The Business Exchange
The Business Exchange wants to bring the business-buying process into the 21st century.
The goal of this project was to create a modern business marketplace on the web, titled “The Busines Exchange” which makes use of modern data algorithms and AI to demystify the process of buying and selling business. I, along with a second designer, was approached to help this very early-stage founder bring his concept to life for the first time. We crafted his site and brand entirely from scratch over the course of 3 months.
The Problem
While multiple fields of business have caught up to the modern age with their online marketplaces, small business buying and selling has remained stagnant. Dated, confusing websites steer young people away from entering into the world of small business ownership, leaving it aging and falling apart. America’s small businesses need a push into the modern world to bring young people in and keep them thriving.
Project Goals
After sharing my takeaways with the Business Exchange team and discussing their ideal future app, we determined the following project goals:
· Develop a modern and trustworthy brand
· Create an approachable and easy-to-use small business marketplace for young prospective business buyers
·Provide current business owners with a streamlined way to list their business for sale
Initial Site Map
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Lo-fi Mockups
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Reviewing the Low Fis
After development of the low fidelity mockups, we then presented them to a key stakeholder who guided our direction with a key insight: the Business Exchange Rating that we had developed should be careful to not scare off buyers and aggravate sellers if the business is given a lower rating. This allowed us to cosider ways to provide buyers with actionable data that is also holistic.
Defining the Brand Direction
After developing the site map and low fis, we then turned our focus to developing the brand direction to inform our high fidelity mockups. The core themes the founder wanted to capture were modern, clean, and easy-to-understand. We strove to strike a balance between feeling fresh and approachable while remaining minimal and focused.
Introducing the Business Exchange
Following the development of the brand direction, lo-fis, and site map, we then began to develop the high fidelity mockups of the website.
We then showed our site mockups to a panel of three Brokers, to get their perspective as a third key user group of the site. Some of the key insights they provided us to be implemented into our hifis were the following:
1. a pre-assessment business-purchasing readyness quiz could be incredibly helpful to demystifying important considerations to users looking to buy.
2. Certain phrasing we had used such as “founded date” was not completely accurate when considering business that have changed hands multiple times.
3. We can design the flows in such a way as to increase the amount of quality leads on a business for sale. For example, showing sellers and Brokers which potential buyers have signed the NDA which implies their serious intent.
Future Goals and Takeaways
1. What can be incredible for one user group may be a huge frustration for another. When we first thought up the Business Exchange Rating, we were so excited at the idea of providing clear data on businesses to users that we didn’t initially consider how this was only purely positive for one key user group: our buyers. Our sellers, on the other hand, would’ve been at the mercy of the data algorithm to make their listing attractive to buyers. This realization led us to develop a middle-group solution that was helpful for buyers without alienating sellers.
2. A designer’s key focus should be empathizing with the users and understanding important aspects of the project topic inside and out. Going into this project, I was very unfamiliar with the process of buying and selling business. This presented me with the unique challenge of understanding new terms and processes, such as signing NDAs to see business information, NAICS codes, and more.
2. A designer’s key focus should be empathizing with the users and understanding important aspects of the project topic inside and out. Going into this project, I was very unfamiliar with the process of buying and selling business. This presented me with the unique challenge of understanding new terms and processes, such as signing NDAs to see business information, NAICS codes, and more.