For the last 27 years, Mortgage Choice has been helping many Australians buy their homes through their network of brokers. When it came time to create a new digital platform, Mortgage Choice enlisted Pollen to help them address the changing needs of their new and existing customers, the way they explore their borrowing power and connect with a broker to find a financial product that best fits their needs.

The emergence of new “Neo” banks has forced many traditional financial services to strengthen their online offering. We designed the user experience to drive online users to broker enquiries and increase conversion and engagement, ultimately supporting brokers in generating leads and life-long customers.

From user journeys to UX designs, new IA navigation and front end development, we continued to validate with all users, customers and brokers throughout the process, ensuring solutions were providing benefits and improvements to pain points.

By identifying and understanding the variety of users, we were able to design key journeys that met their needs as they research and navigate the complex process of finding a home loan and connecting with the right broker. Within our design process we ensured the business goals were met; to refresh the site’s look and feel, optimise page performance, and design the right content and tools to promote new customer acquisition and conversions.

As we moved through the redesign process we also identified there was an opportunity to uplift the brand, especially as Mortgage Choice were about to launch a new Financial Planning service, which could be tied into this brand update.

Invigorating the brand and introducing a new financial service under the parent company provided an opportunity for Mortgage Choice to connect and drive consideration with a younger audience.

Pollen created a modern, bold and dynamic facelift for Mortgage Choice and extended this across the financial services business, FinChoice. A fresh colour palette, brand elements inspired by architectural form, refreshed imagery, brand guidelines and a digital design system provided Mortgage Choice a foundation to brief other teams - both offline and online - to create a cohesive channel of communication.

Supporting the existing Mortgage Choice development team, Pollen evolved the UX wireframes through to design and front-end development. Working seamlessly on a library of web components allowed for fluid handover to Mortgage Choice for integration with their legacy CMS (Umbraco). Transparency throughout the agile process ensured we worked as an extension of the Mortgage Choice delivery team. We had defined clear ownership and responsibility which afforded Mortgage Choice with the confidence that the design system was functional, fit for purpose and cross-browser tested.

“Combining strategic thinking with in-depth user insights and the second to none methodology, design ethos and delivery process (on time and budget); the Pollen team have helped transform Mortgage Choice from being a brand built by brokers for brokers, into a state-of-the-art customer-first experience.

While the initial MVP delivered astonishing results, we are now looking forward to delivering the new features of our customer portal vision roadmap.”

— Stephan Gervois, General Manager, Marketing