2021
2021
2021
2021
2021
Paraná Banco
Paraná Banco
Paraná Banco
Paraná Banco
Paraná Banco
Rethinking the Way to Get a Loan
How we envisioned, redesigned, and tested a digital payroll loan service tailored for elderly people in Brazil.
This project has
sensitive information
sensitive information
sensitive information
sensitive information
sensitive information
I describe as much as possible the process that was carried out
without expose
without expose
without expose
without expose
without expose
the company data
Process steps:
Making Life Easier for Elderly People in Brazil.
Paraná Banco is a bank with over 40 years of history, a pioneer in offering payroll loans for retirees and elderly individuals. As a traditional bank, it operated only through physical branches and had no form of online loan contracting.
In 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, the team I was part of—as a Product Designer—was given a new mission.
My Challenge as a Product Designer Was:
How can we simplify this complex journey for the customer?
With this goal in mind—and since I was the only Product Designer on the project—I began the process of reviewing the journey already in production to identify possible improvements.
This Project Focused On:
Understanding the main user pain points during the Covid-19 pandemic;
Simplifying the journey, which had become overly complex;
Using new technologies to reduce the user’s cognitive effort;
Solving visual consistency issues by applying the new Design System we were developing.
If you'd like, we can grab a coffee and I’ll share more details about my experience working on this project. ☕
The existing product (Blurred to protect company data)
The user's current journey
We began the process by examining the existing product and conducting a heuristic evaluation. This allowed us to identify several areas for improvement, all of which we documented using a matrix of Certainties, Assumptions, and Doubts (CSD).
We later added more insights after conversations with internal stakeholders.
Quantitative research
The quantitative research was conducted through an online form and received responses from over 1,300 participants. This gave the survey a 95% confidence level and a 3% margin of error.
Qualitative research
Following the quantitative phase, we invited some of the respondents for deeper conversations via WhatsApp interviews. We successfully conducted 77 interviews, aiming to understand user behavior more thoroughly during interactions with our product.
Research findings
Based on the insights from both the quantitative and qualitative studies, we reached several conclusions about how users were perceiving the product and the difficulties they encountered along the way.
Solving the problems
After completing the research, we analyzed the problems identified and reworked the userflow, focusing on improving the user journey and exploring technologies that could enhance the overall experience.
Key decisions:
We decided that users shouldn’t have to enter the same information every time they accessed the product. To address this, we partnered with the dev team to create a simple and secure solution for handling that process.
We kept only the essential steps required to complete the loan process.
We added helpful information for users, such as the deposit date, step-by-step guidance, and an exclusive support channel for them.
Old flow: 14 steps
New flow: 3 main steps and 3 contextual steps
Wireframes
After defining the flow we would follow and validating it with the dev team to ensure it was technically feasible, it was time to bring everything together into interfaces.
Before moving forward, we created wireframes to define the information hierarchy and identify the necessary components for the product’s restructuring.
Wireframe for defining structure and hierarchy
The new main loan screen
Unifying & Design System
We identified the components we needed from the brand new design system created along with the development team. It was the first product designed with components from the design system.
We followed a simplified visual style, being very objective and clear about the actions the user needed to take.
The visual design was completely adapted compared to how the product looked before, updating components to fit a more modern standard.
All components we used, are based on the design system.
The product was built with a mobile-first focus, as 90% of our clients access via mobile devices.
Challenges of usability testing during the pandemic
Once the interface was finalized, we wanted to run a usability test. Since we were in the midst of the pandemic, we decided to conduct a remote usability test using Maze.
Maze is a platform for remote, unmoderated usability testing, which was perfect for testing customer behavior during the use of our new product.
Test tasks:
User authenticates (enters CPF and accepts terms of use);
User selects the loan amount they wish to contract;
User completes the loan application.
Follow-up questions:
After completing the loan, you see the final screen (screen image), what would you do?
Rate the difficulty of contracting the loan;
Reason of the previous answer.
We sent the test to our target audience: clients who had contracted a loan with Paraná Banco in the last 3 months.
We received 1,391 responses to the test.
Post-test conclusion
After conducting the usability test, we identified some improvements:
We added loan negotiation to our roadmap, to be included in the next project scope;
Created a dedicated help section explaining why it takes 7 days to receive the loan amount;
Made some text and interface refinements.
Conclusion
This project was a great opportunity to lead the redesign of a complex financial product aimed at an older, less digital-savvy audience. Over the course of two months, I worked closely with diverse stakeholders, from architecture and development teams to business leaders, ensuring alignment and delivering impactful solutions.
The challenges of simplifying a complex journey during the pandemic pushed me to deepen my skills in user research, prototyping, and design system implementation. Ultimately, the project resulted in increased revenue and loan conversion rates, proving the value of a user-centered approach in financial services.
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Increase in revenue and loan conversion rates.
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Engaged with multiple diverse stakeholders. Alot of stakeholders.
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Made with care and dedication