Loan Application Redesign
UX/UI Design / Responsive Web Design
Challenges + Expectations
This project required a responsive redesign of an existing loan application that was already in production using a third party framework. Because of this framework, we had to maintain the essential flow and functionality of the application process, which presented a number of challenges, especially in regards to providing an improved, more intuitive user experience. Sadly, the usability of the legacy application was very poor: confusing labeling of fields, inconsistent use of conditional fields, and the most prominent glaring issue - bad field validation. In addition to the issues, there were three different brand identities, with their respective requirements, that we had to consider during the design process, along with bringing the application up to WCAG 2.0 AA ADA compliance.
Strategy + Solutions
After gathering all information and capabilities of the framework we would have to design within, we came up with a simplified process flow for the various users and their loan purposes. This involved adjusting the form field order to be more relevant and specific to the user needs, along with making conditional fields more dynamic and specific. During our competitive research, we found that many of the most utilized online loan applications used a very personalized messaging, so we incorporated this, too. We adjusted the labeling and instructional text to be simpler and concise and provided inline tool tips for any fields that needed more clarification. Inline field validation allowed the user to correct mistakes as they moved along, with messaging that made it very clear what the issue was and how to correct it. Once we entered actual GUI design, we thoroughly tested all color combinations, contrast ratios and text sizes to be WCAG 2.0 AA ADA compliant.
