VlaanderenOnderneemt.be The shortest route to information for entrepreneurs The project As an entrepreneur in Flanders, finding information online and staying up to date on governmental regulations and initiatives can be hard. Interesting information is distributed over several websites, which makes it often difficult to know where to go and -once you re there- to find what you re looking for. Agentschap Ondernemen regards it as its mission to reduce administrative overhead and always help entrepreneurs out as efficiently as possible. Being a service-focussed organization, it works hard in close cooperation with other governmental departments to optimize governmental efficiency and process improvement. Hence, the idea to create a new portal for entrepreneurs in Flanders as the shortest route to all the relevant information sites was born. As a first stage of this initiative, Human Interface Group and Inno.com designed a functional blueprint for a new portal for entrepreneurs: vlaanderenonderneemt.be Human Interface Group 1
The challenge The portal enables entrepreneurs to find relevant information and stay up to date so that they don t have to wade through a plethora of websites. A lot of entrepreneurs use desktop or laptop computers to go online but in the multidevice world of today it s self-evident that the portal should be easily accessible via the most commonly used devices: desktop, laptop, tablet and smartphone. Next to directing entrepreneurs to relevant information and pointing to important initiatives, the portal should also offer useful business support tools, like sector-specific subsidy information. Human Interface Group s global task was to deliver a functional blueprint of the portal, in cooperation with inno.com who took care of the technical analysis. New homepage Human Interface Group 2
The results Knowing that entrepreneurs are struggling with finding information is one thing, but getting a good grasp on the exact problems they are confronted with, how those problems can be solved and how the solution can be communicated throughout the organization is another matter. Thanks to our UX-focused functional analysis, the blueprint for the portal provides insight into these problems. It is a highly detailed, visually rich and technically sound document, the latter thanks to the profound technical study by inno.com. In that way, the blueprint is a conclusive requirements specification for the later technical development and implementation of the portal website. Mega dropdown What we did We started with a brief information gathering phase where we uncovered the project challenges via stakeholder workshops. Agentschap Ondernemen s business experts provided us with excellent and to-the-point information ensuring a swift project kick-off. Next, we organized card sorting sessions in Leuven, Gent and Mechelen in which both experienced and start-up entrepreneurs assisted us in constructing the sometimes daunting information architecture and shed their light on business needs and daily operational challenges. Human Interface Group 3
Card sorting session Based on the card sorting sessions outcome we crafted the information architecture and designed the wireframes and mockups. Information architecture Human Interface Group 4
The website is designed completely responsive of course, so we also created apt design patterns to ensure that future multi-device access of the portal was assured. Homepage on smartphone Human Interface Group 5
All mockups were made interactive and were thoroughly tested with real-life entrepreneurs in a focus group setting. The moment Agentschap Ondernemen and we were finally satisfied with the results, we started creating the visually rich functional blueprint with detailed use cases. Use case Human Interface Group carried out the following tasks:! Interviewing the different stakeholders! Card sorting with entrepreneurs to define how the information should structured! Designing the information architecture and wireframes! Task oriented focus groups! Describing use cases Human Interface Group 6
You work hard to improve your digital business? We help you to achieve results. Human Interface Group gives advice and creates an engaging user experience for all digital channels and touch points in the customer journey. We define a UX strategy tailored to your company s value proposition and create outstanding user experiences and user assistance material for companies worldwide. For more than 20 years, Human Interface Group has built up a leading reputation in the user experience market and is now an absolute reference. Curious about how we can help you achieve better results? Visit www.higroup.com Mail info@higroup.com Call +32 (0) 15 40 01 38 Human Interface Group 7