Context
During my UX Design internship at ICICI Bank, I worked on improving the personal loan application experience for New-to-Bank customers across web and mobile.
The project was about understanding where the existing journey created unnecessary effort and how small changes in the way information was presented, collected and communicated could make the experience easier to navigate.
This is an NDA-protected project, so I’m unable to share the original screens or final deliverables publicly, but I’d be happy to walk you through my design process, research, key decisions and the journey behind the work.
Challenge
The existing personal loan journey involved multiple interactions and process-related friction that could make the application difficult to navigate and lead to potential customer drop-offs.
The challenge was to rethink the journey so that users could complete their application with less effort, better understand each step and feel more confident throughout the process.
Product
For someone who is new to a bank, applying for a personal loan involves moving through multiple stages of information collection and financial verification as the bank has no other way to verify their finacial details.
Unlike an existing customer, a New-to-Bank applicant need to provide additional details before their application can progress. Each step requires the user to understand what information is needed, why it is being requested and what happens next.
Why the redesign?
Applying for a personal loan involves more than just entering a few details and submitting an application. Users move through multiple stages involving personal information, financial details, verification and reviewing their loan offer.
For New-to-Bank customers, this journey can be particularly demanding because they may be unfamiliar with the bank's processes and need to provide information that requires additional verification. Throughout this process, users need to understand what is being requested, why it is necessary and what happens after each step. The NTB jounrey only happens in the browser and you cannot go back to the previous step.
Understanding How Users Access the Journey
Before exploring the redesign, I wanted to understand how customers were accessing the existing loan application journey. The data showed that nearly 80% of the traffic came through mobile, while the remaining 20% came through web. This highlighted mobile as the primary experience to focus on, while still making sure the web journey remained consistent and easy to navigate.
User Research & Benchmarking
Understanding where users accessed the journey was just the starting point. I wanted to look deeper into how they experienced it, where they encountered friction and what could make the application process easier to follow.
I explored the existing journey alongside other banking and fintech (Axis bank, Kotak Bank, Hdfc Bank, Paytm) experiences to identify patterns, opportunities and areas that needed attention.
I mapped the end-to-end personal loan journeys across ICICI Bank and the competing platforms to understand how each approached the application process. By looking at every stage side by side, I was able to identify friction points, compare interaction patterns and understand how other platforms handled information collection, verification, loan offers and user guidance. This helped me spot gaps in the existing experience and identify opportunities for improvement.
Understanding Pain points and gathering insights
After mapping the existing personal loan journey and reviewing competing banking and fintech experiences, I documented the friction points across different stages of the application. Some of these observations overlapped, so I grouped them to understand the larger problems affecting the experience.
User requirements to be focused on for the redesign, prioritized keeping stakeholders in loop
The existing loan journey was evaluated alongside other banking and fintech experiences. The recurring friction points were organised into key design requirements, helping establish where the redesign
needed to focus.
Design Exploration & Iterations
With the design direction established, I started exploring how each requirement could translate into a better interaction.
I approached the redesign stage by stage, looking at the specific friction within each part of the application and exploring different ways to address it. The focus was not just on changing how individual screens looked, but on making the entire experience easier to understand and navigate.
Final Proposed journey
A note on confidentiality
Due to my NDA, I cannot share the original screens, final product or the complete application journey. The visuals shown here are selectively recreated with a different colour palette, typography and visual styling to communicate the key features and design directions I proposed. These are only illustrative excerpts and do not represent the complete journey.
What I took away from this project
This project taught me to look beyond individual screens and think about the entire user journey. I realised how important clarity, transparency and timely feedback are when designing financial products, especially when users are sharing sensitive information. Working closely with my senior designer and product team also helped me understand the value of iteration, collaboration and making design decisions that balance user needs with product requirements.
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