HSBC wanted more of a retail approach to their first-time buyer mortgage offer. The existing mortgage section was lost in the vast amount of content on their main website. They wanted the new design to have a standout appeal while still looking part of the HSBC brand.
We spoke to customers and we identified that buying your first house is both exciting and stressful and we were keen to focus on the feeling of excitement that's part of finding your ideal first home.
We engaged in a discovery process to learn as much as we could on the potential users of the mortgage section of the HSBC main website. This guided us in developing user needs and opportunities for elevating the user experience.
We brainstormed ideas and identified key user journeys for the new mortgage section, based on our user input and data gathered from the discovery phase.
We also proposed a creative UI solution to HSBC that was based on an 'isometric' illustrative style. This lent the process a visual appeal that met our target users’ expectations but also created a very easy to understand navigation metaphor based around a town map. An idea that had relevance and gave a playful and accessible feel to the serious business of house buying.
We engaged the services of specialist illustrator Rod Hunt who worked our proposal into a style for the bank, based on the pitched proposal but with a more unique feel, and extending the metaphor into a couple's search for their ideal home.