UX/UI Case study
All Purpose Loans is a comparison tool and credit broker, making it easier for customers to search for loans that suit their needs. They help in finding a loan with does not harm the customer’s credit score giving them unbiased access to lending products.
Problem statement
Investigate customer interaction and identify areas of improvement which will help in attaining the business goal of increasing click through and higher conversion rate.
Solution
A transparent and seamless journey for users looking for financial help, from their search through to selecting a loan offer. Focus on each & every areas of improvement and implementing step by step changes by monitoring and testing user feedback and conversion rate.
Tool used
01. Discover
Setting goals & objectives
Site URL: www.allpurposeloans.co.uk
Who are All Purpose Loans?
All Purpose Loans is a credit broker providing financial help and advice to customers who need to borrow money in the UK. They have a panel of lenders and if a customer fit into the lender rules they may get an offer suiting their requirement.
What are the goals of the website?
All Purpose Loan is a loan comparison site, which is designed to appeal to people who are looking for loans in the UK. Customers can compare various lending options from a panel of offers that they are eligible for. The goal is to increase the click through rate of the user journey which will result in higher conversion rate. Encourage the customers to complete the
form and proceed to the offer wall.
Who are users of this website?
Anyone from the age 18 & above looking for financial help Maximum audience are mobile users (more than 80%)
Stakeholder interviews
We had a Q & A session with stakeholders to
understand the aim of this website. We asked them
a set of questions to measure the success of the
website so far along with stats and data. We also
got insights on the possible areas of improvement.
I studied various tools like Google Analytics, PowerBl, Page Speed Insights, Mouseflow recordings and Dynamix to measure the current performance of the website, bounce rate, user interactions, heatmaps, click rate, conversion rate, page loads and preferred device
user behavior analytics and interaction research
Who are users of this website?
Page loading speed?
Form bounce rate
Performance and data analysis
User survey & feedback
We did a moderated user survey to understand preferences and choices a user makes while going through the All Purpose loans website. In each of these sessions me mapped out the queries, concerns and doubts a user has from the homepage, to the apply form and then the offer wall. We got some valuable insights about customer experience and problem areas which helped in shaping up more seamless journey for the customers.
Competitive research
Competitive analysis helped me to evaluate how a given product’s competition stacks up against usability standards and
overall user experience, it also helped understand how the major competition in our space is handling usability.
02. Define
Establishing key audiences
It’s vital in project’s development to have a well-defined audience, that will ensure that all of the design, functionality and content decisions are targeting the right people. Through data analysis and user survey we could identify the audience that we attack the most as our customer who need financial help. Our aim also was to target audience who are homeowners, people with good credit in addition to the ones with bad credit history.
Building personas
After figuring out who the projects audience is, next step was to build the personas. By doing this I could create a clear image of who the user in our audience is, why do they need to use our product and what are their requirements.
Creating user journeys
To understand user behaviour, I worked on identifying user goals and needs through following his/her action steps on why
and how a user is using the product. This was helping towards building the project development.
03. Ideate
Brainstorming ideas
It’s always best to have a set of questions ready before starting a brainstorming session with the team. The How Might We questions open up the ideation process where you explore ideas that can help to solve your design challenge
Task flow
I created the task flow to map information a user would see in each step of his journey on the website. This portrayed not just the steps a user takes but also what tasks needs to be done at the back-end of the website.
User flow
Through user flow we depicted the prototypical path a user takes on the website or app to complete the journey. The flow would explain the path a user generally takes from landing on the website, carry out a set of steps towards applying for a loan and finally selecting a loan offer from one of our lenders.
04. Design
Wireframe - Sketch
After organising all the insights from the discovery and ideation, I begin designing the website starting with paper scribbles. This allowed me to explore a proper distribution of content and several concepts of website layout across all the pages.
Low-fidelity wireframe
Based on the feedback received on the sketches, I started designing the wireframes to create hierarchy and emphasis making it simple for the customer to grasp all the information needed to complete the journey on the website.
04 . Design system
It is important to set guidelines for the impression a look of the website creates on a user. The consistency and seamless
interaction creates a sense of familiarity and trust while a user is going through the website.
Color selection
Typography
Hi-Fidelity Design
Consolidated feedback on the wireframes guided me with the final hi-fidelity designs for the website. As a visual design is much more powerful in communicating the purpose of the website, I created the designs emphasising on the simplicity and transparency of the information that we want the customer to go through while making their financial decision with this website.
Landing Page
Form Page
offer wall Page
Contact Page
05. Monitor
User feedback
With the prototypes, we conducted usability test with some of our target audience. Participants were able to understand the purpose of the website and could use it for their loan requirements. Feedbacks received from these test helped look into more opportunities to improve the overall user experience.
- People like the core APL message of quick, easy to use, no impact on credit score
- People are reassured by the well known lender brand names on APL. Trusted names reflect well on the APL brand
- People understood the APL form questions and felt they were reasonable questions when searching for a loan. No major resistance to providing the information
- Some concern over the use of email address and mobile number on APL. Worries that they might get spam or cold calls
- Some feeling that it is difficult to compare offers on the APL offer wall. Due to the card layout as opposed to a grid
- People weren’t certain what would happen if they clicked See Deal on the offer wall. Some thought it would just be more information about the loan (still on the APL website)
Future steps
- Have tailored landing page for customers matching their loan search
- Improve interaction on form fields for both desktop and mobile
- Including more trust signals, like customer reviews and awards on the website
- Bringing in more lenders to ensure customers for a definite loan offer
- Refine the application form to only ask data that is mandatory to meet the lending rules
