BaseBank Loan Boost

Background

Wilqo, a fast-growing home loan startup, needed loan officers to move applications through underwriting faster without sacrificing accuracy. I was one of three designers on LoanBoost, and I focused on two connected pieces of the loan lifecycle: the intake process that kicked off every loan, and the document workflows that supported it along the way.

My Role

I worked alongside two other designers on the broader LoanBoost product. My specific focus areas were:

• Redesigning the loan intake experience. I turned the long, error-prone paper application (similar to a standard 1003 form) that borrowers historically filled out into a guided, step-by-step digital flow.

• Designing the loan document workflow, including the ability for officers to download supporting loan documents as PDFs for record-keeping and compliance.

I partnered closely with the other two designers on shared foundations like the component patterns, the registration and security flows, and the "Ask Rosie" chatbot, while owning these two flows end to end myself.

Challenges

1. Managing and tracking loan applications efficiently. Loan officers had no single place to see the full status of every loan they were handling. On top of that, the intake process itself, a long and dense paper application, was a major point of friction and error before a loan could even start moving.

   

   
   

2. Ensuring secure and easy access to loan information. Sensitive borrower and loan data needed strong protection, but that couldn't come at the cost of slowing officers down or burying them in extra steps.

   

   
   

3. Providing real-time support for loan officer queries. Officers needed fast answers in the moment instead of leaving their workflow to search documentation or call for help.

   

Solution

Guided Loan Intake
I broke the long paper intake form into a step-by-step digital flow, grouping related fields like borrower info, employment and income, assets, and property details into digestible stages instead of one overwhelming document. This cut down the cognitive load of the application and made errors easier to catch before submission, since each section could be validated as officers moved through it rather than all at once at the end.

Loan Document Workflow
Separately from intake, I designed the flow for generating and downloading supporting loan documents as PDFs throughout the process. This gave officers reliable, exportable records for compliance and file-keeping without needing to leave the platform or request documents manually.

User-Centric Loan Dashboard
The team designed a modular, component-based interface for managing and tracking every loan at a glance, built to support both light and dark themes.

Secure Registration & Admin Access
The team built robust authentication and a secure admin dashboard to protect sensitive loan data while keeping day-to-day access simple for officers.

"Ask Rosie" AI Chatbot
The team integrated an in-product chatbot so officers could get real-time answers without leaving their workflow. It was a forward-looking choice at a time when embedded AI assistants weren't yet standard in enterprise tools.

Process Notes

A few real constraints shaped how we worked:

• With three designers on one product and no formal design system yet in place, we had to stay deliberate about consistency, especially as new partner brands got incorporated into the product.

• Structured one-on-one usability testing wasn't realistic given loan officers' schedules and the sensitivity of live loan data. Instead, we ran live group demo sessions, watching officers drive the interface directly on a call to surface real friction points.

  

Outcome

Loan officers responded well to the redesigned intake flow and the "Ask Rosie" chatbot in particular, both called out as standout improvements over the previous process. Post-launch, loan processing time improved and officer adoption was strong within the first quarter.

Due to NDA restrictions, I'm not able to share extensive visual content from this project publicly. Happy to walk through my process and specific decisions in more detail, so feel free to reach out directly.