A Mobile First Approach For A Short Term Financial Lending Agency
Spotloan Website Redesign
OVERVIEW
As a leader in short term individual lending, Spotloan is known for making people feel safe and comfortable in financially unsavory situations. Whether it is because of layoffs, emergency room visits, or otherwise, it is all too common for individuals to experience financial distress, and when it does happen, Spotloan is there to help.
That said, Spotloan’s old website didn’t have the look and feel of a company designed to be a safety net in times of uncertainty. Partnering with us at SPINX, we worked together to give their website the warmth and comfort to match the security Spotloan provides for their clients.
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After analyzing Spotloan’s analytics we determined that most of their users come from mobile devices so we knew a mobile first approach would be the right place to start.
DISCOVERY
During our discovery meetings with Spotloan we went over their current website and determined what they liked and what they wanted to fix. They had spent a lot of time focusing on writing copy that would increase SEO, but it wasn’t organized in a readable, digestible way. Web users don’t want to read paragraph after paragraph of text without visual breaks through quality imagery or iconography to reinforce the text. This was one of the main goals setout during the discovery process and a wonderful challenge to take on during the UX phase of the project.
Additionally, Spotloan expressed concern about the general flow of the website not building trust with potential clients. The heavy amount of text and lack of imagery felt cold, and without clearly visible client testimonials, it was difficult to build trust with site visitors and convert them into clients, so we knew that it was important to organize the content in a way that built trust and increased conversion. With these goals set we were able to jump in and begin strategizing and laying out the content in a way that was sure to meet Spotloan’s needs.
before
UX STRATEGY
After setting our goals in the discovery phase we began building out the building blocks by wireframing the homepage and internal pages. With a focus on the copy Spotloan had already written, we were able to break this down into digestible sections with a strategic approach to building trust. With a mobile first approach this is even more difficult since we have less screen size to work with, but by laying out sections that fit all related content on the screen, we were able to create a strategy that built trust and gave users the visual break needed to continue digesting content.
Additionally, Spotloan is a member of TrustPilot, which compiles and publishes real user reviews. By using a 3rd party plugin we were able to further integrate and build trust above and beyond what most testimonials are able to achieve. Traditional testimonials on websites have been filtered through, providing only the best reviews, but since TrustPilot compiles all user reviews, we were able to provide site visitors with more transparency adding to level of trust built through traditional testimonials.
BUILD
The build for Spotloan’s new website was exciting and challenging. Knowing that Spotloan wanted their website to be hosted on Hubspot we did significant testing to ensure that we could implement our mobile first approach and that the designs would respond correctly and accurately to desktops.
Another challenge we faced was the integration of the TrustPilot plugin. We integrated the plugin on a number of pages and each page required a different layout to fit our design, so we made sure to do all the necessary testing needed for the TrustPilot plugin to be integrated without a hitch.
TEST & LAUNCH
With a launch plan in place and after thoroughly testing the site and ensuring that there aren’t any bugs we were ready to launch.
It was a quick and easy launch, and after another round of testing to ensure everything transferred correctly from staging to live, the Spotloan project was complete, delivering the client and all prospective users with a beautiful and functional website.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
Starting with a mobile first approach isn’t right for every project, but with the analytics Spotloan provided, it was the right approach for this project. By prioritizing content and serving it in a digestible way, we were able to keep users engaged. In addition, the TrustPilot plugin reinforced the well crafted and intentionally placed content, leading to a high level of client trust and conversion.
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