Turning a cold, text-heavy loan listing into a trusted global loan assistant for international students, on web and mobile.
Role
Product Designer
Industry
Fintech · Lending
Timeline
4 weeks
Platforms
Web · Mobile
Project overview & design approach
The redesign turns the stress of funding a global education into a clear, empowering financial journey. A crisp, globally accessible UI, human-centred guidance and simple comparison tools replace institutional coldness with warmth and clarity.
The platform positions Nomad Credit as a trusted cross-border companion, so students feel supported, confident and ready to plan their education from anywhere in the world.
Problem statement
A loan directory, not a guided product.
International students applying for global education loans face an overwhelming, institutional and emotionally draining process. Across web and mobile, the existing Nomad Credit experience worked as a flat, text-heavy listing platform rather than a guided financial product. That cognitive friction caused severe drop-offs at the most important conversion points.
What was broken
Loan options read like a directory. Key numbers were buried in copy, forms were long on mobile, and the document upload step gave no feedback, so students gave up right when they were closest to applying.
The goal
Transform Nomad Credit from a passive, intimidating listing directory into a trusted, supportive and seamless global loan assistant that cuts application friction and speeds up conversion.
Impact, before and after
Document upload drop-off15%Down to 15% with a micro-step upload checklist.Before: 42%
Time to compare loans45 secUnder 45 seconds with a dual-column comparison layout.Before: 4.2 min
Mobile form completion60%+Boosted to 60%+ with sliders and minimal inputs.Before: 25%
Drag the slider to compare the legacy experience with the redesign.
User research & discovery
No assumptions. Students and business, side by side.
To avoid building on assumptions, I ran a deep-dive research phase that balanced the needs of students with the goals of the business. Cross-referencing student insights with the commercial goals of cross-border finance stakeholders showed exactly where the legacy platform was failing.
12Deep-dive interviews
180+Survey responses
Stakeholder alignment
Worked with product managers and business development to find operational bottlenecks. The business needed more lead-to-application conversions, while backend teams saw incomplete document uploads stalling lender approvals.
Core pain points
Affinity mapping synthesis
Pain 01
Emotional & psychological anxiety
Insight: students aren't just comparing interest rates, they're managing the stress of a major life change. The cold, institutional UI made that anxiety worse.
Pain 02
Choice friction & option paralysis
Insight: APR, processing fees and moratorium terms were hidden in dense copy, so students opened multiple tabs or spreadsheets to compare offers by hand.
Pain 03
Administrative fatigue: the upload wall
Insight: no real-time feedback, no progress bar and no reason given for each document. This drove the 42% drop-off at the KYC and upload stage.
What the survey said
Clarity and mobile usability came first
68%
felt completely overwhelmed by financial jargon, like fixed vs variable APR and moratorium periods.
74%
preferred applying on mobile but abandoned existing tools because the forms were poorly optimised.
81%
said prominent bank partner logos and verified student reviews were the #1 trust factor.
User persona
Designing for Rahul.
Rahul balances a software engineering job with planning his master's abroad. He wants loan options with clear financial breakdowns and comparisons he can trust.
RS
Rahul Sharma
24 · Software engineer · Bengaluru
Rahul thrives on upskilling and career growth. Between a demanding job and university admissions, he shortlists international master's programmes, looks for vetted funding with competitive rates, and needs clear fees and processing timelines for a smooth move abroad.
Needs
Transparent rates and flexible repayment on international loans
Side-by-side comparison with no hidden fees
Step-by-step clarity through KYC document upload
Problems
Complicated financial jargon
Cluttered, dense offer listings
Anxiety over opaque processing times
Goals
Stress-free higher education funding
Effortless application tracking
The best cross-border APR
Business goals
User confidence, turned into business growth.
A frictionless micro-step flow and clean comparison tools cut choice friction, moving document drop-off from 42% to 15% and driving a 35% lift in lead-to-application conversion.
A premium visual overhaul and real-time status tracking build instant international trust and cut support tickets by 25%, while speeding up approvals and empowering B2B channel partners.
GoalAccelerate the move from casual browser to active loan applicant.
Replacing complex multi-input forms with minimal inputs, icon-based profile cards and predictive sliders removes the friction that triggers form abandonment, directly lifting top-of-funnel conversion.
GoalDecrease the volume of repetitive questions reaching the support desk.
An intuitive document checklist, real-time application status and plain-language tooltips for financial terms tell students exactly what to do next, removing the anxiety that makes them contact support.
GoalEstablish Nomad Credit as a premium, credible cross-border financial brand.
A premium purple-blue fintech palette, prominent partner logos and high-impact testimonial cards give students psychological safety while they make a high-stakes financial decision.
GoalKeep students loyal across a multi-year academic journey.
Turning the dashboard from a temporary listing site into an active financial companion keeps users engaged after approval, opening the way to products like student forex or global bank accounts.
GoalHelp B2B partners and study-abroad consultants submit and track leads easily.
Clear data visualisation and shareable loan comparison links let partners confidently recommend Nomad Credit, driving high-volume organic distribution.
GoalReduce the days between application and lender approval.
Comparison cards with a clear hierarchy, showing APR, term and payments up front, help students decide faster and send clean applications to lenders with no back-and-forth.
Visual language
Premium, global, and easy to trust.
A purple-blue fintech palette and one geometric, globally available typeface. Prominent partner logos and testimonial cards give students the psychological safety a high-stakes decision needs.
aAbB
Poppins
A geometric sans-serif, free and open source on Google Fonts, so it renders consistently for students in every country and on every platform.
ThinRegularSemi-BoldBold
Wireframes
Lo-fi first, structure before style.
Hi-fi designs · Mobile
Apply, compare, track. All in your pocket.
A short profile with sliders, personalised offers, a side-by-side comparison of up to two lenders, one application to both, and a live status tracker that says exactly what to do next.
Hi-fi designs · Website
Financing dreams of global nomads.
The new website leads with trust: partner lenders up front, comparable loan cards with APR, amount and term, a four-step "how it works", and a clear Nomad vs traditional comparison.
What was delivered
From brief to handoff.
4 weeks · Web + mobile. The main pieces of the final design:
User research, persona and business goals
Wireframes for the key funding and comparison flows
