How can we enable a transformation in the financial inclusion of the under-served population of India?
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Overview
Hora Cash is an android mobile app that provides financial loan services at low-interest rates to creditworthy, skilled
blue-collar workers. It aims at a 100% digital journey to simplify the loan-lending application process.
As the only designer on the team, I was tasked with multiple roles to design and deliver the product in collaboration with teams.
Role
Lead UX Designer
Team
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1 Product owner
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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
Project Timeline
Sep 2020 - Oct 2021
Tools
Figma | Miro
My Contributions
Research and interviews, synthesis and artefact creation ideation and concept testing, low to high-fi prototyping, Interface & visual design, Design system, User testing, Analytics, dev handover and development oversight
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
1
Research
2
Define
3
Ideation
4
Design
5
User Testing
RESEARCH
Right from the get-go, we understood that the product would have to thrive in complex environments. The user groups that we wanted to attract ranged from rejected users to loan-seekers and loan virgins which was a challenge that we had to solve with a single loan journey for all. Along with diverse user groups, it was necessary to acknowledge that the users are not very tech-savvy and use an android mobile phone with low battery and performance issues.
User Interviews
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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I designed a semi-structured questionnaire to explore:
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routines actions on the portal
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user frustrations
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desired features
Competitor Analysis
Diving into the market landscape to scope trends
The Indian NBFC (Non-Banking Financial Companies) market has been on the rise in the last five years with the growing demand in the market. To realize Hora’s dream of fitting into this large marketplace with a new user segment, it became necessary to tackle several big bets that had never been undertaken before.
The product manager and I completed a thorough analysis of other lending and financial mobile apps to evaluate their target markets, loan size, user experience, and business standing. This provided us clarity on “what works” and “what does not work” with our vision. This provided us with two key principles to develop the product: “Communication” and “Transparency” so that we could deliver an informative and desirable product for our users.Doing that, gave me an insight into their app’s IA and user flows and helped me identify the pain points as a user.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Low/No understanding of credit score system in India
Interest and disbursal rates are primary decison makers
Include blue-collar into financial system of India
Prefer apps that provide entertainment
Younger population is new to credit but can be eligible
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
DESIGN and PROTOTYPE
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.
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.
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.
2. Personal documentation is only required once the user is eligible for a loan, maintaining the security of user’s data.
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.
2. Chat with us: Live chat with customer service representatives available 24/7.
3. FAQs: A detailed categorized list of FAQs.
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 and Takeaways
The best designs come from collaboration and experience. It was inspiring to see how each person In the team whether a designer or not was able to bring to the table unique ideas and perspectives during the online zoom calls. Although it was a bit difficult at first, we came through. Given my past experience working at a fin-tech startup, I was quickly able to design the MVP for the pay later so as the developers could start quickly.
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Design thinking is key to effective products. My hack for the design framework helped me come up with solutions quickly as the general/traditional way of research was not possible in these trying times.
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A combination of Agile and Lean delivers products. Due to the nature of the AGILE process, a lot of mistakes were made during the designing the screens, and I would love to you through all of those failed attempts to design (it consists of hundreds of discarded screens because of lack of following the proper research process).