UWM
One-Stop Dashboard
Agency | Fluid
Role | Project Lead - Senior UX Designer
United Wholesale Mortgage is the largest wholesale mortgage lender. They focus on loan officers vs selling directly to the end borrowers. We engaged the loan officers with a one-stop-shop dashboard of tools and information. We worked with both their marketing and development teams in an agile process. Our concept was to take tools that lived behind a login wall and place that power and usefulness on the homepage.
Discovering a Content Divide
During discovery, content analysis revealed a divide between UWM's marketing and tools. By combining the two, we could make a more intuitive platform for users upon site entry.
Sorting Content by Type and Zone
We developed an overarching content model. I identified primary content types and sorted content in zones.
Understanding The Target Audience
As a part of discovery, I ran ethnographic studies with loan officers. This provided us the insight about which tools and information really provided value to their day-to-day business. We discovered the loyalty a good user experience could bring to their B2B relationships.
User Journey
We needed to engage users at various states: logged in, logged out, and cookied (They have an account, but aren't logged in). To communicate our solution, we used high level user flows and zone diagrams for which users get which content.
Humanizing Navigation
The navigation model was influenced by existing quantitative data, but humanized by matching the daily routine of loan officers. We created a modular mega menu, so that the site could grow over time.
Whiteboard to Final Designs
We went efficiently from discovery to final designs by using high-fidelity wireframes and engaging the visual team early. We used wireframe components that allowed the visual design team to update all screens by replacing a single component.
Keeping it all together
We managed complexity by utilizing Confluence as a wiki for requirements, functional specs, and assets. The documentation structure was based on the site architecture and atomic design. The payoff was that developers could move quickly between Jira tickets and Confluence documentation.
