Home Lending Calculators
Responsive design for multiple screen sizes.
Responsive web and App calculators.
Experience design lead/manager for developing three home lending calculators for the Bank.
Overview of my role
As the experience design lead, I lead the design team working on three new home lending calculators. These were an Upfront Costs, Borrowing Capacity and Loan Repayments, calculator. The goal was to ensure that data from each calculator would be integrated and stored for customers to allow them to view their results across any device within the Banks ecosystem. If customers tried a calculator within the Banks Property App, they would see their saved result within NetBank and on the home lending website.
This new strategic approach to how data was shared across platforms allowed the Bank to validate this data on behalf of customers. This meant they could offer instant pre-approval to customers when they inquired about loan products. Customers were able to instantly search for property with the added security they were able to buy. This customer-centric approach to helping solve customers' needs had never been approached within the Bank before and proved to be widely successful in developing a higher level of customer satisfaction.
Strategist
Working closely with the business we developed an innovative new product vision focused towards delivering real value to customers throughout their product engagement journey throughout the lifetime of the service.
Owner
We defined the product by evangelising the user needs while balancing the business goals. I worked effortlessly with the team to prioritise and negotiate the product features.
Designer
I lead the UX and UI design teams as well as working within these design teams. I was hands on with the wireframes through to the final UI design and pattern libraries to bring the product to life.
Leader
We developed a lean UX methodology to enable the design team to collaborate closely with our engineers to deliver an design and code at the same time to dramatically increase our work capacity.
Mentor
My role included the mentorship to a number of design resources within the program. I worked effortlessly to raise the standard of work by helping improve their approach to design.
The problem and hypothesis
How to improve a fragmented, impersonal and confusing experience
The strategy we were presented with was that many of the Bank's.exisiting customers found a disjointed experience when they engaged with the Bank. Customers had no way of continuing a calculator result into a tangible outcome outside of printing a result to show a lender. The process was incredibly disjointed and caused frustration as customers were required to repeat several steps over and over again before they solidified the result. This confusion drove customers toward mortgage brokers to get help cutting through the complexity.
With this in mind, our goal was to build a platform that would help improve transparency, reduce complexity and return a sense of control to customers looking to explore the property market. We wanted to make the process less daunting by offering first-time and subsequent buyers a way to help them with all their end-to-end buying needs. To integrate their mortgage exploration it into the Banks existing platforms and ensure that the customer journey was continued at every touch point, making it easier to engage with the Bank.
Calculators with transparent costs
Helping customers figure out real costs by providing calculators with transparent costs.
Understanding user needs
We continuously mapped our users emotional states throughout the design process
By developing an in-depth research plan we gained deeper qualitative insight into customers' pain points throughout the buying process. This allowed us to better understand their emotional levels throughout the journey to uncover where the biggest improvements needed to happen.
Awareness
To discover how CommBank's products and services can satisfy my needs and goals.
Support discovery
Provide relevant messages
Appeal to emotional states & aspirations
Consideration
To get to a shortlist of products and services based on a set of criteria.
Distinguish value
proposition
Be transparent
Support peer conversion
It also allowed us to communicate the severity of the current process and support conversations throughout the design process. This approach to research was a major breakthrough for us and it helped ensure our focus was on improving the overall product and service.
Evaluation
To confirm if the product or service is the best fit.
Allow exploration
Contextual choices
Commitment
To apply with ease and receive the product and service as expected - without having second thoughts.
Increase efficiency
Be immediate
Manage expectation
Reassure the purchase
Target
user state
Assisted
Excited
Hopeful
Confident
In control
Excited
Confident
Accepting
Confident
Determined
In control
Assured
Knowledgable
Accustomed
Current
user state
Skeptical
Establish our
buying needs
What type of buyer are you
- Live in
- Investor
- Not sure?
Am I buying alone or with someone else How much do I/we know about the process?
What do you know about me that makes the experience unique to me.
Unsure
Overwhelmed
Bothered
What could
we afford?
How can I figure out what’s my buying capacity?
- Calculators
- Expenses How much deposit do
I/we need?
What can I/we afford to repay What suits my current lifestyle
What do we need to consider
What could I/we really afford? Benefits of buying what you can afford now Be patient with your search Don’t let yourself feel pressured How to negotiate the sale
Do your homework on the property
Finding someone that’s willing to help
Who can we speak with to get honest help
Understand
all the parties that need to be involved
Hopeful
What’s the right property for us
What should we search for
What suburb should we be looking in
What property type suits our price range
What property features are important
What could the rental return be
What are the suburb insights and growth
Getting to see the property
Managing the inspection times
How to get to the inspections
Priortising multiple locations
Managing my calendar
Now thatyou’ve found the right property
Are we ready to buy the property
Who else might be interested
How are they going to sell the property
When is the auction/sale
Frustrated
Bothered
Frustrated
Missing out on the property
What factors caused us to miss out
Do we need
to reset expectations
Are we still looking for the right thing
Is this still the right area
Disillusioned
Unconfident
Going back to the drawing board
What was our plan B
Resetting our expectations
Understand
the market better
Readdressing our price range
Getting better prepared
Understand
how to buy property
Understanding the value of the market
The difference between going to auction and making an offer
Understanding how to bid at the auction
Using an agent to help your bid
You got your place, what comes next
Organising conveyancing
Organising pest and building inspections
Securing the financial loan
Organising insurance
Tracking the loan process to ensure it goes smoothly
Finalising the contracts and paperwork
We’re under contract what’s next?
Make the final property checks
Paying the stamp duty on the sale
Understanding and paying rates and strata fees
Collecting the keys to your new property
Celebrate and congratulate the users effort
Moving in or renting out your new property
Budgeting to move house
Redirecting your mail
Responsibility of a landlord
Finding someone to manage your property
Finding new tenants
What to look for in a tenant
What rent should I/we charge?
Confused
Overwhelmed
Non existant
Disoriented
Easy input for quicker results
The ability to calculate on your own or add your partner and calculate together
Transparent calculator results
Affordable repayments
We linked the calculators on the platform so if you completed them all users would get a better understanding of their ability to make the repayments.
Making is much easier for users to understand the costs of paying off a mortgage.
Extra repayments
We built in the ability for users to experiment with their repayments to allow them to pay off their mortgages sooner.
Easy to understand
We transformed the repayment calculator into user friendly results making it much easier to follow the payment breakdown over the life of the loan.
Transparent costs
We built in ALL the costs associated with the loan so there would be no hidden surprises when trying to pay down the loan.
Transforming an entire eco-system
Improving every interaction between our service and our customers
This work showed the organisation that they would need to transform the entire model for how they engaged their customers in the mortgage space. To assist them with this, we also developed a customer engagement framework that would shift the Banks focus from new product sign-up to servicing existing products through management and tools.
This would help strengthen the Banks customer value proposition. It outlined a product eco-system that consisted of a new flexible mortgage product, App and desktop experiences, a responsive mortgage application, shared user experience, mortgage calculators and a number of product management tools.
New loan
product
Property search
Native App
Desktop experience
Mortgage calculators
Responsive application
Shared experience
Ongoing services
Financial empowerment through results
Results that help users understand their ability to borrow and live with mortgage repayments.
