Ark7

Enhancing real estate investment with engaging learning experiences

B2C

+53% Order Completion Rate

Scroll down to explore

My role

UX/UI Design, UX Research

TEAM

TARGET AUDIENCE

Young beginner investors with limited time and high motivation.

TIMELINE

Jul - Sep 2023

The Opportunity

BACKGROUND

Ark7 is a new real estate platform in growth with low conversion rates and challenges attracting high-value users.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Traditional real estate is complex. Ark7 lowers barriers for its innovation but users are not yet familiar with this new approach.

WHAT WE DO

We developed a Learn and Reward System to educate users, simplify onboarding, and boost engagement.

Ark7 is a new business model not everyone is familiar with.

Users are not motivated to start their first investment.

Impact

MY ROLE

As the Product Designer responsible for the design of Ark7's rewards and learning features from 0-1, I observed a significant rise in user engagement and investment.

IMPROVEMENT

Following the launch of these features, the percentage of new users opting to invest in properties via Ark7 experienced a dramatic increase, jumping from 14% to 56% in just 2 months, while user engagement rates climbed by 23%.

56%

Order Completion rate

23%

Engagement rate

How might we build trust and clarify the Ark7 business model for users, so they feel secure and confident about investing on the platform?

The Challenge we have...

How Did I Get To The Design Solutions

Domain Research

To better understand the problem space, we chose 4 competitors for a competitive analysis and conducted 6 user interviews.

User Type

In terms of investment experience, there are two main user types:

Research Insights

User Insights: Lack of Handy Learning Resources and Motivation to invest

Demand for Diverse Investment Learning

Users Seek Quick Investment Insights

Current Flow Lacks Retention and Encouragement

#1 Direction

Establish a Learning Circle and Supportive Environment at Key Stages for Better Investment Decisions.

Business Perspectives: Low involvement on app and Fear to invest more

Referral Bonuses Ineffective; Lower Investment Threshold Needed

Boost App Engagement with Events and Social Media

Extend 'Learn' Content to Mobile App

#2 Direction

Keep Users Engaged to Encourage Ongoing Investment and Learning.

User Journey

After conducting a comprehensive examination of the entire user journey, I noticed that users expressed numerous concerns when it came to making their first investment. As a result, by charting the user journey and understanding their emotions and needs, we identified the root of the issues:

Target User Group

Among them, we found that 69% of users give up at the stage of making their first investment, and 75% of those who give up are young individuals (aged 18-39). From this, we derived the profile of our target user group:

Through brainstorming the features we hope to see on the existing pages to encourage users to place orders and interact, we have identified several possible directions to solve the problem.

Successful Stories

✅ Encourage other users to invest after knowing how much money other people have made

❌ It is difficult to define the amount of returns from successful investments, as it involves user privacy and credibility.

Property Recommendation

✅ Help users narrow down their investment options.

❌ Users are unfamiliar with Ark7's business and lack sufficient trust to place orders.

Learn + Points

✅ Help users understand the Ark7 business model, build trust, and encourage them to place orders by earning points through learning.

How might we help new users to make informed investment decisions by offering educational and supportive resources at key stages?

To Further Define...

User Flow

I enhanced the user experience by encouraging new users to learn the concept first, then rewarding them with a bonus for redeeming free properties, boosting confidence and motivation for initial investments.

Ideation

Concept Development

Using user research insights, I designed user flows and mid-fidelity screens to motivate initial investments by building trust and explaining the innovative business model.

Evaluation

User Testing and Iterations

Through user testing on high-fidelity screens build upon the mid-fidelity screens, 90% users expressed that the rewards and learning features have enhance their engagement using the app.

Final Design - A Successful Launch

Take courses and complete quiz to earn points:

Learn how reward system works:

Check and redeem points:

Post-Launch Adjustments

01

Assistance in making decisions

Feedback showed users actively engaged with learning and investment rewards, but sharing rewards had low engagement. A key issue was users’ hesitation to share their investment stories due to privacy concerns.

Our primary goal at this stage was to build user trust in the product and encourage them to place orders. Therefore, instead of encouraging them to share their stories on social media, we focused on providing more professional investment advice within the product to assist them in making decisions.

Integrated Educational Support:

We added content from the website into the app, making it easier for users to learn. The new sections, "Market Insights" and "Expert Insights," offer convenient access to the latest real estate and investment knowledge.

02

All Users’ Perspective in Long-Term

From a long-term perspective, we needed to ensure the Learn and Reward feature didn’t make the user flow feel heavy or unintuitive for experienced investors.

To address this, we focused on making the feature user-friendly and emphasizing easy investments, avoiding the impression of an immature business model with a low threshold.

Minimized Impact on Main Interface:

After detailed discussions and iterations, we redesigned the Ark Circle section into Ark7 Moments, ensuring it blends naturally into the layout without dominating the screen.

Takeaways

Product Improvements:

Clearer Navigation

Centralized Information: Linking the homepage banner to the Profile section improved access to reward details.

Clear Entry: Switching banners to individual courses reduced confusion about promotions.

Visualized and Interactive Data

Enhanced Course Access: Play buttons next to courses made navigation easier.

Cleaner Design: Simplified headers and cards improved visual clarity and usability.

Individual and Team Collaboration Growth:

Individual Growth

I gained domain knowledge about real estate investments, enhancing my understanding of user needs, business priorities.

Team Collaboration

Collaborating with the development team, I contributed to solutions that reduced development costs while maintaining business value and increasing user satisfaction.

Future Steps

Comprehensive Rewards System Integration:

To ensure MVP viability, begin with pilot features for individual incentives (e.g., profile completion, referrals). Only if these prove effective, proceed to combine all incentives into a unified system.

WCAG-Compliant Color Scheme:

Since the current color scheme is based on brand colors and there is a reluctance to change them, avoid large green backgrounds with white text to meet accessibility standards without altering the brand’s identity.

More to explore

Mobile Application Design | Fintech

Ark7 Learn and Reward System

Design end-to-end learning and rewards system to enhance user engagement and order completion rate

Read Case Study

B2C

+53% Order Completion Rate

Web Application Design | SaaS

Orby AI Process Dashboard Redesign

Redesign Saas Process Automation Dashboard to improve operational efficiency and task completion rate

Read Case Study

B2B

Document AI

Carplay Application Design | HMI

JourneyLink V2V Carplay System

A HMI system that forging seamless connections among long-distance multi-vehicle roadtrips

Read Case Study

HMI

80% task success rate

Let's Connect!

Feel free to get in touch with me here ↓

jenniferzeng5562@gmail.com

Instagram →

Crafted with love

by Jennifer Zeng in New York City © 2024

Ark7

Enhancing real estate investment with engaging learning experiences

Scroll down to explore

My role

UX/UI Design, UX Research

TEAM

TARGET AUDIENCE

Young beginner investors with limited time and high motivation.

TIMELINE

Jul - Sep 2023

The Opportunity

BACKGROUND

Ark7 is a new real estate platform in growth with low conversion rates and challenges attracting high-value users.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Traditional real estate is complex. Ark7 lowers barriers for its innovation but users are not yet familiar with this new approach.

WHAT WE DO

We developed a Learn and Reward System to educate users, simplify onboarding, and boost engagement.

Ark7 is a new business model not everyone is familiar with.

Users are not motivated to start their first investment.

Impact

My Role

As the Product Designer responsible for the design of Ark7's rewards and learning features from 0-1, I observed a significant rise in user engagement and investment.

Improvement

Following the launch of these features, the percentage of new users opting to invest in properties via Ark7 experienced a dramatic increase, jumping from 14% to 56% in just 2 months, while user engagement rates climbed by 23%.

56%

Order Completion rate

23%

Engagement rate

How might we build trust and clarify the Ark7 business model for users, so they feel secure and confident about investing on the platform?

The Challenge we have...

How Did I Get To The Design Solutions

Domain Research

To better understand the problem space, we chose 4 competitors for a competitive analysis and conducted 6 user interviews.

User Type

In terms of investment experience, there are two main user types:

Research Insights

User Insights: Lack of Handy Learning Resources and Motivation to invest

Demand for Diverse Investment Learning

Users Seek Quick Investment Insights

Current Flow Lacks Retention and Encouragement

#1 Direction

Establish a Learning Circle and Supportive Environment at Key Stages for Better Investment Decisions.

Business Perspectives: Low involvement on app and Fear to invest more

Referral Bonuses Ineffective; Lower Investment Threshold Needed

Boost App Engagement with Events and Social Media

Extend 'Learn' Content to Mobile App

#2 Direction

Keep Users Engaged to Encourage Ongoing Investment and Learning.

User Journey

After conducting a comprehensive examination of the entire user journey, I noticed that users expressed numerous concerns when it came to making their first investment. As a result, by charting the user journey and understanding their emotions and needs, we identified the root of the issues:

Target User Group

Among them, we found that 69% of users give up at the stage of making their first investment, and 75% of those who give up are young individuals (aged 18-39). From this, we derived the profile of our target user group:

Through brainstorming the features we hope to see on the existing pages to encourage users to place orders and interact, we have identified several possible directions to solve the problem.

Successful Stories

✅ Encourage other users to invest after knowing how much money other people have made

❌ It is difficult to define the amount of returns from successful investments, as it involves user privacy and credibility.

Property Recommendation

✅ Help users narrow down their investment options.

❌ Users are unfamiliar with Ark7's business and lack sufficient trust to place orders.

Learn + Points

✅ Help users understand the Ark7 business model, build trust, and encourage them to place orders by earning points through learning.

How might we help new users to make informed investment decisions by offering educational and supportive resources at key stages?

To Further Define...

User Flow

I enhanced the user experience by encouraging new users to learn the concept first, then rewarding them with a bonus for redeeming free properties, boosting confidence and motivation for initial investments.

Ideation

Concept Development

Using user research insights, I designed user flows and mid-fidelity screens to motivate initial investments by building trust and explaining the innovative business model.

Evaluation

User Testing and Iterations

Through user testing on high-fidelity screens build upon the mid-fidelity screens, 90% users expressed that the rewards and learning features have enhance their engagement using the app.

Final Design - A Successful Launch

Take courses and complete quiz to earn points:

Learn how reward system works:

Check and redeem points:

Final Design - A Successful Launch

01

Assistance in making decisions

Feedback showed users actively engaged with learning and investment rewards, but sharing rewards had low engagement. A key issue was users’ hesitation to share their investment stories due to privacy concerns.

Our primary goal at this stage was to build user trust in the product and encourage them to place orders. Therefore, instead of encouraging them to share their stories on social media, we focused on providing more professional investment advice within the product to assist them in making decisions.

Integrated Educational Support:

We added content from the website into the app, making it easier for users to learn. The new sections, "Market Insights" and "Expert Insights," offer convenient access to the latest real estate and investment knowledge.

02

All Users’ Perspective in Long-Term

From a long-term perspective, we needed to ensure the Learn and Reward feature didn’t make the user flow feel heavy or unintuitive for experienced investors.

To address this, we focused on making the feature user-friendly and emphasizing easy investments, avoiding the impression of an immature business model with a low threshold.

Minimized Impact on Main Interface:

After detailed discussions and iterations, we redesigned the Ark Circle section into Ark7 Moments, ensuring it blends naturally into the layout without dominating the screen.

Takeaways

Product Improvements:

Clearer Navigation

Centralized Information: Linking the homepage banner to the Profile section improved access to reward details.

Clear Entry: Switching banners to individual courses reduced confusion about promotions.

Visualized and Interactive Data

Enhanced Course Access: Play buttons next to courses made navigation easier.

Cleaner Design: Simplified headers and cards improved visual clarity and usability.

Individual and Team Collaboration Growth:

Individual Growth

I gained domain knowledge about real estate investments, enhancing my understanding of user needs, business priorities.

Team Collaboration

Collaborating with the development team, I contributed to solutions that reduced development costs while maintaining business value and increasing user satisfaction.

Future Steps

Comprehensive Rewards System Integration:

To ensure MVP viability, begin with pilot features for individual incentives (e.g., profile completion, referrals). Only if these prove effective, proceed to combine all incentives into a unified system.

WCAG-Compliant Color Scheme:

Since the current color scheme is based on brand colors and there is a reluctance to change them, avoid large green backgrounds with white text to meet accessibility standards without altering the brand’s identity.

Mobile Application Design | Fintech

Ark7 Learn and Reward System

Design end-to-end learning and rewards system to enhance user engagement and order completion rate

Read Case Study

B2C

+53% Order Completion Rate

Web Application Design | SaaS

Orby AI Process Dashboard Redesign

Redesign Saas Process Automation Dashboard to improve operational efficiency and task completion rate

Read Case Study

B2B

Document AI

Carplay Application Design | HMI

JourneyLink V2V Carplay System

A HMI system that forging seamless connections among long-distance multi-vehicle roadtrips

Read Case Study

HMI

80% task success rate

More to explore

Let's Connect!

Feel free to get in touch with me here ↓

jenniferzeng5562@gmail.com

Crafted with love

by Jennifer Zeng in New York City © 2024

Instagram →