Skyrocketing startup community sign-ups and engagement
2021 • 2 Months • Responsive • Lead Designer
StartClubArnhem (SCA) is a hub where startup founders come together to build a supportive community. It is a community filled with young entrepreneurs seeking knowledge and business coaches to help elevate their startups.
🙋♂️ Signup Rate increased by 30%
〰️
☄️ Bounce Rate decreased by 11%.
〰️
⏱️ Session Duration increased by 97.7%
〰️
🙋♂️ Signup Rate increased by 30% 〰️ ☄️ Bounce Rate decreased by 11%. 〰️ ⏱️ Session Duration increased by 97.7% 〰️
Background
A Startup Community in Arnhem, NL called StartClubArnhem
This is the project that I completed while working at Whello. I worked on this project back in 2021 for around 2 months, from concept to launch. In this project, I collaborated with an amazing team consisting of wonderful individuals. We also partnered with “Garindo” to help us navigate stakeholder alignment due to the geographical differences between Indonesia and the Netherlands.
In this project, I took on the role of Lead Designer, overseeing the entire design process from stakeholder management, user research, and design strategy to high-fidelity design and prototyping, ensuring seamless delivery to the client.
Problem
🤬 Potential Users are having a hard time navigating the website
There are some key UX improvements that need to be made include hierarchy, layout, context building, design consistency, and the cohesiveness between their branding and how it appears on their website. Based on these points, I used them to shape our project objectives so we can define what success looks like.
Solution
Research, strategize and redesign the end-to-end website experience to help Arnhem’s startup ecosystem connect and grow with a focus on increasing the customer metrics
Customer Metrics
Sign-Up Rate
Session Duration
Bounce Rate
Research
Creating a fresh and better User Experience for the Website
In the meeting, the SEO team, developers, one project manager, and I discussed about how can we improve the existing website to attract more visitors. Everyone shared ideas, but the tight 3-month deadline was a major concern. We created a couple of strategies to make sure we meet the deadline.
Plan & Strategy
3-Phase Launch
We split the project into three stages, and it’s like a relay race. The designers, kick things off in phase one, mocking up initial designs—say, a fresh homepage or a sleek user flow.
Once we’ve got something solid, we move to phase two, iterating on feedback, maybe tweaking colors or testing a new button style. Meanwhile, the devs jump in and start building phase one, coding up those initial designs we handed off.
Plan & Strategy
Design Branching
We figured this approach would let us test a bunch of ideas at once without stepping on each other’s toes. The best parts of everyone’s branches could get merged together later.
We used design branching to crank out variations fast and wrap it all up in under 3 months.
Final Redesign
Meet the new and fresh homepage
The new homepage looks updated and fresh. It features a vibrant color palette and fun elements like the Arnhem Bridge and towers, making the site more engaging for users. Additionally, it boasts an improved and clear information architecture, with each section filled with organized and concise information, ensuring nothing is scattered anymore.
Final Redesign
Better Information Architecture in Founders, Coaches, and Events page
Our main goal is to serve our primary target users: the founders and coaches. The new sitemap significantly improves their ability to find fellow founders and coaches easily. Now, they can browse the directory and quickly take action if they wish to reach out to specific individuals. This update also benefits investors, making it easier for them to contact founders if they are interested in investing in certain startups.
Final Redesign
Clear call to action for businesses to partner with SCA
Just like the founders and coaches page, we also make sure to acknowledge the business partners who invest in the community. We feature them on the website to help increase their exposure in the startup world. The call-to-action (CTA) makes it easy for potential partners to support the community—just one click, and you're all set.
Outcomes
We celebrated with a Pizza Party!🥳
Besides the quantitative data, we received fantastic qualitative feedback from users who felt that our new website perfectly meets their needs. You can see the final design, and it’s already live at startclubarnhem.nl.
As the lead designer on this project, I learned that by clearly outlining our plans and strategies, we were able to keep the project on track and build trust with our client. This is what "good design equals good business" is all about.
“Our new website fits with all our needs and we get a lot of compliments on how cool it looks!”
Paulien Zwiers - Community Manager, SCA
🙋♂️ Signup Rate increased by 30%
〰️
☄️ Bounce Rate decreased by 11%.
〰️
⏱️ Session Duration increased by 97.7%
〰️
🙋♂️ Signup Rate increased by 30% 〰️ ☄️ Bounce Rate decreased by 11%. 〰️ ⏱️ Session Duration increased by 97.7% 〰️
Curious to see more details about this project or chat about your next big idea?
Drop me an email at davidnurak@gmail.com. Let’s make something awesome together!
or checkout this design-as-a-subscription service that I created called Featherly Studio and get a chance to collaborate with me as your design partner.