Athena Home Loans mobile app (UX/UI)

I helped design the first-ever app for Athena Home Loans, an Australian fintech lender experiencing rapid growth.

📱 React native app for iOS + Android

View the app

Explorations

Our first task was to unearth some 'aha' moments to help define the Athena experience on mobile. We did this through rapid ideation that allowed us to test and learn. Our team conducted research, such as task flows analysis, opportunity mapping and a landscape review. We then ran workshops with Athena such as 'crazy eights' sketching to quickly generate a range of concepts. Within weeks, we created a series of wireframes and prototypes, ready for our first round of testing.

Skills used:

• Workshops

• Stakeholders

• Ideation

• Sketching

• User flows

• Prototypes

Considerations

Our first tests focused on the home page, information architecture and customer 'jobs' such as checking loan balances. Here we wanted to understand which concepts the participants found most intuitive and valuable. We did this by conducting moderated sessions with real Athena customers. These tested different concepts, designs and navigation patterns through interviews and task observations. The main challenge was balancing the tension between creating a groundbreaking product and ensuring it was still intuitive and easy to use.

Testing highlights:

• 80% of customers we spoke to preferred a fixed bottom style navigation

• 80% of participants favoured seeing their loan details in a modal with options to drill down into finer detail

• 60% of the people we interviewed said having a visualisation of their loan balance would be ‘nice to have’

Developments

At this point, we made some tough decisions to invest in features with the highest value, to ensure users could complete their primary 'jobs to be done' with ease. We did this through prioritisation workshops that struck the balance between customer goals and business capabilities.

Skills used:

• Test planning

• Moderation

• Note taking

• Synthesis

• Reporting

• Prioritisation

Finished Designs

Once the app was nearly ready to launch, our team drove a comprehensive beta programme with thousands of real customers to ensure the app's integrity and maintain customer trust. Following successful launches on iOS and Android, the squad continues to collaborate closely with Athena, building upon this solid platform.

Below are some of the finished designs for features that give customers the self-service tools they need to achieve their financial goals.

Skills used:

• User interface

• Visual design

• Interaction design

• Native patterns

• Design systems