Today, we released a few changes to the navigation on the Kiva website. We're really excited about these changes and we hope they'll help make it easier for lenders and new visitors to move around the site. While some of the differences are fairly subtle, we wanted to walk you through each of the changes and share a bit of context for these updates.
The biggest change is the addition of “Zip”, with an eye catching “New” label. As Kiva grows, we are challenging ourselves to find new ways to reach even more people with innovative loan products. One way we've been doing this is through a pilot program called Kiva Zip, which is testing new ways of expanding Kiva's reach to unserved populations using new technologies that also drive down costs for borrowers. During a recent series of experiments we looked at a number of ways to begin to integrate Kiva Zip into the Kiva website in order to bring awareness to this program. The tests varied, but one of the most successful in terms of introducing lenders to Kiva Zip was placing “Zip” within the primary navigation of the site.
The other major change is that “Login” and “My Portfolio” have been combined into a single button. When we looked at site analytics we found that these were two of the most clicked-on links, and both directed you to the same place on Kiva - a visit to your portfolio. One of our design principles is “Make it Simple, Make it Useful” and this was a great opportunity for us to simplify the interface by reducing redundancy. The combination of login and portfolio both saves space and helps to express that logging in will actually take you to your portfolio.
Once you’re logged in you’ll now find your name and profile picture where “My Portfolio” used to be. When clicking on your name you'll still be taken to your portfolio, but we’ve added a dropdown menu giving you quick access to the pages within your portfolio (this is also where you will be able to log out of your account). This dropdown can be opened by hovering over the arrow to the right of your name, or by clicking the arrow on your mobile device (i.e. iPhone or iPad).
Finally, you’ll see that we renamed “Community” to “Teams” in order to better reflect what you’ll find on the page -- Kiva lending teams.
Our hope is that with these changes both existing Kiva lenders and new visitors will be able to navigate our website and discover new features with greater ease. We’re also really interested to hear from you. How do these changes affect how you use the site? Your comments will help us as we continue to look for ways to improve the Kiva website. Let us know what you think at blog@kiva.org.
About the author
Abe Wallin
Abraham has long believed in Kiva’s mission of addressing global poverty by creating relationships between individual lenders and borrowers. In 2011 he joined Kiva as the company’s first full time designer. He brings with him a steadfast belief that constantly creating is as important to humanity as eating and drinking. Prior to joining Kiva he worked at Electronic Arts, Wikia and as a freelance web and interactive designer. With over a decade of experience Abraham has designed and built a wide range of products including websites, video games and mobile applications. He most recently launched an iPhone app for fruits and vegetables called Farmanac.