HELIOS

Business goal

• Redirect the product’s focus to user experience - LoansPQ is not only a robust loan origination system but also delivers an excellent user experience.

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Project goals

• Intuitive workflow to empower existing users and ease the learning curve for new users
• A professional & modern user interface that reflects the platform’s market position
• Maintaining system robustness without sacrificing the user’s experience

1. Going back and forth between pages
   
   Users were jumping between pages to complete tasks, reference information, and update values. Combined with long loading times, this negatively affected user performance.  
   To solve this, the application was logically consolidated to four main pages mirroring the typical roles processing the application. Within each page, the information is compartmentalized using subsections and collapsible sections. Secondary features are placed in drawers instead of directly on the page. Information that needs to be accessible throughout the application became stand alone windows, allowing users to leave open on a second monitor.
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2. Application was built for one role
   
   The application structure was catered to only the responsibilities of the Originator, not other staff members.
   Our research revealed that the general workflow was the same across all financial institutions. The process begins with an originator who collects the applicant and loan information, then passed to an underwriter for decisioning, and lastly a funder to fund the loan. Upon receiving an application, both the underwriter and funder will also review the applicant information prior to completing their tasks. Through discovering these common themes, the IA was restructured to optimize the workflow for all roles within the process.  
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3. Too many fields
   
   Each page has an overwhelming amount of fields. It was difficult for loan officers to locate information.
   Pages have two states - summary and edit. To ease scanning, in summary mode, only values of populated and required fields are shown. While in edit mode, all fields are shown and are editable. The objective is to reduce cognitive overload and expedite processing time by only showing what is necessary.
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4. Sluggish loading times
   
   Pages sometimes take up to 30 seconds to load. With no feedback, users are left confused and uncertain about the system’s status.
   The development team did the best that they could on the backend to accelerate loading speeds. On the frontend, loading spinners and progress bars were added to communicate the system’s state and reassure users that the longer wait is normal.

Initially, we wanted to validate both usability and information architecture through one test but this testing initiative proved too extensive. As a result, we split up the tests to focus on the individual initiatives - usability and information architecture. Moderated user interviews were conducted with clients to see if the restructured IA and page organization is suitable for their institution-specific process. For general usability discovery, unmoderated usability tests were conducted with random individuals.

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• Stakeholder buy-in - Having been accustomed to the legacy system, stakeholders were initially weary of all the proposed changes. Design decisions needed to be well documented and reinforced with data. 
• Research methods - There was a lot of trial and error in figuring out what research methods was best to elicit feedback the appropriate from users.
• Audience - Different user groups has different needs. There was close collaboration with the Product team to prioritize them accordingly. 
• Differences - Every client has a slightly different workflow. It is important to understand these differences to create a generalized workflow for everyone.

• Edge cases - Although edge cases are not common, they can sometimes change the approach to the design. Thus, should not be ignored. 
• The bigger picture - Users will not notice an icon being a few pixels off but it is a usability problem if the site architecture does not match their mental model. The focus should be on streamlining the overarching workflow rather than being pixel perfect.
• Product identity - Having a common understanding of how the product should behave from a high level brings cohesiveness to the whole system.
• Teamwork - Collaboration & compromising is an integral part of design.