ROLE(S)
UX & Design, Strategy, Product Prototyping.
TEAM
1 Product Manager, 1 Business Associate, 1 Product Designer (Me), 3 Software Developers.
ASK
To create a product where businesses can keep a minute record of all incoming and outgoing transactions, and where managers / owners can keep track of all employees account of the business transactions.
SOLUTION
An intuitive mobile & web app product for small businesses with different experiences for merchants (employees) and admins (managers) to encourage ease of use.
Recordbeta helps companies with one or more branches to stay on top of their financial accounts, automating the calculation of expenses from income, with the flexibility to access & compare transaction reports from anywhere, at anytime.
Framing the problem and defining our area of focus.
The project started with a quick meeting with all members of the team. We had received a brief days prior which we had to study, and present questions we might have to the call. The aim of the call was to understand what product we would building, the timeline, our goals and objectives.
Following our objectives and business constraints, we decided to start small, targeting small business owners who would find the product relevant for their businesses. But it was also necessary that I made design decisions that made it possible for the product to expand to larger businesses as our product grew in the market.
The problem we tackled with this product was as a result of financial unaccountability in some businesses which had several branches and is been managed by one manager/founder. It also helps other small businesses simplify their bookkeeping process while staying on top of their business financial statements. Other challenges like instant access to minute records of cashflow, easy management of multiple branches from one location, and easy access to transaction records made by each employee are tackled with RecordBeta.
Who are the stakeholders involved?
RecordBeta (Host) - This includes the primary business owners.
Administrators - This includes the employers or managers who manage and supervise the business account, and also creates and manages merchant accounts.
Merchants - This includes the employees who are responsible for logging all incoming and outgoing transactions.
How might we build a reliable and trustworthy platform that provides a seamless financial management experience for both employers and merchants?
01.
Feature by User Type
I suggested utilizing unique features and allowing access to certain information based on the user type. i.e. employers can download history, manage business, merchant and branch information, etc. But merchant accounts will be limited to only logging incoming and outgoing transactions.
02.
Seamless Management
Merchant account registrations are initiated by the admin of the company. Branches are also created by the admin and assigned to the appropriate merchant.
Merchants receive an email into the email address registered by the admin in the company account. They are now able to proceed and register their merchant account using the email address.
The User Flows
The app flows the different users are similar but also very different. Parts of our brainstorming session entailed my coming up with the user flows and discussing them together as a team, iterating on them and deciding on what steps were better holistically, both for the users and business.
The Website & Mobile App Landing Page
I designed a landing page for the mobile app which summarizes the benefits. The website however, is designed to explain the benefits and features in a more in-depth manner. It also differentiates between both user types in a concise manner.
02.
The Mobile App Download Landing Page
Modular design system
When designing digital products on extensive projects, two key things I like to consider are durability and scalability. So it was inevitable that I began by creating a comprehensive component library in Figma, covering elements such as colors, typography, form elements, other reusable components, and for achieving vertical rhythm, I used a grid system of 8pt grid.
RecordBeta was designed with scalability in mind, ensuring components work well together and display effectively on different device resolutions.
Reflecting.
What could we have done better?
I always recommend including some level of primary research in the early phase with potential consumers before working on a product, even when the budget and timeline are both very limited, it's usually worth it. I enjoyed working on this product even though there were things that could've be done better. Testing the market viability mostly based on assumptions and secondary research is a major risk, and on few occasions could be successful. In our case, it has been successful so far with tests currently been carried out, and also because we have a waitlist of businesses that are excitedly waiting to use RecordBeta.
Go to top
.png)
