Prem Kishor ⋅ 3 min read
A seamless way to get a paperless personal loan through a smartphone in just 2 minutes. For the low-income group in India.
Team
Product Designer (Me)
My Role
Research & Redefine a proper way to make the paperless loan process much smoother for a low-income group & less tech-savvy user base in India.
Duration
3-4 Days
Target Audience
Low income group less tech savvy in India.
Age: Above 18 year old
Project Brief/Problem Statement
Even after such evolution in tech. Still, the less tech-savvy low-income groups in India can't get a paperless personal loan successfully through any app. Those who get it goes through a tiring and high cognitive process in the app. Most users don't trust such personal loans online because of various reasons and prefer traditional money lending through banks or peeps.
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Credibility issue.
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Fear of getting scammed
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Language barriers
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Less awareness about how things work out and so on!!
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Stories of, companies recovering loans unethically, leading suicidal cases
Challenges as UX designer
I wanted to figure out all types of pain points specifically for this target audience and propose the most affordable and convenient solution for the same. Also wanted to make sure that each and every proposed solution does not stop any verification step for the business to recover the loan ethically.
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Managing time for the project
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Competitive analysis
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Think from both perspectives "Business" and "Consumer"
Design Road Map
Day 1
Brain storm & Secondary Research
Day 2
Primary research
Day 3
Information Architecture & Wireframing design
Day 4
UI Design & Test
Design Process
Discover
Define
Design
Discover
Secondary Research
Competitive analysis (User’s perspective)
Did a small competitive analysis with the top 3 most popular applications among this target audience. Highlighted problems of each app in detail.
NAVI APP
Problems:
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Lack of clear information for the user
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Hidden charges - Doesn’t show the processing fee. User feels they got scammed.
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Reaching out to support is very difficult within the process.
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Collects all information from the user without any prioritization and then tells them whether they are eligible or not. The user feels scammed for sharing all the personal info in return for nothing.
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Unethical ways to recover loans- sharing user picture and details to their contacts without clear consent.
Early Salary
Problems:
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Too many steps to complete.
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Crucial info is shared with the user but isn’t so evident to the user.
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Too many offers block users to complete the loan procedure on time.
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Consuming extra info becomes very difficult for the team to take fast decisions, or users end up pressing the wrong buttons.
Money View
Problems:
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The user goes through multiple taps and tasks to finish one step at a time.
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Collects all information from the user without any prioritization and then tells them whether they are eligible or not. The user feels scammed for sharing all the personal info in return for nothing.
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Poor information architecture.
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Poor user flow
The outcome of above analysis
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Inaccurate information architecture
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No assistance in between the process.
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Hidden charges.
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Unclear information.
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Disturbed user flow.
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Irrelevant infographics/Ads/offers/ and less user affordance.
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Lack of Credibility.
Primary research
Qualitative In-depth interview.
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Sample size 4 users
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Age: 18 to 29
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Duration 15-20 mins Zoom call
Based on this interview with these users I created my Empathy map.
Define
Money lending businesses should take care of the customer experience to create competitive differentiation.
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Prevent fraud
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Ensure users consent
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KYC verification through a versatile ID.
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Smooth Payment gateways - integration with multiple secure payment channels and platforms ensures quick and secure transactions.
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More transparency: more consider loan calculator and final loan amount breakup.
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Build high credibility: Penny-drop API not only verifies active bank accounts but also onboards users with confidence.
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Ask for only the required credentials from the user
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Adapt ethical and convenient strategies to recover loans.
User needs
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Intuitive UI
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Need reasons to trust, mostly depends on review, lending partner's testimonies
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Need money on time.
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Need to know eligibility upfront to make sure further time investment on the app is worthy enough.
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End-to-end journey guide to help them after every step they get closer to their goal.
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Language preferences
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Upfront assistance
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More transparency in the process and no hidden charges.
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Users need more awareness-They Don't know what is at stake. It is their credit score!
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Users need to know the value of their time and efforts on the app first - show their eligibility before going through not required steps.
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Ability to customize loan EMI in the case of emergency.
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Online 24/7 support.
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More customization: Ability to set their own EMI time & duration.
Critical areas
Prevent loan recovery unethical practices
Help business in long run.
more transparency in terms of loan repayment issue.
Design
Exploring how to incorporate richer context and actions to encourage action
I wanted to ensure that I either design for the user and the business separately or find a solution that could suit both. I listed down the needs of both types of users and realised there was sufficient overlap to pursue a solution that would suit all users. We placed a greater emphasis on users because I observed users suffered a lot and they this solution first and I have enough data for the same.
Design priorities
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Intuitive UI
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Increase credibility, ask for only required details. for instance no need to access the user's contact details.
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End-to-end journey guide to help them after every step they get closer to their goal.
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Language preferences
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Upfront assistance
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More transparency in the process
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Smart use of information to reduce user efforts.
User Flow
LOGO
Final UIs with key features
Learnings
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Companies practising unethical ways of recovering loans are not going to survive in the long run. This is a very critical problem and it should get handled very smartly.
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User research gave me great insight and helped me to empathize with my users in-depth.
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The money lending business is very challenging and also very competitive in the Indian market, it was interesting to come across business needs at the same time.
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Research needs more time to learn about the money lending business aspect.
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Testing, this app with real users can be helpful to get some more insights and validate my recommendations.
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Used Google material design which can be scalable easily and used only 1 colour to keep things straightforward for the dev teams.
Future scope
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To make low-income users aware of the online financial world and based on the learning from users.
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Help users take another valuable types of loans such as home loans, education loans etc...
I’d love to join your design team to build the next revolutionary product together! Just send an email.
Let's work together!