Redesigning UWM's Loan Approval Software

Background

I was the lead researcher responsible for UX research for our initial loan approval software as it was going through a redesign.

I worked with the Product Manager and Product Owners to determined the most appropriate research method to use based on their timeline, needs, and questions.

Team

Product Manager
Product Owners
Developers
UX Designers
Underwriters (primary users)
Researcher (myself)

Research Methods

Contextual Interviews
Preference Testing
Usability Testing
Card Sorting

Tools

UserTesting
Figjam
OneNote
Airtable
PowerPoint

Goal

The goal for this product was to make it easier to use and integrate more features so that the user had a more streamlined workflow.

Over the course of about eight months, I planned and conducted several research methods to inform design decisions on an as-needed basis.

Outcomes

Insights from my research and my UX recommendations were used to inform design choices and development decisions.

The product team and stakeholders gained an understanding of users' mental models which informed how the UX designer would restructure elements of the site and user flow.
Each of the research methods I conducted created actionable recommendations for the UI design based on insights

An unexpected takeaway from the contextual interviews was that users in several different roles all found it frustrating to use a specific text box field (a required field) because it was small and static.

I advocated for increasing the size of the text field box because it was a low-effort high-impact way to increase usability and improve the UX. This UI change resulted in better visibility and usability for the users and decreased the likelihood of errors.

Impact

My research helped create UI designs that allowed underwriters to find information and documents quicker - this means that they can process more loans and provide better service for our broker clients.

It was important to understand users' motivations and behaviors so that we could design in alignment with those motivations.

We were able to design new features that facilitate the users' workflow. By working with underwriters to understand their needs we designed a UI that provided information when and where users needed it so they can access information more efficiently.

My research fueled UI changes that helped increase UWM production and profit. Our changes allowed underwriters to work smarter, not harder, enabling UWM to process a higher volume of loans in a shorter amount of time.