Prior to March 2020, most SBA.gov users visited the site for help with starting a new business. The website was well-equipped to handle requests related to launching and growing a business.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States, traffic to the site quickly pivoted to users looking to manage their business and funding options for support. Even in 2021, the site had high traffic, with 36 million page views in a month-long period at the beginning of the year, and 26 million of those page views related to funding.
Pages related to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) saw more than 6 million views.
Meeting user's needs at SBA.gov.
Fearless has worked with the SBA and SBA.gov for several years and through our customer journey mapping, our team noticed it was difficult for users to find the pages they were looking for during the COVID-19 pandemic. Visitors were either endlessly clicking on the SBA.gov website looking for information or went directly to PPP and EIDL information pages from outside websites.
Analyzing the behavior flow of website users called out to our team that there was no direct connection from the homepage to the EIDL and PPP pages.
Fearless UX designer Marisa Grotte created a customer journey map using Google analytics, and information from social media and user insights and analytics.
“I looked on Twitter to see what people were saying about SBA and they were talking about their pain points,” she said. “We thought about opportunities and effects we could have based on pain points and how users are feeling.”
Those pain points, anecdotes, and blockers became a plan to enhance the experience of SBA.gov visitors.
How Fearless optimized the funnel for SBA.gov’s PPP and EIDL pages:
- Our team suggested SBA update the alert banner bi-weekly, direct traffic to pages that are timely, and answer questions of the highest public concern/
- Use header image to direct users to “COVID-19 Relief Options.”
- Update and consolidate the COVID-19 relief options page with a 4 column module under the hero image that directs users to PPP/EIDL/COVID-19 guidance.
- Direct users to the most visited pages directly from the homepage.
- Design a user track based on COVID-19 user personas.
- Audit content on the guidance page for length, wording, repetition between the two pages, and what is offered in the program-specific pages.
- Make styling updates to better present content on mobile devices.
- A content audit helped identify extra words and unnecessary paragraphs of information.
- Create submenus on program landing pages.
“From an architecture standpoint, we looked at the whole site from a big picture to understand the SBA user’s journey to service, keeping in mind how we could better serve small businesses by helping them access SBA services easier and faster,” Grotte said.
Fearless' ongoing relationship with the Small Business Administration and the trust the teams have in one another meant these updates happened in a handful of sprints.
We're proud to be a small part of the effort to assist business owners in getting the resources and funding they need. The SBA.gov site updates Fearless made complements our work on the Paycheck Protection Program
This announcement was published independently of the Small Business Administration. This release does not constitute or imply an endorsement by DoD or the United States Government of the product, process, or service, or its producer or provider. The views and opinions expressed in any referenced document do not necessarily state or reflect those of the SBA or the United States Government.