Design is easy – isn’t it? Just slap some rectangular boxed here and there and that’s it! You’re done!
Well, no. I wish it was that simple. As an aspiring experience designer – it’s my responsibility to keep in mind laws and heuristics at play when we are designing any kind of touchpoint for our customers.
And so, I cant shy away from thinking deep into what would have gone behind the scene to create great experience.
As Don Norman says – good design is invisible.
Well, yes, to create a great seamless design that seems effortless to the users – a lot of experiment, prototype, studies would have been created while that design was pushed to production.
One of the major companion for designers is Heuristics analysis. To make sure our designs are seamless, we have to consider usability or ease of use. Running an heuristic evaluation for a website or a digital product which is already existing or is brand new is a way to identify any usability issues so the problems can be fixed so the users experience is restored – adding to success of the product.
Heuristic evaluation for LiquiLoans as a loan applicant:
Recently I went through the loan application for the Certified Usability Analyst (CUA) course at Human Factors International (HFI) Now I didn’t have to do a lot of procedure expect for the obvious paperwork.
The good things: It took me 10 mins to collect and send those paperwork. Once all the paperwork were approved, the LiquiLoans team called me to inform that my loan is approved I just needed to give my bank the mandate to deduct the EMI amount every month for the next 5 months, and make a down payment.
So for that as well, it took me some 15-20 mins to do this procedure.
Although the process was simple, I still found some hurdle along the way that could have prevented me from calling the Liquiloans team.
If I have to outline the steps in a visual way –
Note that this evaluation is based on my personal experience. If I were a design manager at LiquiLoans – my evaluation process would have been different by talking to real users.
As long as Heuristic evaluation is considered, this is what could observe:
1. Visibility of system status
The design should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within a reasonable amount of time.
I could gather the whole process for me was simply a three step process so that I could just be on my way once the loan amount is disbursed. While performing the processes this I did face some minor hiccups. Which the team could easily help me with. But as a digital netizen, I prefer self service. I would have preferred to do the whole process myself without taking the help of the LiquiLoans team.
Takeaway –
Even though you’ve nailed your ducks in a row, you will have to think of each nitty gritty the user would be doing.
I’ve explained the roadblocks in my user journey chart.
I appreciate the fact that the support team was available on call though.
2. Match between system and the real world
The design should speak the users' language. Use words, phrases, and concepts familiar to the user, rather than internal jargon. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.
Well this one is tricky. Personally I didn’t find any jargon while working with the tool. But looking from a first time user’s perspective – it may change. I found two of such option that is making me believe that could have done better. NACH is something I didn’t really know the meaning of. But since this is my second time taking a loan I knew it has something to do about the bank mandates.
Takeaways - A short summary of terms like Bank Mandates, NACH, EMI would have helped.
3. User control and freedom
Users often perform actions by mistake. They need a clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave the unwanted action without having to go through an extended process.
As a user I had to complete a procedure and since this particular exercise is related to banking, it was of utmost importance for me to know how could I cancel something – if something goes wrong in the site.
I didn’t find a lot of hassle while performing the activities, it was pretty straightforward.
4. Consistency and standards
Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform and industry conventions.
With this regards, Jacob Neilsen says that the users use digital products other thatn yours. Follow the industry consistency and maintain what’s being followed by other products so users cognitive load is not increased. This was the user doesn’t have to learn something new and make it easier to access your platform.
Maintain the consistency using internal conventions like design systems.
With regards to LiquiLoans, I wanted to compare the dashboard that I’m using to it’s website.
At the website I could definitely see some inconsistency. If I’m a new borrower, I don’t think I will be taking loan from LiquiLoan after seeing these inconsistencies. (Maybe.)
Since my institution is dealing with them, I had to take the option anyways.
External conventions – like GDPR and privacy policies, compliance and legal policies, mentioning common terms like Shopping cart or Cart – they all are standardization that helps the user make appropriate decisions while using the app or platform.
LiquiLoans did an excellent job in mentioning the Cancellation and Refund policy, lender’s agreement, borrower’s agreement, fair practice code, customer grievnance redressal mechanism etc. Which are all a good way to increase the trust among the borrower and lenders or the users who are dealing with them.
5. Error prevention
Good error messages are important, but the best designs carefully prevent problems from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions, or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.
There are two types of errors –
Slips – Right intent and wrong choice.
Mistakes – Wrong intent.
Neilsen suggest us to prioritise the effort and prevent the high-cost errors first, then the little pain points. A recent example from my work would be cloning a Salesforce custom ticket, that didn’t end up in queue of the teammate because the cloning doesn’t change the status of the form. It was a mistake and I thought the status would get changed but it wasn’t. This resulted in missing a deadline for a project.
With this example - I would emphasize that user testing would help your user not to make a costly mistake.
As they say - test early, test often.
6. Recognition rather than recall
Minimize the user's memory load by making elements, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the interface to another. Information required to use the design (e.g. field labels or menu items) should be visible or easily retrievable when needed.
LiquiLoans didn’t add any cognitive load on me when I was using their website, they have tried their best to keep the dashboard for borrowers as simple as possible. Without adding anything that wouldn’t be getting used by others.
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use
Shortcuts — hidden from novice users — may speed up the interaction for the expert user so that the design can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.
I had a good experience using their website for the first time.
I didn’t feel the need to use any shortcut etc.
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design
Interfaces should not contain information that is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in an interface competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.
I found this heuristic similar to the #6 – keeping things simple is the key.
They have done a good job in prioritizing the content to support the primary goal of the borrower – that is get the loan money.
9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no error codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.
Use traditional error-message visuals, like bold, red text.
Tell users what went wrong in language they will understand — avoid technical jargon.
Offer users a solution, like a shortcut that can solve the error immediately.
For Liquiloans I noticed the use of traditional red text for any warning like this:
10. Help and documentation
It’s best if the system doesn’t need any additional explanation. However, it may be necessary to provide documentation to help users understand how to complete their tasks.
LiquiLoans has Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) listed on their website in every step of the way, they also had help available on call if needed.
But as written over here, help and documentation of process would make everyone’s life really easier.
Some do use the Chatbot to automate the FAQs.
Here are another reasons why help and documentation is really necessary.
Read this blog post by Hubspot on how netizens are increasingly becoming independent, and to help them we need to make use of knowledge management, documentations and frequently asked questions as much as possible.
That concludes my evaluation with respect to LiquiLoans website as a borrower of short term fund.
IF you enjoyed reading this, please like this post or let me know on comments what did you or didnt like.
Further studies and additional information: I have copied the heuristics from this blog post by NN Groups. Please make sure to bookmark this blog post by them for easy access.
Comments