CLIENT PROJECT
Kshetra PBC
Website Redesign
Overview
CLIENT
Kshetra is an emerging company looking to build an ecosystem that connects social enterprises passionate about U.N. Sustainable Development Goals with impact investors to facilitate funding.
CHALLENGE
Effectively introduce Kshetra and its product to users in accordance with FinTech Industry standards.
MY ROLE
UX Designer
Research Lead
TEAM SIZE
Lena Yankina
Madison Dunaetz (UI Lead)
Pablo Fitten (Project Lead)
DURATION
Three weeks
RESULTS
Redesigned information architecture, content, and visual appearance
Project Phases
PHASE 1: DISCOVER
Kickoff meeting with the founder and CEO
We, first, met with our client – Ranjani Sridharan – Founder and CEO of Kshetra, to understand the needs and motivations behind this project.
Ranjani explained that with Kshetra.world she is looking to build an ecosystem that allows social enterprises to connect with impact investors to facilitate funding. She started working on this concept and the corresponding product, ImpactCred, in 2018.
The Task
Ranjani had given us a task to create a website overhaul, making it clean, crisp, and contemporary while considering the company’s product, ImpactCred. Also, we were asked to tighten the message of the site and implement best practices of design copy.
Evaluation of existing design
Homepage has only a Hero Image and a Footer
As a research lead for this project, I started with an evaluation of the current state of Kshetra.world. Here is what I’ve discovered.
PROS
website is simple in design
pages are easy to navigate
CONS
website's functionality is extremely minimal
lack of actionable items
pages are lengthy and text-heavy
visual design is not appealing and has a very little element of surprise.
Analysis of Kshetra's competition
The next step was to look at Kshetra’s competition.
I examined five websites provided as a point of reference by our client: Lidya, Clearco, Kinara Capital, GroFin, Impact Partners.
I had two goals in mind:
1. Identify trends in global navigation to compare them to Kshetra’s and make necessary adjustments.
2. Analyze the structure of competitors' landing pages to determine missing elements of Kshetra’s Homepage, which would give us the ability to redesign it according to industry standards.
Competitors’ global navbar elements
I discovered that the most common elements of competitors' global navigation are: Logo, About Us, Contact Us, FAQ, Log In, Products.
Kshetra was missing THREE out of six elements: FAQ, Log In, and Products.
The competitive analysis showed that landing pages consist of similar blocks of information. The difference is the order in which they appear on the page.
Competitors’ Homepage elements: Hero image with CTA, As Featured In, Mission Statement, Product information, ”How to”, Our Partners, “Why Us”, Success metrics, Validation block, Footer.
Kshetra’s Homepage elements: Hero image, Footer.
SUMMARY: Competitive analysis showed that Kshetra’s sitemap and Homapage are missing essential elements typical for the FinTech industry.
Interviews with subject matter experts
We interviewed five subject matter experts to understand what content each user group is looking for on a Homepage. Unfortunately, the answers were not as specific as we hoped for.
Nonetheless, we got two critical takeaways:
1. Each type of user expects to find information on a Homepage catered to their specific needs.
2. Credibility is crucial. Users hope to find reviews, testimonials, rewards, and recognition on the company's landing page.
“I get frustrated with sites that have the same kind of information for various types of users.”
— Robert H.
“Impact investors are moved by stories and issues. If a company catches my attention, I’ll go deeper and read articles about them.”
— Mark M.
“Company’s credibility is extremely important for me. I need to see what they have accomplished in the past.”
— Alex M.
PHASE 2: DEFINE
Understanding Kshetra’s users
Through conversation with our client, we learned that Kshetra aims to bring together three distinct types of users: social enterprises, accelerators, and impact investors.
Since none of us had experience with the FinTech industry we turned to secondary research to learn about FinTech and Kshetra’s targeted audience.
We’ve created three proto-personas – one for each user type. It helped us to stay focused and keep our users in mind while redesigning Kshetra.world.
Proto-persona of a social entrepreneur
Proto-persona of an impact investor
Proto-persona of an accelerator manager
Defining a problem statement
In the beginning, we started with a business-centric problem statement. However, as UX Designers, we need to incorporate users into this equation as well. So we used our research findings to develop a user-centric problem statement:
Various types of users need a better way to learn about Kshetra and its products so they can make informed decisions, collaborate and invest with peace of mind.
PHASE 3: DEVELOP
Redesigning Kshetra’s sitemap
The competitive analysis findings helped us to redesign Kshetra's sitemap.
Kshetra.world: redesigned sitemap
We kept the Homepage, About Us, and Contact.
About Us now combines Our Team and Advisors.
Search Icon was removed and FAQ was added instead.
Introduction and Values were combined into Our Mission.
We added Our Products to create a space for an existing product - ImpactCred and a placeholder for potential future products.
Sketching design ideas
To begin with, Kshetra's Homepage had only a Hero image and a Footer, so it gave us a lot of creative freedom. Keeping in mind competitive analysis findings, we added the following blocks of information: Mission Statement, Our Product, How It Works.
Previously, we learned that credibility was essential to users, so it was added to the Homepage as well. However, in later iterations, we had to remove it. The reason is the early stage of the company's development and the absence of testimonials and reviews.
Homepage: sketch and low-fi wireframe
Our Products page: sketch and low-fi wireframe
Conducting usability tests early on
We conducted five usability tests on the early-stage prototype. Our goal was to incorporate feedback early on before moving to higher fidelity.
Affinity map of users’ responses
Users' responses were collected and synthesized in the affinity map to discover trends and common themes.
Mainly users wanted to better understand what Kshetra stands for, its mission, and its relation to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Incorporating usability test findings
We iterated and made changes to our prototype based on usability test results.
Iterations made to the Homepage
Here are some changes that we made to the Homepage.
1. Added company's name to the logo to indicate its interactivity
2. Added the Sound icon to eliminate confusion in pronunciation
3. Incorporated U.N. Sustainable Goals into a Mission Statement to emphasize its importance for the company
4. Turned 17 U.N. SDGs into a scrolling feature to enhance readability
Exploring visual directions
Before finalizing the style tile, we created two very different mood boards based on the adjectives provided by our client: crisp, edgy, modern, FinTech, crypto.
Style Tile for redesigned Kshetra.world
We also wanted to keep in mind the existing product, ImpactCred, to make sure that the entire site looks cohesive.
We achieved that by utilizing ImpactCred's primary color (teal) and typeface (Poppins) in our design.
PHASE 4: DELIVER
Comparing before and after side-by-side
Homepage is now a place where users are introduced to all facets of Kshetra.
Our Mission page explains what fuels Kshetra and what makes them different from competitors.
Photos added to Our Team page create visual appeal and trustworthiness.
Kshetra.world: Homepage
Kshetra.world: Our Mission page
Kshetra.world: Our Team page
Kshetra.world: Contact Us page
Validating our design with a desirability test
After finishing the high-fidelity prototype, we conducted a desirability test. We wanted to get users' opinions on the aesthetics and visual design.
We, first, asked users to provide 3-5 adjectives that describe the redesigned website. Users said the website feels trustworthy, clean, business-like, and modern.
We then gave users a list of positive and negative adjectives and asked them to select those that apply. The top responses were: professional, modern, and clean.
Desirability test of redesigned Kshetra.world: part 1
Desirability test of redesigned Kshetra.world: part 2
Prototype
Suggestions
Our research showed that credibility is crucial to all types of users. Therefore, we suggest incorporating credibility elements such as user testimonials, success metrics, partnerships on the Homepage once the company matures and those artifacts become available.
Our client mentioned that the original website was built with Squarespace, which doesn't require software engineering skills, but can impose certain limitations on the design. Therefore, we recommend working with a team of developers to turn our prototype into a live website.
My Takeaway
The success of a project heavily relies on the characteristics of a team. It's common to think that the bigger the crew, the better, but sometimes even a small group can accomplish great results.
We started this project with four people but unfortunately "lost" one of the members along the way. Nevertheless, we regrouped, adapted the "divide and concur" mentality, supported each other, and in the end, we were able to deliver good work that satisfied our client.
Final Thoughts
The goal of this project was to create a website overhaul, making it clean, crisp, and contemporary. I believe my team and I successfully achieved it. Here is the feedback we got from our client, Ranjani Sridharan, after our presentation:
I'm really impressed! The deliverables were beautiful, crisp, and very professional. This is the kind of work we were looking for to represent us in terms of vision. You were able to incorporate a lot of the feedback we've given you at different stages. Great job communicating with stakeholders!
— Ranjani Sridharan, Founder & CEO of Kshetra PBC.