Experian Marketplace

Designed first Marketplace dedicated for Experian's iOS app, transforming a basic product listing into a guidance-focused platform. The project integrated personalized insights with credit product recommendations to help consumers make informed financial decisions while maintaining strong business performance.

Client:

Experian Consumer Services

Role:

Lead designer

Year:

2020

The Challenge

Experian's marketplace was damaging user trust by presenting disconnected credit card offers to customers checking their credit scores, creating a perception that product sales were prioritized over financial wellbeing. Users felt the offers were misaligned with their financial situations, despite the majority wanting products tailored to their needs.


Context:

  • Credit card balances reached $800B (2009-2020) and continued climbing

  • Nearly two-thirds (66%) of cardholders didn't understand their available benefits

CHALLENGE 01

65% of users felt they weren't receiving properly curated offers

CHALLENGE 02

75% users wanted products based on relevant perks and benefits

CHALLENGE 03

Experian's practices feels like a "conflict of interest" and "shady"

Outcomes

The redesigned Experian iOS marketplace transformed a fractured trust relationship into a powerful educational platform that aligned business goals with user needs. By shifting from disconnected credit offers to personalized recommendations with integrated financial education, Experian successfully repositioned itself as a trusted financial partner.


We created a true one-stop shop for all things credit cards and loans, bringing together previously siloed products into a unified experience that helped users compare options and make better financial decisions.

ENHANCED USER ENGAGEMENT

Increased marketplace engagement by 23% with personalized recommendations

IMPROVED CONVERSION

Enhanced loan pre-qualification flow drop-off from 25% to 29%

EDUCATIONAL SUCCESS

Successfully integrated educational content with 65% user engagement

CONSOLIDATED EXPERIENCE

Users could now research, compare, and apply for both credit cards and loans in a single cohesive interface

Process

STEP 01

Understanding our user's needs

Research confirmed our earlier findings about users struggling with credit card benefits while actively seeking financial optimization opportunities through savings (63%) and refinancing options (34%).

STEP 02

Data-driven flow optimization 😎

Analysis of the personal loan pre-qualification process revealed only 25% completion rates, with major drop-offs during:




Some context behind the Personal Information drop-off is that based on conversations with consumers and survey responses, there's a lot of hesitation around giving Experian personal data due to the fear of a breach. Many consumers were hit with the Equifax breach. That trauma triggers the fear of providing personal information to a credit bureau like Experian.


I had also conducted usability tests with 6 participants on the revised flow. I wanted to break down each step so that the consumer has more focus on what information to provide and in hopes that the experience is more manageable and less overwhelming.


The revised flow consists of:


  • How will you use your loan?

  • What's most important to you when looking for a loan?

  • How much are you borrowing (with pre-populated amounts + custom field so that they can enter their own value as oppose to using a slider)

  • Personal information (Is this correct?, if not edit)

  • Housing information

  • Income & employment

  • Verify the last 4 digits of your SSN


6/6 of our participants claimed that this flow is significantly more manageable and easier because it lessens the cognitive load of information they have to read through and provide.


These insights guided our redesign decisions for the marketplace, focusing on:


  • Streamlined forms with fewer fields

  • Redesigning the information architecture of the pre-qualification flow to improve the flow of required inputs

  • Clearer progress indicators showing users where they were in the process

  • Contextual help at critical decision points to reduce abandonment

STEP 03

A comprehensive marketplace audit

I thoroughly mapped the entire Marketplace ecosystem on the web app, including the loan API, various financial products, and pre-approved offers. This audit revealed:


  • Disconnected user journeys between credit monitoring and product recommendations

  • Lack of educational content explaining why products were being recommended

  • Poor information hierarchy that prioritized products over user needs


Through iterative wireframing and usability testing, we identified information structures that better aligned with user priorities, placing financial education before product recommendations.



Examples of the wireframing




Solution

We built and designed the first dedicated marketplace for the Experian iOS app, transforming the experience from a product-first to a transparency-first approach. This new marketplace addressed users' financial optimization needs while improving the pre-qualification experience. By leading with personalized insights rather than generic credit card offers, we guided users through a redesigned experience that connected recommendations directly to their financial goals.


Key Solutions:


  1. Transparency-First Approach: Integrated clear explanations throughout the journey, helping users understand why specific products were being recommended based on their financial profile

  2. The oppportunity to redesigned Pre-Qualification Flow: Applied clean iOS patterns and comparison tools to address the specific drop-off points identified in our research:

    • Simplified personal information section (highest drop-off area)

    • Redesigned income and employment verification

    • Streamlined housing information collection

  3. Unified Marketplace Experience: Brought loans into the main interface, ensuring all recommendations connected directly to users' financial objectives and providing transparent information about terms, rates, and benefits

Key takeaways

  • When users understand why products are being recommended to them, they're more likely to engage meaningfully with them

  • Transparency and contextual information drive engagement more effectively than aggressive product promotion

  • Data-driven personalization proves that addressing user needs and business objectives are mutually reinforcing, not exclusive

  • Presenting financial products with transparent terms and conditions transforms relationships from transactional to trustworthy

  • Clear information backing recommendations establishes a new standard for building trust while driving business growth