UX Audit & Redesign Case Study Designing Confidence in Mortgage Search
Rate Filter: Enhancing the Mortgage Comparison Experience
COMPANY
Rate Filter
ROLE
UX Audit
EXPERTISE
Senior UX/UI Designer
YEAR
2024
Project description
Rate Filter is a digital platform designed to simplify the mortgage selection process by providing users with transparent, real-time comparisons of mortgage rates from various financial institutions. The platform empowers homebuyers to make informed financial decisions by offering personalized filtering options, educational tools, and a streamlined user experience.
Challenges
Simplifying complex mortgage data while maintaining clarity and transparency, building trust in a new financial platform, designing intuitive and flexible filters that support user needs, and ensuring a seamless and responsive experience across all mobile devices.
Ways of Working
Conducted a UX audit during the beta phase in collaboration with cross-functional teams, applied user-centered design principles and rapid prototyping, worked in agile sprints to support continuous iteration, maintained close alignment with product, development, and marketing teams, and prioritized accessibility and responsive design throughout the process.
Process
This category details the step-by-step approach taken during the project, including research, planning, design, development, testing, and optimization phases.
Research & Planning
Conducted a UX audit to evaluate the current user experience and identify usability issues. Analyzed competitor platforms and user behavior data to uncover pain points and improvement opportunities. Defined key user flows and established audit goals aligned with business objectives.
Design & Prototyping
Worked closely with designers to reimagine problematic interfaces and improve interaction flows. Created low- to mid-fidelity mockups to address specific UX gaps. Validated design improvements through stakeholder feedback and usability testing insights.
Development & Implementation
Collaborated with cross-functional teams to prioritize UX improvements for implementation. Provided clear design documentation and audit recommendations to support developers. Ensured alignment with accessibility standards and responsive design best practices during roll-out.
Solution
Through a comprehensive UX audit, we streamlined the mortgage comparison experience by simplifying complex data, enhancing filter usability, and creating a more trustworthy interface. Design improvements were informed by user behavior insights and market research, leading to clearer information hierarchy, intuitive interactions, and responsive layouts. The collaborative, iterative process ensured that user needs and business goals were aligned, resulting in a platform that’s both easy to navigate and effective in guiding users toward confident mortgage decisions.
Intelligent Search
Smart algorithms analyze user profiles, preferences, and financial goals to deliver optimized mortgage offers with competitive interest rates.
Real-Time Rate Comparison
Dynamic integration with multiple lenders to display up-to-date mortgage rates, allowing users to compare offers and choose the best deal with full transparency.
Personalization
Customizable filters let users adjust loan terms, rate types, and lender options, providing tailored results based on individual financial needs and home-buying goals.
Results
The UX improvements led to a more intuitive and trustworthy mortgage search experience. Users reported higher satisfaction with the platform’s clarity and ease of use. Engagement metrics improved, with increased time spent on comparison pages and a lower bounce rate. The personalized filtering and real-time rate visibility contributed to a rise in user retention and return visits during the beta phase. These enhancements positioned Rate Filter as a credible tool for simplifying mortgage decisions in a competitive market.
User Engagement
Session duration increased by 25% as users explored mortgage options more confidently through simplified filters and clearer data presentation.
Conversion Rates
Rate Filter saw a 15% rise in quote requests and lender referrals after redesigning key flows, improving CTAs, and reducing friction in the user journey.
Expanding User Base
The platform gained steady traction among first-time homebuyers and refinancing users, with growing adoption driven by its personalized search and real-time rate comparisons.