Latina Business Connection
Empowering Latina Entrepreneurs:
Uniting, Supporting, and Elevating Business Journeys through a Brand New Culturally Inclusive Website
My Role: UX Product Designer (Team of 3)
Tools: Figma, Procreate, Trello, Sketching
Timeline: 3-week sprint (May 2023)
Client: Vista Latinos
Project Overview (TL;DR version)
Owner of Vista Latinos noticed that Latina entrepreneurs grapple with challenges such as limited capital, language barriers, and a lack of networks/resources. The goal is have a platform that can provide the support, connections, financing options, and mentorship opportunities for Latina entrepreneurs. As the UX Product Designer for Latina Business Connection, I spearheaded the development of key features aimed at addressing the social and financial challenges faced by Latina entrepreneurs. The new website not only fosters community but also provides essential resources and mentorship opportunities.
Notably, I worked on creating:
Free Relevant Resources pages to address the need for connection where Latina entrepreneurs can find business and fictional book recommendations and up-to-date news articles about the Hispanic community.
Streamlined funding pages that simplifies the search for financial resources. I focused on making a user-friendly interface that helps members apply for grants and other types of financial support easier.
Membership Plan Selection pages that aligns with the business goal and optimizes user experience. Tiered system was implemented in the design to reduce UX friction to a more seamless financial spending experience.
These features collectively resolve the overarching issue of limited resources and networks for Latina entrepreneurs, contributing to the success of Latina Business Connection in connecting brands with the Hispanic/Latino communities and positively impacting business growth.
Introduction
Latina Business Connection, an initiative by Vista Latinos, fosters connections between brands and the Hispanic/Latino communities, with our UX team developing a new website from scratch to support Latina entrepreneurs.
Latina Business Connection is the latest initiative by Vista Latinos, a marketing consultancy founded in 2005 that specializes in establishing links between brands and the Hispanic/Latino communities. With a primary objective of facilitating connections, Latina Business Connection aims to connect Latina entrepreneurs with various avenues of support. To achieve this goal, our UX team has designed a brand-new website exclusively for Latina Business Connection, starting from scratch.
Business Goals
To foster a sense of community among users while increasing brand awareness.
Provide users with opportunities for accessing valuable financial resources and educational content.
Promotes productive mentorships.
The Problem
Latina entrepreneurs face obstacles like limited capital, language barriers, and lack of networks/resources. A platform is needed to provide support, connections, development programs, financing options, and mentorship for their business growth.
Latina entrepreneurs face significant challenges in starting and growing their businesses. These challenges include limited access to capital due to financial exclusion, language barriers that hinder compliance, and a lack of networks for mentorship/accountability partnership. Cultural differences, discrimination, and a shortage of relevant resources further impede their success. Consequently, there is a pressing need for a platform that offers support, connections with fellow Latina entrepreneurs, access to business development programs, financing options, and mentorship networks to empower and foster their business growth.
Design Process
Throughout the design process, I actively led key initiatives, including conducting impactful user interviews, comprehensive competitive analyses, and creating a strategic site map to enhance the website's information architecture. My hands-on involvement played a crucial role in uncovering user pain points, while my initiation of the site mapping process significantly contributed to refining the overall user experience and information flow.
Our Solution
Our team conducted user interviews to understand target users' pain points, needs, and financial commitment. Competitive analysis was performed to gain insights, leading to the development of a new website.
In our pursuit of entering this new market for Latina Business Connection, we took the initial step of conducting user interviews to understand the specific pain points experienced by our target users. Our aim was to understand their financial commitment, the specific needs they are seeking, and the impact of cultural, personal, and business obligations on their businesses.
As the UX researcher for this project, it was also crucial to conduct competitive and feature analysis to gain design inspiration and market insights from similar service providers and existing platforms in the market. We analyzed 10 companies, which allowed us to understand what these competitors are offering and what approaches they are taking. Armed with these valuable insights, we were able to embark on building a brand-new website from scratch.
Prototype
Feel free to click around on the desktop version below to explore the prototype directly on this page!
Key Features I Designed
Below are a few examples of key features I designed and implemented on the website.
Free Relevant Resources
Offering free, relevant resources such as recommendations of business and fictional books authored by Latinas, as well as up-to-date news articles regarding to the Hispanic community, is of utmost importance in fostering a strong sense of connection among potential members of the Latina Business Connection. While designing these pages, I made sure to address the critical pain point identified in the user research, which revealed the desire of Latina entrepreneurs to connect with one another in a dedicated space. This offering plays a pivotal role in establishing the vibrant community atmosphere the business strives to cultivate. Additionally, as these free resources form the first impression for potential members, their relevance and ability to engage are crucial in captivating their interest and encouraging their active consideration of joining the community.
Video showcasing the platform’s free relevant resources, designed to captivate users and inspire them to sign up for membership (books, blogs and news articles sourced from the Latina/Latino communities).
Paid Membership Resources
Paid membership resources like the funding page is for users who were drawn in and decided to become a member to the business. Guided by the struggle highlighted via user research, I addressed the exhaustion Latina entrepreneurs often face in their cyclical search for financial resources. In designing the funding page, my goal was to provide a user-friendly interface that offers direct and essential information. I ensured that the list of available grants includes concise descriptions, while prominently featuring the deadline and application status. This approach acknowledges the busy schedules of our users, who are primarily busy business owners. By simplifying the navigation, including a filter function and emphasizing the grant program's current status, I aimed to help them in quickly identifying active opportunities. Moreover, I incorporated a "Learn More" button, directing users to external application pages for comprehensive grant-related details. My design ensures that our paid members have exclusive access to valuable financial resources, directly addressing their pain points and enhancing the overall relevance and effectiveness of Latina Business Connection as a business.
Video highlighting the platform’s paid membership funding page, designed to assist members in swiftly identifying crucial elements for grant applications (filter system) and discovering funding opportunities (short descriptions).
Membership Plan Selection
Recognizing the client's objective to establish a monetized membership platform at Latina Business Connection, we faced the challenge of determining the appropriate pricing structure and assessing users' willingness to pay for networking, mentorship opportunities, and other business resources. To gather this crucial information, we integrated targeted questions into our user interviews, gaining insights into users' current expenditures on other platforms and their potential financial commitments.
Drawing upon this research, I developed the membership plan selection page, which embraces a tailored approach. Instead of imposing a single price point, I implemented a member Tier system that correlates the level of benefits with the user's willingness to invest. This design not only ensures clarity and simplicity in navigation but also emphasizes the UI hierarchy, particularly in tier labeling and pricing. To streamline the purchasing process and reduce friction, each tier is accompanied by a prominent call-to-action button in the brand's color. This strategic approach optimizes user experience and propels the checkout process for seamless and convenient transactions.
Video showcasing the check out and membership plan selection process, streamlining purchases (prominent, brand-colored call-to-action buttons). This strategic approach not only enhances the user experience but also delivers valuable business benefits by making the checkout process seamless and convenient.
Wireframes Iterations
To get feedback from real users, we conducted 3 usability testings where users were given various tasks to complete with grey scale wireframes. Some tasks include signing up for a membership and finding the webinar library and in person events. We observed their interactions to see what worked or didn't work. Iterations to the app were made based on the qualitative and quantitative results of the evaluation.
BEFORE: 3/3 Users had difficulties finding the blogs and funding pages
AFTER: Global navigation was recategorized to make it more intuitive
BEFORE: 2/3 Users prefer to see calendar of events
AFTER: Redesigned to make it visually easier to find and plan
BEFORE: Users were unsure how to navigate back to the previous page
AFTER: Added status bar to all pages on website to provide the option of going back to previous screens
Next Steps
There are certainly areas of this newly created website that we would like to continue to work on if we had more time. Here are some of the immediate vs. future next steps we would like to make.
Immediate:
Create monthly view on the Events page
Reasoning: Our users are busy business owners so a monthly view would allow them to plan further ahead.
Continue to add carousels and animations to add dimension to the site
Reasoning: To help sustain attention for increasing the likelihood of membership sign up.
Add filter to Books page to allow personalization
Reasoning: Within usability testing, some users made comments about how filtering would be helpful.
Future:
Add Mentorship quiz with matching algorithm
Reasoning: Users really appreciate having mentors who share their interests and work in the same field. It's important for them to find someone they can truly relate to and connect with, so that the mentoring relationship can last a long time.
Add Accountability Partner aspect
Reasoning: Users want more peer-resources like accountability partners who they can stay on track alongside with.
Add job boards
Reasoning: Would help users find employees as well as provide services to each other.
Offer version of site in Spanish
Reasoning: Due to the range of diversity in users, including English speakers, Spanish speakers, and those who mix both languages (we call them Spanlish), it would be nice to have the site available in Spanish. This way, everyone can feel included and celebrate their cultural differences!
Learning - Reflection
Clear Communication and Setting Expectations:
Clear communication with clients about expectations and deliverables early on proved invaluable.
This approach helped us establish boundaries and align expectations for all parties, especially given our short timeline.
Referring back to our agreement allowed us to stay focused when going off-topic or when additional suggestions were made outside of the project's timeframe.
Precision and consistency:
Being highly detail-oriented and consistent during the design process was an important skill to have while working among teammates.
Utilizing Figma functions like layout grids and auto layout enhanced my precision and consistency. It allowed me to pay close attention to details to ensure a more polished and effective design outcome.
Future Goals and Wishes:
Seeing the potential benefits this platform could bring to the Latina entrepreneurs community, I think working with a developing team would allow us to turn designs into real impact for this population.