Loan Estimate
Tool Redesign
Renew Financial specializes in offering property owners affordable financing for renewable energy and energy efficient projects through the PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) Program.
Situation
Property owners who are exploring financing for their home improvement project want to know how much their payments are going to be and if the improvement costs might be offset by other outside factors. Because of the nature of this type of funding, the property owner may be eligible for tax credits, utility savings and/or insurance savings, so in order to make the financing more desirable for their clients, contractors need a way to estimate the net cost.
Challenges
PACE Financing is not a traditional loan and does not get repaid monthly like most loans; instead, the financing becomes a lien on the property and gets added to and repaid with the homeowner’s annual property taxes.
When contractors are discussing the financing options, they know that a single annual payment amount is going to be intimidating for the owner and so they’d like to see any tax incentives, insurance or utility savings subtracted from the payment amounts plus they’d like to see the costs reflected as an average monthly payment amount as well as the annual payment amount. An added bonus would allow the contractor to show the property owner financing options side-by-side so they can select the one most desirable.
The existing Estimation tool posed considerable usability challenges for contractors, particularly those who had never used it before.
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Fields for all potential inputs were exposed at all times
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Unclear which inputs were required to calculate a payment estimation
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Related inputs were not grouped properly
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Input fields were collectively labeled as "Settings"
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Calculating a scenario would render a result but it was unclear how to make edits to the inputs
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Additional required input fields were hidden until after after calculating a scenario
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User cannot compare scenarios without documenting one, running a second and then comparing the two manually
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User was forced to click excessively to view relevant information
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Information was poorly prioritized; lack of hierarchy to what was directly relevant vs. supporting / background info
Approach
I began this project familiarizing myself with the existing loan calculator as the financing industry was very new (and intimidating) to me. I systematically worked through scenarios with varying inputs to observe how they would be reflected in and impact the results.
Next, I gathered feedback from our internal sales team to understand the challenges and frustrations facing users with the existing experience. At this time I documented the various use cases that would guide my redesign efforts.
Once I had a strong understanding of the existing situation, I began redesigning the overall structure of the tool to make it clear and simple for users. (We maintained the underlying calculations as those were functioning as needed.) I made certain users could understand exactly how much information they had to provide in order to get the desired output. They had options to add more information but it was evident that was within their control based on how much data they had access to.
Information collection was relegated to modal windows to help focus the user’s attention on what was needed, and remove the noise and clutter of the other potential data inputs. Once the necessary information was provided, they were able to calculate side by side scenarios that could be shared with the property owner so that they could see and understand how varying terms would impact their payments. The payment details were presented in a way that could suppress or expose their complexity depending on the interest of the owners.
Results
Contractors now have a sales tool that's intuitive and easy to use.
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baseline, required inputs are clearly grouped; supplemental inputs are accessible but don't clutter the page
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inputs are captured via modal windows to keep the user focussed on the task without unnecessary distraction
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critical values are built into the calculation so that users don't have to remember them
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contractors can calculate and display 2 scenarios side-by-side so they can show property owners how their payments will be affected based on changed variables
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payment information is displayed in both monthly and annual values
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if desired, details can be suppressed by collapsing the individual sections
