Creating a Home Buying Option
Product Design · Nationwide Building Society
I led end-to-end design, along with research, copywriting, design ops, stakeholder management, ways of working and process improvements. I helped the business launch the first MVP web app as well as a native app.
Role and Impact
Platform.
Native iOS/Android app
Team.
Sole Designer (Lead Designer), 1 Product Owner, 1 Researcher, 1 Content Writer, 8 Engineers
Build a mobile app to help people buy their first home 🏠
Business Brief
Nationwide Building Society is the second largest mortgage provider in the UK. With this brief, Nationwide aims to add young professionals (renters) to the current Nationwide customer base.
Users
“I don’t know what I don’t know” “Buying a home is too complicated”
Target user: Young professionals (renters)
Age range: 18-35
Location: UK
From the previous research on the MVP, we found the following pain points
“How might we help first-time buyers get ready for the home buying process so that they can successfully buy their first home?
Project Background
Home buying option
This feature helps users identify what home buying options (e.g. mortgages, govt schemes or booster products) are eligible to them, compare all the options and decide which they’d like to consider using for home buying.
Success Metrics
Measuring success
I arranged a session with the Product Owner to understand what KPIs we should measure and what would be considered a success for the home buying option feature.
Final home buying option design
Outcome
The new design allows users to quickly scan and compare all the home buying options, with a clear information hierarchy and progressive disclosure.
Problems
Problems in old design
The following concerns were raised by the team during several design reviews including the Head of Product, Product Owner and Engineers.
Ideate together with teams
Brainstorming Workshop
To ensure the new design is aligned with different teams’ needs, I facilitated a brainstorming workshop with the cross-functional team. The workshop consisted of three stages: Lighting demos, Crazy 4s and Silent voting.
From the workshop, three new concepts were selected by the team. In order to validate if any of these concepts would improve usability, I decided to initiate user testing.
Validate new concepts
Usability Testing
A moderated usability study was carried out with 6 target participants, to gather user feedback and find out more insights on the home-buying option design.
Usability Testing Results
Key insights
Using how people are researching on mobile/desktop to offer a shallow and deep research experience
Offering a more comprehensive comparison experience
Bridge a gap between insights and action points
Post-it Ideation Session
After research, I suggested a post-it ideation session. Because previously many testings were done, however, not many of the insights actually led to actions. This session is designed to address UX issues and generate ideas on the spot with the cross-functional team. Through this session, I was able to keep track of all the user feedback from research and come up with ideas that other team members are also happy with.
Outcome
All information in one place
By introducing the list view, users can easily view and compare all the home buying options without a single interaction.
Clear information hierarchy
‘Time to save’ is prominent in each card, as this is the most important info to users when looking at home buying options.
Progressive disclosure
Detailed pages are only revealed when users want more information, which allows users to do both quick scan and longer check.
Usability improvement
Measuring success
To evaluate the new design, I conducted unmoderated user testing with 7 target participants via Usertesting.com. The new design received positive feedback from users and it showed usability improvement.
What happened after?
Hearth app product launch, including the Home buying option feature, was planned for Aug 2022. While the launch was ultimately cancelled due to a strategic pivot, the valuable insights and learnings from this project continue to inform Nationwide’s future product development.
“You’re very passionate about your work and the product. You show a lot of love and care for your designs and genuinely want to see this product be the best that it can be, this can be seen in your work.”
Feedback from the team
Thank you!