Arivo's auto-refinance

Overview

Arivo’s auto-refinance, launched in June 2022, is designed to help subprime borrowers secure lower APRs on their auto loans, increasing their monthly savings. This initiative not only benefits customers financially but also expands Arivo’s customer base by reaching users directly.
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UX-Team : UX Team of One and 1-Product Manager
Role : UX Designer
Tools: Figma, Lucid chart , Jira, InDesign, Confluence , Slack

Design process

Research

Refinance is a tiresome process and we are aiming to make this process easy for customers and also for the management to use, maintain, scale and evolve. We began our research with the understanding the goals of the project and discussing about it with stakeholders, based on which we formulated the plan for the user research.

User Interviews
Competitive Analysis
Empathy Mapping
Emotional Journey

User interviews

Objectives

To determine the pain points and roadblocks in the refinance process for Arivo by learning the methods that users use to shop for lenders
To gain/retain customers and their trust by understanding and empathizing with users

Participants : 6
Tools : Userinterview.com , Google Meet

How do users shop lenders for auto refinancing?

100% of participants mentioned they need "multiple confirmation" - Google reviews,
discussing with friends, reading the website , etc. before making a financial decision.
40% of the participants mentioned they " spoke with neighbors or friends"
80% of the participants mentioned "talking to agents"
20% of the participants mentioned "visiting the local branch"
60% of the participants mentioned "they are a customer already"- so when they
know they can save more they went with those lenders they knew already
100% of the participants mentioned they go for refinancing for "increasing their monthly savings"

How do users feel when shopping for lenders?

60% of the participants are worried about "the hard hit on their credit"
20% of the participants had stress "shopping for lenders"
One participant mentioned she completed refinancing without hard hit on her social.
Participants feel comfortable with "online process and easy online payments with no service charges"
60% of the participants mentioned "completing the application process in less than 15 minutes" and
others mentioned it took them "40 minutes to complete"

Empathy mapping

Emotional Journey mapping

Competitive analysis

Objective

Conduct Heuristic analysis/evaluation
SWOT analysis

Refinancing lenders are chosen for the SWOT analysis based on the insights from the user interviews and from Nerdwallet's top 10 refinancing lenders.

Summary

Theme that we commonly see in terms of value proposition from the market's leading lenders are,

How do users want to refinance? choices like short term, longer payment
They mention that it won't affect their credit score -soft hits.
Most part of the application is pre-filled if they are already a lender.
Support that they provide during working hours and after hours.
All the landing pages explains the steps to complete the process

User persona

Userflow

Information Architecture

Lo-fi wireframes

User testing for wireframes summary

2/8 testers mentioned bringing up the steps high in the hierarchy
5/8 testers mentioned they don't care about the testimonials when others mentioned it should be authentic
FAQs to be designed specifically for the page
Having testimonials in all the screens is a bit nagging
Option to edit mobile number and email id before e-signing session as users mentioned they will provide fake ones.
When users are idling or abandoning give option like 'save for later'.
When users wants to switch to mobile from desktop the screen is bit confusing because of positioning of the elements.
Mentioning partners will give more trust to users
Adding footer elements for blogs and about Arivo

Hi-Fi Designs

Usability Testing and Evaluation of the Prototype

From the user testing conducted using the userinterviews.com the following key insights were gathered:

Security: Users recommend a two-step verification process for email and mobile.
Progress Tracking: Users suggest indicating that progress is saved at any point.
Privacy: Users request a clearly stated privacy policy.
Support & Usability: Users appreciate the support feature and the ease of the process on both the portal and mailer.
Loan Terms: Users suggest adding a rate calculator and more term options (e.g., 48 months).
Efficiency: Users expect a faster, smoother process and value a more prominent “Get Help” button on mobile.
Mailer Design: Users recommend enlarging the “Pre-Approved Offer Inside” message and displaying the APR% on the envelope.
QR Code: Users find the QR code and value proposition on the mailer useful.
Decision Factors: Users prioritize lender selection based on rate, terms, and transparency.
Application Process: Users appreciate the clear, three-step process to complete the application.
Process Clarity: Users request more details on the timeline, required documents, and payoff timeframe.
Mobile Portal Issues: Users find the “Confirm Mileage” step and contact info header wording confusing.
Support Appointments: Users suggest specifying whether appointments are online or in-person.

Understanding user mental models

After designing the desktop and mobile interfaces, version testing was conducted to evaluate usability and user experience. The focus was on global UI elements such as the support panel placement, mobile “Get Help” button, and various other buttons. The goal was to understand user mental models and ensure consistency across platforms. Insights from the testing informed refinements, enhancing overall usability and experience.

Quality Assurance and Production Inferences

I performed production inferences to verify that the product was developed in accordance with the design standards and to ensure a seamless user experience for the end-users. This was done in collaboration with the QA team to ensure that any bugs or issues were identified and addressed. The process involved testing the product in a live environment to verify that it worked as intended and met the performance and functionality requirements. Additionally, any user feedback was taken into consideration and used to further improve the product. Through the production inferences, we were able to guarantee that the end-product met the required quality standards and provided an optimal user experience.

After launch and next steps

After the initial product launch, we closely monitored the performance of the product using tools such as LogRocket and Google Analytics. Using the insights gathered from these tools, we iterated the design for version 2 of the product, implementing several changes to improve user experience. The changes included modifying the header banner and value proposition banner by removing the carousel and making it more intuitive with support FAQs. We also updated the copy on the vehicle details page and added a confirmation step for the user to select the correct vehicle, which has significantly reduced the number of contracts created for the wrong vehicles. These changes were made to enhance the product's usability, and we continue to monitor its performance and make necessary improvements to provide a smooth user experience.