FICO Score Planner is proof that small projects can have a significant impact.
Company
Experian
May 2023
Role
Product Designer
Sole Designer
Collaborators
Product Owner
Senior Researcher
Developers
Executive summary
Leading the design of Experian Partner Solutions' FICO Score Planner tool, I transformed a competitive feature gap into a business advantage that secured a marquee partnership. By expanding our library to implement a new design pattern, enhancing visual engagement with another pattern, and creating dynamic progress-based messaging (despite the limitations of a black-box API), I delivered an accessible credit education experience. This strategic approach yielded impressive outcomes, including closing a deal, attracting 19,000 unique daily users, and achieving a 20% plan completion rate among engaged users. These results demonstrate how targeted UX improvements on a seemingly small project can drive substantial business impact.
Context
From competitive gap to competitive edge.
Experian Partner Solutions offers a platform of financial wellness and identity protection solutions to partners, who brand, customize, and provide these solutions to their users. Recently, we had the opportunity to acquire a marquee partner from a competitor. However, our competitor offered a feature we did not have: a score planner where a user sets a target credit score and selects a timeframe with a plan to achieve the goal within.
My roles
I advanced the project timeline, user flows, the feature’s interface, consistency, and scalability.
I executed tasks such as identifying issues, defining problem scope, designing solutions, writing content and logic, user tests, and the hand-off process.
Project Impact
We acquired a household-name partner from a competitor and achieved an average of 120,000 unique logins per day.
Understanding
The users:
Anyone and everyone.
Although the partner's availability prompted us to create the feature, any feature we make will eventually be available to all our partners. There are numerous, diverse, and varied user groups across our partners. Therefore, EPS relied on a handful of proto-personas, which I turned to for this feature. The solution needed to be straightforward and clear for technologically and financially savvy users and those who lacked this knowledge.
The tasks:
Increase credit knowledge and control.
A 2023 survey by FICO found that many U.S. consumers felt the effects of the economy, with one-third reporting financial insecurity and 43% saying it impacts their financial goals. However, effective credit management can create stability; 85% of consumers feel more secure when their credit score is healthy. Learning to manage credit can enhance individuals' control over their finances and well-being.
80%
Percentage of Americans trying to improve their credit.
40%
Percentage of Americans who ‘have no idea’ how their credit score is determined.
The tool:
Overcoming limitations to enhance user experience.
The underlying API for this product was a black box API owned by FICO that we could not modify. I also had to consider the limitations of designing for a legacy platform. To understand how others had approached the product, I undertook a competitive audit. The audit revealed several usability issues, as well as a lack of visual elements and dynamic content. The primary objective of the project was to resolve these issues strategically.
Novel and confusing competitor interfaces.
The red target is draggable, but there is no indication of the restrictions: the target score must be at least 10 points higher than the user's current score, and not all timeframes are available for every target score.
The user can only move the novel curved slider higher; the target score must be at least 10 points higher than the user's current score, and not all timeframes are available for every target score.
Project Goal & Scope
Develop a straightforward credit goal tool that incorporates visual appeal and dynamic content while ensuring usability for a diverse audience.
Project Task I
Develop a flow and select a pattern.
Problem
Tested modal vs progressive disclosure prototypes, learning when to break established design patterns.
Our product design typically featured a homepage status card with a subpage for data inputs, results, and supporting information. Since most features required only one-time inputs that remained static afterward, we used modal forms to maintain a clean interface. However, this approach would leave the initial state nearly empty.
The first-step selection limited the second-step options, so I explored progressive disclosure as an alternative. After creating and testing clickable prototypes of both approaches, user testing confirmed a preference for the progressive disclosure method. I chose to deviate from our usual paradigm and establish a new pattern.
Modal
Progressive disclosure
Problem
Overcame black-box API limitations.
Designing intuitive interfaces around a vendor’s black-box APIs can be a challenge. The solution had to accommodate rigid, predetermined response formats that don’t always align with the best user experience patterns.
User input
Plan steps
Problem
Partnered with Development to implement detection logic that reduced user confusion.
Another complexity involved our existing alert preference setting that allowed users to receive a notification when they reached a specific credit score. This input created a potential duplicate entry point distinct from our new tool. Working with a developer, I implemented logic that detects when users have both the setting and the new tool, replacing the alert settings input with a call-to-action directing users to the feature page. This approach maintains a single source of truth, with the score set in the primary feature automatically synchronizing to email preferences, eliminating redundancy and potential user confusion.
Existing alert setting resulted in a second unrelated place to enter a credit goal.
New variant alert setting removes input and adds a link to the feature page for in put.
Approach
A/B and usability testing to optimize user flow.
The goal was to enable users to navigate the tool effortlessly, so I created two simple prototypes, and A/B tested the two approaches. Later, the entire flow went through two rounds of usability testing.
Design Decision
Developed a new multi-use pattern.
The progressive disclosure format emerged as the winner from the A/B test, so I designed a new pattern. We had a pattern for this in a legacy library that was still in use, but our implementation team had to apply additional effort to make it match our current one. Once we developed this pattern and added it to our library, it created an opportunity for our implementation team to use it elsewhere, saving time and improving consistency.
Project Task II
Add visual interest and dynamic content.
Problem
Rejected confusing competitor approaches, chose to improve existing chart pattern while addressing design debt.
The competitor interfaces I audited all contained some graphic interface, but I found them all novel and confusing. A lack of visual interest drove them to create unique but confusing interfaces. We had an existing pattern for a chart of the user’s score over time, which I opted to modify by adding a line for the target score. There was also some design debt associated with this pattern, which the developer could address by piggybacking onto this update.
Old: Scale is truncated and context is lost.
New: Full scale is revealed and goal line is added.
Problem
Added simple logic to display tailored progress headlines, solving the API's lack of dynamic content.
After setting a target score and timeline, the API did not contain any user status messaging, leaving the feature static for up to a year. To address this, I wrote several encouraging headlines that reflected the user’s progress toward their goal. Working with a developer, I determined that we could add simple logic to display a headline tailored to the user’s progress.
Approach
Solved API limitations through pattern enhancement and dynamic messaging while addressing design debt.
I balanced simplicity and user engagement by enhancing a pattern and creating dynamic status messaging. This simultaneously allowed for addressing design debt while ensuring the interface remained intuitive despite limited API capabilities.
Design Decision
Balance intuitive design with meaningful content.
To enhance user engagement without overcomplicating the interface, I introduced visual interest by updating an existing chart pattern, adding clarity while allowing a developer to address design debt within the same update. Recognizing that the feature would otherwise remain static for long periods, I also introduced dynamic content by drafting progress-based headlines. I implemented simple logic with a developer to surface these messages, offering users ongoing motivation despite limited API support.
Final screens
Impact
Success metrics & results
Acquired a partner from a competitor
120k unique logins and 19k planner users per day
20% of users that interact with the tool save a goal
Users read 39% of notifications
“
So, for just improving my score as a target goal, this would be really helpful. As someone who declared personal bankruptcy last year, this would be very, very helpful.