Introduction
Undoubtedly, Bexio belongs to the most prominent success stories of the Swiss startup ecosystem and has therefore helped inspire many founders to take the plunge into entrepreneurship. As the leading SaaS accounting provider for small and medium-sized enterprises, it also supports this cohort of people running their books and businesses.
However, the Bexio platform and team have grown fast. Keeping the UX and UI of such a mighty product à jour is no small feat, as initial discussions with the product team at Bexio, several customers, and accountants revealed. As product advocates, when we see an opportunity in the market, we enjoy giving a go at exploring how things can be done differently. So we took a shot at rethinking and rejuvenating Bexio's frontend.
Our approach
Making a product's UI look good at first glance is not that hard. However, turning it into an interface that works for the various user groups, drives engagement, and allows for new functionality is a much tougher nut to crack. Following our diligent but pragmatic design approach, we consolidated our UX research by establishing and focussing on four principles.
1 - Make it personal
Customers desire personalization to comprehend facts, especially for money-related tasks, quickly. We aimed to meet the user on his journey early and guide him to become an accounting champion in his own right. Considering the different starting points, we clustered the customer base into Solopreneurs, Startups, and SMEs while also considering the needs of the Accountants.
For example, the dashboard's "Business KPIs" allow a startup to keep an eye on its runway while enabling all users to customize the metrics they want to focus on and set specific targets.
2 - Provide guidance
Customers should feel supported with quick assistance for product-related queries, continued awareness of necessary actions, and guided by in-depth analytics for business decisions.
For example, the "Needs your attention" section provides guidance on what to tackle now, providing sought-after guidance for the not-so-accounting-savvy.
3 - Send complex to the back
Customers across the spectrum benefit from an onion-like layered design approach. We removed complexity from the dashboard to empower customers with limited accounting knowledge to find their way while at the same time enabling deep dives for seasoned professionals.
As an example, we propose a "Main Navigation" consisting of only four buckets; receivables (e.g., quotes and invoices), payables (e.g., bills and expenses), accounting (e.g., bank accounts, detailed reports, and forecast), and business (e.g., contacts, products, and team). Pairing this navigation with a "Quick Add" function allows the customer to enter a purchase, invoice, or employee without leaving the dashboard.
4 - Enable time travel
Customers should be able to leverage past data, plan for the future, and make better decisions today with insights from their own and comparable businesses.
For example, the new "Business Snapshot" is the only chart in focus and pairs actuals with a forecast for cash flow (In vs. Out) and the cash position. As a jump-off point for deep dives, it also teases a potentially new functionality around liquidity management.
