Helping TradeIX revolutionise trade finance for SMEs
TradeIX is a pioneer when it comes to rewiring trade. We love a revolutionary around here. Here’s how our design-thinking principles helped TradeIX connect with a new audience.
“The Law Boutique helped us find our tone of voice and delivered a set of user-friendly, plain English terms that really speak to our customer base.” Atik Ahmed, Legal Counsel at TradeIX
About
A fast-growing innovator, TradeIX operates the world’s first open platform for trade finance. The Marco Polo Platform represents the dawn of the ‘internet of trade’ and is unlocking billions of working capital that have not yet been accessed by financial institutions or alternative funders.
This rewiring of trade and working capital finance infrastructure is powered by distributed ledger technology and its ability to securely move assets and credit across the globe.
In short: it changes the game.
The Challenge
Communicating T&Cs for Marco Polo product simply and clearly, making language accessible to SMEs
Maintaining brand values
Differentiating the product from the rest of the business, to appeal to different audience
Shaken, not stirred
What was required was a simpler, click-through set of terms and conditions that could be easily understood and quickly accepted by SME clients. Adapting to the new audience was key, as user needs differed widely. Equally important was making sure those terms and conditions reflected the tone of voice of this innovative, game-changing product.
So, Marco Polo’s terms and conditions needed a shake up. Luckily, that’s exactly what they got.
When designing terms for the SME market, communicating in the same way as you would to a financial institution just wouldn’t cut it. With these SMEs, there are no large in-house legal teams that have the capacity to negotiate contracts for weeks on end.
The Law Boutique’s challenge was to communicate the information the user needed to know – such as what the service was, what their obligations were and how the platform worked – in a clear and accessible way, without compromising on the legal accuracy.
It’s tough to break away from the status quo, especially when defaulting to legalese is the easy option. But, as experts in Legal Design, for us, the answer was a simple one.
The solution
Applying a user-centric approach.
We asked who was going to read the terms and conditions of the Marco Polo Platform, and adapted them accordingly. Businesses can often feel apathetic at best and alienated at worst by lawyers and the complicated language they choose. Let’s get real, how many times have you read a set of terms and conditions for a product or service and enjoyed it, let alone understood every word?
For TradeIX, alienation was a real concern. To solve this issue, we swapped complex T&Cs for a fresh, clean approach. After all, if SMEs couldn’t understand how the platform operates and what to expect from their relationship with TradeIX, how could they efficiently onboard, let alone reap the benefits?
We reduced the level of detail to reduce the risk of confusion, while simplifying the language to make it easier to digest. This doesn’t mean stripping away the substance, rather, tweaking it to ensure it could be understood. Our goal was to ensure there was clarity at every step: from understanding obligations, to set-up and beyond.
What is legal design?
One of the hottest topics in legal innovation, legal design is about applying design-thinking principles to law. The needs and experience of the user come first.
You don’t have to be a designer to do it. Don’t neglect the importance of making incremental changes that make life easier for the consumers of your services.
At the Law Boutique, we’re all about delivering law differently, according to the needs of those it serves. It’s an innovative approach that focuses on humans first and foremost.
The impact design-thinking can have on law is huge – and beneficial. It allows you to focus on how useful, engaging and usable the services you provide are.
Legal design solves a problem faced by many businesses and their in-house teams when it comes to connecting with users. This, in turn, helps them work better. TradeIX is just one example of this! Our work on FINTRAIL’s legal documents is another.
The result
Slide the controller on the image below to compare the documents before and after.
The future of legal starts here
If you’re done with legalese and believe a human-centric approach is the way forward, get in touch. We can give your documents, services and contracts the revamp they’re screaming out for. Put your user first and the rest will follow.
