Empresario Cloud Storage


Summary

There are without a doubt some industry leaders in the cloud storage industry. However, there are many voids that are still looking to be filled. Empresario began as a business venture set to help one of the largest voids, entrepreneurs. As part of the design and development team of Empresario, we set out to streamline entrepreneurs workflow so they could have more time to focus on building the grand vision of their empire.

Design Roles
DESIGN ROLES
  • UX Design
  • Visual Design
  • Brand Identity
 Design Deliverables
DESIGN DELIVERABLES
  • User Surveys
  • Personas
  • Competitive Analysis
  • User Stories & Flows
  • Lo-Fi Wireframes
  • High-Fi Prototype
Tools Used
TOOLS USED
  • Figma
  • Invision
  • Illustrator
  • Photoshop
  • Usability Hub
Specifications
SPECIFICATIONS
  • Duration
  • 8 Weeks
  • Client
  • Bloc IO

The Problem

Cloud Storage companies are missing simple but key components that are essential to the workflow of entrepreneurs and small businesses. Entrepreneurs are tired of having to create multiple accounts for various web applications to accomplish one task. This, in turn, creates a huge amount of friction and delays in the launching of their business.

Empresario Solution

The Solution

The solution was Empresario, a cloud storage, team and project management application. Empresario would allow entrepreneurs to have a more streamlined workflow. It would achieve this by combining collaboration and productivity tools as well as integrating different communication and accounting applications.


Process

In our venture to create a revolutionary new cloud storage application, we went through a very detailed and methodical process. We wanted to set the proper foundation that would allow our users to easily create their own empires.

Discovery & Research

Identify the Problem

Once we were able to identify that the problem was the lack of cloud storage applications tailored to entrepreneurs, we were able to commence our journey.

User Surveys

We wanted to better understand our audience therefore we sent out a survey using Google Forms to get a better perspective of their aspirations.
Highlights from our survey included:

67%

would have liked to have a more informative and user friendly dashboard

95%

Prioritized real time collaboration and sharing settings

70%

Disliked the Security and Privacy Features of their current cloud storage

82%

of users were looking for an all in one platform that would allow them to be able to manage multiple tasks as well as integrate multiple apps

Competitive Analysis

In my competitive analysis we focused our attention on 3 key companies in the cloud storage space Google Drive, Dropbox, Onedrive.

The 3 strengths we wanted to emulate from these companies were:
  • User Friendly UI
  • Available in Multiple Devices
  • Version History and Auto Saving Feature
The 3 areas we could improve were:
  • Stronger Customer Privacy and Security
  • Integration of 3rd party apps
  • Dashboard Innovation

User Personas

Our results from this research produced the following user personas.

Brenda Profile Photo

Brenda Gallardo

Marketing Consultant

Brenda really likes having items stored online. It makes it easier for her to store ideas and potential video content, without the hassle of having to worry about carrying storage space with her. Although her job requires her to use a storage company she doesn’t quite like it because of the limited sharing options and has to use other tools to get organized. She would like to be able to collaborate with others online and in realtime. She is also looking for an autosave feature since she constantly has new ideas to write for her blog.

Abioye Profile Photo

Abioye Nacimento

Project Assistant

Abioye uses cloud storage services for his current job all the time. He has three different account for one storage service and two accounts with other companies. He is looking to reduce the number of accounts he needs but one cloud storage company does not meet all his needs. He is looking to intergrate task manager for his projects. Also, he wants to easily share his files with others securely. He is very careful on what companies he uses to store what as he is an avid promoter of privacy laws.

Bruno Profile Photo

Bruno Totti

Master Upholsterer

Bruno uses multiple cloud storage accounts. He uses mainly uses one because of the ease of sharing ideas and concepts with clients. He uses wave accounting to make invoices and he would like to include photos of what he is invoicing for to be more organized. He cares a lot about privacy and security as he often has some patented designs and wants to make sure they don’t fall into the wrong hands. He would also like to be able easily communicate with his employees through slack.

User Flows

Once we had the top user stories we proceeded to create a the most common user flows using Draw.Io

View User Flows

User Testing

Lo-Fi Wireframes

We began the skeletal architecture of the new dashboard with sketches.

View Sketches

Then we proceeded to create wireframes from those sketches. Based on the feedback we got from our research, there was a large focus being able to read and easily access the most important features without too much distraction. The challenge we ran into was creating that clean and uncluttered dashboard with so many elements at hand.

In order to overcome this challenge, we added a lot of negative space and padding around elements. We also had large, clear, legible fonts in an organized hierarchy. The combination of both of these techniques promoted the use of visual cues to help guide users accomplish their important task.

Hi-Fi Prototypes

We tested the lo-fi wireframes rigorously in Invision to make sure that the user had the best possible experience. We wanted to get an even better idea of their thought process before going into more detailed mock ups. Once we had enough feedback we generated more detailed prototypes of our cloud storage and project management application

Visual Design of Dashboard

One of the most important features of Empresario was the intuitive dashboard.

It was were users would spend most of their time. I wanted to emphasize creativity without losing organization. In the dashboard, users would be able to get a glance of their day’s schedule as well as the weather. Users would have AI generated content based on their work pattern for a more efficient work flow solving one of the major frustrations from our research.

We made sure to provide easy access to the search bar and more importantly effortless access to upload or create a new file. The left side menu would also contain easy access to the team and project management portion of the app. All of this in a single application.

Empresario Dashboard

Preference Test

From the lo-fi mock up and user testing we learned to create enough space to create a cleaner and more aesthetically pleasing sensation. We took away some of the elements. A challenged we ran into was that we were some elements we were unsure if to integrate into the visual design or not. In order to solve this dilemma, we turned to gathering feedback using Usability Hub’s preference test.

Preference Test 1

We asked users if they preferred having a quote vs Not having one. Our results concluded that most would in fact prefer a quote as they felt more inspired by it. This was a cloud storage app tailored towards entrepreneurs so it only seemed appropriate. Although for the final design we had to modify the placement of the quote in order to create a much cleaner and more visual hierarchy.

Preference Test 1

Preference Test 2

Another test that allowed us to learn critical and valuable feedback from our users came from the create an account screen. Although there was something more aesthetically pleasing from the minimal design of the lines for information input, most of our users preferred the more robust blank boxes. The comments we received mention that they were able to get a clearer visual of where they were supposed to input data. All of this information allowed us to get a better understanding of what users wanted and provide a more refined prototype.

Preference Test 2

Branding & Identity

Brainstorming & Concepts

When we began the brainstorming process, we wanted to make sure that we encapsulated everything entrepreneurs are looking for from our research into our application.

We wanted to continue to inspire those who are waking up early in the morning to work on their side hustles. That is were the name Empresario came along. It is a word which is the direct translation of entrepreneur and a phonetically similar word to impresario. We wanted the app to be associated with the idea of inspiration, hard work, and dedication. Our focus was on those who are hustling every day to build their own empires.

Color Palette & Style Guide

Logo

The logo was a unique blend of many ideas that we wanted to fuse into one. We first began with the idea of one of the largest empires in human history, the Roman empire. We started with some simple sketches trying to get ideas flowing. Once we had a foundation for what we were looking for in our logo we began to develop more detailed renderings in Adobe Illustrator. We based our logo in an abstract shape of some of the helmets worn by the Roman gladiators. We made this shape by taking silhouettes of skyscrapers which resemble today's modern empires.

Empresario Logo
Empresario Branding

Color

The selection for colors was based on the feeling that we wanted to transmit to the user. We wanted the user to feel creative, innovative, and productive. However, we also wanted to keep the essence of what our users are looking for which is power, security, and a feeling of community.

Typography

We also wanted to promote the same message in our typography. For the Brand Typefaces we chose BlairMdITC TT as we felt it had a refined and sophisticated feel to it. Montserrat was chosen for its versatility as well as its clean aesthetic composition. We selected fonts that had a strong impact and audience engagement. We wanted both typefaces to be strong enough to represent the brand.

Empresario Typography

Conclusion

In conclusion, there were many different avenues that this cloud storage project could have taken. We ran across multiple design aspects throughout this project that we had doubts on. We were unsure if users would like a certain element in our design. However based on our intensive user research and detailed user feedback, we were able to determine what users were looking for in such an application. We were able to reduce the number of folder option in our dashboard to create a higher balance of space and clarity. We focused on emphasizing certain elements based on our wireframe testing results. The biggest lesson we learned was that aesthetics without a purpose is like an aerodynamic arrow without a target. This was an invaluable lesson that we will continue to use in the future. Our target with this project was to promote a powerful cloud storage and project management application for entrepreneurs, without losing a sense of collaboration and security. From the feedback we received for our application, we certainly accomplished our objective.

View Prototype