SMART DESIGN FOR SMALL BUSINESS

SPARK BUSINESS

CAPITAL ONE

Spark Business is Capital One’s management, banking, and finance solution for small businesses. Capital One asked Grio to help them design a meaningful and effective user experience for the Spark Business marketing website and web app, and to develop a Spark Business Android app from the ground up. We also conducted extensive research to understand small business owners’ needs, and advised the Capital One design team on improvements to their general design process.

We threw a lot of complicated stuff at you and you were able to turn it around quickly."

ERIKA GARCIA

Product Manager for Spark Business

THE CHALLENGE

Create a great small business banking experience for web and mobile

To create experiences that would resonate with their target customers, Capital One needed to understand small business owners’ pain points, mental models, and business needs; they also needed developer support to build out a new app for Android users. Finally, the company needed to optimize their internal design process, which had become scattered and inconsistent as they grew their team and evolved their approach.

OUR APPROACH

Research-driven design
Collaborative process improvement

Grio applied a variety of design thinking methods to inform the Spark Business experience - synthesizing user research results, providing a heuristic evaluation on multiple features, conducting competitive analysis, developing user personas and MVP hypotheses, and finally diving into concept explorations, prototypes, and visual design. We also helped Capital One establish a consistent style guide and implement an agile, efficient design process that included iterations of UX research, concept development, prototyping, testing, visual design, and structured collaboration with developers.

I found all your work with the style guide impeccably prepared and presented. You did a wonderful job on the Marketing site redesign. I still reference it."

NICK ANGEL

Creative Director for Spark Business

RESULTS

Solid foundation
Great user experience

The final Spark Business product provided a meaningful user experience tailored specifically for the needs of small business owners, with consistent visual and interaction design applied throughout the entire responsive web app. Grio’s design input played a critical role in shaping the site’s online application flow and Accounts, Transfers, Payments, and Invoices interfaces. Our collaboration also equipped the Capital One design team with an efficient process and clear style guide, positioning them for success on future projects.