Website Redesign and UX Overhaul for a Loan and Insurance Provider

Better is a New Zealand-based company, part of the One Partner group. Better specializes in a wide-range of insurance offers, personal loans, travel loans, as well as caravan, car, motorbike, boat, and jetski loans. It also offers debt consolidation and solutions for poor credit history. Better promises its clients low fixed interest rates, zero hidden fees, and cost savings on interest.

As you can see, the company believes in transforming the lending process as well as making it more fair and, well, better.

How the project unfolded

The goal of the project was to redesign Better’s current solution, expand its website, improve the user experience, rethink the application process, update the user interface, and add more character with illustrations.

Everything to cater to their target audience and offer them a better experience.

The client came to us with a request for a simple landing page redesign. It turned out they needed much more than that. After the discovery phase and the initial workshops, we discovered that we needed to expand the website, improve the user experience, and cater to the target audience in a better way. With that, the scope suddenly increased.

Tackling the web design process from start to finish

The UX design phase of the project spanned over two weeks and included a discovery workshop, competitor analysis, and wireframing. The UI design phase then lasted six weeks and involved creating mood boards, high-fidelity designs, and a style board. The final four weeks of the project focused on illustration design with mood boards, sketches, and realization illustrations.

Damian Rensen, UI Designer on the UI design phase:

“In the beginning, it was a bit of a challenge to use the client’s already existing branding, which had a fun twist. Our goal was to make something of it that would look modern and professional to the target audience. In the end, I think we struck the right balance.”

Diving into the pre-design phase

After we discovered the project needed more work than initially expected, our UX Designer proposed a workshop to discover more about the client, the project, and what was needed.

The workshops allowed us to dig deeper into the world of the loans market in New Zealand. Together with the client, we figured out their main target audience, their needs, and even fears that needed to be taken care of.

We also defined the website’s sitemap and made the structure better.

Together, we figured out the best way to organize and structure the new website to cater to the target audience.

Wireframing possible solutions

After doing the initial research, workshop, and defining the best structure for the website, we finally got to visualize our ideas and create wireframes. It was time to put all those concepts, preparation, and research into practice and create a better UI.

Mateusz Kłosiński, UX Designer, on the wireframes:

“Wireframing is always a magical step when all our discussions and ideas are collected before we transform them into a visual skeleton of the final product. At this stage, we met for many creative discussions which resulted in several iterations and later shaped up to be the final structure of the website.”

The visual route of the design is based on the client’s branding and has been strengthened by custom-made illustrations.

Creating a memorable website with illustrations

The homepage always deserves much attention, because it’s here that the user forms an opinion about the product within three seconds. With Better, we tried to make the services as accessible as possible and provide all the necessary information for the user to apply for a loan or insurance. It also had to offer a seamless experience on mobile.

For all of Better’s services, we created tailor-made product pages with characteristic illustrations.

The client wanted to display the full package of loans without losing the human touch. With that in mind, we worked on the first round of sketches. In order to make the illustrations more playful, we decided to use two different approaches for objects and characters.

The focus was always on the type of loan, which is represented in full colors in the foreground. The character (made in outline) stays in the background. There is always an interaction going on between the character and the loan, such as the character taking a picture, showing a diploma, or simply interacting with an object.

The illustrations added a layer of color, character, and flair to the website, which made the product even better.

With the visual part ready, we also created a whole new way for the user to apply for a loan or insurance.

The final product

Website design and UX play a vital role in a company’s success – particularly companies in the finance industry with notoriously complex products. Thanks to our collaboration, the client now has a better website to cater to its users and stand out in the competitive financial landscape.