Elcap Mortgage

Simplifying home loans: a single, guided digital application that boosts completions by 45%.

My Role

Lead Designer
UI/UX Designer
Front‑End Developer
Senior Web Developer
Product Designer

Challenge

ElCap Mortgage required a secure, conversion-focused digital mortgage application platform capable of transforming a fragmented six-step intake process into a cohesive, guided experience within a highly regulated fintech environment. The existing workflow introduced friction, increased abandonment risk, and lacked consistency across disclosures, email communications, and the borrower portal—ultimately impacting both trust and completion rates. As Product Designer operating at a staff level, I reframed the initiative as a product transformation rather than a UI update, defining a strategy that balanced user experience, regulatory compliance, technical feasibility, and brand cohesion. The objective was to increase application completion, strengthen borrower confidence during a high-stakes financial decision, enforce consistency across all digital touchpoints, and integrate secure e-signature and identity-verification APIs seamlessly into the experience. By aligning business goals, engineering constraints, and user-centered design principles, the project established a scalable, trustworthy, and conversion-optimized mortgage gateway built for long-term product growth..

Key Metrics

Application completions ↑ 45%
Form-abandonment rate ↓30%
Average approval turnaround ↓15%
Digital signature usage ↑ 88%
Customer satisfaction (CSAT) ↑22%

Product Ownership & Delivery

As the sole Product Designer and Technical Lead for Elcap Mortgage’s digital transformation, I led the end-to-end redesign and redevelopment of the company’s mortgage platform. The initiative focused on modernizing an outdated digital presence into a secure, accessible, and performance-optimized experience aligned with borrower trust, regulatory compliance, and business growth objectives.

Rather than treating the engagement as a visual refresh, I approached it as a product redefinition—aligning user needs, SEO strategy, compliance requirements, and brand positioning into a cohesive digital system.

I partnered directly with executive stakeholders to define success metrics, prioritize features, and ensure that product decisions supported lead generation, discoverability, and long-term scalability.

Product Strategy & Execution:

End-to-End Product Lifecycle Ownership: Owned the full product lifecycle—from research and planning through design, development, QA, and deployment—balancing scope, budget, and timeline constraints while maintaining high experience standards.
Content Strategy & Information Architecture Led content audits with stakeholders to identify informational gaps, eliminate redundancies, and restructure content hierarchy around borrower decision-making flows.
Research & Behavioral Insights: Analyzed analytics from the legacy platform to uncover high-intent user paths, high-traffic pages, and navigation bottlenecks. Insights directly informed content prioritization and simplified navigation models.

Key Objectives & Solutions:

Conversion & Discoverability Optimization:Implemented SEO strategies including structured metadata, keyword alignment, and improved semantic hierarchy to increase organic visibility and attract qualified traffic.
Accessibility & Compliance:Designed and developed the platform to meet Section 508 accessibility standards, embedding inclusive design principles into navigation, layout, and form interactions.
Navigation Simplification:Introduced a streamlined one-to-two-click navigation framework to reduce cognitive load and accelerate access to high-value mortgage services.
Mortgage Service Presentation:Redesigned mortgage offerings using fintech best practices to improve clarity, trust signaling, and conversion efficiency.
Design System & Brand Evolution:Refreshed the visual language—including typography, color system, and UI components—to establish a modern, trustworthy, and scalable digital identity.
Performance & Responsive Optimization:Optimized page load speed, mobile responsiveness, and CTA clarity to improve engagement and user flow across devices.

Outcome: The redesigned platform significantly strengthened Elcap Mortgage’s digital credibility and positioned the company for scalable lead acquisition. The new product experience improved discoverability, reduced friction across core inquiry pathways, reinforced brand trust, and established a sustainable digital foundation aligned with business objectives.

Elcap Mortgage main website on a laptop — Brand workshop & wireframe sketches

Research, Planning & Design

As the sole Product Designer and Project Lead for the full rebrand and redevelopment of the Elcap Mortgage digital platform, I led the discovery and strategy phase with a strong focus on aligning user needs, regulatory requirements, and business growth objectives. This phase established the foundation for a scalable, conversion-focused mortgage experience built for long-term performance.

I facilitated structured stakeholder workshops and weekly strategy sessions to uncover pain points within the legacy platform and define measurable product goals. These conversations aligned executive expectations with technical feasibility while ensuring that design decisions supported lead generation, trust-building, and compliance standards.

Product Discovery & Strategic Contributions:

Stakeholder Research & Alignment: Conducted in-depth stakeholder interviews and usability audits to surface operational gaps, brand inconsistencies, and user frustrations within the existing experience. Translated findings into clear product priorities and experience requirements.
Behavioral & Analytics Analysis: Evaluated legacy user behavior data to identify navigation bottlenecks, high-intent pages, and drop-off patterns. Insights directly informed content prioritization and the restructuring of the site’s information architecture.
Competitive & Market Benchmarking: Analyzed mortgage and fintech competitors to identify trust-building UX patterns, disclosure clarity standards, and effective lead-generation strategies.
SEO & Discoverability Strategy: Performed keyword research and structured metadata planning to improve search indexing, organic visibility, and qualified traffic acquisition.
Information Architecture & Navigation Design: Redesigned the platform’s structure around a simplified one-to-two-click model to reduce cognitive load and accelerate access to high-value mortgage services.
Product Presentation Optimization: Designed a conversion-oriented layout for mortgage offerings that emphasized clarity, credibility, and decision support for prospective borrowers.
Prototyping & Validation: Developed high-fidelity wireframes and interactive prototypes to validate navigation logic, test usability assumptions, and gather iterative stakeholder feedback prior to implementation.

Outcome:This research-driven approach produced a clearly defined product strategy, refined information architecture, and validated UX framework that guided full platform redevelopment. The resulting experience strengthened brand credibility, improved accessibility alignment, and positioned Elcap Mortgage with a modern, performance-oriented digital foundation..

Navigation Strategy & Experience Architecture

During the UX discovery phase of the Elcap Mortgage platform redesign, I conducted structured user research, behavioral analysis, and interaction testing to identify systemic friction within the existing navigation model. Findings revealed that users struggled to quickly access high-value content and frequently overlooked critical resources—such as disclosure PDFs and mortgage documentation—due to weak information hierarchy and insufficient visual prioritization.

Further evaluation exposed accessibility gaps within the primary menu system, which lacked clarity, predictable interaction patterns, and support for assistive technologies. These deficiencies created unnecessary cognitive load and reduced user confidence during a financially sensitive decision-making process.

Rather than treating navigation as a UI issue, I approached it as an information architecture and product systems problem requiring structural realignment.

Product-Led Solutions Implemented:

Information Architecture Re-Architecture: Developed a comprehensive site flow and redefined the content hierarchy to align with borrower intent and common decision pathways. This reduced complexity and improved task-oriented navigation.
Accessible Navigation Framework: Redesigned and implemented a fully Section 508–compliant navigation system supporting keyboard accessibility, logical tab order, and screen reader compatibility—embedding accessibility as a foundational product requirement rather than a retrofit.
Content Prioritization & Visibility Strategy: Elevated high-value documentation and key mortgage resources within the user journey to improve discoverability and reduce abandonment risk.
Click-Depth Reduction & Flow Optimization: Restructured core pathways into a simplified one-to-two-click model, decreasing friction and accelerating access to high-intent services.
Interaction Consistency Improvements: Standardized in-window navigation behavior to preserve user context and enhance browser-based usability patterns.
Wayfinding Enhancements: Introduced breadcrumb navigation to support spatial orientation and enable users to retrace steps efficiently within complex informational sections.

Impact:
These structural improvements transformed navigation from a friction point into a strategic asset. The redesigned architecture reduced cognitive load, improved accessibility compliance, and enabled users to locate key mortgage information with greater speed and confidence. The result was a more intuitive, inclusive, and conversion-supportive product experience aligned with both borrower expectations and business objectives.

Graphic of site construction and user navigation — User flow & sitemap diagram

Illustration of roadblocks and solutions — Overcoming stakeholder and budget hurdles

Challenges & Hurdles

The redesign and rebrand of the Elcap Mortgage digital platform involved navigating organizational, operational, and resource-related constraints in addition to the core product transformation. As the sole Product Designer, Developer, and Project Lead, I was responsible not only for defining and delivering the experience, but also for managing risk, aligning stakeholders, and sustaining project momentum in a constrained environment.

This required balancing product quality, regulatory expectations, technical feasibility, and business goals while operating with limited external support.

Key Challenges & Strategic Responses:

Resource & Budget Constraints: The initiative operated within tight financial parameters, limiting access to premium tooling, licensed assets, and external engineering resources. To maintain delivery quality, I architected a scalable, modular design system built on open-source technologies and reusable components. This approach reduced dependency on third-party tools while preserving performance, accessibility, and maintainability standards.
Content Gaps & Workflow Delays: Incomplete and outdated content created blockers during critical development phases. I initiated a structured content discovery and alignment process with stakeholders, defining clear ownership, content standards, and deadlines. This mitigated delays and ensured the redesigned information architecture could be implemented without further disruption.
Stakeholder Misalignment & Communication Risk: Conflicting priorities and inconsistent communication across teams introduced decision-making friction and slowed progress. I established recurring status checkpoints, clarified decision authority, and documented scope boundaries to improve transparency and accountability. This governance structure helped reduce ambiguity and re-establish forward momentum.

Outcome:
Despite operational constraints, the project launched as a cohesive, accessible, and performance-optimized digital product aligned with business and borrower goals. By proactively managing risk, reinforcing communication discipline, and prioritizing scalable design solutions, I ensured delivery quality without compromising user experience or long-term maintainability.

Product Validation & Launch Readiness

As part of the final phase of the Elcap Mortgage digital transformation, I led a comprehensive product validation and quality assurance initiative to ensure the platform met performance, usability, accessibility, and security standards prior to launch. The objective was to deliver a reliable, production-ready experience that preserved borrower trust across all environments and interaction scenarios.

Rather than relying solely on scripted QA, I implemented unmoderated exploratory testing to simulate real-world user behavior. Participants were encouraged to navigate organically and stress system functionality without instruction. This approach surfaced edge cases, usability friction, and interaction breakdowns that may not have emerged through guided testing alone.

Cross-platform validation was conducted across mobile, tablet, and desktop devices, as well as major browsers including Chrome, Safari, Edge, and Firefox. Particular emphasis was placed on validating interactive components critical to lead generation and borrower engagement, including contact forms, service inquiry modules, and secure communication pathways.

Validation Objectives & Risk Areas Addressed:

Cross-Device & Cross-Browser Integrity: Verified responsive behavior, layout consistency, and interaction reliability across viewports and browser environments to ensure a cohesive user experience.
User Flow & Friction Identification: Evaluated navigation pathways and interaction patterns to identify breakdowns that could negatively impact engagement or lead completion.
Search & Discoverability Optimization: Assessed metadata structure, content hierarchy, and indexing behavior to improve organic visibility and search performance.
Data Capture & Security Validation: Confirmed reliability and security of data submission forms, ensuring protected transmission of borrower information and mitigation of potential vulnerabilities.
Mortgage Service Interaction Testing: Stress-tested service inquiry tools to validate functional stability and uninterrupted performance under varied usage conditions.

Outcome:
Insights from this validation phase informed final refinements to layout structure, interaction feedback, asset optimization, and form handling logic. The result was a stable, accessible, and security-conscious digital product designed to support borrower confidence and long-term lead acquisition.

Multidevice QA & usability tests