Capital One - 2021
45 Days to First Payment, Displaying Multiple Payment Estimates
Overview
This feature was built for our underwriting tool in early 2021. Like many of our features, it started out as a comment from our associate focus group, calling out how dealerships began asking for estimates of 45 days to the first payment.
This was because of the auto industry-changing. To win more deals, we saw dealers were pushing out the first payment to 45, 60, and even 90 days after the purchase date. Traditionally a car loan had up to 30 days after purchase until the first payment was due.
Goals & Constraints
Our goal was to enhance our current 30 pay payment estimate to toggle between 30 and 45-day payment estimates. Although we explored the range of days past 45, like 60 and 90 days, we ultimately moved away from this as our business partners informed us that the structure of our contracts only had room for up to 15 days after the first month and plans to change that were not on the road map.
Results
We worked through various visual iterations to display a change and thought through edge cases error states to land on a version that sat familiarly between the payment and interest rate where associates in the current day keep their eyes as these conversations occurred.
This project was a big win for our design team. The creation and placement of this new feature led to discussions and the movement of other deal details to be closer to relevant fields. In addition, it helped lessen how much associates shifted their eyes around the screen to discuss a deal.
Notes
Looking back, this project feels like a small win. However, at the time, what really made it feel like a big win was freeing up space and grouping together a few elements that had been grouped in an overview header for a long time. It not only cleaned up the UI, but it also put critical information in a more revelent location for associates to access.