Latitude Financial Services is one of Australia’s largest non-bank lenders offering consumer finance through personal loans, credit cards, insurance and interest free retail finance. In 2020 Latitude launched their interest rate quote experience which delivered much needed price transparency to both customers and brokers across Australia and New Zealand. As a Senior Product Designer, I worked collaboratively with our product, tech and business partners within the Lending business to tackle project complexities with a thoughtful and systematic approach.
The problem
Latitude offers risk-based pricing where personal loan interest rates are personalised to each customer based on their credit history and current financial circumstances. However, customers regularly expressed significant concern around not knowing what their interest rate will be until after submitting a full loan application, which in turn impacts their credit rating and may present an undesirable rate.
The objective
Immersed in the end-to-end product design process, I led the design phase to clearly understand the pain points customers were experiencing in the absence of this product, what the customer needs to achieve their goals and the value proposition we aim to provide.
As the quoting journey is such an important part of the acquisition stage of the customer lifecycle it was imperative to craft an experience that is simple, quick and intuitive. Early storymapping sessions helped the team thoroughly understand the current state and touchpoints, nuances between customer and broker journeys and between Australia and New Zealand regions, break down functionality across complex systems, identify risks and challenges early on, and align delivery scope to the identified customer needs.
I collaborated closely with our PO, BA and tech team to unpack customer problems, understand the current system functionality, requirements and technical feasibility, and helped stakeholders empathise with our users by amplifying the voice of the customer in every conversation. In a challenging stakeholder environment, it was crucial to effectively communicate design rationale and reiterate the experience vision in every engagement to promote the product direction whilst balancing both customer and business needs.
Conducting research allowed us to validate our working hypotheses with customers regularly throughout the project. I co-led 5 rounds of remote research with our research partner seeking feedback on prototypes and published product, gathering learnings from over 80 customers and brokers using a combination of moderated and unmoderated usability tests. Promoting a feedback-driven culture and encouraging team members to develop hypotheses to validate was imperative in showing the inherent value research and design has to achieving business outcomes.
I successfully balanced the needs of the customer with the overall business strategy, synthesised research insights into actionable recommendations, and supported implementation by delivering detailed UX/UI web designs and conducting thorough build reviews to identify issues. All in all, I relished the opportunity to work collaboratively with my cross-functional team to contribute to the direction and success of the product.
The outcome
Our new quoting experience provides certainty to customers in an upfront quotation of their personal loan interest rate by asking a few quick questions about their circumstances and credit history to provide them with a personalised interest rate and repayment amount without affecting their credit score.
The launch of our quoting tool had an incredible impact on our digital application experience resulting in an NPS uplift of +40% from baseline just 5 weeks after launch and an increase of +22 NPS points from the previous year.
Once implemented, I regularly promoted a continuous iteration mindset within our squad and leveraged analytics, customer feedback and Hotjar screen recordings to identify opportunities to enhance the experience. Evangelising the partnership model and showcasing the value of customer centricity was crucial to not only elevating the design practice within the organisation but to contributing to the success of a product that has a meaningful impact on millions of customers.
Website: Latitude Financial Services (AU)
Latitude Financial Brokers (AU)
Gem Finance (NZ)
2019 saw the launch of Sportsbet’s exciting new iOS app. I was responsible for designing the core Registration journey for the new platform, coordinate team briefings and design walkthroughs, communicating detailed UI specifications to teams and running user acceptance testing.
A critical customer journey such as Registration needed to be quick, frictionless and intuitive. I was able to leverage the research insights and visual framework established during the Website redesign to deliver a significantly improved experience, in a lean and efficient manner. Being methodical in my approach to design I identified and addressed a number of pain points in the Registration flow including introducing more helpful error messaging, improving the address lookup process and refining text field input rules.
Since the launch, I’ve designed a number of multi-channel experiences such as NBA Player Hub, Targeted Pricing and Same Game Multi enhancements that leverage native interactions and gestures. I’ve also completed several holistic reviews of core areas of the app to highlight any significant changes in experience or functionality for use by our Customer Service team.
iOS App Store: Sportsbet
Sportsbet is Australia’s premier online bookmaker offering wagering opportunities on a variety of racing, sporting and entertainment events. Joining Sportsbet as an Experience Designer in 2017, I was part of a multi-disciplinary team of developers, researchers, product owners, analysts and designers that delivered a richer and highly performant online experience for our customers that use web as their platform of choice.
Working in a fast-paced agile environment, I was immersed in the end-to-end product development process from ideation to delivery for a multitude of customer facing products from Today’s Racing to Homepage.
Throughout the duration of the responsive website replatforming, I helped solve complex customer problems, translated research findings into actionable recommendations and crafted intuitive multi-channel betting experiences. Using Material Design as the framework for the visuals, it was important to ensure Sportsbet’s bold and playful branding was reflected throughout the website’s overall design whilst also delivering intuitive experiences for our punters. It is not only essential to take the time to understand the ultimate product execution but the wider business aspects of it.
As an advocate for collaborative design thinking, customer-centricity and validating concepts through testing, I was able to gather meaningful customer generated insights through a range of research mediums including face-to-face usability testing, card sorts, guerrilla testing, surveys and remote online testing. Whether ideas were expressed in a simple paper sketch or detailed interactive prototypes, the insights generated allowed us to better understand user goals and pain points, and helped mediate common challenges of balancing content priorities.
Artefacts such as wireframes, heuristic evaluations, journey maps, IA diagrams, user stories and detailed UI specs were effective in persuasively communicating complex concepts across a range of business audiences. I also regularly facilitated design workshops to unpack the challenge at hand, align stakeholders on project goals and scope, understand customer needs and to allow the team to rapidly ideate concepts, rather than diving immediately into solution mode. Customer mindsets and personas were also instrumental in identifying user motivations, behaviours and pain points and to help stakeholders empathise with our customers throughout the journey.
Encouraging UX best practice, maintaining quality design systems and championing the customer throughout the design journey is all in a day’s work.
Website: Sportsbet
Coffey commenced a major digital transformation project in 2015 with the intent of maximising knowledge capture, analysis and creation to lead to deeper insights and innovation. Our vision was to enable our client’s ambitions by bringing data to life and delivering a memorable experience when interacting with our brand.
The team delivered an interactive prototype that combined multiple data sources to help clients manage risk and uncover opportunities earlier.
Working in an agile environment I collaborated closely with the team’s Data Leads, Service Designer, UI Designer and UX Designer during the 70-day proof of concept phase. Using human-centred design methodologies we were able to rapidly deliver artefacts that could be tested and validated with clients.
As I have a deep understanding of Coffey’s visual identity, I helped define the overall look and feel of the solution and the different data visualisation techniques that aided in having meaningful client conversations.
Having researched data visualisation best practices, provided graphics support for the interactive prototypes and helped translate user-testing insights into actionable UI updates, I then used this knowledge and other data sources to synthesise project insights into an end-to-end customer journey map – a first for the company.
Coffey is a professional services consultancy delivering technical excellence and innovative solutions to manage complex risk in challenging environments.
In 2012, as a response to findings from extensive client and market research, Coffey underwent a brand refresh led by Principals Brand Agency that shifted the company’s business structure from sub-brand to master-brand strategy, developed a renewed client-focused vision, and established a new visual, verbal and digital identity.
Coffey rolled out their newly refreshed branding globally in 2013 and required the services of a Graphic Designer to produce branded collateral and work closely with the Brand Manager to help lead the transition internally. Working in the Marketing and Communications team, I ensured a high level of brand integrity was maintained across the business through the creation of engaging visual communication collateral that promoted the brand to the utmost highest standard.
A significant part of this role also involved the design, production and management of internal and external multimedia assets, brand guidelines, campaign marketing collateral, templates and creation of support infographics for multi-million dollar bids.
Since the commencement of Coffey’s brand refresh early in 2013, I have helped support a global rebrand, produced high quality graphics for a number of successful multi-million dollar proposals, led the brand refresh for offshore subsidiary company MSI, and applied UX design principles to a major digital transformation project.
Branding: Principals Brand Agency
Awards: 2013 Design 100 Awards
The Coffey International global rebrand was a finalist in the 2013 Sydney Design Awards | Graphic Design – Corporate Identity and Branding
2014 Rebrand 100 Global Awards
Coffey was awarded a recognition at the 2014 Rebrand 100 Global Awards
In 2015, I completed the User Experience Design (UXD) course offered by General Assembly, which has helped me to develop the following skills:
/ Understanding users’ problems through research and empathy
/ Communicating designs through deliverables like personas, sitemaps, user flows, wireframes and
/ Presenting, defending and critiquing design decisions
At the commencement of the course we had the chance to work on a project of our own choosing, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to bring an idea I had been mulling over for a little while to life.
MoorMe provides boaties with an intuitive online platform for comparing berth prices and a more efficient way to book a berth. Currently there is no solution that aggregates overnight pricing information, provides the ability to filter marinas via services / amenities or shows marina berth availability for the 350 marinas in Australia.
Throughout the project’s journey I leveraged my design thinking skills and built upon my knowledge of human centred design principles to discern the feasibility, viability and desirability of the proposed service. By applying UXD principles throughout the process I was able to identify the core problem experienced by user, conduct meaningful research, engage in meaningful two-way conversations with users, develop useful personas informed by research, and gain valuable insights into human behaviour.
MoorMe has also been recognised as one of Australia's most innovative services and ranked 39th in one of the largest innovation awards of its kind in Australia – the Anthill Magazine SMART 100 Index 2016. MoorMe also placed 12th on the SMART 100 Readers’ Choice Winners list.
Download MoorMe UXD Project PDF
View the General Assembly Gallery
Westpac’s Customer Experience (CX) team use visual communication as a key research tool, driver of idea generation and strategic change agent. This project addressed a real opportunity within the team to better identify appropriate visual communication strategies to use with their business stakeholders.
I spent 3 months working with Westpac’s CX team in Sydney as part of my yearlong Honours project. The assignment focused on discovering effective means to express information about CX research to business stakeholders, how visual deliverables can improve communication in the specific context of a pilot project, and the value the CX team can provide to the wider Westpac business.
The brief was to create a set of 3 magazine advertisement concepts promoting the upcoming Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. I decided that using subtle elements of food and wine in the actual graphics would best represent the concept of a food congregation and successfully engage readers. As the event is held in Melbourne, fashioning a string of noodle, grains of rice and a splash of red wine into the shape of Victoria would be instantly recognisible particularly when accompanied by a punchy tag line.
For this class project we were tasked to design an outdoor media campaign for a non-profit organisation. The set of 3 billboard advertisements for DonateLife have been designed to encourage people to become an organ donor. The most important feature was to include a succinct message that can be communicated to audiences in a few seconds given these advertisements would be placed adjacent to a highway. The twist on words in the tag line, bold graphic and the sincere call to action successfully delivers the target message in a short period of time.
Jesmond Public School wanted to celebrate its multicultural roots by producing a quality cookbook showcasing the students, their families and their exquisite dishes. I saw this as a fantastic opportunity to give back to my local community by offering my creative expertise to the project. I was engaged to design the 85 page publication ‘Around the World in a Lunchbox’ whilst completing my Honours year. The overall design was inspired by a scrapbook theme and contains Polaroid framed photos, handwritten typefaces and textured backgrounds. The cookbook was extremely well received in the local community and has sold over 500 copies in the Hunter region.
The class brief for this project was to research an Australian brand and promote 3 of the company’s products in a magazine advertising campaign. My intention was to use positive and negative space, with the addition of a block colour, to present a bold, high contrast layout that would stand out in a magazine spread. The white space in each of the designs depicts a crop of a popular utensil and a slogan that is often associated with the respective product.
This set of 6 type-based postcards was designed for the Typographic Foundry Workshop. The class brief was quite flexible regarding the overall graphic, with the only requirement being that the design needed to feature typography as the dominant theme. I believed this would be a great opportunity to experiment with a decorative typeface and inspirational messages. The expression and associated graphic complements one another, with the bold, solid colour palette generating an appealing aesthetic.
Annual reports are an important means of communication for many companies. 2014 was the first year Coffey brought the entire design process in-house after I proposed engaging a more cost-effective approach, resulting in a smooth consultation process, significantly lower production costs and a professional, high quality end product. I coordinated the design and print production process for the 2014 and 2015 Annual Report and Reviews, from conceptualising initial ideas to the supply of print-ready and electronic artwork.
The company’s operational activities, strategic direction and achievements shifts each year, requiring new design concepts to be devised to align with the renewed focus. As a designer that has an intimate understanding of the corporate brand identity and design processes, this allowed me to methodically monitor each stage of the development, ensuring that all branding guidelines were adhered to, all changes were incorporated and if there were any potential issues that they were mitigated early.
It was imperative to design a report that is not only sophisticated and attractive, but informative, readable and engaging. An entirely new headline and illustration set was developed for the 2015 report to support the publication’s message, with the bold use of colour throughout transforming simple charts and figures into compelling graphical visualisations.
The overall design process and cost saving initiative was highly commended and looked upon favourably by the company’s Board of Directors and Group Executive team.
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve had a passion for photography. It’s always been a hobby of mine. I see beauty in even the most mundane things, so wherever I go you’ll see me snapping photos.
Coffey held its first global leadership conference in Sydney 2014. This called for an interactive, cross platform solution to be developed to communicate essential information about the manner in which the business operates to the company’s top leaders. I developed the branding for the event, designed and created a fully responsive website that can be easily accessed on any device, provided graphic support for all conference presenters and generated a range of promotional material such as posters, templates, icons and art packs.
I’ve always enjoyed getting my hands dirty and just drawing for the sake of it. Whether it be with graphite or charcoal, achieving the desired shadow effect or getting a facial curve just right, drawing has been a somewhat therapeutic activity. The drawings seen here are of two characters from one of my favourite television shows ‘Supernatural’, and a sketch of a nude model I drew in a live art class.
2015 saw the launch of Coffey’s new learning and development platform. A bespoke identity was developed for the program, with the primary illustration graphic characterising the collaborative theme of the initiative. A variety of branded collateral, from email announcements to report templates, was also created to support the new identity.
