Website redesign with improved conversion by UX research

Making your dreams come true

Do you dream of travelling through Europe in a beautiful motorhome? Or would you like to spend cosy summer evenings on your new patio? Sometimes you need a loan to make these dreams come true. Applying for a loan can be stressful especially if you don’t understand what you are signing up for, or if some of the terminology used is not entirely clear. So, as a finance provider, how do you keep your application process transparent and easy to use? And how can you demonstrate that you are a reliable party? Directa.nl came to us with these questions, and asked us how they could create a user-friendly and reliable User Experience for their customers.

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Challenge

A website redesign to improve conversion

Solution

Data-driven website redesign supported by UX research

About Directa.nl

With over 25 years of experience, Directa.nl is a trusted provider in the field of loans. Their dedicated team assesses your unique situation to find the most suitable and responsible loan option for you. To ensure an informed decision, they go the extra mile by equipping you with all the necessary information they have.

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Really getting to know your target group

The most important priority for Directa.nl was to focus on their target group, and that’s why we decided to optimise the Directa.nl website using UX research. Our main question was: “What opportunities are there in the orientation and the application phases on the website?”. Using qualitative research methods for user testing, we examined the steps in the customer journey. Representative testers performed task scenarios on the type of device that the preliminary research showed to be most important. They also answered various questions. In this way, we examined not only the user-friendliness of the website, but also the target group’s decision making criteria and their uncertainties.

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“At Directa.nl we put the customer first. We’ve moved away from assumptions and now the target group is involved in all changes we make to our website. You can see the results, the conversion rate increased by 10.49%.”

Sander Halewijn, marketer at Directa.nl

Changes based on research results

User tests revealed that there was a lot of room for improvement on the Directa.nl website. We made several changes to the website based on these research results.

Examples are:

Finding what you are looking for quickly

We updated the website to modern design standards with a focus on usability. In this respect, it is important that users can find what they are looking for quickly. This research formed the basis for the decision that Directa.nl and iO took to make the calculation tool easier to find and use.

Reliability

The UX research results also demonstrated that users, when they’re assessing information about Directa.nl, judge the website and the services that they provide based upon its reliability. To demonstrate this, we included contact options and review scores on every page, alongside information about Directa.nl.

Applying for a loan without the small print

Furthermore, it emerged that the target group valued clarity and transparency. That’s why the calculator adjusts the monthly rate in real time if a consumer chooses a different term. This makes it easier for the consumer to select the ideal combination. Another new function in the calculator is the question “How is the interest calculated?”. If you click on the question, you will immediately see an interest table with more information about the interest rates, without having to navigate to another page.

The results speak for themselves

27,72%

Decrease in bounce rate

40,07%

Increase in session duration

10,49%

Increase in conversion percentage

43,71%

Increase in the number of completed applications

Want to know more about our UX-research solutions?

Camiel Baltussen - Commercial Director The Netherlands, iO The Netherlands

Optimising the customer journey

After iO and Directa.nl examined the first steps of the customer journey our focus shifted to improving the User Experience of the last two steps of the customer journey:

The Document Upload Portal, where consumers upload documents that are required for the loan application. Think for example of an identity document or bank statements.
The self-service environment, where customers have access to an overview of their loan and can change their data.

With implementation of these steps, Directa.nl optimised the entire customer journey, from lead to customer, and in doing so, they gave conversion an enduring and authentic boost.