ClearGage loan application

Case study

About the project | ClearGage loan application

ClearGage loan application redesign; Bringing transparency to the loan process through research and design.

Overview

Main user problem | Confusion with the promotional offer.

Like many of the projects that I worked on at ClearGage, this one was given to me under urgency with a tight time constraint. I had about two weeks to research, redesign, and test a new loan application that was to be launched with the onboarding of a new client. As the design lead on this project I jumped right in with the help of one of our UX interns and our development team.

The main goal was to create a seamless and transparent user flow that clearly showed the applicant the loan they were applying for, their APR, the total cost at the end and a clear way to compare different rates. The main user problem that the existing application had was the confusion with ClearGage’s promotional offer.

Main offer screen from old design through process to finished product

Initial research

State of mind | Understanding a person’s emotional load when applying for a loan.

I started my research by looking into other loan applications and how those flows worked. I wanted to get a general idea of how other loan applications flowed. Since this was a redesign a great place to start was comparing what ClearGage did versus what other companies did. I saw a lot of similarities, particularly this confusion with the promotional offer.

I also wanted to understand the mind state of someone applying for a loan particularly in the medical space. As a UX designer I can imagine it is not a comfortable and easy place to be. Speaking with our clients and their customers I was able to confirm that. There is already a lot going on in a perosn’s life when applying for a medical loan which slightly changed my focus. I not only wanted to create a smooth flow for the user but one that brought some peace of mind and comfort during the process.

Key takeaways from research:

promotional offers seem to be a point of confusion on many loan applications
the state of mind of a person in this situation can be very negative
find a way to design ease and peace of mind into the flow

I consolidated and started to understand my research by drawing up some user flows. Since I was already going off of an existing application, I wanted to step away from it and use what I had learned in my research to inform my initial prototypes. By better understanding the goals and anti goals of my users I begane ti piece together the changes needed for this redesign. There were parts of the existing application that also informed my initial designs but I really wanted to make sure that I was putting my user research first. When researching, I like to get a clear picture of everything that I am learning. I am a big fan of using a large wall and throwing up post-its and sketches to get ideas going. This is also a great way to interact with your team and have a more collaborative approach to research even over zoom!

Understanding the bigger picture by creating large user flows

The main problem: defined

Promotional offer | Misleading and confusing, but why?

The issue with the promotional offer was that the terms and conditions of it were not very clear. If you chose the promotional offer and followed its terms correctly then everything would be fine and you would end up with a much better deal. However, if you didn’t meet the terms and conditions (ie paying your loan in full within 6 months) then you would default on a much more expensive loan. This part of the offer was not explained very well throughout the application flow.

There was also an issue with how we had to legally display the offer. The largest number displayed had to legally be the amount that you would pay if you defaulted on the promotional offer! What an absolute UX nightmare! Here we were trying to show how much someone would save by choosing same as cash (the promotional offer) and we couldn’t even make that the focal point of the experience.

This is the old application design with the updated ClearGage brand colors

This is an example of the promotional offer, one of the applications main issues.

Ideation

A redesign | Not starting from scratch has its pros and cons.

After the initial prototypes I then moved onto mid-fi and high-fi prototypes, bringing my sketches into figma. I used our brand identity to inform the color pallete and general look and feel of the application. Since this project needed a very quick turn around my low fi sketches were dine rather hastily. I needed to get this going in figma as soon as i could. This is not normally how I would go about progressing through low-high fi but time was of the essence and a few steps were unfortunately dropped. I was also going from an existing application so a lot of the flows were similar with tweaks being made along the way.

Low to high fidelity wireframes for Auto pay flow

Initial user testing and more research

Testing constraints | At a small company with limited time and resources, a lot of our initial user tests were done with colleges.

Working at a small company has it challenges. One of those is definitely access to resources like large user testing groups. Therefor, a lot of the initial testing was done with colleagues from other departments. This is not ideal but it is a good way to get designs out more quickly while still staying integral and true to the UX design process. It also has a great way of bringing our teams together and helping the company as a whole understand the need for UX design.

After user testing it was clear that the promitonal offer still held issues. Although some users understood it more, there were still points of confusion that needed to be worked out. By playing around with size and proximity, I was able to solve the problem. It was less of a fundamental issue with the offering and more a UI puzzle to be solved (my favorite!).

Final prototype and testing; the problem solved!

Test and iterate | using user feedback for the final output

After a few more iterations and user tests, my team and I were able to deliver a redesigned loan application based off of research, testing, and user needs. The main problem of the confusion with the promotional offer was solved by clearly stating its terms a few times along the user flow. Our testing found that this regular reminder of what the customer was agreeing to made them feel more comfortable and reassured about their choice. I also added in a loan estimate calculator which took the user to a new screen and allowed them to directly interact with the loan and terms. They could input different monthly payments and see how that affected their loan terms and total cost of the loan.

A selection of screens from the final prototype

Next steps and learning

Ah the startup life | Projects that never make it to production

Unfortunately this project never made it to full production. As is the way of startups, the entire loan program was cut just as I was finishing up this redesign. As disappointing and frustrating as this always is, it is apart of company life. I was grateful to be put on this project anyway. I learned a lot from it, was able to better understand how to design for a specific user problem, and got a chance to show this company just how valuable UX and research is.

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