User Research:

I had one-on-one interviews with some local vendors, and I gathered that some of these vendors were scared and completely oblivious about what digital advertisement is or what it could do for their businesses.
Many of them were confused, stating that they could not trust an overly complicated system that would take their money and not provide them with what they needed to increase their sales.

User Persona:

User Flows:

After carefully studying the business model and the type of users the platform was targeted at, I was able to come up with a simple flow for the platform, such that communicated the goals of the users in an easy and streamlined flow.
One thing I noticed was that most of the vendors had little to no understanding on how to use complex dashboards, and this aligned with the business goals in that Thrive would be the one handling the online marketing needs of the business.

Sketches:

Final Design:

Conclusion:

This design has a user flow that cuts through the camaraderie and takes a first-time user through a rich yet streamlined digital marketing induction. It also makes accessing consultation services quick and easy.
User testing revealed that some users would like to have an additional live chat feature. They believe It would increase the speed at which they received consultation on small issues.

Subsequently, I would carry out more research on this feature through more interviews, surveys and analysis of the competition. This will help me understand better how to fit it into the current model.