J*Crow aims to usher in a new era of economic justice for Black women and women of color impacted by the U.S. criminal justice system. Their goal is to equip these women with financial, legal, entrepreneurial, and workforce resources to uplift them and their families.
Black Women and Women of Color make up <11% of jail and prison populations, yet pay >60% amount of fees to the U.S. criminal justice system. There’s a severe lack of financial and economic resources for this population: most resources are catered towards Black men, while 90% of the Black economy is women. This project would benefit over 1 million Black women + WOC impacted by the criminal justice system. Creating a welcoming and functional website would expose its users (potential J*Crow partners and the Women of Color community) to financial and business/entrepreneurial resources as well as an open community.
Our team understood that the website required digital financial, legal, entrepreneurial, and workforce resources that empower Women of Color. These resources encompass pilot courses and mentorship programs covering financial literacy (JFi) and entrepreneurship (JStart). A key objective of the website is to secure $250K in funding next year. Achieving this goal demands a responsive website that is especially easy to use on mobile devices. This design relies on a powerful brand identity grounded in comprehensive UX research. Because our client wanted a mobile-friendly and highly customized site, we designed on Figma and built on Webflow, a no-code platform.
Before starting the user research process, we identified our user research groups and aimed to understand their goals and challenges. Using literary analysis, we gained deeper insights into our issue and target audiences, while competitive analysis helped us recognize the unaddressed needs within the user groups.
User Research Groups
Literature Review: