The Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians Economic Development Corporation
The Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians Economic Development Corporation helps to create economic opportunities for Tribes of the Pacific Northwest and individual tribal members through business loans. By supporting local entrepreneurs, ATNI-EDC aims to create jobs and build wealth within tribal communities. In this project, I aided in the process of redesigning the website to make the website more user friendly.
Problem
We have observed that many people feel unequipped and overwhelmed when going through the loan application process due to the large amount of information and lack of clear definitions. As it stands, ATNI-EDC's form provides no guidance on their loan application process.
The Objective
Solution
We believe that creating a simple and easy-to-understand loan application process will help to develop financial literacy and expand economic opportunities within Native American communities in the Pacific Northwest, as well as make ATNI-EDC a more prolific loan servicer amongst Native entrepreneurs.
My Position
UX Researcher
UX Designer
UI Designer
Tools Used
Miro
Figma
Trello
Slack
Google Drive
Timeframe
3 weeks
Team Members
Nyssa Schulz-Rodriguez
Kelly Robert
Cami Scofield
Sabrina Dinh (Me)
RESEARCH
Proto Persona
The first step of the research process was to create a Proto Persona who we believe the user would be.
Direct/Indirect Competitors
The next step of the research process was to compare and analyze other websites that are potential competitors. Direct and indirect competitors were all analyzed based on their features. Inspecting each competitor and noting all of their features helped us generate ideas and designs to make our project unique and stand out.
Direct Competitors
Indirect Competitors
User Interviews
We had in-depth conversations with 4 people in terms of their knowledge of loans and their experiences on applying for a loan. 1 of the 4 interviewees is a specialist for ATNI-EDC.
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Once we finished our interviews, we came together to transfer our interview notes and put them into an affinity map. After analyzing our affinity map, we created "I" statements to try to comprehend our users' pain points better. We used the "dot voting" system to vote on what we believed to be the best features to include make the website more user-friendly for our users. We then mapped out the complexity and impact of the features that we had chosen.
Proto Persona
With the information that we have gotten from the interviews, we were able to create our User Persona. Meet Dakota Whitebear!
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From now on, we will be following Dakota's journey as she is the representing all of our research!
DEFINITION/IDEATION
User Insight Statement
Dakota, a new entrepreneur, feels overwhelmed by the content and information that comes with applying for a loan. She needs easily accessible educational resources, application guidance, and encouragement on her journey.
Problem Statement
We have observed that many people feel unequipped and overwhelmed when going through the loan application process due to the large amount of information and lack of clear definitions.
How can organize education materials on the ATNI-EDC site so that Native business owners in the Pacific Northwest feel more knowledgeable and prepared for the application process?
Hypothesis
We believe that creating a simple and easy-to-understand loan application page will help increase visibility and activity, which will ultimately help to develop financial literacy and expand economic opportunities within Native American communities in the Pacific Northwest.
The Value in ATNI-EDC’s Site
Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians - Economic Development Corporation is developing an clean and easy-to-understand website to help the loan application process be less intimidating and streamlined to the Native American community to expand economic opportunities for Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest.
ATNI-EDC’s site aligns better with this goal than others because our website will be streamlined to Native American business owners and entrepreneurs and will go beyond loan servicing by creating an approachable method of servicing that includes personal connection, showcased commitment to community improvement, and little frustration for borrowers.
We’re believable because our website will easily demonstrate their initiatives and provide potential borrowers with a loan application process that is simple and easy to understand.
User Journey
We illustrated Dakota's journey for when she faced a problem where she needed to use the services that we were planning on designing.
Early Sketches/Designs
Each team member then sketched up their own ideas and designs on how they envisioned website layout.
ITERATIONS
Our Iteration Process
User interviews helped us develop a journey flow that was attentive to user’s needs & expectations.
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The journey map and problem statement helped us develop our user flow.
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Card storing helped us better understand the site’s information architecture & develop a new site map.
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Using the data from these activities we developed wireframes and a testing plan.
Key Considerations
Navigation
Are the navigation categories and dropdown options intuitive for users?
Language
Do our terms help users feel confident in their understanding of the information?
Visuals
Does the homepage center community stories & convey financial trustworthiness?
Information Architecture
Card Sorting
We put topics and subtopics onto note cards and had different users place them into a navigation system that made sense to them. This helped us understand how our users' thought of process. We used the information that we got from the card sorting to create a navigation bar for the website.
Site Map
We then illustrated how we envisioned the website should flow by creating a site map.
User Flow
We sketched out a User Flow to get an understanding of how the flow of the user's journey would be.
Mid-Fidelity
"What's next?"
Now that we have all this information and ideas on our designs that we had gathered over the first 2 weeks, we started to work on the Mid-Fidelity on Figma.
Desktop
Mobile
TESTING
Wireframing
After the mid-fidelity design was up to our standards, we started to wireframe the design to make it usable. This process took us about one day as we continuously tested the wireframe to make sure that everything worked.
Usability Testing
We then conducted some usability tests to get feedback from users. This step is crucial to the whole project as the whole objective is to make sure that the website is user friendly.
Usability Testing
After receiving feedback from our usability tests, we started to work on the High-Fidelity. We took into consideration all the feedback that was given and made changes to where we believed that our users had complications. Click the button down below to view the High-Fidelity!
Video Walk-Through
Inserted down below is a video walk-through for users who do not have ample time to click on the high-fidelity! Please enjoy (:
CONCLUSION
I enjoyed working with my team on this project! Working with a team allowed for more ideas and more feedback from one another. Each team member held each other accountable for their own sections to make sure that we had a presentable project by the end of the deadline.
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Future potential considerations:
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Adding accessibility functions
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Create more financial education pages
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Implement a live representative for users
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Increase visibility of ATNI-EDC & other CDFI's
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Thank you for reading and following along (: