sara sapienza
“
“
There are so many allies of the
Buy Black movement, but how can I get them to find my business?
Raise RAISE offers black entrepreneurs a community-based solution to overcome the unique hurdles they face in starting and growing a business by providing an entertaining location-based product for new and existing customers.
ally by learning and changing every day
“
“
i have always strived to be an activist and
up black-owned b u s i n e s s e s i n yo u r c o m m u ni t y
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
literature reviews
legistlative analysis
surveys
Research interviews
focus group
site visit
persona development
benchmarking
Ideation
competitive analysis
storyboarding
concept creation
sketching
UI Design
low fidelity wireframes
high fidelity wireframes
prototyping
user surveys
Testing
user testing
usablity testing
May
UX research
Problem When trying to start up and run a business, black entrepreneurs face unique hurdles such as lack of mentorship, unfamiliarity with loan programs, and limited access to capital due to systemic and structural issues in the United States, which can keep long-term goals out of reach.
research scope 12
Literature reviews
3
legislative analysis
1
site visit
12.5 hours
4.5 hours
At the Fitting Curve
9
Interviews
1
Focus group
3
surveys
9.25 hours
4 attendees
321 responses
established studies concluded... “Larger shares of Black- and Hispanic-owned firm
Demographic Composition of U.S. Small Business Owners
applicants did not receive any of the financing they applied for—38% and 33%, respectively—compared to 24% of Asian-owned firm applicants and 20% of
100
White-owned business applicants.”
82%
80
60
40
2%
only 2% of small business owners in the united states are black while White business owners account for 82%.
20
5%
0
White
Black
Asian
OF BLACK-OWNED BUSINESS APPLICANTS DID NOT RECEIVE FUNDING COMPARED TO 20% OF WHITE-OWNED BUSINESS APPLICANTS
11% 2%
38%
Hispanic
U.S. Census Bureau’s 2016 American Survey of Entrepreneurs
legislation
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, H.R. H.R.4173
Passed to “facilitate enforcement of fair lending laws.” Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act went into effect in 2021, requiring financial institutions to collect and report data for women-owned, minority-owned to ensure fair lending practices.
Alt hough ot her laws such as t his have been passed to address discrimination minority business owners face, t he intended positive effects of such legislation could take years or decades to be fully realized.
Some interviewees have said...
“I developed a hair tie specifically for curly
haired folks a few years back, but haven't
gotten much traction on it. A lot of that is due
to not knowing how to find people that may like
my product.” – Daniella Henry, Owner of PUVI
“Most of our customers have said that “I never considered looking for back-owned businesses before our business being black-owned was but do think it's a good thing for people to do especially after impor tant to them and is why they came everything I learned from last summer’s BLM movement.” – Jackie, to us.” – Stephanie Vincent, Owner of The mother of two Fitting Curve
Survey data Black-owned businesses given targeted, financial support is...
How important is it to you that the black community is given equitable opportunities in business ownership?
7%
3.5% 5.2%
8.1%
Extremely valuable
35.5%
Very valuable
Extremely valuable
16.9% 41.9%
Somewhat valuable
25%
Very valuable Somewhat valuable
Not so valuable
Not so valuable
Not at all valuable
Not at all valuable
32.6%
24.4% 172 respondents
172 respondents
Survey data Do you seek out black-owned businesses when making buying decisions?
I wish it were easier to find black-owned businesses.
13.4%
6.5%
Always
34.3%
15.1%
Strongly agree
Usually Sometimes
25%
5.3%
Agree
37%
26%
Neither agree or disagree
Rarely
Disagree
Never
Strongly Disagree
19.8%
25% 172 respondents
172 respondents
Danni
“I’m really proud of my food and cocktail menu, I just need people in the door.”
Small Business Owner
About Danni is a black small business owner who saw an up-tick of customers during the summer of 2020. Much of this had to do with the buy-black movement inspired by the Black Lives Matter protests and all the social media sharing encouraging for allies to do so. Since the months have gone on, the spotlight has started to disappear and she is an a silmiar place she was before that time.
Goals
Pain Points
Connect with people that want to support black
Resturants have been one of the hardest hit
businesses but don’t know how find them.
businesses in the pandemic.
Give her customers a memorable and enjoyable
Uncertain if she can sustain her business if she
expierence when dining out.
doesn’t get more patrons.
Bring more attention to her restaurant while
Need a more economical way to bring in
staying in budget for adervitising.
customers since her budget is low.
ui design
Company info
Black Owned Long Island
blackownedlongisland.com
Product
strengths
weaknesses
Directory specifically for finding black-owned
Only available for Long Island, NY market of local
businesses
businesses and not well known
Easy to identify catageories
Not very personal or entertaining
No need to login, no app needed to download,
Mobile site not optimized for responsiveness and
and no location settings are required.
call to actions are to be desired
Well known service to find businesses
Poor reputation regarding rating manipulation amongst target users for this service
Icon that labels business as black-owned
Inconsitent with labels and icons of black-owned
Yelp
Extensive list of all businesses throughout the
businesses without a true way to search
country not just locally
yelp.com
Prompts for login to go through reviews and frequent location access requests
One of the largest tech companies in the world
About page for business can be overwhelming
and brand is easily identifiable with crediblity.
with amount of information
Google Maps
On about page of business on Maps, icons and
Most users according to user research do not
label listed if businesses identifies in certain
know of the feature that labels businesses such
google.com/maps
categories, one of which is black-owned.
as black-owned, femaled-owned, LGTBQ+ friendly and so on
Easy to navigate, use, and follows well known UX throughout all Google’s platforms
Maps is a utlity app and not intended to be friendly or fun which target user is looking for
Kelly gets a notification on her phone while walking on the way to work for
She sees that she passed two black-owned business but doesn’t have
Coming to the end of her workday, Kelly will be notified to open the app
the first time since installing the RAISE app.
time to stop in any stores at the moment.
once she leaves her office at 5 pm.
She looks up the businesses’ profiles that were just “steps away” on her commute this morning.
One caught her eye because of the funny reaction video an employee of the business posted to a prompt from the app.
She sees that this is location that has a RAISE kiosk which offers discounts and gifts for answering a question to learn something new about black history, different facts and statistics businesses owners face, or the background of the business they would like to share!
The establishements on RAISE are made up of small businesses so as a result Kelly ends up having a run-in with the owner and is exicted to say how she found her botique.
Going through the Kiosk after scanner her unique raise code she received a discount for learning today that black owned businesses only account for 2% of all businesses in the US!
As a thank you for supporting their business and also learning something new she can learn with her family and friends, Kelly got 5% off her purchase and happy she was able to help the community in a small but still important way.
Earning a discount user flow
prototypes
mobile kiosk
achievement After months of researching and observing the Black Lives Matter and Buy Black movements, RAISE addresses the unique hardships for black business owners by offering a community-based, valuable, and entertaining service. RAISE recreates the nostalgia for these movements at the height of their popularity, through an entertaining and rewarding resource that will captivate and generate ally support.
THANK YOu! In the future, this product could enhance the success of other marginalized groups, such
as the LGBTQ+ or disabled communities, to help fight their respective systemic issues in
starting and building a business.