User Researcher
UX Designer
Prototyping
April 2021 to July 2021
Kiri Rasmussen
Gina Marie Triplett
Ashley Wei
Weddings are very costly and need to be well-budgeted if you would like to create an affordable wedding. The stakeholder regretted not increasing his budget on his wedding and forgoing a photographer to have adequate wedding photos. This is where the mobile/website application One Time Capital (OTC) comes in, a point of sale mobile application for couples to take small loans to create their ideal wedding. The users wanted to have a streamlined, transparent, and a way to increase their budget to achieve their dream wedding. This was a client passion project.
In a group of 5 designers and 3 software developers.
From synthesis research from the empathy mapping, as a team, we ideate on potential features that would solve the users’ pain points by being streamlined, transparent, offering a way to increase their budget, and having simplified and transparent application loans. This helps me understand what I can do as a designer to prioritize the most important feature through the research.
The target market are young couples who are planning on their wedding.
One important point to consider was the software developers who were working on this project. So as a team, we created a user flow to help both the designers and software developers get an idea of how the financial application was going to work. It was one of the many ways that both the designer and software developers came together to create a functional point of sale loan application managed by a vendor.
The overall theme of the projected wedding base was pastel and soft colors, which were inspired by wedding photos.
Headings: Playfair Display. Inspired by the inspiration board, which had elegant and simple typography.
Body Text: Work Sans. This typography was used for the overall body because it was easy to read, had different weights, and was legible through the dashboard and application process.
I wanted to address the current pain points about the loan application process that were identified by our survey:
The loans and account creation forms, we implemented a wizard step-by-step process to allow users to input information in an orderly process without complicating the tasks. This ensures that the applications are small and manageable to complete.
In case there was information that the users needed clarification on in the application process, there is an implementation of an FAQ or hover text bubbles to highlight what information is needed, where to find it, what is said about the process.
I created this business applications process based on Alameda County online application because my team couldn't talk to business owners/ vendors to get a better context on how they usually go through certifying a business.
Client's Dashboards
The client dashboard mirrors a banking online service because it should feel familiar to users when they are navigating through the dashboard. The dashboard showcases transparency and where users can increase their wedding budget. Therefore, showing an outline of paid loads helps consolidate the entire dashboard to make it easy to read and not visually cluttered.
Merchant's Dashboards
For the merchant dashboard, I would have wanted to learn more about what information would be essential when managing their clients. Unfortunately, I had to go off of secondary research because I was unable to interview vendors.
This mobile application was a point to sell for both the merchant and clients. I would have liked more input and user interviews from the merchant side when it came to the wedding selling side of the application. I also wanted to interview the vendors to test the usability of the merchant dashboard since the people interviewed for the usability were mostly people from the client's side, who are on the loans approval side. Hopefully, in the future, we will have more usability testing for HIFI since this project was very straightforward and the developer team requires a product before building the project.
I wanted to learn more about the software development side of the project and understand API and the different types of API. However, it was difficult to get ahold of the developer side of the project, since many of them had dropped the project and no one had a concrete foundation when the designer had their part finished. After the project was over, it was definitely a learning experience when it came time for the designer to get the backseat of the project and answer questions the developer might have after looking into the project. Finally, it was a rewarding experience seeing a final project being handed off from designer to software developers.
