Elphi

Problem

After diving through the old application process, it was clear that Elphi needed a more efficient form to increase their users’ conversion and retention rates.

Only 35% of users finish their application process.

Business goal: Increase conversion and retention rate.

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Current State

According to Elphi’s research, the current state of the application is long and arduous. The amount of required information at a glance is overwhelming to the average users. This also contributes to the low conversion and high drop off rates.

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Identifying the problem

After conducting multiple user and subject matter expert interviews to find out where the pain points are during the application process, we were able to narrow down the core of the problem.

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• Clutter
  ‍The large amounts of required information is overwhelming for the average users.
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• ‍Redundancy
  ‍There are questions that are repetitive throughout the application process.
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• Privacy
  ‍Users are hesitant to provide private information early on in the process.
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The Strategy

• An Improved Information Architecture
  The primary solution is to optimize the information architecture for optimal efficiency to remove unnecessary clutter. This allows the users to progress through the application easier.
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• Progressive Disclosure
  ‍To solve a problem with complexity, it is important to eliminate unnecessary redundancies and to shorten the overall process and decrease the user's cognitive load. This helps users to stay focused on the primary questions without unnecessary distractions.
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• Ease-in Process
  To increase or maintain retention rate, it was beneficial to not overwhelm the users early on. Having an ease in process offers the users the chance to get in touch with a loan officer before having to provide their private information.

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Reorganizing the information

It is evident that the project centers around form optimization. To do just that, we asked a group of users to sort a series of cards in a category, arrange the order, and give them the option to combine any categories. The intention is to take the participants out of the mentality of a mortgage applicant. Through this test, we were able to identify users' preference patterns.
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• All participants preferred sign up or sign in first.
• Majority of participants combined 3 or more categories together.

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Validating the data

To validate the data from our card sort, we quickly mocked up a few screens to run 3 separate A/B tests. The objective is to place the participant in the mentality of a mortgage applicant with visuals.

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• Contrary to the data from the card sort. Majority of participants preferred an ease in process before signing up.‍
• More than half of participants preferred the grouping of information categories.
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Progressive Disclosure

Our next step is to conceal irrelevant information at the users’ first glance. Hiding follow up questions helps to decrease clutter on the limited screen real estate. To do this, new UI components needs to be designed first.

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We organized the clusters of information by separating and containing them within their own cards. Instead of using small radio buttons, we supplemented them with larger and clearer selection buttons to establish a more prominent visual hierarchy.

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The objective is to focus the users only on the primary questions unless their answer prompts secondary ones.

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Perfecting the ease-in flow

User’s initial experience of the application is the most important part of this platform. Our research showed that users disliked the idea of providing their private information early on in the process. The ease-in flow allows the users to answer some preliminary questions and get in touch with a loan officer before providing their private information.

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The solution

The solution addresses the key pain points such as page clutter, information redundancy, and privacy. We have also included additional features that further increase the platform's overall usability.

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