UX/UI Design - Client Project
Increasing Acquisitions with Seventh.AI.
Seventh.AI is a new company that is looking to change the way patents are filed. With their proprietary patent wizard they look to allow their clients to be able to create, edit, store, and track their patent process. In addition to being able to track their competitors and work with their internal teams Seventh.AI plans to put the process back in the clients hands and decrease attorney costs.
Being a new company, Seventh.AI is concerned that their clients give up before they even start because of their onboarding process. Our goal is to help the user see value in Seventh.AI's onboarding process which will increase acquisitions, and decrease churn rate.
Timeline: 3 Week Design Sprint.
Team: Rena Greene, Nelson Medina, Raven Alexander.
Methods: Business Analysis, Competitive/Comparative Analysis, User Interviews, Task Analysis, Journey Map, Affinity Mapping, Target User & Scenario, Key Features, MVP, Design Studio, Sketching, Wireframing, Usability Testing & Iterations, and Prototyping.
Tools: Figma, Whimsical, Illustrator, Mural, Zoom, Material Design, Notion, Miro, Paper, and Pencil.
The Challenge
Clients are not aware of the value of Seventh.AI's onboarding process. Seventh.AI's onboarding process doesn't let clients know what it is that they are signing up for, and it doesn't let clients know what will happen afterwards.
The Solution
Set up expectations before and after onboarding process to instill confidence. By showcasing Seventh.AI's features clients will begin to see the value in the onboarding process. In addition, adding information as to what will happen after the process we can leave the client feeling confident about what their next steps following the onboarding process should be.
Research & Findings
Understanding the business needs.
We began our process by speaking with the stakeholders and the graphic designer at Seventh.Ai. We wanted to learn about what Seventh.AI does for their clients, and where they felt the current pain points were with their onboarding system. Seventh.AI is gearing their beta platform towards startup business owners who have never filed a patent before. They plan to make Intellectual Property(IP) accessible for the "little guy" because the believe the most life-changing discoveries are made by those who have few resources to claim ownership. The key pain points that they wished to address were adding value, the possibility of breaking up the onboarding process and distributing it throughout the beta platform, and making the questions more clear.
Key insights from task analysis.
After speaking with the client we wanted to know what the motivations and behaviors were for a startup business owner to use a service like Seventh.AI. Unfortunately we were limited to speaking with business owners experienced in filing patents. So we decided in addition to our user interviews, we would run a task analysis to watch the client progress through the beta platform to watch their reactions.
The users had no issue with the amount of questions asked in the onboarding process.
Users experienced friction because next steps were unclear.
Seventh.AI's features are unclear.
Clients experienced in patents expect attorneys.
What are all the features?
Because Seventh.AI is still a new company they haven't decided on how exactly they will be helping users, what they will be charging for, and what steps they are going to take to help users create a strong patent. The only thing we know for sure is that they will allow their clients to create, edit, and store their IP on their confidential platform and that they will allow clients and their teams to keep track of the patents process. We would have to find a way to work around this when designing the new onboarding system.
Looking at the current platform.
We decided to look at the features and functionality of the current platform. In addition to conducting a heuristic analysis, we decided to look into the features of similar companies using a competitive analysis and a comparative analysis.
Competitive/Comparative Analysis Key Takeaways:
Instead of online enrollment companies encourage their clients to contact them directly.
Implementing educational guides can help users understand complicated topics.
Heuristic Analysis Key Takeaways:
On the current platform, the process indicator functions more like a checklist than it does showcase where the user is in the process.
Answer selection doesn't allow users to see what they've selected.
Typography size is very large taking away from additional information.
Understanding where Seventh.AI comes in.
Before we began synthesizing our research we thought we would create a journey map which is a strategic process of capturing and communicating complex customer interactions. We have done this so that we could understand which part of the process Seventh.AI's service helped.
Defining the Problem
Affinity mapping key insights.
We created an affinity map to analyze and synthesize our user research findings.
Key findings:
It is imperative for the platform to state from the beginning what the onboarding goals are. The user may be willing to complete the onboarding but the lack of information is discouraging to them.
Users are unaware of the value of completing the onboarding process. They do not know what the end result will be.
What problems does the user face?
1. Based on our research, the user is unsure of exactly what it is that Seventh.AI does.
2. Users are bringing their most precious ideas to Seventh.AI. How will they keep them safe?
3. Users don’t know what is going to come after they complete the onboarding process.
How will we solve this?
By explaining Seventh.AI’s benefits up front users will be more willing to divulge information about their companies and ideas, we’ll know this to be true when we see an increase in customer acquisition.
Who are we solving this for?
Start-Up Software Developer
Scenario:
SSD is just starting out with their company. They have an idea that will change the way their industry is seen. They share their idea with a close friend who is also a business owner and their friend suggests that the SSD patent their idea to add value to their company while also protecting their idea. But the SSD has never filed for a patent and doesn't know the logistics of applying for a patent.
They know they can't afford to pay an attorney to help them file but they were told about SeventhAI as a safe and affordable way to prepare their patent portfolio. They go to SeventhAI’s website and upon exploring they aren’t sure of the exact benefits of using SeventhAI. They decide to sign up to see if they can learn more by using the service and they begin the initial question assessment, they are quickly confused by the terminology and are unsure of the answers to put. They also are hesitant to enter personal business information because they want to protect their idea. They are unsure how long the onboarding process will take and how much more information they need to provide.
Behaviors & Attitudes:
They want to learn more about how to protect their intellectual property.
They want to increase the value of their business.
They are protective over their idea and are hesitant to share it with others.
Frustrations & Pain Points:
Frustrated with the sheer amount of information needed to file a patent.
They cannot afford to hire a patent attorney.
The need guidance identifying the unique qualities of their IP
Designing the Solution
Selecting key features.
After synthesizing our data we sat down and selected key features in the form of the MSCW method, based on our research. We believe that by making the selections more clear and utilizing visual terminology we can help the user move through the onboarding process with less friction.
Collaboration by design studio.
After deciding on the features we should include in the new onboarding system, we gathered together in a design studio to brainstorm ideas on functionality and flow. We explored progress indication, visual terminology, and setting expectations for the user.
Medium fidelity designs & user testing.
We created a medium fidelity wireframes to test in our users. Some of the key features we focused on in our initial designs were:
Setting expectations prior to the start of the onboarding process.
Creating a progress indicator that allowed the user to view their position along the process.
Utilized common visual terminology to make answer selection easier for the user.
Created a summary page for review of entered information.
We ran into some trouble with gathering users to for our usability tests, but we ended up testing 5 users. We were able to gather valuable data in order to make changes to the final prototype.
The final prototype.
When creating our high fidelity prototype we took into account some of the changes from our usability tests. The biggest changes took place in the form of:
Changing the design of the progress indicator to something more subtle.
Creating consistency with the buttons and answers.
Starting the changes from the homepage.
Creating more clarity with each question.
Next steps & recommendations.
The expectation of this project is that the changes will increase the acquisition of new clients and decrease churn rate. But we don't think the work stops there. We recommend that Seventh.AI continue to work with their users to test the current prototype since we were not able to test with them.
In addition, while we’ve taken care of the onboarding process, the user might need some additional help to navigate the platform itself, so the introduction of a light tutorial as they first arrive could be beneficial in helping the user understand how to use the service. We also suggest adding an option for the user to schedule an appointment to talk to an advisor within the platform, so that they can get help when they need it.
We also understand that Seventh.AI is working out all of their features, but we recommend that once that is nailed down, that those features be reflected on the homepage and on the introduction of the onboarding process so that users will always be aware of what they will be getting out of their service.