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Two week sprint

One week for research

One week for prototyping

 

Case Study: Get a Better Rate

THE CLIENT

Get a Better Rate is a digital mortgage broker, providing customers a digital solution fully supported with a physical service but also a qualified mortgage broker.

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As part of the Academy Xi course, we set out to increase customers and give them a better experience during a mortgage application.

What are we trying to solve?

Potential Customer

Aid first home buyers in digesting and obtaining a home loan as navigating mortgages is complicated. By empowering the first home buyer to access important information, Get a better rate will gain trust and authority as a mortgage broker service.

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Existing Customer

Provide better communication channels with existing customers as compiling documents and waiting for approvals is stressful and important communications can be easily lost in email. As a result, Get a better rate will gain more customer loyalty and referrals.

Wave
Alexander Ho

Alexander Ho

UX Designer

My role in the team was co-leading the team on direction and time management.

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Research was a team effort and in the prototype I took charge of the signed in dashboard and cashback page.

What did I do?

Our Constraints

LIMITED RESOURCES

The owner is the developer
Only one person in the company

TWO WEEKS

One week for research

One week for prototyping

 

ALL REMOTE

Collaboration and testing

 

Understanding people

Desktop Research

Online research

Competitor Analysis

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Compare the market

Canstar

Lendi

Finder.com.au

Mortgage Choice

Survey

24 Responses

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54% Female - 46% Male

 

Age group 25-60 

 

75% NSW - 25% Others

 

71% Applied mortgage before  

25% have a plan within a year

1 on 1 Interviews

15 Interviews

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Age bracket  25-62

 

6 Females & 9 Males

 

13 experienced applying for home loans


2 have the plan to apply

Usability Test

8 Tests on existing desktop and mobile website 

What's the environment?

Desktop Research

We compared the different competitors in the home loan comparison market and found that most of them don't provide mortgage broker services and can be quite overwhelming with information.

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Get a better rate must differentiate by having a seamless experience from loan comparisons to broker and simplifying the information displayed in comparisons.

Competitors2.png

Survey

Not everyone has time to talk,

so lets send a survey

52.1% feel overwhelmed looking for home loans

74 % use desktop to research home loans

What is important when deciding a lender

  1. Interest rate

  2. Lender Reputation

  3. Other charges

Most important factor defining mortgage broker experience 

  1. communication

  2. Quality of service

  3. trust

Most difficult in obtaining home loan:

  1. compiling the documents

  2. choosing right home loan

  3. choosing right lender

Prefer to be communicated by broker

  1. email

  2. phone call

  3. phone message

1 on 1 Interviews

Let's talk to real people!

“It’s frustrating, you’re just waiting, you don’t know what’s going on.” - Robert, 40

 

“When I first applied, I don’t know where to start.”  - Diane, 54

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“Sometimes you’re being tricked because you don’t know whether they’re actually trying to the best product or whether they’re giving you the best product makes them the most money.” - Daniel, 37

Interview Key findings

  1. Trust and referrals from family and friends for advice

  2. People feel anxious because a home loan is a big commitment

  3. People feel like there's a lack of educational resources on home loans

  4. People don't like waiting long for approvals

  5. Most people don't understand how brokers make their money and concerned if brokers are hiding information

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Usability Test

“Style quite basic but it works. Can be sharper or more refined"

“All info is there, but the layout is unsophisticated."

Mobile

4.3/10 from

4 participants

Desktop

5.0/10 from

5 participants

Key findings

  1. Branding inconsistent

  2. Navigation not intuitive

  3. Trust is not clear on website

  4. People are confused with terminology

  5. Mobile version harder to use

  6. Website doesn't work on Safari

Define

Here we used all the insights to create a personified into two people and their journeys.

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Meet Daniel and Michelle

How might we...

From the pain points comes opportunities

Daniel

  1. Better educate Daniel on mortgages and terminology so that he can feel confident about the process

  2. Present home loan comparison information in such a way that Daniel feels confident about his choice

  3. Build trust for Daniel on the Get a Better Rate site so he is enticed to use it  and leave his contact details

  4. Ensure that technology enables Daniel without frustrating him

Michelle

  1. Make the collation of documents easier and more effective for Michelle

  2. Keep Michelle updated with the progress of her application so she feels more in control and positive about the experience

  3. Communicate more effectively with Michelle so that she does not miss any important messages

Ideation

We ideated and sorted the our ideas in to a minimal viable matrix with the client.

Daniel

First home buyer

Furious 5s

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Five Ideas

Five Minutes

Each Person

Michelle

Upgrader

Creative Matrix

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Five Sections of Business

Ten Minutes

Each Person

Develop

Low Fidelity 1

From sketches and user flow

5 User testing

Low Fidelity 2

User feedback changes

5 User testing

High Fidelity 1

User feedback changes

4 User testing

High Fidelity 2

User feedback changes

5 User testing

4 rounds of user testing to reach final prototype

User Flow

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Initial mapping of our prototype

Design & Test - 3 Iterations

Delivery

Rebranding

Together we come up with a brand guide as customers valued reputation and trust. 

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  1. We talked to the client and took away key brand values: Simple, Functional, Fast and Personal

  2. Based on the values and customer feedback, we aligned the brand fonts and colours.

  3. Redesigned the logo based on the new font and feedback

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High Fidelity prototype

“Looks okay, maybe trustworthy” 

- Georgia

 

Favourites button  “Button looks like I am liking that lender?” - Kim

 

“Just what you need” - Andrew

 

“I like the fact it is showing me all of the lenders” - Kim

“Looks very user friendly” - Artie

 

“I like the sort function” - Gyongyi

 

“Application details a bit jumbled” - Ryan

 

“Would like to see news” - Artie

Outcomes

Delivered:

Developed a prototype for the PWA and Website

A simple branding guide

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Achievement: 

After our presentation, our client said that now he has "a lot to think about".

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Reflections:

I learned about how a progressive web app (PWA) works and how it ties in with UX design

I realised that SEO must work with UX design for best results when it comes to searchable content

I should learn more about SEO, Content strategy, link building, and technical SEO

If we had more time, we should flesh out more of the logged in state and the rest of the website and PWA

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