Overview
DragonLend is an online platform that helps to provide short-term loans for SMEs (Small and medium-sized enterprises) in Vietnam. The platform connects with their financial partners (Banks) and helps to find the best deal for the borrowers.
Unlike previous attempts at a user management system that requires various spreadsheets and calls, Dragonlend features a user-friendly front-facing interface that walks new users through the onboarding process and allows them to provide their information directly to the system.
I spearheaded the initiative and single-handedly handled the end-to-end design of this product.
My contribution
User Research
Concepts & Ideation
Enterprise UX/UI
Team
1 Designer
1 Project managers
2 Business analysis
3 Engineers
Year
2019-2020
Business Strategy
Instead of a long and difficult process like traditional, Dragonlend offers an online loan application where the borrower needs to fill in details and it only took them a short time to complete the process. The approved loan applicants forward to their financial partners and help to close the best deal. Once the deals get approved by their partners, it immediately processes and transfers funds to the borrower account in the shortest time. It develops a credit scoring mechanism that uses alternative data to assess the creditworthiness of SMEs.
Problem Definition
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The loan application process is complex with many kinds of documents that need to prepare and, also it requires face-to-face meetings to apply but due to the Covid-19, it's difficult to meet offline.
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After the application, the customers can't track their loan status online unless they have to call Dragonlend to ask directly.
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Customer management is complex by using a lot of various tools. It takes time and effort of the staff, also difficult to update new customers information.
Solution
Dragonlend will build their new digital products include:
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Website: Introduce Dragonlend's service to new customers, they can make a request and leave their contact information so the staff can contact them directly and give them the consulting
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Application: For the user to fill in the detail of the forms and upload their document to apply for the loan application process. Then once it is completed, they can track the status of their loan (approved or denied) on the app. They also get a notification of when and how much of the next payment
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Access web (CMS): For the Dragonlend staff to manage and upload their customers' documents and information and loan status in one place,
Users
We’ve identified the people who need to gain access to Website, App and CMS as follow:
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Borrowers: the users who want to apply for a loan that they need to log into the Website and App for various purpose (see the service detail, contact with staff, apply for a loan, track their loan status, etc)
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Financial partners: personnels from Dragonlend’s signed partners that need to log into CMS for various purposes (financial reports, downloading relevant documents, etc.)
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Investors: personnels from Dragonlend’s signed investor that need to log into App and CMS for various purposes (financial reports, investment tracking, etc.)
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Admins: People who need to grant access to others and monitor their activities into CMS.
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Staffs: Internal team members that need to see immediate report of user activities on CMS, such as accountants, managers, and so on
User Journey
Let’s look at a stereotypical user and follow his journey on the platform.
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Hoang, Male, 32 years old
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Small-sized enterprises who own a kid toy factory
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Cares about his business and want to expand it
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Looking for new environment-friendly material and new design for his products
A simplified journey can look like this:
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Website discovery
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Service discovery
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Leave request and contact information on the website
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Get the consult from staff
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Apply for a loan application on the app
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Get confirmation
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Get the cash
High-fidelity wireframe
Before jumping onto detailed visual treatment, I went through a round of high-fidelity wireframes to get a clearer sense of what I’m trying to achieve.
- Dragonlend app wireframe -
- Dragonlend CMS wireframe -
Development
After meeting with other stakeholders from the web front-end team, business analysis and project managers, we reached a consensus on multiple business rules and technical constraints that affects the design.
This feedback is used to update the design for several other rounds. I also elaborated the design for corner cases, empty states, error states,…
Finalized Design
After several rounds of iteration, the design is deemed fit for implementation. During implementation, I will need to be on standby to support if there is any problem related to the design.
The Website
The users who want to use Dragonlend's service need to create an account and fill in their contact information. Therefore, the sign-up form is a crucial part of the conversion process. Creating concise, accurate, and simplistic forms can lighten confusion and greatly increase conversion rates.
The Application
Our application gives the borrowers a simple userflow which gives them easy access to 4-steps applying new loan/investment. Special attention was given to keen the interface as lean and simple as possible to avoid distraction and help customers focus on their tasks.
The Access Web (CMS)
The Access web gives Dragonlend team the ability to manage customers, investors, and their loans/investment. It also has sale reports and Dragonlend team management features. Instead of using multiple management platforms like before, Dragonlend team now can use an all-in-one systems with consistent user experience.
Result
The new website was launched in late 2019 and is constantly being improved according to customer feedback. In a customer survey, the score for finding & filling in information effortlessly was better than before. Most of the work I’ve done for Dragonlend isn’t disclosed to the public yet. This includes the internal web application and the iOS and Android apps.
This was a huge UX Challenge. I think the most challenging part of this assignment for me is understanding how a financial platform works. I must admit I don’t have much experience in this specific type of website and app, but I can always learn about it, as I have demonstrated the process in which I tried to understand the problems above.