French Tech Central, the platform and the venue connecting start-ups with the State

Client
French Tech Bordeaux
Year
2019

The challenge

The French Tech Bordeaux team asked us to support them in creating French Tech Central, an ambitious initiative designed to be 'the Doctolib of public-sector bodies'. At once a web platform and a physical venue in the Cité Numérique de Bègles, this initiative aims to make meetings easier between entrepreneurs or start-up founders, supported by their teams, and the government bodies (Urssaf, Tax Office, Customs, Business France, Bpifrance…) through individual appointments, drop-in sessions and themed workshops.

French Tech Central, the platform and the venue connecting start-ups with the State

Project flow

01. Kickoff workshop
02. Co-design workshops
03. Sitemap and journeys
04. Desktop wireframes
05. Desktop UI design
06. Wayfinding and signage
07. QA and delivery

Study detail

Picking the right (digital) place for a new experience

We meet with the French Tech Bordeaux team to rework the existing information architecture of the French Tech Bordeaux site.

Comparison between the existing site's information architecture (on the left) and the project's information architecture (on the right)

The digital journeys are reworked from the ground up. We find the right place to embed the new French Tech Central platform. It should sit at the same level as the main navigation items of the French Tech Bordeaux site.

400+
appointments held via the platform in less than a year
29
public and private actors mobilised

Designing the French Tech Central platform

Building on the workshop with the French Tech team, low-fidelity mockups are produced.

Wireframes of the appointment-booking section, with focus on the home page

The appointment-booking journey on the company side is mocked up: from selecting a need or a specific public actor through to receiving the confirmation email, including choosing an available slot and the list of documents to prepare for the appointment.

A co-design workshop with the French Tech Bordeaux team and a member of URSSAF lets us fine-tune the public-sector body profile, as well as the event page.

Wireframes of the event sign-up flow

We also design the event sign-up flow. Everything is thought through to let ecosystem users actively take part in the life of the French Tech community.

An overall vision of the service

During a dedicated design-thinking workshop, we co-design with the French Tech Bordeaux team the French Tech Central roadmap.

This document presents the overall vision of the sequence of actions to put in place to ensure the setup works well, both on the start-up founder’s perspective and on the service provider’s side. It also contains recommendations and is used for the onboarding of the French Tech Central Bordeaux project members.

The French Tech Central Bordeaux experience roadmap

From the digital world to the physical world

During the same workshop, we draw up the functional wayfinding plan of the French Tech Bordeaux space.

The focus is on identifying the journeys by type of need: taking part in an individual appointment, in a workshop or in an event.

User-journey wayfinding plan

A signage project for the common spaces rounds out the wayfinding plan in defining the user flows.

Signage study: different views
Signage study: corridor view
Signage study: access view
French Tech Central space in Bordeaux 2

Want to discuss your project?

Let's talk about your stakes, constraints and ambitions so we can build the best user experience together.

Contact us