to display the user's upcoming events and meetings.
USER PERSONA
Meet Elle:
The Newbie Female Entrepreneur
My research insights helped form the target user group for VENTE.
VENTE Audience
VENTE is targeted towards women entrepreneurs between the ages of 20-40 desiring to network, connect, find investors, and join groups in the interest of expanding their businesses. It’s for the large and small female business owners who are open to sharing their knowledge of “the secret sauce” to help other female entrepreneurs in the success of their businesses.
RESEARCH
MEETUP APPS ON THE MARKET
I began conducting a competitive analysis of the current meetup apps on the market Eventbrite, Meetup, Fever, and All Events. I analyzed and compiled design market research that closely aligned with VENTE's growth and user experience. This step was necessary to determine what layout would best meet the needs of the brand and their prospective users.
.jpg)
do's
1.
While conducting my research I noticed that 50% of the apps had clean, simple and modern layouts.
2.
The navigation and the iconography were clear and easily understandable.
3.
50% of the apps on the market used the right amount of white space to ensure the user could focus on the content without being overloaded with events.
dont's
1.
From my observations with a few of the apps, it was completely overwhelming to find an event.
2.
Too many CTA colors were used, which made the apps seem busy.
3.
Some apps chose to use only carousels, which I found hard to read and focus on one event.
Key Takeaways
1.
LAYOUTS: The layouts should be simple and easy to read.
3.
COLOR PALETTE: Keep the color palette and information minimal.
2.
HIGHLIGHT RECOMMENDED EVENT: Highlight an event for the user, and use a combination of carousels, lists, and grids.
4.
ICONS: Ensure icons are easy to understand. Icons should be self-explanatory.
VISUAL DIRECTION
I wanted the visuals for Vente to be clean, and sophisticated with the style of fashion magazines. The goal for this moodboard, style tile and active imagery was designed to evoke the feeling of collaboration that speaks to today’s modern entrepreneurial woman.
Magazine Moodboard
1.
Collage scattered photographs to emulate today’s modern fashion magazines.
2.
The feedback received on the mood board said that it looked messy.
Magazine Style Tile
3.
Based on the feedback for the moodboard, the style tile layout was designed to be clean and organized.
EXPLORING SOLUTIONS
The first iteration for the mid fidelity design was designed to feel clean and easy to read. Since there were no user interviews on the user flow original designs, I wanted to use the exact wireframes provided in order to get a more thorough scope of the foundational problems with the wireframes structure.
USER INTERVIEWS
I conducted user interviews with 4 participants to evaluate Vente's original screens provided. The first iteration of this app went as planned, the feedback received from the user testing was incredibly insightful and led to some design changes.
.jpg)
1.
BUILD OUT: I gained insight into the user based on the feedback, which brought clarity to what features could be built out.
2.
LAYOUTS/ COLORS Participants weren't fond of the gradient color scheme and felt the layout didn't feel polished.
3.
SCREENS: Participants gave insight into how the interest page, home, and messages page lacked information and detail.
4.
IMAGERY: The imagery used received positive feedback, the users felt the images matched the brand as well as made a connection to the audience.
BUILDING THE VENTE APP
Turning a Entrepreneur Meet App Concept into a Functional App
I conducted user interviews and received some insightful feedback. Went back to the drawing board and created a detailed list of problems from the original VENTE app design as well as goals I was hoping to achieve with the new design direction. I decided to refine the 6 key focuses and added 3 additional features to the VENTE app…
1.
REDESIGN
The interest page was discarded because the information wasn't pertinent for the onboarding. After the user interviews and feedback, the rest of the screens were redesigned to better display content.
2.
CAROUSELS & GRIDS
The onboarding pages were improved upon by using the carousel design pattern to better display the meetings.​
3.
NAVIGATION BAR
The color black was added to the navigation bar, selected icons are now highlighted and redesigned to be interactive.
4.
COLOR
The black becomes more prominent in the design. Instead of the blue-orange gradient, old rose pink became the new secondary color. The color is perfect; it catches the eye and compliments the black and white.
Additional Features
5.
MORE MEETINGS
The new grid layout was designed to display more meetings to the user.
6.
highlighted events
The search and homepage were redesigned to highlight recommended or trending meetings for the specific user. The highlighted events will be based on the user's location and meetings of their interest.
7.
in app presence
My approach to building out the message board was to highlight important messages while creating a desirable modern design. I focused on the user viewing part of the unread messages as well as seeing dates/times of when the messages were received and who is currently active online.
8.
Detailed Profile
The profile screen needed to display the user's contact information, background and their group involvement.
9.
Alerts page
The calendar design was an added feature to the alerts page which was redesigned to create visual clarity on meeting dates and for the user to preview next month's activities.
FINAL VENTE SOLUTION
Below is a complete look at the screens I created for the VENTE app.
NEXT STEPS
I conducted another user interview for the final product and the following steps recommended to perfect the app are the following:
1.
BOLD: Bold the headings on the images so that it's easier for the user to read.
2.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Add a description of the event to the viewed meeting page.
3.
SEARCH PAGE: Users found that the search page served the same purpose as the homepage. I would omit the search page and replace it with another added feature for the growing app.
4.
STORIES/ LIVES: Adding this feature would allow users and groups to create stories. These stories could be about knowledge, opportunities, and access to attend meetings live.
REFLECTIONS
The Vente project taught me to conduct more in depth user interviews. Ask the deeper level questions instead of the surface level questions to gain a thorough understanding of the users needs and wants. Conducting user interviews on the wireframes that were provided gave insight on changes that needed to be implemented.
By conducting the interview, it took the guesswork out of designing the project. Designing with the user in mind, is all about researching the prospective user. As the designer you have to determine what is useful to the user flow and when designing, you should always design with the intention of the user in mind.
latest projects
