This site was done on behalf of a student for the Commercial Loan Brokers Institute (CLBI), an educational group that trains new brokers on the intricacies of commercial lending with a focus on catering to borrowers who may not be eligible or reluctant to work with larger banks. This broker was based out of the Atlanta area and wanted to work with first-time business owners and minority populations, including the Hispanic population.

As the sole UX and Webdesigner for Green Vine Marketing and CLBI I was tasked with leading the research, design, and implementation of the final product for Peach Tree Capital.

Step 1: Research

Empathize and Define

I started my research by looking at existing lenders and brokers, both large and small. I wanted to identify what common best practices were and what current trends looked like in the commercial lending industry. During my research, I repeatedly heard about a lack of trust when it came to financial matters. To further dig into this I used anonymous google surveys to allow responses to be kept private, especially in regards to personal financial decisions as they related to small businesses.

The Personas

Step 2: Ideation

Mapping and Wireframing

I then designed a user flow to understand how the user might work their way through the site, keeping in mind that many users might know the goal they are trying to accomplish, but not have a clear understanding of which type of financial package would be most suitable for their needs. 

After this data had been compiled I started the initial wireframes for the necessary screens, starting with a low-fidelity wireframe.

Step 3: Prototyping and Testing

I built multiple low fidelity wireframes in the Divi builder so that the existing infrastructure was already not the site. These were mid-fidelity mockups in order to give the users and stakeholders a feel for the sites final layout while saving us the ability to add end styling when we reached the completion of the tests.  

Step 4: final layout and styling.

Peach Tree had no existing branding or style guide when they signed up for the CLBI program, so I had to build a complete style guide not only for their UX and Website but also for their own general marketing needs (including a logo and business cards). As such, I identified font, colors, and imagery direction to help them with their goal of appealing to people who were new to commercial lending processes. 

For a font the stakeholders and I agreed that a sans-serif was the most presentable for their styling, opting for Actor with medium weight across their headers and body. For color, we had to balance the pink and browns of their logo, so we wend with a light green for the base colors, utilizing the pink and brown as a supplementary color. finally, for imagery, we went with a more casual style, especially while presenting the different forms of lending available. 

Industries 

PDP Screen

In addition to bringing the desktop site through the design process, from lo-fi wireframe to mockup, I also converted pages to responsive web design for mobile devices.

Deliverables and Next Steps

This site was done in order to launch live as quickly as possible. For the next steps, I would Ideally work on improving the imagery included in the site, including moving away from stock imagery in order to ensure the site continues to feel authentic, especially in relation to visual communication. This would also include a focus on including more versions of non-text communication including iconography and videos.

This process was completed with other students of CLBI, with some examples of their UI included below.