PROBLEM: When an overseas supplier receives a Purchase Order for their goods, they fill the order and ship it to the customer, usually in large quantities. Purchase Orders almost guarantee that the supplier will be paid when the shipment arrives at the destination, however, the shipping time (sometimes, weeks) can create a cash flow problem for suppliers that fill large, costly orders of goods.
PRODUCT: A web application that allows suppliers to lend and borrow money against purchase orders.
ROLE: Solo UX Designer, working with three developers, and the internal team at the client's organization.
TASK: The client's internal team created a bare-bones platform that merchants could use to borrow and lend against oversees orders. I was tasked with re-designing this dashboard based on insights and needs from users.
* Many screenshots and designs have been obfuscated or omitted to protect client property. If you have further questions about my work with this product, please contact me and I would be happy to discuss.
How can we improve the existing product?
The existing product that we were tasked to re-design was extremely utilitarian - a simple table-style interface, with a very minimal set of features. Since the initial product was already being used, it was a great opportunity to speak to users and understand where they found frustration and room for improvement.
"As potential borrowers, we want to view and react to funding opportunities quickly"
Order status, exchange rates, and supply & demand for funding can change rapidly. Often, these circumstances can lead to a favorable borrowing opportunity for suppliers. The existing product contained the information needed to view these opportunity, but the information was difficult to find, synthesize, and apply to a funding request in the time needed to capitalize on the opportunity.
This screenshot has been obfuscated, but shows the general table layout of original application.
Design Solutions
1. Heads-up feed of Transaction Updates & Activity
On the main dashboard, we created heads-up feed of newly available funding opportunities and status activity. This allows users to quickly view and react to new funding opportunities as the arise.
2. Notify users about transaction updates that matter to them.
To further optimize how efficiently users can capitalize on new funding opportunities, we created a notification system in Settings that can be customized based on the status and activity of a transaction.
3. Display relevant third-party financial information that may affect their borrowing behavior.
Outside news about relevant customers and suppliers help borrowers make decisions on when to request funding. We included a widget with a small news feed that pulls specific information based on the companies that the user has active or pending transactions with.
In addition to a full foreign exchange rate screen, we included a small module on the sidebar that includes live exchange rates.
Additional Challenge: Filtering Transactions
Transactions inherently have a lot criteria that need to be organized and filtered by users quickly and efficiently.
Due to these needs, and the amount of filtering details needed, we tried many possible solutions that would allow users to 1) keep filters in view to reference, and 2) be able to change them quickly, and see the transactions that match their criteria.
