PITCHBULL
Pitchbull’s goal is to create a user-centered loan platform that helps SMEs access the financing they need to grow and succeed, without the delays & expenses associated with traditional lending options.
TL;DR
I led a small team on a redesign of Pitchbull’s user onboarding and loan application flow. We dramatically simplified the user experience, focusing on improved form interactions, clarity with inline feedback & allowing for user error correction.
I learned a little Spanish, and a lot about financial regulations & managing a multi-lingual project.
THE PROBLEM
Pitchbull is a Mexican fintech company specialising in financing solutions for Small and Medium Businesses. Elements of it’s design were outdated compared to competitors and it’s user flow was disjointed and unpolished. An overhaul was required to improve user onboarding & increase loan application success rate.
We set out to create a brand-new flow that encompasses up to date usability patterns, and updated aesthetics across the loan application lifetime. A major motivation was to build trust with the user via a polished and robust user experience.
HIGH LEVEL TIMELINE
3 Month Project
My Role
UX & UI design
KEY GOALS
Improve loan application journey.
MY ROLE
I led the project and worked on all aspects of the re-design, including its research, UX design, and UI design (based on existing brand guidelines). I was directed and assisted in the project by stakeholders from across their business team.
I gathered feedback from staff members and used this information to identify areas for improvement in the current flow, and to map out alternative solutions.
I took charge of creating wireframes to visualise the new flow and
effectively communicate our ideas to the development team. I conducted research on similar products and best current practices for web form interactions.
By adopting a user-centered approach, I aimed to ensure the platform would meet the needs of users to provide a streamlined and effective solution to help SME’s access loans quickly.
Decision Makers
CEO
CTO
Project Manager
Financial Team
Risk Management Team
Regulatory Advisors
Customer Success team
Support Team
English Language Team
¡No hablo español!
I don’t speak Spanish!
No problem.
I don't understand Mexican financial regulations.
Ningún problema!
As soon as we had reliable translations of all the website, form copy & support documentation we were ready to dive in!
Googlesheets with side by side translations and sticky notes were invaluable tools as we began to unravel the current system.
DISCOVERY & EMPATHY
Firstly we established a core team of collaborators with a balance of product knowledge and bi-lingual translation skills.
We created a cloned translated site for us to use the existing product and gain experience to help with the discover phase.
Beginner mindset: To being with we used the existing product without any guidance from the clients staff. Based of scripts with expected outcomes. This allowed us to discover positives and limitations of the current product.
Stakeholder Interviews: I held one-on-one interviews with staff members to understand their perspective on the current loan application process, its strengths and weaknesses.
Gathering user feedback: The support staff had a log of feedback from user issues, we noted these insights to prioritise features and functionalities.
Journey Mapping: I worked with staff members to map the user journey, from the initial loan application to the final approval, to identify areas for improvement and opportunities to streamline the process. This gave me an understanding of the impact of design decisions on the ‘backend’ of the system.
Legal and Regulatory Review: We reviewed the legal and regulatory requirements for loan applications, working with staff members and legal experts as needed, to ensure that the loan application process complied with all necessary regulations. These elements were of the highest priority, as specific data or documentation was required at various stages in the loan lifecycle.
Pain Point Identification: I used the insights gathered through the stakeholder interviews and journey mapping to identify the pain points in the current loan application process, and prioritise solutions to address these issues.
Mapping the flow
We began by mapping the current journey, then expanded the application form flow & logic based on new requirements and desired features.
We grouped datasets based on:
User account vs loan fields
Existing input fields
New required regulatory fields
Info accessible via user submitted documentation
DEFINING USERS AND THEIR NEEDS
While the primary focus was on the SME loan applicant journey, we also considered how to ease the internal tasks of reviewing & authorising loan applications.
APPLICANT
The SME journey, ease of use and providing fail safes were a primary concern.
These were workshopped using data from the current site and staff awareness of current pain points.
LOANS TEAM
We considered how the internal staff could be helped and explored frequent requested support issues that arose with their current system.
This included erroneous data prevention, access to 3rd party documentation.
REGULATORS
We were working within the strict regulations layed out by the national and local authorities.
This meant that depending on the type of business an SME was applying on behalf of that the flow & required inputs would vary.
ALIGNING GOALS FOR STAKEHOLDER
User Concerns
Support Concerns
Regulatory Concerns
IDEATION
To ensure the loan application form was user-friendly and intuitive I looked for best practices & influences within and outside of the financial industry
Conducting competitor analysis: I researched over 15 competitors and their onboarding processes to identify strengths and weaknesses, and establish a benchmark for the desired user experience.
Seeking inspiration and novel solutions: I looked beyond the loan industry and considered other industries and applications that may provide inspiration and novel solutions for the SME loan application.
Researching best practices and industry standards: I stayed up-to-date with the latest trends and techniques in HTML form design and user experience by reviewing case studies, articles, and other resources.
Competitor Research
We dissected onboarding flows from with the comparable businesses. The purpose was to highlight good patterns used & to flag any patterns we should avoid.
We repeated this process for over 15 websites and created a presentation in figma where the client could.
Navigate between selected site captures
Scroll inside screenshots to view entire page.
Recreated some on age interactions where relevant in the flow (modals & sliders)
WIRES & PROTOTYPES
Based on our research we created interactive prototypes for desktop and mobile views to test our ideas with the team and get feedback for further iterations.
FOCUS ON BEST PRACTICES
Breaking the form into logical grouping, using form logic from our earlier map. We Used modified checkboxes with text and graphics to reduce cognitive load. We made inputs, placeholder & prompts highly accessible.
We made sure that the form could be saved and completed at a later time, and that all fields could be edited prior to offical submission.
SLICK INTERACTIVITY, BUT PROVIDE GUIDE RAILS
We made the form interactive so focus was placed on the current question and subsequent options were revealed when a choice was made. This allowed us to add some nice animated interactions, but we were cautious to include the ability for user to backtrack to different stages of the application, and to edit every previous field.
CONSIDERATION FOR BACK END
We documented all new required fields and wire-framed how this new data and documents would be integrated into the current system backend CMS.
HIGH FIDELITY DESIGNS
When we were happy with the flow we integrated the brand guidelines and added polish to the interface.
Imported style guides: I created a new figma document using the same components but imported and applied visual identity of the company, including the brand colours, typography, and visual elements.
Make revisions: I shared the figma links and and we discussed the impact of our edits, this led changes based on feedback.
Modified interactions: I looked beyond the loan industry and considered other industries and applications that may provide inspiration and novel solutions for the SME loan application.
FIGMA AT THE CUTTING EDGE
As an advocate for Figma I used every new feature to bring together the highest fidelity designs & interactions in order to get sign off and clarify state & actions with the developers. Using components, variants, style rules, autolayout & prototype interactions we were able to bring the product to life and create complex user flows to tell our story.
TESTING & ITERATION
Prior to development we imported designs into useberry to test flows and get user feedback.
Comparative research: We created a mock-up of the existing application flow and one of our modified flow.
Useberry: Using useberry we set specific tasks for users to carry out and observed the results looking for: time to completion, success rate, erroneous click & inputs.
TESTING DISCOVERY
Finding were that completion time was 17% faster on the new design.
CHALLENGES & LESSONS
The challenges initially were overcoming the language barrier & assigning time to understand & research the industry and regulations.
Of course as the project proceeded we unearthed many problems, ideas solutions and each one of these had an impact on the scope & deliverables of the project.
IF THIS, THEN WHAT?
Here I have just focused on the application form, we also had to consider the impact on the ‘user dashboard’ where the applicant would be kept up to date about the status of their application, also the impact on the admin side.
A deeper study into the impact of changes at the start would have allowed us to ring fence various phases of the design and development. As implications were understood and added to the backlog of work it felt like scope creep rather than a second or third phase or work that was required, and factored in prior to initiating the design project.
NEXT STEPS
Due to changes in the structure of the company they focused on rebranding and have yet to implement our designs.
PERSONAL IMPACT
Despite the frustration of not getting to see my work in development (yet) I feel the project was very successful, both I and the clients learned a lot of valuable information during the discover and design process.
Our workflow of using a dual language spreadsheet helped empower everyone on their team to contribute to copy across the site. This helped improve consistency, provided better messaging and tone of voice. The process provided ownership to staff in Ireland and Mexico, bi-lingual or not, to contribute to user success.
Our research with support team and their platform helped inform decision to implement Hubspot as their CRM of choice. This allowed them to manage customer touch-points outside of the website, and a degree of flexibility as the business and its regulations changed.
©2023 by Seamus L