Digital loan applying platform
Designing a banking platform that allow users apply for loan digitally.
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UX design
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Mobile platform
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Internship
Project overview
About
This project is the final product of a 6 months practical internship at Firma.
In collaboration with UX team at firma, I got my first hands on experience in designing a digital product with a team of experts at my side.
The problem
After finding out that the rate of loan application went down this year, a major bank wants to upgrade its services in the loan department buy developing a modern loan applying platform for all mobile devices. The bank wants to increase its exposure to a younger crowd audience by upgrading its digital services.
My Role
UX designer
Timeline
10 weeks
Tools used
Discovery
Market analisys
Every research process should include the basic research questions and hypothesis. When we decide what we want to understand about a certain field, we might find it easier to search for particular effects and phenomena. In the next sections, I'll share the results we found for each research question.
Research questions
1
Who is the "competition"?
Who are some of the "Main players" in the market?
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does the user needs to share the reason for the loan application?
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Does the competition offers any personal adjustments according to the users needs?
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Is the level of transparency that the bank offers during the process of applying for a loan satisfy the user base.
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When it comes to the practice of giving out loans digitally - what are some of the market conventions
6
What is the general economic status of the user prior to the loan application
Direct competitors
In-direct competitors
Answer to Q.1
The Israeli banking market is very centralized. The major banks in Israel are "Leumi" & "Ha'Poalim". these two banks are both the most profitable and posses the largest costumer base.
Secondary research, through the "Central bank of Israel" reports and the press, shows that 92% of the public apply for loans through the private banks while only 8% of the populations apply for loans through other means such as credit card companies.
1
Who is the "competition"?
Who are some of the "Main players" in the market?
Main players
Answer to Q.2
The banks do tend to make personalizations in their apps.
Personalized copywriting - Banks use the various user inputs such as gender, age and time of day to personalize the copywriting within the app.
Loan applying reasons screen - most if not all banks asks the users for the reasons which they are applying for the loan, to personalize both experience and business offers further into the user flow
2
Does the competition offers any personal adjustments according to the users needs?
Key points
1. Copywriting
2. Similar "reasons for applying for a loan" screen
Answer to Q.3
The banking apps offer a very similar patterns of screen. We have identified that the 3 major banks use almost the exact same flow of screens to the user. This is because both legislative and business reasons such as -
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asking for permission to gather information about the user credit scores through the "national credit reserve data-base"
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asking for the sum of the loan to promote special offers and adjust the interest rate
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as mentioned, all banks asks their users for the reasons for which they are applying for a loan.
3
When it comes to the practice of giving out loans digitally - what are some of the market conventions
Key points
1. Asking for the desired amount of money right in the begging of the user journey
2. asking for legal permissions
3. asking for the reasons for aplying
4. screens creates frictions in order to prevent user errors.
Answer to Q.4
The foundational market research shows that all banks demand the reason for taking a loan quite early in the user journey. After analyzing both experts in the field and other sources, we've come to the conclusion that demanding the reason for the initial application affects:
interest rates - a bank might demand an higher interest rate if the reason for taking the loan is for a vication for example. vacations are not a physical object, therefor the bank won't have anything as collateral if the applicant fails to return his loan.
Special offers - a certain bank might offer "loan packages" a as a mean to market its loans for certain users. As apart of the personalization of the journey (as mentioned above) a bank might offer a "Special student loan" if the reason for the loan which the user inputed was for academic fees.
4
does the user needs to share the reason for the loan application?
Key points
1. Affects interests rates
2. affects special buissness offers
Answer to Q.5
We already know, through the current research, that there are various legislative reasons that mandates banks to base a certain level of transparency with its users. We measure the level of "Transparency" based on the amount and depth of the information that the banks gives the user regarding the consequences of him taking the particular loan that he has been offered by the bank.
For example - does the banks give the exact amount of interest that the user will have to pay across the years? Is the proposed rate adjusted for rising inflation? Does the apps use "Dark ux" methods to subvert the user from certain information?
We know from past research done in this field, that transparency in the user journey lowers the "Error rates" and potential future frustration on the user side.
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Is the level of transparency that the bank offers during the process of applying for a loan satisfy the user base.
Key points
More transparency affects positively on the user journey and his future goals.
Answer to Q.6
Using various sources such as the ״Israeli bureau of statistics" and the press, we've found valuable inforamtion regarding our research
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What is the general economic status of the user prior to the loan application?
22%
of the applicants who are in an active state of "overdraft" reported to have been in this current situation for at least 10 months in a row
26%
of the applicants who are in an active state of "overdraft" reported to have been getting warnings from their banks regarding their financial state
60,000
Households have reported that at least 1 of their bank accounts have been frozen for been in a state of "overdraft" for too long
User research
The purpose of the study was to understand the primary goals and needs of users when digitally applying for a loan. Additionally, it aimed to analyze the pain points that users experience in that process.
We constructed a survey that contained a demographic questionnaire, multiple-choice questions, and rating scales for 35 people who applied for a loan (digitally) in past year.
Key points from the surveys
"I was so nervous, I worried that I might have typed in some wrong information or something. I've re-checked myself like 3 times!"
Error prevention
"I found it pretty hard to identify the amount of interest that'll have to pay back. That was pretty upsetting."
Conveying the exact rate of interest
"I usually don't trust large corporations or financial Institutions, so I always tend to be suspicious about their applications and products."
Keeping a reasonable level of transperacy
Main research conclusions
1
Transparency
Our system need to convey the highest level of transperacy through the interface. Our research showed that handing out loans responsibly and transparently benefits both the user and the bank.
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Personalization
Most, if not all, the completion use some elements of personalized elements. We should utilize elements of personalization in our design.
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Effects on information architecture
In order to comply with legislative demands, we have to design our system in a certain conventional way. In addition to that, we'll need to take into account that the information architecture will have some degree of influence on our ability to taylor certain user flows to our users.
Define
Problem statement
People from various socioeconomic section, especially from the middle class, are struggling with finding a transparent, accessible platform that can let them digitally apply for a loan. They believe that the banks are unreliable and they are afraid from a complex process that might "cost" them a lot both mentally and financially. Moreover, older users might find the use of a mobile platform harder to use than physically going to the bank.
User personas
Design
MRD guidelines
The bank has provided us with an "Market Requirements Document" that includes all of the basic function that the bank expects to see in the final design:
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Entry screen - greeting the user
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The sum of the loan - a screen that allows the user to input the sum of the desired loan
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Permission screen - A well written message that asks the user's permission to get his credit status.
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Additional offer screen - A screen that shows another offer from the bank, based on the users profile.
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The terms and conditions of the loan - A screen that will show the term and conditions of the chosen loan.
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Give the user the ability to pick a specific monthly payment day.
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A summery screen.
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A screen the give feedback to the user that the loan application has been successfully sent to the bank.
User Flow
MVP guidelines
1. Human error prevention
2. Provide a human costumer support representative option.
3. Include inclusive micro-copy that'll be engaging but also official
4. make the process streamlined and simple.
5. Include elements that'll give the target audience reassurance in thier process.
The design
The design process was comprised from 2 different iterations.
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Designig an high-fidelity wireframes that'll serve as an example for the first iteration.
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After reviewing the results of the first iteration, I proceeded to design a fully functioning prototype with UI elements. In addition to that I also further improved the UX design
Delivery
The final design
After the first iteration, iv'e notice some flaws in the original design. The delivery was the second iteration of the design, so some drastic changes were made.
Unfortunately, due to the limitations in the internship program, I couldn't conduct usability testing.
Prototype
Key points in the design
Tutorial section
The user starts his journey with a tutorial. I decided to add the tutorial section into the final design to address a main paint point.
One of the major pain point of the user base was that they were afraid to make an error in this sensitive process.
By adding the tutorial, we give the users more reassurance and provide them with the information and transparency that'll later might lower the chances for error.
Notice the "Costumer support" button on the upper left side. In the tutorial section, the user is provided with a signifier that tells him that he can contact a human representative, thus addressing another pain point in which some users wanted a "human touch" in service journey.
Sum of the loan and permission to get credit information
In this screen users must enter their desired sum of the loan. As mentioned before, asking for the sum of the loan early is both a market convention, considering the fact that the sum of the loan might affect the future offers that the bank might give and the interest rate.
The bank must ask the permission of the user to get his credit information. I chose to combine these 2 screens in order to lower the Friction in the journey. A full screen that is filled with legislative jargon might scare users that posses less trust in banks and financial institutions.
This way I could address a paint point in some of the target audience - we want to make the process more reliable and streamlined.
Choosing the reason
As mentioned in past sections, banks regularly asks for the reason in which the user wants to apply for the loan. In this section I chose the goal based on the market research. The goals here are the market convention.
Each goal will generate different offers and interest rate adjustments, Thus making it a valuable stage in the user journey. In any point in the journey though, the user can "go back" and pick a different reason for his application.
Notice the Progress bar - it helps users determine their position throughout the journey, and reduced potential friction caused by an untransparent interface.
Bank offer
This screen represent the offer that the bank gives the user based on his reason for the loan.
notice how the user, who in this case chose the "Educational" reason, got an offer that is adjusted to his initial reason.
In that way not only that we are making the journey itself more personalised, we also use Taylor-made microcopy for the user.
Personalised journey was both a market convention and a psychological method to give the users a more reassured journey that seems to be personal and well adjusted to them.
Intrest rates transparency
One of the main elements I wanted to implement in my design is the Transparency factor.
Designing an adjustable bar has been proven in recent studies to be effective in making the interaction register better within the user. In this case, playing with the bar allow the user to see how his interest rate increases or decreases making the changes more fluent and memorable.
In this manner the user feels that his action are in real time and that the system register his actions in a much more transparent way. It gives the user he feeling that he is really interacting with that system.
Ending screen
This is the last screen in the user journey. These screen serves mainly as a feedback to the user, announcing to him that the process has come to an end and the loan application has been sent to the bank.
Notice the personalized microcopy. The bank sends his best wishes to the user, further implementing the feeling that there are real humans behund this process who cares for the users well being. This is the best example of Human centered design. We want to address the initial goal of the user and remind him that through our services he was able to achieve his goals.
Takeaways
This was my first project that was simulating a "Real world" project that is outside of the academic walls so to speak.
This project really gave me the opportunity to asses my skills and implement both psychological and design skills which I recently possessed.
Im glad I got the chance to work on a intricate project such as this one.
Profound research is the key for good design
If we want to achieve "Function over form", we have to base our design ideas on "real world" needs.
Utilizing psychological principles
Apart from using my design tools and knowledge, I got a great chance to further enhance my ability to combine psychological principles ,that I learned in my degree, in my design.
Working with professionals
I got the chance to work with the UX team at Firma. This experience gave me the opportunity to see how UX teams really work in the industry, outside of the academy walls.