The Applicant Portal is a front-facing platform where banks, businesses, and individuals collaborate on loan applications. Originally built for straightforward loan types, it needed to evolve to handle complex, multi-party scenarios. I partnered with multiple stakeholders and another designer to re-conceptualize the portal for high-complexity loans, while ensuring it was mobile-friendly and strategically aligned with partner needs.
1 of 2 UX Designers
Prototyping mobile & desktop experiences
Exploring different design systems
2023 - 2024
Initial design & discovery phase: 3 months
Development: Ongoing
Strengthened partner relationships, leading to acquisition
Adopted into Moody's broader platform ecosystem
The existing portal was successful for small banks handling straightforward loans, but it broke down for larger, more complex scenarios. Key limitations included:
- An inflexible information structure that made complex cases difficult to manage
- Limited collaboration features between applicants and banks, critical to commerical lending
- Poor adaptability for mobile use
Old UI - A, B, and C represent the loan and its related components
The existing portal was effective for smaller banks handling simpler loans but struggled to scale for more complex cases. Key limitations included:
- An inflexible information structure that made complex cases difficult to manage
- Limited collaboration features between applicants and banks, critical to commerical lending
- Poor adaptability for mobile use
Old Information Architecture
A, B, and C represent the loan and its related components
As requirements evolved, each design iteration surfaced new insights and priorities, which we refined collaboratively with stakeholders.
“We don’t know what we want, but we’ll know it when we see it.”
- Stakeholder feedback during early discovery
We designed several desktop and mobile iterations of the platform, gradually evolving functionality to align with stakeholder insights, partner requirements, and technical constraints. Key improvements include:
Flexible, scalable architecture: Redesigned the information architecture to handle more complex loan relationships.
Enhanced task-centered experience: Refined the existing workflow to improve collaboration between banks and applicants, maintaining visibility of key information throughout the experience to help move applications forward efficiently.
Modern responsive design: Delivered a consistent experience across mobile and desktop, with a cleaner, more intuitive interface.
From early vision prototypes to an MVP aligned with internal infrastructure, each iteration became a tool for sparking debate and clarifying requirements—turning design into part of the requirements-gathering process.
New Information Architecture
A, B, and C represent the loan and its related components
These Mockups reflect the look and feel of the live platform
“We don’t really design the information architecture - we reflect a system, it’s parts, and how they relate to each other.”
- NN/g UX Podcast: “What is Object Oriented UX (feat. Sophia Prater, Rewired UX)”
Stronger partner relationships: The redesign filled key functionality gaps and strengthened external partnerships.
Acquisition context: Shortly thereafter, the company was acquired by Moody’s. The redesigned portal helped demonstrate product scalability and alignment, positioning it for integration into Moody’s suite of offerings.
Product adoption: Post-acquisition, Applicant Portal functionality was integrated into Moody’s broader platform ecosystem.
Internal learnings: Prototyping early proved valuable, even when requirements were unclear. Design artifacts created a shared language that helped stakeholders refine needs, align priorities, and shape a stronger solution.
Messaging integration to improve collaboration across entities.
Further enhancements to reporting and task automation for complex loans.
