Shaping the MVP APP EXPERIENCE FOR A TRUSTED LENDER
Despite being a key player in non-bank lending, the company lacked a mobile presence and lagged behind in customer expectations. The company aims to launch a mobile app to enhance customer experience, reduce operational costs, and support its goal of doubling its customer base to one million by 2030. With 87% of users already accessing the current portal via mobile, the need for a mobile-first solution is critical.
The task: define the right MVP for customers already managing a home or car loan, and bring clarity, confidence and utility from day one. The challenge was to deliver something immediately valuable and scalable, and get approval & funding for the app from the leadership team.
key project objectives
Support informed decisions on mobile tech, feature priorities, and UX design.
Deliver a customer-validated, scalable high-fidelity prototype aligned with client digital strategy.
Improve engagement, efficiency, and long-term capability through strategic alignment.
design process
In line with the double diamond framework, this project began with a discovery phase to gain a comprehensive understanding of customer needs, behaviours, and perceptions, using a mixed-methods approach that combined both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
DISCOVER
SME Interviews (p5) to understand current context and pain points.
Landscape Review with 7 competitors to assess how the company sits in the market and identify unmet opportunities.
Heuristic evaluation of current portal using NNG heuristics to uncover what is working well and what needs to be reconsidered for the MVP.
Top Tasks survey (p412) out of 2,035 tasks, participants chose their top 5 most important tasks when using a financial app.
DEFINE
Feature & backlog prioritisation based on insights from the discovery phase informed the most important features to include in the MVP and guide later releases.
A design vision was created as a ‘north star’ which ensured alignment across stakeholders and provided a reference point for all design decisions.
DEVELOP
Creation of user flows to embed structure and logic into app navigation from the start.
Built a high-fidelity MVP prototype in Figma to help the executive team envision the product in real life, adapting tried and tested components for a comprehensive interface that allowed for flexibility.
Conducted remote moderated usability testing (p5) with customers and non-customers across varied demographics. The think-aloud method uncovered navigation friction and content clarity issues.
DELIVER
Prototype refinement based on executive and user feedback to balance business goals with user needs. Updates included simplifying language and improving information hierarchy.
Ran A/B testing (p404) using a validated UX survey tool to compare the current portal with the MVP app, measuring pragmatic and hedonic qualities plus overall impressions.
Delivered final report and recommendations, handing over all assets and outlining next steps to progress the MVP.
For the business
Digital limitations resulted in avoidable support calls and ongoing user frustration. Additionally, the lack of investment in mobile-first tools also contributed to a decline in customer trust.
A heuristic evaluation of the current digital portal found 16 minor problems, 12 moderate problems, and 1 critical problem.
Findings from the heuristic evaluation indicated elements of the portal that were working well, and what needed to be redesigned from the ground up to avoid usability issues for the new mobile app.
the current landscape
For customers
The digital portal felt dated and restrictive, falling short of the seamless experiences users had come to expect from their everyday banks. Key functionality gaps, such as unclear redraw processes and no visibility over payout figures, led users to rely on support calls for tasks they expected to be able to complete themselves.
Through the SME interviews with 5 experts across different internal departments, we learned that though the financial institution isn’t a bank, users compared their experience to their major everyday banking apps. They expected native app access, biometric login, instant redraw, visual dashboards, and simple language in line with industry standards.
Through the Top Tasks survey of 412 respondents and 2,035 task selections, users confirmed that managing payments, viewing balances, and transaction filtering were most important to them.
These insights formed the basis of what features needed to be included within the MVP scope. A backlog was also created to determine what features could be included for future app releases.
informed, data driven design
design vision
A simple, helpful and personalised app experience that puts customers in control.
As the company strives to be the most helpful lender, the app must deliver more than just functionality, it must empower customers to manage their finances with confidence, clarity, and control.
The design vision is to create an app that:
Feels effortless to navigate for all users, regardless of age, ability, or background
Gives control through self-service tools, real-time visibility and personalisation that supports each customer’s unique journey.
Builds trust with a consistent, personalised experience that works seamlessly across every channel.
This project provided the company with a clear, research-backed case for investing in a mobile app - something that had long been deprioritised despite growing user expectations.
By identifying key customer pain points and aligning the proposed MVP with both business goals and user needs, we helped shift internal conversations from “should we build this?” to “how soon can we make it happen?”
The high-fidelity prototype brought the app concept to life, enabling stakeholders to visualise a tangible future state and understand the value of a mobile-first approach. While executive approval is still underway, early responses have been highly positive, and this work has already laid the strategic foundation for future design and development.
Impact
what users thought
The prototype was designed to feel familiar and standard to reduce the learning curve and build user confidence, which is especially important at the MVP stage, where users need a reliable way to manage their finances now - the bells and whistles can come later.
In larger-scale qualitative testing, the prototype performed very well, especially when compared to industry standard usability benchmarks. The prototype achieved a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 80 and ranked in the top 10% of 450+ benchmarked products on the (User Experience Questionnaire - Short) UEQ-S scale.
To further validate the design direction, A/B testing was conducted with 404 participants, comparing the existing portal to the prototype. Experience B (the new prototype) outperformed Experience A (the current portal) on every metric across all three tested screens, with particularly strong results for clarity and overall appeal.
Ultimately, the combination of strong qualitative feedback and robust quantitative results built a clear case for progressing the prototype to the next stage of development.
“Very intuitive, very normal, no surprises”
“A standard banking app you’d be able to use very quickly and confidently”
- Quotes from users in moderated usability testing
80
top 10%
4.5
Average score (out of 5) from users describing their confidence levels when completing tasks using the prototype
4.2
Average score (out of 5) from users describing ease of use when completing tasks using the prototype
project by numbers
5
Weeks
1117
Synthesised Sticky Notes on Miro
800+
Survey Respondents
168
Page final report
44
Key findings
10
Hours of user/SME interviews
4
Sharebacks with the client
2
Qualitative Surveys
1
High Fidelity Figma Prototype