ARTZY (B2B SaaS Platform)
Overview
Artyz Inc. is a 500 global startup streamlining the workflow of marketing design services. The challenge is: outsourcing design work was often time-consuming and fragmented. Inspired by this insight, Artyz Inc. was born, offering an all-in-one platform for design subscription services.
As a startup designer during the seed funding phase, I helped build the platform from 0 to 1 and delivered it to the end users in a short timeline and limited budget. In a small team setting, I led the user research to define product strategy and prioritize the requirements with stakeholders. I collaborated closely with our engineering team to develop and launch the platform by using an agile development approach.
Compared to the traditional freelance process, our product reduced 34% of the design budget and 90% of the time from searching to requesting an order. After its launch, the platform catered to over 30 brands and delivered more than 500 graphic designs in two months.
The Problem
Outsourcing marketing design can be a painful process. Searching for a freelancer with the right style, building trust, communicating the design details, and negotiating through the huge price gap…takes a lot of time and effort.
It typically involves three stages before freelancers begin work: 1) searching for designers, 2) initiating conversations, and 3) requesting designs. Recognizing the opportunity to streamline these steps, our founder consolidated them into a single, all-inclusive step on our platform.
Goal
Develop a platform to simplify the outsourcing process, including both designer selection and communication.
- The platform features a standardized questionnaire for customers to request their design needs.
- Artzy will then facilitate the matching of designers and communicate the requirements.
Research
Exploratory Interview
I dedicated a month to in-depth exploration and research, focusing on outsourcing experiences and validating the product idea with potential customers. During this period, I identified three target audience groups that have a recurring need for design outsourcing.
Tto understand how they find freelancers, request, review, and discuss the design, I asked questions like: Can you walk me through the process of how you choose the freelancer to collaborate with? How do you communicate your design request? These are some of our high-level findings:
Interview Findings
- Startups, often constrained by tight budgets, find the appeal of subscription flat rates particularly compelling.
- In-house marketing teams can save time on schedule management by using our platform.
- Media agencies favor our management platform for its ability to efficiently handle multiple brands simultaneously.
Gap Analysis
To gauge the product-market fit, Artzy devised a Google Form as a temporary substitute for the forthcoming platform. However, there are some limitations with the form, and that urged us to build the platform.
I interviewed 3 Google form customers who had subscribed a month to our service and used the form to request their design. The goal is to understand what attracted them to subscribe to our service and what expectations were unfulfilled and could be designed in our forthcoming platform.
Suggestions for the platform design:
How might we establish a clear hierarchy to enable customers to articulate their requirements, minimizing any potential confusion?
How might we facilitate customers in expressing their design style and preferences through our platform, reducing the necessity for face-to-face or phone consultations to confirm the design direction?
Ideation
Flow chart
After discussing what the design request form might look like, I developed a flow chart to visualize the steps and used it to communicate with the team about its feasibility and logistics.
Wireframe Design
At this stage, I started to draft wireframes and discussed potential design layout.
Wireframe Iteration
After consulting with the lead designer and founder, we decided to eliminate the preview sidebar and restructured the hierarchy to simplify the information display.
Design and Prototype
Target 01 - Clear hierarchy for the form
To aid user understanding and simplify the design request process, I divided the request into five key segments and displayed them using a progress tracker. This provides greater control, allowing users to easily switch between sections, go back, or skip steps as needed. Furthermore, I implemented a progress bar to encourage form completion.
Target 02 - Communicate efficiently for style and preferences
When our customers lacked a brand style guide or sought a fresh design style for their event or holiday materials, they were given the option to select from a range of reference options or upload their preferences and select color schemes. By offering these choices, we provided a clear and efficient means for designers to grasp the desired design direction, eliminating the need for guesswork or additional effort on the part of our customers.
Design System
I contributed to maintaining and creating the design system, including color system, typography and components library.
Product Launched
Our collective efforts in launching this B2B platform yielded impressive outcomes, including a 68% boost in design efficiency, a 34% reduction in costs, and an impressive 90% reduction in outsourcing design timelines.
Customer Review
We receive numerous positive feedback, such as quick turnaround time, increased customer focus on high-priority tasks, and lower communication costs.
What I learned
- Engineer collaboration: technical constraints, UI audit, product QA
- Workshop facilitation: lead the team on ideation, decision making, and sharing UX research insights
- Engaging in the business sector: interacting with customers firsthand
