Equa is a web-based platform that allows organizations to manage agreements of all forms.
User Experience Design | User Interface Design
The Need
On the surface, Equa is a robust cap table management tool. In addition to cap table management, I assisted in exploring all of the different agreements in an organization and how those could be codified digitally.
Feature-level Iteration
I worked directly along-side the CEO and founder of Equa as an intermediary between the key stakeholders and the development team. The goal was to design and develop a full-featured MVP (Minimum Viable Product) as quickly as possible through rapid iteration.
Exploration and Discovery
I was able to work directly with the CEO of Equa to explore new features and how they might bring value to Equa’s already growing base of beta users. We captured and synthesized feedback from the beta group to identify which tools they were most in need of at the moment, and worked towards providing those as quickly as possible. We would routinely assess the UX and feature scope of competitors when brainstorming.
All-in-one Design
After identifying the next feature or set of features, I jumped straight to user interface design. Armed with a loose set of notes, I would use established design elements whenever possible. This helped to create a consistent user experience across a waterfall of different features, and decreased the time to production. Clickable prototypes of each feature were created to allow for easy review.
Review and Iteration
Once a rough draft had been completed, I would meet with the CEO and we would review the newly-designed feature. During long sessions, we tested, discussed failures, and iterated in real time. Once we were both happy with the result of these sessions, I would put the finishing touches on the UI design, and document functionality and experience details using comments in Figma. This allowed the development team to work directly off of the designs with little-to-no spec documentation.
Notable Features
Equa is a platform that provides many benefits to its users, and has a very long set of features.
On-boarding New Users
With an app that has so many features, getting set up in the app was a very involved process. This process was iterated on several times, resulting in a comprehensive wizard that walks users through every step in the process. By following each step, the user will be ready to start using all of Equa’s features as soon as the set up process is completed.
Cap Tables, Portfolios, and Certificates
The primary feature of the Equa platform is cap table and asset management. This includes views of all assets on both an organization-wide perspective as well as an individual level. Organization managers can view a detailed snapshot of their company cap table at any point in time. Members of an organization can quickly see what ownership they have in which organizations and the immediate value of that ownership.
Doc Management and Version Control
For each agreement between two parties, there is usually a document or two describing the details of that agreement. A major benefit of using Equa is that the platform can handle all documents related to an agreement, including version control, editing, and signing by all required parties. Agreements are upheld programmatically and verifiable by documentation.
