Highlights From My Debut Design Project.
My journey into product design began during the covid-19 pandemic induced lockodown – I got to know about Utiva and the work they do on Linkedin, I was aware of the next Design school iteration, attended the introduction masterclass, and was hooked beyond measure.
I got to register and classes began virtually by May 16th, it was everything I expected, and more; we got introduced to the basics of product design, the peculiarities and complementary quality of. the user experience (UX) and user interface (UI).
We soon got introduced to the design-thinking methodology (a non-linear creative problem solving method where you empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and continuously iterate) for more information on design thinking; I wrote an article on that, check it out here on Medium.
We got grouped, were given business cases to work on, and were asked to branch out according to our groups. We started design-thinking and brainstorming the problem statements in our business cases, and that was the beginning of it all.
My Team got the business case of Zedcrest Capital to provide solutions to loan difficulties customers had in loan application processes.
About Zedcrest Capital
Zedcrest Capital is a full service capital management firm based in Lagos, Nigeria, with core interests in fixed-income securities trading, asset management and proprietary investments across varied sectors of the economy.
User Research
We conducted user research and surveys with about four target audience for the solution we were about to explore.
From the research we were able to improve our knowledge base of the problem and we created an empathy map and a user persona to assist us better empathize and deeply understand our users, their behaviours , and their pain points.
Competitor Analysis (Audit)
We conducted an in-depth competitor analysis in order to gain insights into the design of fintech applications, so we won’t reinvent the wheel and design what won’t be in line with users mental models of fintech applications.
The fintech applications we audited includes, but not limited to Carbon, Fairmoney, Branch, etc, we were able to draw insights that informed our designs from the audit.
Our Persona:
James Cole a 29 year old, mid-level banker who wants to access loans seamlessly in order to pay up his rent on time and other times, he needs a loan so he’d be able to take professional courses that would move him further up in his career.
The Major Pain points we discovered;
1. Interest rates on loans are alarming.
2. Lack of clarity in the loan application process.
3. A lot of hassle and complexity in the process.
Ideation
With the pain points we discovered, we sketched out a user flow for the desired app.
Here’s the user flow we created.
Sketching Solutions
I drew out ideas on paper based on the feedback we got from our research, so it’d be easier to receive feedback and iterate on the sketches.
Wireframe( Low-fi Prototype)
We created a low-fi wireframe to represent the skeletal framework of the app, while focusing mainly on the functionality of the app for users, we got feedback from our tutors and continuosly iterated on the wireframes.
Hi-Fi Prototype
We designed the prototype, received a good number constructive criticisms from our tutors. After several iterations from the first design, we finally arrived at this design
Conclusion
I personally learnt a lot throughout this project experience and it grew me as a person. I got to sharpen my team work skills as we worked as a team throughout the design process, one major lesson this experience taught me was how to handle criticisms on your work, as my team received several criticisms throughout the project and that got to me a lot initially.
However, I realized criticisms are not personal, but are important to help us learn from mistakes and broaden our perspective. We handled the criticism squarely and it pushed us to produce the best work we didn’t think we could pull off.
I also learned the importance of conducting user research throughout the design process, in order to holistically understand user’s needs, motivations, actions, and the context of their problems and use cases so as to accurately provide solutions that’ll be useful and usable to users.
