Shecluded is a female-focused company that believes in the future of women enough to finance them. Since their launch in 2019, they have disbursed $1.1 million dollars to 3500+ women, helped launch 400+ businesses through their loans.
As the company continues to grow and expand, I was brought onboard to update the user interface of the credit loans dashboard. I saw it fit as an opportunity to employ Heuristic evaluation on the existing design to uncover why the redesign was necessary. The result of the evaluation showed a lot of inconsistency in buttons, colors and typography.
We got a lot of complains related to the credit loan experience, from filling in their details repeatedly when applying for loans, to dealing with the long onboarding process. This alone was a sign to dive into research before making it pretty.
I kicked off with having a meeting with Ifeoma (our founder) and Daniel (PM). The purpose of this meeting was to get the full scope of the product and goals we were trying to achieve and since they have been involved with the product from day one, they had deeper insights to how users have been interacting with the platform.
I reviewed the onboarding and loan application flows which revealed repetition of questions users had to fill when onboarding and asked when applying for a loan. I shared my findings with the team to make sure everyone was seeing what I was seeing, asked a lot of whys concerning why the onboarding was the way it was, if it was tied to the business goals or just something “we thought was needed”.
Once we were aligned on how people use our platform. we needed to understand their pain points with the existing users. The Shecluded team were graceful enough to lend a hand to me whenever I needed it and their dedication to building a successful and functional product. I and Daniel (PM) had a lot of brainstorming sessions over google meet, he also chipped in where necessary and what needed to be clarified.
We had a virtual user interview with a couple customers to watch them interact with the dashboard, they were instructed to think out loud during this process. This process revealed recurring themes. For example the long onboarding process and repetitive information asked from users.
I remember a user saying The onboarding is lengthy and boring , it would be nice for it feel less boring and maybe conversational (Ifeoma also mentioned it during one of our team sync).Ifeoma also mentioned how bad the user experience on the mobile responsiveness was.
Once I grasped the user's concerns, it became clear which issues needed attention. I gathered insights from user interviews and team meetings, framing them into three main problems.
The first thing users do before even getting to the dashboard, was going through the very long onboarding process which made them abandon the platform.
During my heuristic evaluation, it showed a bunch of repetitive questions in the loan application form that was already asked during the onboarding process. For example user’s were asked their business name and same question was asked in the loan application.
80% of Shecluded users have complain about the bad experience they have had on the mobile version of the dashboard. This was a perfect opportunity to have a full revamp of the product and it’s mobile version which ill result to retention of current users and conversion of new ones.
For the onboarding , the words ‘conversational & interactive’ spark an idea in my head. After a lot of brainstorming and design reviews with Ifeoma and Daniel, I went with a direction of making the onboarding ‘interactive’ where users fill in the blanks. I collaborated with Daniel and chatgpt to make sure the text had the brand’s tone, we filtered the information we wanted to get from users. I also worked closely with developer (Josh) to ensure it was properly implemented and responsive for mobile.
User Experience (UX) Improvements: The revamped user dashboard boasts a refined and intuitive user experience. Navigation has been streamlined to effortlessly guide users through the platform's features. We have conducted thorough user testing to optimize the placement of key elements, ensuring that users can access critical functionalities with ease. The information architecture has been reimagined to enhance user flow, making interactions more intuitive and reducing the learning curve for new users.
User Interface (UI) Design Using the New Design System: As only designer on the team, I meticulously implemented the new design system I developed, seamlessly integrating it into the revamped user dashboard, the design system not only enhances the visual appeal but also contributes to a more cohesive and engaging user interface.
Preserving Familiarity: Recognizing the importance of continuity, I was intentional about not overhauling every aspect of the old dashboard. Elements that our users have grown accustomed to have been retained, ensuring a sense of familiarity. This thoughtful approach aims to make the transition for existing users seamless while offering a fresh, upgraded experience.
After auditing and filtering all the unnecessary and repetitive information, we still had the problem of presenting the questions. In the existing design, all he question from personal information to business information or why they needed the loan was cramped up.
I came up with the idea of categorizing the type of questions, e.g. KTB, Loan information. This way, users know what page they are on. I also group each questions and it’s options inside a box. It made the user interface cleaner and more friendly.
Having a mobile version led to a spike in signup of users in it’s first month of launch.
Shecluded saw a decline in onboarding abandonment. The business was also able to disburse more loans as users could now quickly onboarding the platform and apply for loans.
Got a project and a need designer or maybe you got movie recommendations or just want to say hi. Reach out to me on:
adeotokidaniel@gmail.com