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

Design and develop a secure, responsive mortgage application gateway that condensed a six-step form into a single guided experience, integrated e-signature and ID-verification APIs, and enforced brand consistency across digital disclosures, email templates, and the borrower portal. The target: boost form completions and customer trust.

Key Metrics

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

Responsibilities & Resolutions

As the sole Designer and Developer on the Elcap Mortgage website redesign, I led the end-to-end transformation of the company’s outdated digital presence into a modern, accessible, and performance-driven WordPress website. Working closely with stakeholders, I was responsible for reimagining the user experience, strengthening the brand identity, and enhancing technical functionality to increase client engagement and drive qualified traffic.

Rebranding Contributions:

Gathering and auditing content directly from stakeholders to identify informational gaps and prioritize content hierarchy.
Creating wireframes, high-fidelity mockups, and interactive prototypes to guide the client through iterative feedback and usability validation.
Analyzing analytics from the legacy website to understand user behavior, identify high-traffic pages, and inform content placement and navigation strategies.

I managed the full project lifecycle—from research and planning to design, development, testing, and deployment—ensuring all deliverables were completed on time and within budget, despite legacy challenges.

This project resulted in a significantly improved digital footprint for Elcap Mortgage, enhancing their online presence and providing a user-centric experience that aligns with business goals.

Key Objectives & Solutions:

SEO Optimization: Implemented foundational SEO strategies including keyword targeting, optimized meta tags, and improved content structure to boost visibility across search engines.
508 Compliance: Designed and developed the site to meet accessibility standards, ensuring inclusive usability for all users.
Streamlined Navigation: Introduced a simplified, one-to-two click navigation structure that enhanced user flow and reduced cognitive load.
Product Display Optimization: Researched best practices to design a clean, conversion-friendly layout for mortgage product offerings and services.
Visual Branding: Refreshed the visual language of the site, including typography, color palette, and graphic elements, to present a more modern and trustworthy brand presence.
Performance & UX Enhancements: Prioritized responsive design, load speed, and clear call-to-actions to improve overall user experience across devices.

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

Research, Planning & Design

As the sole designer and project manager for the complete rebrand and redevelopment of the Elcap Mortgage website, I led the Research, Planning, and Design phase with a user-centered approach. This foundational stage was critical in aligning stakeholder expectations with technical feasibility and long-term business goals.

To ensure all requirements were met, I maintained continuous communication with stakeholders through structured weekly meetings. These sessions allowed us to identify key pain points of the legacy website and define a clear strategic direction for the redesign.

Key Contributions During This Phase:

Conducted stakeholder interviews and usability audits to gather insights on business needs and user frustrations with the legacy site.
Performed competitive analysis and keyword research to guide SEO improvements, including enhanced metadata, content structure, and search indexing.
Analyzed legacy user behavior to identify navigation bottlenecks and inform a streamlined content hierarchy.
Researched digital best practices for mortgage product presentation and user engagement in financial services.
Designed an intuitive, conversion-focused product layout that simplified decision-making for prospective clients.
Prioritized navigation efficiency by designing a one-to-two click structure, improving access to key services and reducing bounce rates.
Developed high-fidelity wireframes and visual mockups to prototype the user interface, validate navigation flows, and gather client feedback.

These efforts laid a strategic foundation for the site's full redevelopment, resulting in an experience that is both visually compelling and highly functional—improving brand perception, accessibility, and user engagement across platforms.

Navigation Through the Eyes of the User

During the UX discovery phase of the Elcap Mortgage website redesign, I conducted extensive user research and interaction testing to uncover key pain points in the existing navigation structure. Insights revealed that users were struggling to locate important content quickly and were often bypassing essential resources, such as downloadable PDF documents, due to poor visibility and unintuitive site structure.

Further analysis exposed accessibility shortcomings, including a menu system that lacked clarity and did not support users with disabilities—resulting in an inconsistent and frustrating user experience.

Key Solutions Implemented:

Developed a comprehensive flowchart and updated information architecture to reorganize content in a user-centric manner.
Redesigned and implemented an intuitive, fully 508-compliant navigation menu to improve clarity, access, and usability for all users.
Increased the visibility and prioritization of essential documents and links, placing them in more accessible locations within the user journey.
Simplified access to core services by reducing click depth and enabling a more direct, goal-oriented path through the site.
Ensured in-window navigation functionality to maintain context and enhance usability of the browser’s back button.
Introduced breadcrumb navigation to support orientation and allow users to easily retrace their steps across the site.

These changes dramatically improved the site’s overall usability, making content more discoverable while delivering a smoother, more accessible browsing experience—ultimately aligning with user needs and stakeholder goals.

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 rebranding of the Elcap Mortgage website came with a unique set of challenges that extended beyond technical requirements and user experience. As the sole Designer, Developer, and Project Manager, I was responsible for navigating organizational obstacles and driving the project to completion despite considerable resistance and constraints.

Key Challenges Faced:

Budget Limitations: Significant funding constraints restricted access to premium tools, licensed assets, and specialized development resources. This required a resourceful approach, relying on open-source technologies and scalable design systems to stay within budget without sacrificing quality.
Content Scarcity: The project faced delays due to incomplete or outdated content from previous phases. To address this, I initiated a structured content discovery and collection process with stakeholders, streamlining workflows to avoid further setbacks.
Internal Misalignment & Communication Gaps: Conflicting priorities among external teams and inconsistent communication led to periods of stalled progress. I implemented recurring status meetings, clarified roles and expectations, and maintained transparent documentation to ensure alignment and accountability.

Despite these challenges, I remained focused on delivering a site that was user-first, accessible, and performance-optimized. My ability to adapt, problem-solve, and maintain clear communication helped guide the project over the finish line, resulting in a successful launch that exceeded both design and functional expectations.

Testing & Quality Assurance

As part of the final development phase of the Elcap Mortgage website, I led a thorough testing and quality assurance process to ensure optimal performance, usability, and accessibility across all platforms. The goal was to validate that the site delivered a seamless and consistent user experience regardless of device, browser, or user behavior.

We conducted unmoderated exploratory testing, encouraging users to freely navigate the site and attempt to "break" functionality through natural and unpredictable interactions. This approach allowed us to identify usability issues, navigation breakdowns, and potential system vulnerabilities without guiding user behavior.

Cross-platform testing was performed on a wide range of devices (mobile, tablet, desktop) and modern browsers (Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox) to ensure consistent responsiveness, layout integrity, and accessibility. Special attention was paid to interactive elements, including the contact form, product interest modules, and secure communication points.

Testing Objectives:

Validate the site’s responsiveness and cross-browser compatibility to ensure a cohesive user experience across all viewports.
Identify opportunities to optimize site visibility and performance for public audiences and stakeholders, using real-world feedback loops.
Evaluate search index behavior and content discoverability to improve overall SEO performance.
Confirm the reliability of data capture forms and security protocols to safeguard user information and mitigate potential threats.
Test user interactions with mortgage service tools to ensure they performed without errors or interruptions across environments.

This hands-on testing process helped fine-tune the final product, ensuring it was not only functional but also intuitive, inclusive, and secure—positioning Elcap Mortgage for improved user engagement and long-term digital success.

Multidevice QA & usability tests