Metrics

Challenge

The legacy site was built around products, not people. Key journeys - particularly loan applications and credit card comparisons - were unclear, mobile performance was poor, and the brand's personality wasn't coming through. The brief was to redesign the experience from the ground up while navigating strict FCA compliance requirements and a tight timeline.

Research

Before putting pen to paper, I mapped the competitive landscape - analysing how Aqua, Capital One, Ocean Finance, and others structured their product pages, handled compliance messaging, and guided users through eligibility checks. A clear pattern emerged: the best-performing competitors led with a single, simple value proposition per product rather than trying to explain everything at once.

To validate assumptions about real user behaviour, I conducted interviews with a mix of existing customers and people who had recently applied for credit elsewhere. Conversations centred on how people made decisions between financial products, what made them trust or distrust a provider, and where they felt lost or anxious during online applications. The anxiety around eligibility checks - specifically the fear of impacting their credit score - came up consistently and directly shaped how we positioned the QuickCheck tool.

Findings were synthesised alongside third-party behavioural data from House of Kaizen, giving us both the qualitative why and the quantitative where.

Process

The project kicked off with stakeholder workshops to align on business objectives, user pain points, and constraints -including FCA requirements and brand guidelines. From there I mapped the existing IA, identified the structural problems, and proposed a revised architecture that gave each credit card product its own dedicated space. This went through several iterations before sign-off.

Wireframes followed across the key templates - homepage, product pages, and QuickCheck flows - with close collaboration with copywriters on compliance-sensitive sections and stakeholders on every major structural call.

Key decisions

Two problems kept surfacing: users couldn't distinguish between the two card products, and the loan calculator was buried too deep.

I restructured the IA to give each card its own landing page and eligibility flow. On the homepage I led with cards over loans - a deliberate repositioning and surfaced the loan calculator much earlier with min/max amounts shown upfront.

FCA compliance shaped the detail too. I applied the CONC 3.5.3 shorthand instead of the full rep APR example - cleaner, legally sound, and validated by competitor analysis. The brand mascots were embedded within product sections rather than used decoratively, keeping the UI warm without sacrificing clarity.

What didn't work

The first pass at the credit card comparison module was too complex — users in testing struggled to differentiate the two cards when presented side by side with equal visual weight. I simplified the hierarchy, leading with the clearest differentiator for each card (zero fees vs fixed monthly fee) before surfacing the detail.

User Testing

Throughout the redesign process, we incorporated usability testing and feedback loops to validate assumptions and refine interactions. Particular attention was paid to high-stakes moments such as loan eligibility checks and repayment explanations, ensuring users felt informed and in control.

Outcome

The result was a fully refreshed site that performed better across the board, visually, functionally, and emotionally. Key outcomes included:

• Improved completion rates on application flows

• A significant reduction in bounce rates on mobile

• A more cohesive and user-friendly interface that builds trust

• A brand expression that feels more confident, modern, and relatable