Emory – A Business Account App
Adrienne Warden
The product:
This is a cusom business account app for a butcher shop owner. He used one of the big business apps and found them to be to complicated and above his and his staffs skill level. He wants an app that’s user friendly, intuitive and includes support documentation that easy to read and follow.
Project overview
Project duration:
April 2021 – October 2021
Preview of selected polished designs.
The problem:
Business Accounting apps are complicated to use and navigate.
Huge amounts of time can be spent on searching and trying to comprehend support documentaiton.
Business accounting apps aren’t user
Project overview
The goal:
To building user-friendly, uncomplicated intuitive business accounting app for a small business owner.
My role:
This project is a course assignment. I am the sole designer of this project.
Project overview
Responsibilities:
I was responsible for research, design, wireframes, mockups, usability testing, prototypes and the hand-off to production.
Understanding
the user
User research: summary
I interviewed small business owners regarding their use of business account apps and how they keep their accounting records.
I found that most use excel spreadsheets because they have no time to learn new technology. They find business account apps to be a bit complicated for their purposes and find the excel sheet to be more streamlined and straight forward. These small business owners are not very computer literate and don’t want to be.
User research: pain points
Complicated
Bussiness apps are loaded with features and complicated to figure out.
Support
The suport for the app is not helpful. Calling could mean being passed around to get an answer. Documentation is incomprehensible. No video tutorials.
Not Intutive
The apps is not easy to navigate. Not user friendly. Appears to be designed for accountants not business owners.
Syncing
External account syncing can take 2 to 3 days. There’s no apparent way to speed the process up.
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Persona: Emory
Problem statement:
Emory is a business owner
who needs a simple, user friendly business accounting app
to track his business finances, transactions and payroll without complicating features.
User journey map
Reviewing Emory’s user map made me realize the app should be simple, streamlined, easy to use and have detailed support packed in.
Starting
the design
Paper wireframes
The dash board is the portal to the entire app. We wanted to keep it simple, easy to navigate, interactive and informative.
Digital wireframes
Testing showed that the link font was to light, to small and placed in a different location than the app pages. These issues interrupted flow.
Menu link on success pages are in a different location then actual app pages.
Links to dashboard, previous page and sign-out.
Digital wireframes
Consistent element placement and visible links emphasize the app flow and helps users navigate the app easily.
Menu placement is consistent and includes links to all app pages.
Link fonts have increased in size and weight. Makes them read for users with visual disabilities.
Low-fidelity prototype
The app flow starts with the sign-in page, which opens the dashboard. From the dashboard users can proceed to different app pages depending on the tasks to be performed. Top level pages are included in the navbar.
Usability study: findings
In both rounds of tesing users found the app inituitive and user friendly. First round issues highlighted by participants included inconsistent element placement and text that was to light and small. The second-round participants favored the link search method over the input method and wanted better page identification (too light).
Round 1 findings
Page indicator is to light (we had lightened the navbar link to indicate the page)
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Support link search methods was a clear winner
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Round 2 findings
Menu location needs to be consistent
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Menu should inlcude links to all app pages
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Support search method results may be biased
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Users were able to complete all task in under 10 minutes
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Refining
the design
Mockups
The navbar didn’t stand out enough. Color, shadow and icons made it more were added to make it stand out. It doesn’t take over the page, but it’s importance is apparent.
Before usability study
After usability study
Mockups
Our second tested iteration lightened the navbar link as an on page indicator. User found it a little to light. A darker font-color was sued to make it more visible.
Before usability study 2
After usability study 2
Mockups
Main mockup screen for display
High-fidelity�prototype
User flow starts at sign in and flows to the dash board. From the dashboard users have access to the navbar on all top level app pages. The flow from the dashboard is task based/user driven.
Accessibility considerations
Font-size and weight are critical to creating a good experience for users with disability.
All interactive elements should be keyboard accessible.
Color contrast should meet industry standards.
Adding icons and labels makes the app more accessible across different cultures.
Add transcript for audio and and aria-labels to visual elements.
Make sure links/buttons are consistent and large enough for users with mobility issues to click on.
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Going forward
Takeaways
Impact:
For small businesses, a premium business accounting app can be cumbersome. A customized, streamlined, user friendly app is a viable alternative.
“My computer skill level didn't affect my ability to all complete tasks.”
Participant C
What I learned:
The biggest take away for me was the role that reseach plays in forming a good user experience.
It also pays to create a design systems. The system keeps the design consistent, makes it easy to work across teams and helps onboard new team members.
Next steps
We would build this app in stages.
Once all top categories are in place., we’d building out the subcategories for each.
A new round of usability testing would be conducted once all subcategoreis were present.
Based on user respnses the prototype sould be refined and retested.
The refined prototype should be sent off to production.
The app should be connected/synced with external business accounts.
Actually users should begin training with and testing a semi-live app.
The app should be finalized after testing and made live.
Once the app is live, it should be monitored
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Let’s connect!
View the refined version of this app on Figma.
Feel free to connect with me at:
Email: adrienne@adrienneaew.me
Resume: https://adrienneaew.me/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/AdrienneAEW-WD.pdf
Portfolio: https://adrienneaew.me/Portfolios/AEWPortfolio/AEWPortfolio.html
Thank you!