Pulte Mortgage
Pulte Mortgage’s goal is to ensure our customers’ dreams of homeownership becomes reality. From your first home to your last, we’re here to make the loan process smooth and enjoyable.
MY ROLE
• Userflows
• Exploration & Ideation
• Wireframing
MY ROLE
• Prototyping
• UI Design
• Visual Design
THE CHALLENGE
The Pute Mortgage portal and app provides another way to manage the formation of a home loan, home loan application, chat with customer care and get all of the home documents that you would ever need, all from a computer or smartphone.
THE PROCESS
Research
From the initial research, I found out that the home buying process was one of the most mentally and physically exhausting events a person experiences. I had to build a portal that not only served the person who was applying for a new loan but act as a functional tool to organize your current loan. This process needed to be streamlined.
Userflows & Information Architecture
Setting out to create a simple and concise user experience, I needed to first attack the userflow. From registering an account, tying a current account to a particular loan, or even just accessing an old document, all of these steps had to be thought about before prototyping. Below shows just one simple solution for the user login journey before you can even enter the app.
Ideation & Wireframes
I reorganized the information and used wireframes to review and gain alignment with the management and product teams. Making sure we display the right information, and all the relevant features are easy to access for the user.
- Reducing the number of steps to minimize time to completion
- Surfacing mandatory fields and enabling the Next button to show error validation
- Establishing a clearer visual form hierarchy by grouping related fields
- Come up with a standardized styling and UI pattern for future portals
Prototyping
After defining the must-have features, I made a low-fidelity prototype to test with the user. The goal of testing is to identify any usability issues. I wanted to find out how long does it take to complete a task like registering or searching for a product. If the user is not able to complete a task, find out what happened, and why. Documenting where the user clicks to complete each task. I also wanted to identify where did the user gets stuck, if any, during the testing and what questions were asked.
High Fidelity Designs
I used bold and bright colors to increase the contrast so it’s easier to read for all users. Color also makes it easier to train and provide hints to the user, i.e. yellow is the color of buttons and action items, red is the color of the incorrect form fields, and blue tones across the rest of the site and portal gave the user feelings of continuity and trust. Micro-animations throughout the form fields and action buttons added a small break from the monotony of content.
Visual Design & Style Guide
A new portal color palette was designed to complement the brand but also add the color cues needed for a simple app/portal design. A custom icon set was also used to reinforce the product look and feel as well as region-specific imagery to build confidence with their typical market in Colorado.
RESULTS
Simplifying the home loan process virtually
Now users can upload documents, sign and fill out forms, and also chat with their customer representatives from every device. The clean portal interface was created with a mobile-first mentality but also worked flawlessly on desktops across all browsers.
More transparency for the home loan documentation
A step-by-step home loan process was met with the consistency of form fields, icons, and guides to make the process as easy as possible.