Designing for borrowers who deserve better.
Reevo Money, UK. Senior product designer on the loan management app for near-prime borrowers, people just outside mainstream credit. After a late vendor change, I had a new login flow in live testing within 14 days. Users noticed: satisfaction (NPS) and retention up, missed payments and collections costs down.
Problem.
Near-prime borrowers were failing on experience, not finances: a desktop-only portal, no alerts, no view of their options.
Locked out on mobile
Desktop-only portals and no central data hub, so borrowers got inconsistent information at the moments that mattered.
Arrears stayed hidden
Zero proactive notifications. Repayment options were out of sight exactly when a borrower hit temporary difficulty.
Dread before every due date
Support ran on reactive calls, and collections had no touchpoint before problems escalated.
A system that made a hard situation worse
People who don’t qualify for mainstream credit, already under strain, left to manage a loan through a tool that worked against them.
Research.
25 interviews across the UK. The signal that cut through was tone, not features.
in-depth interviews with near-prime borrowers, run before a single screen was drawn.
“Most borrowers had never accessed their loan portal, not because they didn’t want to, but because it wasn’t mobile accessible. Anxiety around payment deadlines was near universal.”
Deadline anxiety
Every borrower wanted to know “am I okay?” before anything else.
Proactive, not reactive
Communication before a crisis, not crisis management after one.
Mobile first
Strong mobile behaviour in a group served only by desktop.
Dignity was missing
Borrowers wanted to be treated as capable adults in a hard situation, not as defaulters to be managed.
Features.
Five features, one principle: reduce the stress a borrower feels the moment the app opens.
core features, each one answering something borrowers said in research.
At-a-glance loan status
Paid, left to pay, the next payment and whether you’re on track. It answers “am I okay?” in under three seconds, without navigating anywhere.
A timeline, not a table
Upcoming payments with context on each date, in a legible interactive flow.
Options, not panic
Compassionate, action-first alerts that surface choices. Tone tested in research.
Repayment choices, early
Repayment choices visible in-app early, cutting support calls from early-stage arrears.
Timely, personal reminders
Proactive payment reminders and account updates, replacing silence with relevant contact.
System.
A design system built to WCAG 2.1 AA from day one, because accessibility in financial products is a trust signal.
The principle behind every decision on this project.
Buttons, alerts, forms, cards
A full component library with Reevo branding layered over system parts, so engineering built from one source.
Contrast, focus, errors
AA across every interactive state, not as a tick box.
Colour, spacing, type
Tokens for engineering handoff, no redlines needed.
All five features, edge states, empty states
Nothing shipped as a happy path only. Every state a borrower could land on was designed and reviewed.
Pivot.
Kobil, our authentication vendor, bailed out with the app designed and ready. We chose AWS Cognito the same day.
from that decision to a redesigned login flow in live testing on AWS Cognito.
Same-day call: AWS Cognito
Authentication gates every screen, so nothing could go live without it. We stopped protecting the pixel-perfect vision, started unblocking engineering, and I took on the login flow redesign that day.
Build review on real devices
Working prototypes in hand, no simulations. Issues triaged against a critical-versus-deferrable list.
Open room
Design and engineering in continuous sync. No ticket queues, decisions in minutes. The absence of process was the process.
Redesigned around Cognito
Cognito’s UI customisation is severely limited, so the sign-in screens couldn’t be pixel-perfect. Instead: system components with Reevo branding, contextual error help, an SMS fallback for accessibility, and design QA twice a day inside the sprint.
Results.
Post-launch, against the same borrower cohort, four measures moved the right way.
Double-digit NPS gain
Active app users versus non-app borrowers in the same cohort, tracked by in-app survey.
Renewals up about a tenth
App users renewed more than non-app users against the pre-app baseline.
Missed payments down about a tenth
Driven by smart notifications and the visible payment schedule.
Collections a few percent cheaper
Faster arrears resolution from early in-app intervention, measured against collections team data.
Component Library
The MCF Portal design system, built from scratch as senior designer for 500,000+ users.
Talk.
Open to senior and lead product design roles in India or remote.