Project
Mortgage Mobile App
Client
Bee
Overview
Bee is a startup that’s streamlining the mortgage process, making it simple enough to complete from your phone. Bee’s mobile app offers tools to easily shop, get approved, and close on your loan without uploading tons of documents or dealing with loan officers.
Goal
Redesign the mortgage experience from the ground up. (HUGE undertaking, I know.) But here are some of the big questions that guided the design process:
- How might we make the process simple enough for a first-time buyer to navigate?
- How can we use data and AI to build an intelligent system?
- How might we find balance between speed and deliberation, considering the complexities of getting a mortgage?
- How can we push limits and innovate, while staying compliant with lending regulations?
Role & Process
Over the course of two years, I worked as the primary designer to take the initial idea of Bee through concept development and many rounds of iteration. As the founding designer, my responsibilities also included product management, research, and all design needs for marketing and fundraising.
*Creating the consumer experience was only one part of the puzzle. Check out my other projects to see how the consumer mobile app fits into the greater Bee ecosystem.
I spent a lot of time on research at Bee as a part of my design process and to provide insights/resources to the rest of the team. I maintained a research wiki with competitor analyses, trends, and secondary research I had compiled. I also led efforts to interview or test prototypes with users as needed.
In the early stages, I established the high level information architecture and primary user flows for our users. We iterated on this over time as requirements and assumptions were validated.
Before a product manager was brought on board, I maintained documentation and defined requirements for all aspects of the app. I worked in Excel, Miro, and Confluence as much as I worked in Figma to communicate not only how the app should look but also how it functioned to our team of developers.
With growth and scalability in mind, I established a design system with the developers. This was not an easy task as we often wanted to code fast in the beginning, but the implementation of components and templates in the iOS app paid off further down the line.
It was crucial to adhere to regulations when working in the fintech space. We made sure mortgage and security compliance was top of mind when defining requirements and also had regular design reviews with the legal team.
Solution & Impact
Version 1 release of the mobile app included the core features needed to support application through closing:
- Instant pre-approval with integration to third party data providers like Plaid
- Edit and customize your pre-approval letter
- Loan tracking with real-time updates
- Integrated chat support via Intercom
In the beginning of 2022, Bee launched the first version of the app to a beta audience in Florida. We pre-approved about a dozen customers and closed a handful of loans. The feedback we received from testing allowed us to improve not only the mobile experience, but nail down the operations and back-end processes that support the app.
