More than 5 million small businesses across the country have applied for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loan through the Small Business Administration (SBA). All of the borrowers that received funds will need to account for how the money was spent for the loan to be fully forgiven.
Upside Financial (UpFi) helps PPP borrowers navigate the confusing aspects of PPP forgiveness with one-on-one support of UpFi’s team of advisors. These financial experts help prepare clients’ forgiveness applications so they can feel confident their loan will be 100% forgiven.
challenge
Borrowers don’t know how to get started with SBA’s multiple forms, complicated calculations, and required documentation. And advisors need a more scalable way to collect application data to best meet the growing demand for their services.
Objective
Design an end-to-end responsive web application that allows borrowers to:
Complete the application and upload supporting documentation
Connect with an UpFi advisor to schedule their consultation
Track the progress of their applications and next steps
Role
I worked in a cross-functional team. As the solo UX/UI designer, I was involved in all phases of the project - research, wireframes, prototyping, testing, and visual design. I started work in June 2020 and the app launched late August 2020
Research
Getting started…quickly
The UX writer and I got up to speed on all things forgiveness through multiple conversations and interviews with stakeholders, PPP subject matter experts, and CPA thought leaders.
Identified how the tool would need to work with the custom Salesforce platform that advisors would use to manage the queue of submissions, review application data, and track processing
Reviewed other fintech solutions—such as TurboTax— as a proxy for understanding users’ mental models for similar tools.
Helping borrowers understand their progress
Borrowers need to fill out the form and upload some documents, but then what happens? We identified 6-10 steps or “statuses” that map the experience of borrowers and advisor working together.
I wrote an initial document (image 1.) that I used with stakeholders to build a mutual understanding of the various “triggers” that marked key moments in the parallel journeys. This helped to inform a service blueprint (image 2.) that maps the coordination of advisors working in and outside the tool to serve borrowers.
Image 2. Service blueprints help visualize the relationship between borrowers, advisors, and the activities outside the tool that are tied to touch points in the forgiveness process.
With a better understanding of the key moments of the experience I explored and experimented with various “tracking” designs in other industries and tools users might be familiar with such as in food delivery and shipment tracking.
collected clips of tracking UI designs
Communicating every step to borrowers could be overwhelming and not help our claim of being an “easy” process. So I worked with our UX writer to pare these statuses down to 3 steps. Some statuses were only useful for internal users, like our advisors. Keeping some of that information more opaque helps users focus on the task at hand.
design
How to make the SBA forms seem less daunting
The SBA’s forgiveness form was difficult to understand. It also seemed like a new version of the form was being released weekly (3508S, 3508EZ, 3508S).
Form evolution
Early wireframes captured ideas on how to bring ‘peace of mind’ and help maximizes the chances that users will complete the form. We asked, ‘what feelings do we want to bring to our users?’ For our design, ease-of-use and clarity was the essential experiences. I applied some best practices in form design to help the application seem less complex:
Breakup the application into smaller sub steps
Reassure users on the duration of the steps
Work with UX writer to finesse language and cut jargon
Provide additional context to help borrowers answer questions and why we’re asking
Autosave to make filling out the form easy without the worries of losing data
Make it clear where users are and where they’re going
rough wireframes and ideation
An iteration with feedback from stakeholders
finalizing designs with tooltips and inline errors
testing
User feedback
We needed to capture user feedback to determine if borrowers can successfully understand and complete the steps. Optimizing the experience would help reduce risk, improve usability, and fine tune the form.
I posted an unmoderated usability tests on UserTesting.com screening for 8 participants who had a PPP loan. We focused on task success-type metrics that measure the efficiency, effectiveness, and error rate.
Participant feedback showed that they understood the questions and were able to draw connections between our questionnaire, the SBAs form, as well as their own experiences applying for a loan.
Users (8/8) had no issues understanding the “hub” layout (home page) and navigating sequentially through the sections
Takeaway: The vertical structure of the page with sectioned blocks helped users distinguish what needs to be completed first and in what order.
I think this does a really clear job of setting expectations - we need this information, then we'll need documents and then we'll go ahead and schedule a meeting...pretty much as straightforward as it gets. -User 2
Users (8/8) felt confident they could complete the form questions and documents without issues
Takeaway: Links to “More info” dialog boxes helped increase comprehension. Users loved the info on the number of quest/avg time per section which boosted confidence
Opportunities: Possibly add “More info” links to dialog boxes with concrete examples, and include videos from financial experts.
Looking at this, this doesn't look like something I need to bother my accountant with. It looks like something I could handle myself. -User 8
I really can do this myself, I don't need an accountant -User 3
Adding to the “hub” (aka portal, dashboard, etc.)
Borrowers need the ability to upload their documents and schedule a meeting with an advisor.
Capturing payment
We needed to provide a payment experience to increase conversions from lead to paid customers while also improving product adoption rate at an earlier stage in the customer journey. Our team discussed various scenarios ranging from paying immediately after creating an account to only requiring payment after the application is completed by the advisor.
I felt that the user should be able to take the tool for a spin before dropping $400–$500. So I decided to test this hypothesis with 12 small business owners with PPP loans on UserTesting.com again.
Results
Testing confirmed that users wanted to see what they were getting before paying. Ideally users want to pay when their application materials are ready, but many felt it was fair to be required to pay before since it was an advisor’s time.
Takeaway: (7/12) users felt the most comfortable paying only after they had their meeting with an advisor, but many (5/12) acknowledged that paying before their time with an advisor is fair.
Opportunity: Is there a freemium model of receiving something useful before paying? Is there some way to make users feel better about paying the $499?
When would you feel the most comfortable paying?
“Once I've got the confirmation from my lender. I don't want to pay upfront for it. I understand why companies want you to do that." - U3
"So I think that I would feel most comfortable after we've confirmed that everything is accurate." - U8
"I feel like I should pay before I talk to an advisor…but ideally when everything is done." - U9
Payment flows and paywalls
We decided to make it flexible by providing options - we could take payment upfront, let them pay at any time from the navigation bar, and add paywalls to remind users to activate their account to “unlock” their meeting with an advisor.
Success Metrics
We plan to monitor the following quantitative data points to measure, compare, and track the effectiveness of the payment experience over time.
Sign-up conversion rate
% of paid user conversion in the app
% of paid user conversion at each payment prompt
Abandonment rate
Abandonment rate at each payment prompt
Paywall conversion
What’s next for UpFi?
Add videos from CPAs to help borrowers answer the questionnaire while also building credibility.
Develop partnerships and referral revenue programs with CPAs.
Prepare for increased demand as loans start to become due for forgiveness starting in August 2021.
Watch user sessions on FullStory (session relay software) to identify areas where we can reduce friction.
Get customer feedback from advisors and refine the tool where we can