1
APP • 2023
Loans Against Mutual Funds
Scope
Ideation
0 to 1 design
Visual design
Role
Product Design
Hand-off
Testing
Timeline
3 months
Platform
Mobile
Overview
Fi aimed to disrupt the secured lending market by making loans against mutual funds accessible to a broader audience. This historically complex financial product, typically reserved for high net-worth individuals, presented an opportunity for innovation. We envisioned a completely digital platform that would streamline the loan application and management process. This would increase accessibility while offering competitive interest rates and flexible repayment terms to improve user experience.
Even people without a credit history could access this product with ease.
Improve credit access to people
Keep the experience familiar but introduce new features catered for podcast listening.
Offer a second product in our lineup
Why secured loans?
Fi had a large base of user who invest in mutual funds. As we expand our lending portfolio and base, we could unlock this base to lend to with a reduced risk.
Growing base of investors
The people who invest in mutual funds will increase to 145 million by the year 2023. This is a huge base to address for giving secured loans to.
Access to new to credit users
Secured loans give us the flexibility to lend to users without a credit score too and in turn help them build a credit score too.
Lowest interest rate
If one has to take on debt, it's good to do it at minimal cost. A low interest rate would be an attractive offer to many.
Mutual Funds are for everyone: 145 million investors in 2023 prove that financial growth is here for everyone.
How are we different?
It was not about joining the race, but
leading it. We wanted to set a good example of lending.
We're breaking the conventional product focus only on HNIs in India and make it mainstream.
Digital platform
With our insights and analysers, a user could better manage their finance and take on debt without much risk.
Tie to Fi ecosystem
Everything we touch turns to a great user experience. We plan to do the same to loans against mutual funds.
Great user experience
Our partnership with Federal would allow us to undercut a lot of rivals and offer loans at very low rates.
Lend better
Principles for better lending
Keep it simple
Loan journeys can be daunting, we tried to keep the journey minimal and avoided jargon to keep things approachable.
Celebrate the small moments
Often loan applications can be long and boring. We built smaller celebrations and milestones in the journey to keep a user engaged.
Build transparency & trust
For a secured loan, you are not only risking your investment but also taking on debt. Having transparency with the terms and trust in the system was paramount.
Fall gracefully
With an untested system, we were expecting a lot of issues to happen with the initial launch. We design for errors and edge cases from the beginning and looped in customer support early on.
Addressing doubts
This is a new experience for most. We wanted to address any doubt at the moment so a user doesn't have to leave the app to understand the product better.
2
Solving Challenges
We took multiple approaches when it came to solving some tricky challenges during the creation of this new feature. The flow presented some interesting problems to solves and made us explore multiple options and evaluate which one will be the right options with the best compromises.
Picking loan amount + funds to pledge
How will a user juggle between 4 variables – loan amount, tenure, EMI and the mutual funds to use for getting a loan?
→ Make it easy to edit values
→ Carry the context at each step
→ Don’t overwhelm with too many numbers
→ Visibility of mutual funds being pledged
#1
plus
Easily play with amount
and tenure
plus
Visibility of all controls
plus
Changes carry the context
minus
Overwhelming with options and numbers
#2
plus
Single control at a time
plus
Minimal and clean
plus
Context visible across controls
minus
Requires multiple taps to go between options
#3
plus
One step at a time brings simplicity and focus
plus
Place to callout benefits
minus
A lot of jumping around between steps for editing
minus
No easy way to see mutual fund details
Showcasing the loan amount
How do we present the loan amount a user is eligible for and how we arrived at the value?
→ Show the eligible amount for the loan
→ Check if all the mutual funds were detected
→ Allow adding more phone numbers to detect funds
#1
plus
Breakdown and visibility of funds
plus
Clear relationship between portfolio value and loan
minus
Takes away the focus and joy from the loan amount
#2
plus
Puts emphasis on the eligible loan
plus
Clear relationship between portfolio value and loan
minus
Has too many numbers to understand
#3
plus
Calls out the loan amount clearly and celebrates it
plus
Hints at the detected portfolio value
minus
Mutual funds are not visible at first glance
Progress through the journey
How do we present the overall progress through a very long journey for someone taking a loan for the first time?
→ Show a preview of the journey
→ Keep the user hooked
→ Allow them to finish the journey in one sitting
#1
plus
Visibility at all times about the progress
plus
Clear relationship between portfolio value and loan
minus
Takes up real estate on
the screen
minus
Can deter you if too many steps are there
#2
plus
Quick overlay to convey progress
plus
Doesn’t add taps or take up real estate on the screen
plus
Relies on Goal Gradient effect to help with completion
minus
Comes up selectively
#3
plus
Simple animation of the step you completed
plus
Doesn’t add taps or take up real estate on the screen
minus
Doesn’t show the overall progress
minus
Adds an animation after every major step
3
Going hi-fi
We took a whole new approach to designing the experience that would then set the experience for the other loan products. We went with a minimal and clean approach that puts focus on the main action in a friendly and approachable manner. Also, guiding users with any doubts and confusion they have right on the app without leaving.
Motion for message
Our key values were simple. To avoid users from scrolling, we had a nifty animation calling out our key features to convince users.
Keeping it simple
Let our user know it's not rocket science to take a loan with us. It's as easy as hailing a cab or ordering food.
Reassurance
Everything around finance is a potential point of worry. We want to bring clarity and reassurance about what we are doing is safe.
Help is a tap away
Every step would have a lot of doubts. So we made sure to include FAQs and
helpful nudges at every step along the way to keep a user reassured.
Milestones marks
We didn't want a permanent progress meter in our journey. To still give people a sense of closure, we added these milestone screens to help people realise they are nearing the end of the journey.
Custom wait screens
There were varying wait periods between different stages of the journey. We introduced
custom wait screens to keep a user engaged and prevent drop-offs.
Celebrate moments
Along the long journey of getting a loan, we wanted to celebrate small wins and keep a user excited about the application.
Continuing the context
We tried to strike a balance between the actions on a single page versus keeping the context for the loan on a single page. Overloading a user with too many actions could make the process overwhelming.
Transparency at everystage
Loan apps are infamous for dark patterns and hiding key information from a user. We differ by making all the charges transparent for a user & aim to build trust in our product
Contextual alerts
Between all the bills in ones' life, we don't want them to remember another one. We
surface alerts and action upfront for a user to easily acknowledge it and act.
On time payments a habit
We added quick access to the recently played podcasts, the shows users follow and various categories for podcasts.
Unique referral program
Informing the user about podcast, taking their language and genre preferences for podcasts
4
Impact
The launch of the product has had many hurdles and we are still trying to fix a lot of things. The launch has been less than ideal but we plan to keep pushing and reach the goal we had set for ourselves. Having said that. feedback from our users has been positive. This is what's keeping us driven.
10cr
Worth of loan disbursed in 2 months
40K
Users have seen their secured loan offer
5
Final Words
For a Version 1, we took satisfaction in this result. We had to skip a few essential steps to tackle the problem due to the tight timelines of the project. As we move ahead, there are a few other things we wished to do in the next phase of the project and set an example for the industry.
Build for all cases
There was a demand for content in regional languages. Having more content in different language could remove the entry barrier that English poses for so many people.
Evolve product
Thought of building and extending the feature as a credit line for easier access to credit.
Build more delight
A serious product like this should have more delight and interest built into it to make it approachable.
