Product Design
Independent project
BlackWall
A mobile app that makes it easier to find and support verified Black-owned businesses in your area.
My role
UX Researcher and Lead Designer
Company
Independent project
Timeline
2021
Outcome
A tested MVP that every participant could complete.
[ Project hero image ]
Overview
Making it easier to keep dollars in the community.
BlackWall began with a simple question: what would it take to make supporting Black-owned businesses as easy as opening an app? The long-term goal is a family of apps that make it simple to send targeted financial support to underserved communities, and this MVP is the first step. The mission is to honor and rebuild the success of America’s Black Wall Streets while fitting into the way people shop today. I owned the project end to end, including research, personas, user flows, visual identity, mockups, prototypes, and testing.
The problem
The pandemic changed how small businesses operate, and many Black-owned businesses closed because they lacked funding and support. Consumers who wanted to help ran into a different problem. There are pockets of directories for specific industries, but no widely known, pre-vetted directory that covers every category. Finding a Black-owned business is possible, but confirming that it is actually Black-owned takes time most people do not have.
Verification is slow
Interviewees spent a lot of time just confirming that a business was truly Black-owned before spending money there.
Trust is thin
Most platforms rely on owners to label themselves, so users did not trust how “Black-owned” was defined or checked.
No full directory
Existing options cover narrow industries or bury Black-owned results inside general search.
Hard to stay engaged
Users had no easy way to save, share, or keep track of the businesses they wanted to support.
Context
I surveyed shoppers, interviewed people who actively seek out Black-owned businesses, and analyzed the competing review platforms to find the gap.
Artifact
A competitor matrix comparing Yelp, Tripadvisor, OpenTable, and Foursquare across purpose, audience, and features.
I started by writing down my own gut assumptions as “How might we” questions, then tested them against real people. A broad survey explored shopping habits and values. Responses showed that 90% of respondents find crowd-sourced reviews helpful, 95% welcome suggestions, and 61% care equally about supporting niche communities and eco-friendly brands. Follow-up interviews went deeper, and two pain points rose to the top. Verifying ownership takes too long, and people do not trust how platforms verify it. I then compared Google Reviews, Yelp, Tripadvisor, and Foursquare in a competitor matrix. Each had strengths, but none combined broad coverage with a trustworthy way to identify Black-owned businesses.
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The goal is to make it easier for communities and their allies to keep dollars in the community while looking out for the growth of those same communities from within.
Process
After research, I defined who the app was for, what each person needed to accomplish, and how they would move through the experience, before moving into identity and design.
01
Define the audience. I built three personas from the research: a business owner, a primary customer, and a secondary customer who is an ally. Including the owner mattered because the directory only works if businesses want to participate.
02
Map the experience. I wrote user stories organized by role, subtask, motivation, and priority, then sketched five flows: onboarding, finding a business, saving a business, leaving a review, and nominating a business. Guests can browse before signing up so people see value first.
03
Build the identity. I began with a mood board and a palette grounded in color psychology, then refined it against accessibility contrast standards. A classic serif wordmark carries authority and nostalgia, while a friendly geometric sans keeps the interface approachable. The logo system includes a primary wordmark, a stacked secondary mark, and a monogram, each with usage rules.
04
Prototype and test. I went through several mockup rounds and four prototype versions. Testing shaped real decisions, from removing redundant buttons to renaming “sponsored” as “featured.”
Solution
BlackWall is a crowd-sourced directory of Black-owned businesses across every industry, from restaurants and hair salons to licensed medical professionals. Category pill filters on the home page make browsing quick. Users can save businesses to lists, read and leave reviews, and message businesses. Anyone can nominate a business, and every nomination is vetted before it is added, which speaks directly to the trust problem found in research.
Final design
Final V1 MVP screens: discovering businesses by category, filtering results, and viewing a business profile.
Walkthrough
This walkthrough follows a new user from onboarding to finding, saving, and nominating a business. It shows the final V1 MVP frames and the interactions that came out of testing.
Walkthrough
Outcome
Every tester completed the final prototype, and the feedback sharpened the design in several specific ways.
The shift
From self-reported to verified.
Most platforms let a business label itself and move on. BlackWall shifts the burden of proof away from the user by vetting every nomination, so people can spend their energy supporting businesses instead of investigating them.
Reflection
What I learned
Looking back
My biggest doubt going in was time, because I knew an app like this was a huge undertaking and chose to focus on a worthy MVP. What surprised me most was how hard it was to find a direct competitor. That gap in the market was motivating and a little sobering. I learned that many platforms have a Black-owned designation, but very few have a real process behind it. If I had more time, I would spend it on the smaller details, such as texture, depth, and spacing, because the current version works well but could have more personality. Next, I want to refine the visual language, add opportunities for online businesses, and strengthen the social features.
Alyssa Jones © 2026