myBROKERBEE

A fintech start-up looking to increase the active usership of its application with the addition of onboarding features

About myBrokerBee

myBrokerBee is a Canadian fintech start-up that was created to facilitate the lending process for non-institutional (private) home equity loans. myBrokerBee is a SaaS platform that connects brokers, agents, lenders, and partners to service borrowers.

myBrokerBee Project Goals & Requirements

myBrokerBee is seeking to improve the adoption rate of its platform among brokers and agents. While increasing numbers of brokers and agents have been registering accounts with myBrokerBee, these same numbers are not all translating into active users. Low adoption rates and low completed deal rates indicate to me that a better onboarding solution is needed for myBrokerBee’s success in the market. Current budget and business priorities do not allow for any redesign of the application, so the project is limited in focus to onboarding features to improve the user experience and to ensure a higher conversion rate of registered accounts to active users. Additionally, the project is to include updating the website with a new, professional design, and branding.

Secondary Research

After establishing a base of relevant knowledge through secondary research into the mortgage industry, an interview with a subject matter expert, and a competitive analysis of organizations offering similar services, I sat down with the key stakeholder of myBrokerBee to gain an in-depth understanding of the company vision, plan, and what the challenges have been, currently are, and are anticipated to be down the line.  

Site & Application Audit

I then conducted a thorough and detailed audit of the existing myBrokerBee website and application to ensure that I had a full understanding of the content of the website and the task flow required to complete a private loan using the myBrokerBee application; as well as to identify problematic areas in both the website and application.

Primary Research

While myBrokerBee has different user groups, mortgage agents represent the biggest potential for increasing the user base so they became my focus for the project. I conducted user interviews with mortgage agents with a variety of experience levels both in securing private loans and in using the myBrokerBee application. I wanted to understand the challenges they faced in securing private loans for their clients, as well as to listen to their experiences of how they learned to use the myBrokerBee platform and to identify where they faced difficulties and frustrations in using the platform.

The Case for Onboarding Features

With the number of registrations for myBrokerBee accounts steadily rising, but with these registered accounts not translating to the same number of active users, it was apparent to me that there was a drop-off occurring after registration that needed to be addressed. User interviews revealed that while all interview participants were active users of myBrokerBee and were enthusiastic supporters of the myBrokerBee concept and application, they had each required resource-intensive, hand-holding support to understand how to make their way through the myBrokerBee process. Commonly, interview participants expressed that they had difficulty understanding the steps in the myBrokerBee process required after the initial completion of the loan application form.

User Persona

I developed the user persona Paul based on patterns I had identified through the user interviews in order to represent the most commonly shared behaviour and goals of mortgage agent users. Paul is a mortgage agent who recently came to the mortgage industry from the banking sector. He is focused on expanding his offerings with private mortgages in order to grow his business. Understanding Paul allowed me to focus on a design solution that would meet his needs while satisfying the business goals of myBrokerBee.

Sitemap

After reorganizing and editing the text content of the site to reduce redundancy of information and streamline the user flows, I developed a sitemap to plan and visually present the hierarchy and organization of information for the new myBrokerBee site. Working in collaboration with the key stakeholder, the main categories of the site became Company, Features, Solutions (for the different user groups of Agents, Brokers, Lenders, and Borrowers), and Support.

Low-Fidelity Sketched Wireframes

Sketching allowed me to freely explore concepts and plan the organization of content for key website pages, as well as the onboarding features for the existing myBrokerBee platform.  

Onboarding Features for the Application

I decided on a checklist with accompanying tooltips as the main onboarding feature for the existing application.

The checklist shows a visual breakdown of the process, allows the user to see what has already been completed versus what is coming up next, encourages the user to complete the tasks laid out, and allows the user to become familiar with the myBrokerBee process.  

I included a “show me” hover feature beside each task in the checklist that directs the user with a tooltip pointed to where the action for the task is to take place.

A completed checklist results in a “Checklist completed!” and a congratulatory thumbs-up icon. A checklist is specific to each application, and the user can minimize or expand the checklist according to preference.

Branding & UI Kit

With a logo already in place, I focused on developing new branding for myBrokerBee that represented a colourful yet professional look that would appeal to its user groups of agents, brokers, and lenders, while still fitting into a clean and modern visual language appropriate for a technology company. The myBrokerBee founders envision myBrokerBee to be a bustling marketplace for private lending so I created custom artwork for the homepage to reflect this concept and the company name with an abstract design of bees in a busy beehive.

Responsive UI Designs

Working from the style tile, I created UI designs for the new myBrokerBee website. Because the myBrokerBee platform is a new tool that benefits multiple groups of users, I wanted to make sure that the landing page offered explanations and diagrams to introduce the myBrokerBee process, presented the benefits for each user group, and encouraged confidence in new users by featuring testimonials from existing users. Shown here are the desktop format designs for the homepage, the agent user page, and the first screen in the registration process.

Prototype

I created a high-fidelity, limited functionality prototype using Invision that included the task flow for a new agent user: Landing on the myBrokerBee homepage; exploring the Agents’ page; registering for an account; and starting and completing his/her first private loan application from application creation through to funded deal.

With iterations completed on the existing pages in the prototype, next steps would include building out the remaining pages and sections of the website, creating the responsive designs for tablet and smartphone devices, and conducting additional testing of the onboarding features once implemented in the live application with agent users new to the myBrokerBee platform.

It was exciting to work on a project for a company in its very early stages with a business concept that is well-received and appreciated by its current users, but that has great opportunity for further improvement. Because I was working with one of the product founders who is very close to the product, I knew I needed to be prepared to present and defend all of my decisions throughout my design process. Balancing my research-based design decisions with the founder’s wants and the business goals made the project an interesting, but highly rewarding challenge.