Originate is Indicina's flagship loan management platform,
enabling lenders — from microfinance banks to digital lending
startups — to originate, assess, disburse and track loans at scale
across Africa.
When I joined as Senior UX Designer, the platform had grown
rapidly in functionality but the interface hadn't kept pace.
Credit officers were spending excessive time navigating complex
workflows, and lenders were struggling with adoption.
My mandate was to redesign the platform from the ground up —
without disrupting live operations.
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Platform Type
B2B SaaS · Credit Infrastructure · Loan Management System
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Primary Users
Loan officers, credit analysts, lender admins across African
financial institutions
Problem
A powerful engine with a confusing cockpit
Despite Originate's technical sophistication, users were
struggling to extract value from the platform. Onboarding new
credit officers took days. Loan application reviews required
navigating 6+ screens. Key metrics were buried under layers of
navigation.
"Credit officers were spending more time fighting the interface
than actually reviewing applications — every extra minute costs
a loan applicant."
Fragmented Workflows
Loan review required jumping across multiple disconnected
screens with no clear status visibility.
Slow Onboarding
New credit officers needed extensive training before becoming
productive, increasing cost-to-serve.
Hidden Insights
Performance data existed but was not surfaced in ways that
enabled quick decision-making.
Research
Understanding the people behind the screen
I conducted a mixed-methods research sprint over 3 weeks,
combining contextual interviews, task analysis, and analytics
review to uncover where users were losing time and confidence.
AO
Adaeze Okonkwo
Senior Credit Officer
"I know what I need to do — I just can't find where to do it.
Every morning I'm clicking through the same five screens
before I can even start reviewing applications."
Efficiency-drivenHigh volumeMobile-first
EI
Emeka Ibe
Lending Operations Manager
"I need to see the full picture — disbursements, delinquency,
team performance — without downloading three separate
reports."
Data-drivenOversight focusTime-pressured
Key findings: Users spent an average of 4.2
minutes per application review due to navigation complexity. 68%
reported uncertainty about whether their actions had been saved.
Export-to-PDF was the most-used workaround for sharing performance
data.
Process
From messy insights to clear decisions
01
Discovery & Audit
Audited all existing screens against task flows. Identified
14 friction points and 3 critical drop-off moments across
the loan lifecycle.
02
Information Architecture Rethink
Restructured navigation around user jobs-to-be-done. Reduced
primary nav items from 9 to 5. Consolidated 6 screens into 1
unified loan review workspace.
03
Wireframing & Concept Testing
Created 3 competing layout concepts. Ran moderated concept
tests with 8 credit officers. Selected the approach reducing
task completion time by 43% in prototype testing.
04
High-Fidelity Design & System
Built full high-fidelity screens and a reusable component
library in Figma — 80+ components enabling future features
to ship 40% faster.
05
Usability Testing & Iteration
Two rounds of moderated usability testing before handoff,
iterating on dashboard hierarchy, filter interactions, and
bulk action patterns.
Solution
A command centre for modern lenders
The redesigned platform surfaces the right information at the
right moment — making it trivial for credit officers to process
applications and managers to track performance without leaving
their primary view.
Originate — live loan metrics, application pipeline and trend
analysis in one view
📊
Unified Performance Dashboard
All key loan metrics visible at a glance. No more
export-to-PDF workarounds.
⚡
Streamlined Application Review
6 screens collapsed into 1 unified workspace, reducing average
review time from 4.2 min to under 2 min.
🔧
Rules Engine Interface
Complex credit decisioning logic translated into a visual
rules builder non-technical managers can configure.
🗂️
Reusable Design System
80+ components — tables, cards, badges, form elements — giving
engineering a consistent, documented library.
Outcomes
Results that moved the business
Within the first quarter post-launch, the redesigned platform
delivered measurable improvements across every key metric.
₦3B+Additional loan approvals
30%Faster application processing
80%Onboarding efficiency gain
"The new interface has genuinely changed how our team works.
Reviews that used to take half a morning now happen before our
first coffee break."
— Lending Operations Manager, Indicina client
Learnings
What this project taught me
Complexity doesn't have to be complicated. Good
IA can absorb system complexity so users never have to feel it.
Design systems are a product too. Investing
early in a component library paid compound dividends — every
subsequent feature shipped faster.
Validate with real users. Testing revealed
users wanted more confidence their actions worked — state
feedback mattered more than navigation depth.
Credit officers are power users. Designing for
high-frequency professionals means optimising for speed and
precision, not just simplicity.
