06 // Ideation

Aside from Kickstarter, none of the platforms we looked at had a mobile version. This was perhaps our greatest insight and clearly the strongest area for opportunity.

Working with paper prototypes, the team equally contributed and iterated on the ideal user flow in the mobile app, with a focus on the investor side, which we felt was the primary benefactor of the SEC ruling.

Because the ruling had not yet gone into effect when we conducted our research, equity crowdfunding was largely unknown in the investing domain. Our interviews revealed that a majority of people approached the topic cautiously. We had to design an equity crowdfunding platform that was informationally transparent and accessible.

While Bradley was clearly our focus, we continued to look at both personas and thought of other mental models that fit their demographics. We came up with the our first concept: gamification. We would creatively represent the act of investing as a way to achieve points, status or more investment opportunity.

Our second concept was inspired by mental models both personas would already be familiar with: search engines, online dating (Tinder) and rewards-based crowdfunding (Kickstarter).