Designing an MVP Financial Application for Small and Medium Businesses

Application was developed to simplify the process of obtaining loans and managing finances for American entrepreneurs with limited experience using financial services. My role in this project was to create a user interface that would be intuitive and user-friendly for the target audience.

Role
Designer

Deliverables
Concept,   
UX Design,   
UI Design,   
Prototyping,   
User Testing

Created with
Freelance

Year
2018

Project Objectives and Phases:

Conceptualization

At the project's outset, we defined the unique selling proposition of the application: the ability to get loans directly within the app. My role was to conceptualize a visually appealing and user-friendly design that would cater to the American market and users with limited experience in electronic services.

First concept

To facilitate communication with users who might not be tech-savvy, we opted for a conversational interface.

We created a limited set of phrases that covered all major user scenarios.

Users could initiate conversations with the app using phrases like "I need money" or "Sign me in," making it easy for them to understand how the app worked.

Color Coding: We employed color coding to differentiate roles in the conversation. Black text represented user messages, green indicated system responses, and blue denoted requests for additional information.

To facilitate communication with users who might not be tech-savvy, we opted for a conversational interface.

We created a limited set of phrases that covered all major user scenarios.

Users could initiate conversations with the app using phrases like "I need money" or "Sign me in," making it easy for them to understand how the app worked.

Design and Development

The work on the application was divided into two main parts:

Onboarding

We developed a feature that provided preliminary loan offers within seconds based on user-provided high-level information. If users found the offer appealing, they could provide additional details about themselves, and the system would generate a final offer with legally significant terms.

Money Management

In this section of the app, users could manage their finances, pay off loans, and make transfers. I designed the user interface for all classic financial functions, such as balance checks, transactions, virtual cards, and more.

Optimizing Waiting Times

We conducted systematic work to enhance the design and user experience. Test users and financial experts helped us identify and rectify numerous weaknesses in our service.

One challenge we faced was the duration of the scoring process, which could take up to 5 minutes to fetch information from various databases and provide an accurate customer assessment.

We implemented various methods to reduce waiting times, including the addition of optional user-provided information and integration with news sources. For instance, customers could provide additional business-related information, which was not mandatory for scoring but could be useful later when working with the loan, such as details about their business partners.

This helped alleviate waiting times, enabling users to use the application more productively and reducing the number of rejections.

Results

The financial application was successfully developed and launched on the market, offering the following key features:

Fast financing decisions within 5-10 minutes.
Financing ranging from $5,000 to $250,000 in just 10 minutes.
An intuitive user interface with friendly communication in the form of speech bubbles.
Ability to manage accounts, make transfers, and use virtual debit cards.
Collaboration with partners and accountants.
A multi-purpose profile for financing multiple enterprises under one profile.

After more than five years since project completion, the application's design remains modern and functional, testifying to its success and long-term value for users. This project has become a prominent addition to my portfolio, showcasing my expertise in user interface design and user experience.