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.
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 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 and maintain visibility of key information throughout the experience.
Task-centered experience: Shifted toward a task-oriented workflow to make progress clearer, responsibilities easier to manage, and help users prioritize what mattered most.
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
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.
