A User-Centred Approach to a Business Management Application for Small Business Owners

Abstract Due to the expected changes in the business industry, businesses are placing greater emphasis on innovation. Most businesses are taking advantage of technology to achieve innovation. As such, a number of business tools have been developed to help business owners manage their businesses. However, these tools are not utilised by several well-educated small business owners because they claim to prefer their current methods. This is because they believe that paper or a simple Excel sheet is less complicated than an application that will stand as a challenge for them and disconnect them from their business. This project employs a user-centred design to present a simple web application to help small business owners manage their sales, customer, inventory and receivables. The application has an integrated notification system that keeps the business owner updated on activities occurring within their business. The application follows design principles in order to achieve a simple, useful and usable application for the small business owners who are novice technology users. After conducting several tests, it can be concluded that the solution is a highly usable and useful application for its target users. Usability tests revealed that the application saves time and effort and hence increases operational efficiency for small businesses and their owners. By adopting this solution and implementing further features, small business owners can be kept abreast with their businesses and can sustain their businesses over the years to come.