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NESsT 

Information Architecture to improve usability of Inventor-to-Entrepreneur tool

Project Overview

Our client--NESsT--is having trouble keeping people engaged in their online diagnostic tool. They created the tool to help busy entrepreneurs find the right leadership to build and sustain a profitable business model. While the tool itself provides a plethora of valuable information, it is all in the form of long text and NESsT has found that people aren't taking the time to read all of the information. 

 

Our team worked closely with NESsT and the creators of the tool to identify the main pain points of the current tool and to identify solutions that engage the audience and guide them through using the diagnostic tool. 

Team + Duration

3 person UX design team, 2.5 weeks from project brief to working prototype

Tools

Methods

Sketch3, InVision, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, pen and paper

Comparative & Competitive Analysis, User Research & Surveys, Wireframing, Prototyping, Usability Testing, Project Management

The Problem

People are unsure where and how to navigate through the I2E tool. When we had our kick-off meeting with NESsT, the first thing they said is, "we know we have a problem--our tool is currently a wall of text that we're asking our entrepreneur's to read through." When NESsT created the Inventor-to-Entrepreneur (I2E) tool, the purpose was to provide resources to help entrepreneurs better attract and retain the talent needed to sustain a profitable business model. As valuable as the information may be--entrepreneurs are hard pressed for time and NESsT found poor engagement with their tool. 

BEFORE:

 

  • No hierarchy within text 

  • Too much content for 4 simple steps

  • Unclear value proposition

  • No efficient navigation

"How to use this tool" page

AFTER:

 

  • Content broken up into hierarchy

  • Text and visuals combined

  • 4 steps clearly mapped out

  • Only included pertinent information

Our Solution

We quickly identified that information hierarchy and a clear navigation schema were going to drive our design process. We knew we needed to engage users from the get go and somehow motivate them not only to start--but complete--the self-assessment portion of the tool. We decided to create a landing page that instantly and clearly communicated the value of the tool, and included several calls to action to start the self-assessment, since this was really the bread and butter of the tool itself. 

"12 Core Competencies" page

BEFORE:

 

  • Lack of organization and hierarchy

  • No navigation 

  • Information overload

AFTER:

 

  • Content organized into categories

  • Text and visuals combined

  • Bite sized bits of information

Our Process

We started by exploring the tool and taking the self-assessment ourselves to get an idea of what the experience is like. Then we did some research into who our target audience would be. There was a bit of a unique situation here because currently the only people using the tool are entrepreneurs that are part of NESsT's portfolio and they are required to use the tool as part of their onboarding process. The tool is also meant to be used in conjunction with a mentor--who is assigned to each entrepreneur by NESsT when they join the portfolio. We discovered that part of the reason the navigation of the tool is currently so disjointed and ambiguous is that there are two different users--with very different use cases--but no defined flow for either. 

 

Due to the very short deadline of this project, our first distinction was that we were going to design the tool for the entrepreneur and not the mentor--being as they would really be engaging with the tool more frequently and in depth than the mentor. We then jumped into user interviews with entrepreneurs, our main goal being to see what kept them up at night and what resources they needed in a diagnostic tool in general. After analyzing the responses from our 8 interview subjects, we started brainstorming and sketching our initial ideas. At this time we also did usability testing on the tool as it currently exists, to see what the main pain points were that we could focus our design strategy around. 

 

We designed a landing page, and by using visuals, statistics, and calls to action, created a single task-driven site that would quickly (entrepreneurs are busy!) guide one through using the diagnostic tool. Through two rounds of usability testing we found that people really responded well to the statistics that we included on the landing page as they spoke to the reputation of NESsT and addressed the concern of busy entrepreneurs that they wanted to know the resource was created by a reliable organization if they were going to invest almost 40 minutes using it and filling out the self-assessment. The calls to action saw immediate engagement and funneled users through the tool. 

Initital sketches

Early iterations

Results & Reflections

This was a great project because while it didn't result in any super sexy mock-ups--we delivered super solid and creative solutions to some thorny and multi-faceted problems. A big takeaway from this project was pondering how to increase peoples' intrinsic motivation to take a survey! I love working with clients in fields that are unfamiliar to me as well--I now know so much about the struggles of starting a social enterprise company in a developing economy and the myriad of challenges that are part of that journey. Designing solutions for people that are impacting their communities is incredibly fulfilling and I look forward to more work of this caliber. 

BEFORE:

 

  • No user orientation

  • All on one continuous scrolling page

  • Buried in navigation tabs

"Self-Assessment" page & Global Navigation

AFTER:

 

  • Progress bar to show status

  • Divided into four pages

  • Part of task-driven global navigation

Next Steps

 

After presenting our design to NESsT they were not only interested in implementing our solutions but wanted to talk about more options. Because NESsT is a non-profit organization, our initial design solutions had to stay in the minimum viable zone. However, with the potential for a grant in the coming months, NESsT also wanted to address some long term goals with the I2E tool. This was fun for us because working within constraints always encourages thinking outside the box, but we also had free reign to address some tougher problems for NESsT's long term goals. We met with the developer who coded the current tool and discussed timeframes and challenges and plan to continue working with NESsT on the I2E tool in the coming months. 

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