Experian- CreditLock 2.0
Experian CreditLock allows users to lock their credit report file with the touch of a button in order to prevent identity theft. If someone attempts to access a locked file, users are notified with a real time alert. The new CreditLock feature lets users the option to schedule a future lock or unlock.
Since CreditLock first launched, many competitors have followed up the trend and came out with similar products. In order to differentiate themselves and continue providing value to it's existing customers and draw new subscriptions, the company decided to offer a new set of features.
My role: Product Designer
Team: Colin Frost- Sr. UX Designer
The goal
Aside for implementing the new business requirements for scheduled lock/unlock functionality, this was a great opportunity from a UX perspective to redesign the existing page, clean up the clutter and highlight the CreditLock's value.
The problem
One of the problems the current product was facing was that many users didn’t understand what CreditLock is, why it’s important to keep their files locked and the value it provides.
In addition, the page was text heavy and visually not appealing.
Before
After
The old design- page is text heavy and leaning on FAQ's for users to understand it's core purpose, instead of showing it's functionality through a more intuitive design.
The new design- in addition to a cleaner UI that is consistent with the rest of the product, the new page helps users understand the lock/unlock functionality and value.
Research
After meeting with stakeholders and pm’s and gathering requirements for the project, we started thinking about ways to help users understand what CreditLock is, how it works and why they should upgrade their memberships for that feature/service.
To begin the research, we looked at a few competitors or similar products, analyzing UI, UX, User flow, IA and key features.
Design
The next step was sketching different iterations for the new scheduling feature, first by pen and paper and then prototyping using Sketch and Invision. Since keeping a locked file was highly recommended in order to prevent identity theft, we wanted to give users a friendly reminder to lock their file after they unlocked it. So we implemented Autolock which allows users to select a future lock right after unlocking their file.
Insights & Solutions
This user flow shows the steps taken from natural locked state to selecting 'unlock'- the auto dropdown menu opens and the user can either close and disregard or select a quick preset future lock (or select a specific date).
once they scheduled a future lock they can either cancel or exit.
Toggle vs. button
One of the most frustrating pain points users were facing was seeing the locked icon and right below it the CTA as “unlock your file”. Does that mean users need to unlock if it's locked?
or vice versa? As the call to action contradicts whichever status the credit file is in,
it creates confusion about what step to take and is somewhat counterintuitive to most users.
We started playing with the idea of using a toggle instead of a button. From A/B testings we found that having a toggle is a more intuitive way to turn something on/off than a button as it signifies a quick change, but also an action that is easily reversible.
This simple UI change eliminated any confusion about the current state users' files were in.
Before
After
Connecting the dots
Our assumption was that if users understand the value of having their credit file locked and see how credit inquiries are tied to their lock/unlock status, they would be more inclined to upgrade.
We added a section where users can see if anyone have tried to open a new credit card in their name or applied for loan whether it was locked or not. This helped showing the direct connection between CreditLock and Inquiries.
By adding this section to the page users can see when access was granted or denied to their credit file based on their CreditLock settings (locked or unlocked).
Protection level
The next step was to have a clear way for users to understand what locked file means vs. unlocked and when they should lock/unlock their file. We tried to keep it short and concise and use colors that are universal indicators to whether their protection level is low or high.
(high protection- green, low protection- red).
Locked state vs. unlocked: using color to indicate low protection level vs. high and a quick tip to guide users when they should lock/unlock their credit file.
Copy
Finally, the last part was to cut some of the heavy text of the FAQ’s section so only info that wasn't covered on the right rail sections will show in the FAQ’s.
We edited the copy to be more conversational and eliminated terms that are confusing or credit jargon.
Final design