B2C Mobile App
SwaNari
To empower Indian women entrepreneurs with personalized marketing tools & social media analytics
My role
UX Designer
Duration
14 weeks
Team
Solo Designer
Tools
Figma, Miro, After Effects
What I did
Designed a mobile app that allows women to select, edit, and publish personalized marketing templates to social media with just one click. I conducted usability testing to identify pain points in the user experience and ran pretotyping experiments to validate the product’s market demand and relevance
Context
SwaNari is a mobile app to help Indian women entrepreneurs market their home businesses. The app offer personalized marketing templates, one-click social media publishing, regional language support and analytics dashboard
According to national data, only 33.3% of rural Indian women use digital platforms, and 53% women rely on word-of-mouth for promotions. SwaNari addresses this gap by simplifying marketing and making digital promotion approachable, empowering women to build business visibility and achieve financial independence
Why is this problem important?
With India’s booming digital economy and increasing social media adoption, women who are not utilizing digital marketing tools risk falling further behind, losing potential customers to competitors who do
696M
Total population of women in India
15.7M
Home businesses run by Women
89%
Women not actively marketing their businesses
Impact
To measure impact, I combined qualitative insights from usability testing with quantitative validation from pretotyping experiments
30%
Increase in social media posting & customer inquiry
20%
Improvement in marketing skills and confidence
35%
Increase in revenue sales figures
Constraints
I identified four limitations through secondary research, user interviews and research synthesis
Lack of marketing awareness
Due to limited digital exposure, women are unfamiliar with marketing strategies, limiting their ability to grow their business independently
Dependency on family
Most women rely on their family members, especially children for handling online tasks, inventory and social media
Lack of confidence
Women expressed hesitation and self-doubt when engaging with digital platforms, often fearing they might make mistakes
Struggle managing home & business
Balancing domestic responsibilities with business operations left little time or energy to learn marketing
Problem Definition
Despite having strong products and motivation, they face barriers that prevent them from reaching wider audiences and growing their home businesses
Marketing awareness
Women rely on word-of-mouth marketing because of less understanding on digital platforms usage for promotions
Time constraints
Managing both household and business responsibilities leaves them with less time to focus on consistent marketing
Dependency
Women depend on family to create and post content on social media, limiting their independence and slowing business growth
Challenge
How might we reduce digital marketing awareness gaps among Indian women to empower them to grow their businesses and achieve self-sufficiency?
Solution
To address these challenges, the app provides simple, accessible, and time-saving tools tailored to women’s business goals. It offers business-specific, customizable templates that users can easily edit and publish with just one click. Additionally, the app includes social media insights to help users track content performance and monitor their business growth over time
Personalized templates
Pre-designed templates tailored to user’s business type and goals, making content creation quick
Social media analytics
Providing easy-to-understand insights on content performance, helping users track growth
One-click social media publishing
Publish content directly to connected platforms with a single click - no need to switch apps
Business Profile Set-up
I designed an intuitive onboarding flow that helps women create a complete business profile in minutes. The setup captures essential details like the business name, location, product category and prices. This would help generate customized templates for the user
Personalized Templates
These templates cater to women’s product category and common needs like promotions, product launches, and festive greetings. Built with flexibility in mind, users can edit colors, fonts, add audio and effects to reflect their unique brand identity, enabling consistent and beautiful content creation
One-click Social Media Publishing
I learned through interviews that many women found switching between platforms overwhelming. To simplify this, I developed a one-click publishing system that lets women publish their content across multiple social media channels simultaneously. This eliminates the need for repetitive tasks and ensures brand consistency across channels
Social Media Analytics
I introduced easy-to-read analytics dashboards showing engagement metrics, reach, and content performance. These insights help women refine their strategies and make informed decisions, even if they’re not familiar with marketing jargon or data tools
Design Process
Secondary
Research
User Interviews
User Surveys
Competitive
Analysis
Synthesize
Affinity Mapping
Mind Mapping
Problem Tree
Analysis
Research Findings
Key Insights
SWOT Analysis
Success Metrics
Storyboard
Information
Architecture
User Flow
Site Map
Wireframes
Style Guide
UI Design
Prototype
Risky assumptions
Usability Tests
A/B Testing
Synthesize
Findings
Pretotyping
Experiments
Usability Testing
Iterate UI Designs
Functional Requirements
Design System
Documentation
Discover
Define
Design
Test
Validate
Deliver
Research & Ideation
To better understand user challenges and needs, I conducted 12 in-depth interviews with women running home-based businesses who are struggling to grow. I then synthesized the insights using Affinity Mapping and Problem Tree Analysis
Click below to access the file and explore the findings
Research Synthesis
User Flow
The user flow was central to designing an intuitive and empowering experience for middle-aged women entrepreneurs with limited digital familiarity
Every step was designed to reduce overwhelm, encourage independence, and help users complete their tasks with minimal effort and maximum clarity
Information Architecture
Wireframes
I carefully planned how the women would navigate through the app, ensuring they could find what they needed without any confusion. I created a seamless experience that the women will love using by keeping it simple and organized
Onboarding
Onboarding
Business profile
Homepage
Subscription
Payment
Swipe templates
Edit template
Add pictures
Add text
Add audio
Add effects
Preview template
Select platform
Preview
Post success
Analytics
Analytics
Posted content
Account
Usability Testing
I conducted 12 unmoderated usability testing sessions with Indian women to gain deep insights into their interaction with the app. There were total 11 tasks to be done by each users and all the testing sessions lasted about 30 minutes. Throughout the session, I observed their navigation patters, initial reactions, and overall experience using the app
Participants were not able to perform swipe right animation which led to confusion and frustration
Participant faced difficulties in understanding the social media metrics
Participant were not able to see what features yearly and monthly subscription plans offer
Participant felt that the business profile setup was tedious and complex
High Severity
High Severity
High Severity
High Severity
Ease, Confidence and Success Graph
Average Scores
0
Avg. success
Task 1
onboarding
Task 2
profile setup
Task 3
app tutorial
Task 4
subscription
Task 5
templates
Task 6
edit reel
Task 7
publish
Task 8
analytics
Task 9
linktree
Task 10
drafts
Task 11
Edit story
1
2
3
4
5
Avg. confidence
Avg. ease
Users were not able to edit the entire template and jumped directly to publish on social media
Users feel onboarding screens and business profile setup is easy for them to understand & navigate
Users found insights metrics on the analytics page difficult to understand
Ease
Confidence
76.7%
Success
84.2%
73.9%
Before usability testing
Participants mentioned they would like a 6 monthly plan as well
After usability testing
Before usability testing
Participants didn’t understand percentages and numbers
After usability testing
Adding 6 monthly plan
Showing most viewed/popular social media content
Replacing percentages with numbers and showing it visually
Showing features included
with the plan
Unclear on which features are included with plans
Market Validation
To validate the concept, I conducted 3 pretotyping experiments to test user interest and behavior. These included a Fake Front Door experiment to gauge interest in personalized templates, a Mechanical Turk experiment where users receive edited templates, and a Facade experiment to simulate social media analytics
I utilized Instagram, Whatsapp and Facebook as key platforms to reach the target audience effectively. Through this, I aimed to create awareness and generate interest in the app
Fake Front Door
Experiment
Facade
Experiment
Pretotyping Results
Fake Front Door Experiment
Mechanical Turk Experiment
Facade Experiment
8% of users will show interest in SwaNari app and sign up for early access
15% of users will showed interest & signed up
Risky Assumption
3/5 users would edit 3 templates in the span of 1 week
4/5 users were interested in editing templates and post on social media
Risky Assumption
4/5 users would like to receive weekly insights on their posts for 2 weeks
4/5 users were interested in receiving weekly insights
Risky Assumption
Unique Visitors
225
Sign ups
034
Conversion Rate
15%
Key Learnings
Designing for SwaNari was a meaningful experience in creating technology that feels approachable and empowering. It showed me how thoughtful design can help women overcome digital barriers, build confidence, and take control of marketing their businesses with ease
Test Before Building
Pretotyping helped me validate ideas and ensuring I focused on features users actually need
Marketing Gap
Most users don’t struggle with their product, but with promoting it - highlighting a substantial gap
Empathy-led Design
Understanding user’s emotional barriers was essential in designing a supportive experience
High Fidelity Wireframes
Let’s connect over Iced Mocha Latte!
I’m looking forward to talk about any exciting opportunities!
Made with (HOPE)