Kiva Zip
A website redesign for a non-profit organization
Goal
Help make the website a fun and intuitive experience for entrepreneurs who are seeking to borrow loans.
Kiva Zip is a non-profit organization that focuses on providing peer-to-peer microloans to small business owners. The majority of these small business owners have exhausted all options to get traditional loans from financial institutions. As a subsidiary of Kiva, Kiva Zip works solely with people in the United States, whereas Kiva focuses on a larger international market.
Key Skills
Design Research, UX Design, Visual Design, and Design Strategy
Course Advisor
Sharon Green (Leadership by Design)
Team
Alagu Chockalingham (UX/Visual Design
Camille Grisby-Rocca (Content Strategist)
Travis Kupp (Business Strategist)
Lucy Sweeney (Visual Design)
Project Role
Project and Design Lead
Project Length
3.5 months
Tools
Keynote, InDesign, Illustrator
Final Concept
We ultimately delivered to Kiva Zip a final set of high-fidelity designs, a detailed process book and organizational report, and strategic guidelines.
To download a copy of the final process book, click here.
A walkthrough of the final web designs
The initial landing page of the Kiva Zip site
The user can exit the application at anytime and their info is automatically saved
A walkthrough of the final web designs
Design Research
From the previous semester, the last team had conducted some usability research on the existing site with small business owners. We learned that there was a high drop-off rate when it came to conversion from the site to applying for a loan. There were three primary questions that users had:
1) What does a successful application look like?
2) How to start initial fundraising?
3) How to reach out to the public to make a compelling case for funding?
We started the design process by doing an extensive site audit and walking through the page flows.
With the primary areas of focus in mind, we held workshops with our clients to determine how to best prioritize the design goals, features, and functionality.
Research Synthesis
Each webpage needed to have a primary set of goals in order for us to determine the design direction.
From our research gathering, we began to organize data into categories of primary, secondary, and tertiary clusters of priorities. These groupings helped us realize what to focus on from a design perspective.
We now had five key insights to guide us through the remainder of our design journey. These insights would also prove to be our design priniciples, which drove our ultimate list of strategies to provide Kiva Zip as well.
Concept Iterations
Simple design, consistent messaging, and clear call to actions were critical aspects of the website designs.
Below are examples of how the design progressed as the website priorities changed. Halfway through the project, we learned that Kiva Zip and Kiva were integrating into a single brand. Therefore, Kiva Zip's content will live on the Kiva website. This strategic change lead us to the final designs.
Design Strategy
To have a consistent and seamless experience on the website, apply the recommended visual design, experience design, and content strategies.
To assist Kiva Zip with implementing the designs, we created a series of strategies that display how and why we prioritized the website changes. The goal of these strategies is to help maintain consistency across webpages during changes and audits.
