Sooho Choi's Portfolio

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Making business loans more accessible for restaurant owners

[My Role]

Lead Designer

UXR

[Platform]

Desktop

Mobile web

[Timeline]

6 months

Context

Toast Capital was designed to provide fast and flexible funding specifically for the hospitality industry. It offers capital that restaurant owners by using real time sales data instead of just credit scores. My role was to redesign this experience to make borrowing more accessible for restaurant owners.

Problem

Restaurant owners were struggling to engage with Toast Capital. We saw a 72% bounce rate on the offer page, which triggered a steady decline in our attach rate and overall loan revenue. It was clear that it wasn't building the trust or clarity they needed to move forward.

Bounce Rate

Customer Satisfaction Score

Loan Revenue ($)

User Research & Insights

I initiated and led the research effort by conducting a series of field interviews. Alongside my PM and several engineers, I spoke with both Toast customers and non-customers. These conversations surfaced several important insights:

68% of restaurant owners are financially illiterate

Pain point 1

Confusion over fees caused users to drop off

Users couldn't easily figure out the total cost of the loan or how the fees worked. Because they didn't fully understand what they were signing up for

Pain point 2

Fixed terms caused a lack of flexibility

Fixed offers felt restrictive as it didn't let owners choose their own loan amount or repayment plan. Since every restaurant has different needs, these rigid offers felt like a "take it or leave it" deal.

Design Principles

Build trust through transparency and flexibility

Ability to customize and compare various offers in real-time based on their needs

Provide clarity through education and clear terms

Explain terms, fees, and processes in simple, accessible language to make information easy to understand, not just available.

Design explorations

Option A

Emphasis on repayment rate

Hypothesis: If we emphasize the repayment rate and present less information in a clear, focused way, customers will make faster and more confident decisions.

Option B

Comprehensive loan details view

Hypothesis: If we provide a detailed breakdown of the selected loan, including fees, total repayment, and method, customers will feel more informed and confident.

A/B Testing

After conducting the A/B testing, I narrowed in on a design that outperformed in most metrics. Option B struck the right balance between financial education and customization.

Final Design

Redesigned the loan experience to give restaurant owners more control and a clearer understanding of their loans by giving users the power to customize their loans and see the impact of their choices in real-time. This directly improved our metrics by making the process feel more transparent.

Impact

The customer reception to our sweeping changes was positive. While it took customers some time to become familiar with the new experience, we've hit our business goals.

In Q1 2023 earnings call 📈, Toast CEO announced “Toast Capital has originated over $100 million in total Toast Capital loans”

Bounce Rate

NPS score

+68% YoY

Loan Revenue ($)

+110% YoY

Context

Context

Problem

Problem

Restaurant owners were struggling to engage with Toast Capital. We saw a 72% bounce rate on the offer page, which triggered a steady decline in our attach rate and overall loan revenue. It was clear that it wasn't building the trust or clarity they needed to move forward.

User Research & Insights

User Research & Insights

I initiated and led the research effort by conducting a series of field interviews. Alongside my PM and several engineers, I spoke with both Toast customers and non-customers. These conversations surfaced several important insights:

68% of restaurant owners are financially illiterate

68% of restaurant owners are financially illiterate

68% of restaurant owners are financially illiterate

Confusion over fees caused users to drop off

Confusion over fees caused users to drop off

Confusion over fees caused users to drop off

Fixed terms caused a lack of flexibility

Fixed terms caused a lack of flexibility

Fixed terms caused a lack of flexibility

Design Principles

Build trust through transparency and flexibility

Build trust through transparency and flexibility

Build trust through transparency and flexibility

Provide clarity through education and clear terms

Provide clarity through education and clear terms

Provide clarity through education and clear terms

Design explorations

Design explorations

Emphasis on repayment rate

Comprehensive loan details view

A/B Testing

A/B Testing

After conducting the A/B testing, I narrowed in on a design that outperformed in most metrics. Option B struck the right balance between financial education and customization.

Final Design

Final Design

Redesigned the loan experience to give restaurant owners more control and a clearer understanding of their loans by giving users the power to customize their loans and see the impact of their choices in real-time. This directly improved our metrics by making the process feel more transparent.

Impact

The customer reception to our sweeping changes was positive. While it took customers some time to become familiar with the new experience, we've hit our business goals.

Thank you