Hora Cash
Enabling a transformation in the financial inclusion of the under-served population of India
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Overview
Hora Cash is an Android mobile application designed to provide low-interest financial loans to creditworthy, skilled blue-collar workers in India. The app offers a fully digital experience to simplify the loan application process.
The client had a website but no mobile app at the time. So they reached out to our team to build the app from scratch in September 2018. I collaborated with a team to research user needs and design the interface. Our goal was to create a fast, user-friendly loan journey that caters to a market of approximately 100 million urban skilled workers, addressing the significant credit demand in India.
Role
UX Designer
My Contributions
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Research and interviews,
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low to high-fi prototyping,
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Interface & visual design
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Testing the designs
Team
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1 Product Manager
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1 Senior UX Designer
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1 UX Designer
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2 front-end developers
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3 back-end developers
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1 QA Engineer
Tools
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Figma
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Miro
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Optimzely
Project Timeline
Sep 2018 - Feb 2019
The Problem
Almost 79% of Indians don’t have a credit score, the current market size is about 100 million urban skilled workers, and by 2025 credit demand in India is set to rise by $335 billion.
We decided to capture this market that has huge credit potential but is drastically underserved. Our vision was to focus on a product that reflected the user’s behavior by delivering a fast, digital, and seamless loan journey. It became necessary to not only delve into the user’s mental model but also create channels for user retention for business.
Design Process
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Research
2
Define
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Ideation
4
Design
5
User Testing
Research
We conducted several interviews with skilled blue-collar workers like carpenters, beauticians, drivers to get better clarity on ways to provide them a good customer experience while retaining them post their loan journey.
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Key Takeways
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Low/No understanding of credit score system in India
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Interest and disbursal rates are primary decision makers
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Include blue-collar into financial system of India
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Prefer apps that provide entertainment
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Younger population is new to credit but can be eligible
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Default rate can be lower if there is incentive to pay on time
Ideation
Aligning business and product goals to create the foundation
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The team brainstormed different ideas and requirements gathered from our research, business, and credit objectives. Our primary goal was to create a fast and simple loan journey that users can navigate easily. The secondary goal was to facilitate high engagement by educating the users of the app.
Scoping the challenge to deliver a tangible output.
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We wanted to adopt an MVP approach to ideate features. I created paper-functioning prototypes to test internally with the entire team. However, it was difficult for the team to give extensive feedback with paper prototypes as it became difficult for non-designers to assess
Information Architecture
Incorporating user feedback and exploring multiple avenues of engagement to refine the product
By creating experimental prototypes and A/B testing with our user, I was able to fine-tune our product capabilities to suit the needs of both the business and the users. With multiple rounds of iterations with all business teams, I created an extensive product flow that became a guide for the developers to create the app structure. The user flows were designed for every feature on the app to communicate within teams.
Testing the Initial Designs
Unifying deliverables for communication and validation
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I unified the sketches into initial designs which consisted of the lending journey, home screen, and profile. This helped me present initial ideas to stakeholders to confirm product and design decisions before starting in-depth refinement of the features and receiving a budget for user testing.
Validating hypotheses by gathering further evidence
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From our initial usability testing with office assistants and pantry workers, we found that the users found the loan application confusing and cumbersome. They also have difficulty understanding the financial jargon used to describe the loan application process. We soon realized that we had to incorporate multiple lens solutions to cater to all user groups.
Final Designs
Onboarding
We wanted to engage users by keeping the onboarding and sign-up process concise. I opted for illustrations to show high-level value props rather than in-depth information.
The sign-up includes a Mobile-OTP login making the onboarding experience short and simple.
Lending Application
The core of the app is the lending application. My objective was to keep the lending journey user-friendly, fast, and dynamic which can be completed in a few minutes. The highlights of the lending application are:
1. The journey is designed to approve or reject the user as soon as possible, to avoid the user from filling the entire application if rejected.
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2. Personal documentation is only required once the user is eligible for a loan, maintaining the security of user’s data.
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3. The user is guided throughout their loan journey. The app provides their loan journey progress at every stage.
Hora Help
Since our users are not adept at using smartphones, we created a customer service that is easily accessible, engaging and highly efficient for the users who are facing issues with their loans. The key features of Hora Help are:
1. Get help with your loan: Customized FAQs for customers who have availed a loan successfully.​
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2. Chat with us: Live chat with customer service representatives available 24/7.​
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3. FAQs: A detailed categorized list of FAQs.​
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4. How to Videos: Short demo videos explaining key processes in the lending application journey.
Hora Play
Entertainment plays a huge role in our target segment. We decided to test our waters by introducing educational games and rewards in a loan-lending app that helps working-class users improve their skills. The key features of Hora Play are:
1. Lifetime Rewards: Users can earn rewards that can be used for cash out after a limit. This motivates the user to play as incentivized games are popular.
2. Refer and Earn: Users can refer their potentially credit-worthy friends. This not only helps the company acquire quality user but also creates awareness in the community.
3. Quizzes and Games: Skill enhancing games are valuable for a working-class user applying for a loan.4
. Leaderboard: Leaderboards play a huge role in increasing engagement and motivating the user.
Results
Finally we managed to launch the new portal, and work since then to optimize further and further due to reduction of technical debt, which has helped us to increase our seller's performance significatly.
We used metrics like User Adoption Rate​ to measure the success. 34% of users who downloaded the app complete the onboarding and loan application process within first 30 days of launch.
Challenges and Learnings
All of this happened with a completely overhauled product area, meaning in the midst of a storming phase of newly mixed and setup teams, so of course we ran into a lot of friction, which transformed our processes.​​
Next steps
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Implement Feedback Loops: Allow users to submit feedback post-launch.
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Monitor Usage Trends: Use analytics tools to track adoption and retention.
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Make Data-Driven Improvements: Regularly enhance the app based on real usage insights.