ArboHQ
Case Study
Role
Project Lead, UX/UI Designer, UX Researcher
Toolkit
Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Miro
Background
ArboHQ is a financial platform designed to cater to the unique accounting needs of startups and SaaS (Software as a Service) companies. It provides a suite of services including accounting, tax compliance, R&D credit optimization, forecasting, and CFO services.
It offers automation for tasks such as revenue recognition and provides powerful insights through analytics dashboards. These features help businesses manage cash flow, track metrics like burn rate, and optimize their financial operations
Research
Research Goals
We intend to redesign the internal Arbo platform to provide a more user-friendly and intuitive experience for CPAs, addressing navigation issues and enhancing satisfaction. This improvement will streamline financial processes, offering CPAs a more efficient tool comparable to industry competitors.
Methodologies
Competitive Analysis
Usability Study
Competitive Analysis
Research Findings
Quick Data Viewing - The need of improved performance viewing is lacking currently
Textual Hierarchy - Users aren't able to quickly recognize important text and buttons to complete tasks
Automation Features - Minimizing user action as much as possible is a common feature
High Learning Curve - Users need a simple layout with little difficulty
To address these issues and observations, improvements in navigation, clearer prompts, contextual guidance, visual cues, and user-friendly features such as comprehensive search functionality and accessible help documentation were recommended. By implementing these enhancements, ARBO can significantly improve the user experience, increase productivity, and enhance overall satisfaction.
Design Process
My Role
Improve the User Experience for the overall "Tax Projects" process for users. Specifically, the stakeholder has stressed that the process for updating a document should be priority as it has received negative feedback in the past.
Project Goals
Develop a new process that supports marketing objectives while addressing key user needs, ensuring the solution provides both business value and a positive, user-centered experience.
Information Architecture
I’ve built a sitemap considering primary, secondary and tertiary navigation starting at the landing page for my task.
User Flow
Wireframes
With the help of the sitemap along with user flows, I’ve started building my low-fidelity wireframes. New key screens I’ve designed are the following:
In Progress
Completed
Project Details
Documents
Style Guide
I’ve collected few references from the existing app in order to define a design system that could allow me to create consistent high-fidelity wireframes. Logo, typography, color palette, buttons and icons are the main elements I’ve outlined at this stage.
Final Prototype
The final prototype currently in use by ARBOHQ went through multiple rounds of user testing in order to continue iterating changes and incorporating as much feedback as possible. In the end this was seen as a successful and user-friendly product.
Key Takeaways
Challenges Faced
To take on the project lead role and divide project goals amongst the team and organize our design sprint process
To make a huge effort in prioritization when creating an MVP
Incorporating business goals with conflicting user-feedback
Lessons Learned
The effort of keeping it simple can make a difference in the final outcome, starting form flowcharts up to the prototype experience.
The importance of a well-designed UI library/Style Guide, that is built up using components, variants and frames
Designing in a consistent way can truly help speed up the whole process
