Lend Well
FinTech Product Design
Introducing the Secure App for Entrepreneurial Visionaries and Small Investors.
To make this mobile app the obvious best choice, we based every design decision on verified user needs and remained realistic about the security and functionality of its features.
UX Project Brief:
Lend Well is a FinTech mobile app with pre-qualification and background protocols built into the onboarding to give users security and make sure members who join the community have positive intentions and reliable capabilities.
Lend Well is like having the show Shark Tank in the digital world, designed for smaller players of the game. Its use-target is startups and potential investors for seed-stage organizations.
The purpose of the Lend Well app is to increase the number of inventors and trailblazers who have the resources they need to create the products they have envisioned. The app also satisfies the needs of new or would-be investors who want to “do something big” with a new product but may not have the connections to source partnerships.
To make this mobile app the obvious best choice, we based every design decision on verified user needs and remained realistic about the security and functionality of its features.
Stage One: Creating a Project Plan
Every memorable, powerful endeavor begins with a deliberate, direct plan that gives it a strong foundation.
The plan is put into writing that can be shared and easily understood organization-wide and then distributed to clients/stakeholders for review, modification, and approval.
Starting from the Bottom
An approved project plan or creative brief provides the parameters within which reactivity can flourish and intuitive design can be made. The document becomes the compass for every brainstorming session, design decision, and development inclusion.
It will also help use define marketing goals and set brand guidelines. The plan is clear, concise, and informs every contributor and stakeholder of what to expect from this UX design journey.
Stage Two: Discovery via Research
Research is what makes an effective UX Design the value-increasing process that it is.
During the research stage, there are three objectives:
1. Clearly define and understand the problem we are tackling for users and how our resolution makes their lives better
2. Outline multiple solutions for resolving the issues and assign product feature enhancements to each viable opportunity that makes sense for the brand, and
3. Test the logic and reality of the product design and make improvements where necessary to add value and increase the potential for success.
Research methods vary based on the needs of individual products, ranging from simple online research to more involved live focus groups. By incorporating multiple data sources into a UX project, the results are more validated and reliable, and for the Lend Well app, diving straight into the opinions of the target users was the ideal starting point.
This case study outlines the process used to streamline UED for this partnership tool.
Discovery via Research
Research makes the UX Design process most effective. During the research stage, there are three objectives:
1. Clearly define and understand the problem we are tackling for users and how our resolution makes their lives better.
2. Outline multiple solutions options and assign product feature enhancements to each viable opportunity that makes sense.
3. Test the logic and reality of the design and improve where necessary to add value and increase potential for success.
Crafting the Solution...
Stage Three:
Product Functionality Plan
User feedback and competitive analysis are great ways of identifying gaps in a product’s service features. By filling those gaps, the product immediately becomes a viable competitor, even against brands who have occupied the space for quite some time.
Creating a product design that stems from the user’s perspective can make design decision easier and the reasoning behind those decisions crystal clear.
Designing from a user-centered frame of mind lets us create more profitable products that do a better job of fulfilling user needs.
Here are a few of the opportunities for feature enhancements that emerged from the research stage:
1. To delight users, included: video chat functionality, full editing rights in their profile section, and the ability to pitch multiple wining ideas.
2. During onboarding the viewer is “comforted by” with important information such as metric data, growth projections, a description of security measures, and stats on current Lend Well partnerships, including existing user feedback.
3. With security already addressed, communicating these product value elements helps further confidence growth and lays the groundwork needed for the viewer to begin imagining him or herself moving forward with the decision to download the app.
Making users happy and products perform better is the goal of every UX Design project.
Stage Four:
Analysis and Structural Decisions
One of the things that makes UX Research so profitable is the ability to resolve and address issues before they even arise.
As perfectionists, those words are like angels humming in the ear.
With Lend Well, there were so many potential drop-off points that, for a while, playing devil’s advocate user was the only way to find and eliminate product shortcomings.
With a better grasp of our target user and a game plan for developing a superior product, the next stage is converting those ideas and statistics into action-items that will dictate the structure and visual cues of the app’s design.
Stage Five:
UX Content & Strategy
In an effort to continually reinforce the objective of showing that Lend Well is an excellent solution to their investor needs, it was important to include small reminders regarding the safety of their privacy throughout the app experience.
Whether through text or visual design, this approach let us continually build confidence within the user regarding the safety of our technology so they know that Lend Well is a secure opportunity they do not have to worry about.
Once the path was clear, the final phase of this deeply user-focused design process (as opposed to the development-focused phases such as testing and improved iterations), was to make sure that the user was either delighted, educated, or entertained with every click.
Every memorable, powerful endeavor begins with a deliberate, direct plan that gives it a strong foundation.
Stage Six:
Mapping the Experience
Prior to development, testing with low-fidelity wireframes provides a realistic and informative click-through test experience.
This first round of usability testing is the best way to take a step back, just before development, and take a look at what we have designed.
Looking at things from the in-use perspective gives us a chance to make sure there is no need left unresolved.
The UX design process produced an intuitive experience that can be reviewed and evaluated using the information architecture or user flow map.
Following the map above, we are able to track instances where we touch our primary objective – to inform users of the high-level security protocols built into the app. This objective was fulfilled by: incorporating the idea of security through visual design elements, as written messaging in content text, and in more subtle ways through product features such as privacy and escrow measures that are a part of the app’s infrastructure and advanced background checks that validate users before they are given access to the community.
GET ONBOARD!
The Outcome of Deliberate Design
Addressing the user’s primary concern – security – upfront gave us the edge to create confidence for users to move forward freely. Removing that concern opens the door for visitors to make the download decision.
Applying the UX Design process allowed me to be thorough and purpose-driven when finalizing the flow of information and planning the structure of the Lend Well app experience. The forethought and user insights gained through the process made it easier to succeed at engineering a supportive, cohesive environment for building strong partnerships that fulfill the directives of both business objectives and user needs.