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Lamina: Loan Collaboration
Feature conception within a design system, from journey mapping to MVP launch
ROLE
UX Researcher — Test Planning, Moderated Interviews, Statistics
TEAM
CGU Game Lab— 1 Project Advisor,
10 amazing users
TIMELINE
Jan 2025 - May 2025
CONTEXT
During my internship at West Monroe, I designed a feature for Lamina, a fintech platform that streamlines collaboration in participation loans. The platform needed a hub to centralize communications between banking institutions.
In two agile sprints, I iteratively prototyped a communications feature that was approved for the MVP launch. I translated designs into actionable development tasks, ensuring cross-functional team alignment.
01
The Challenge
Design a communications hub to allow loan originators and participants to communicate with each other, all within the Marketplace, in order to centralize all deal-related discourse in one place for traceability and visibility.
02
Key Outcomes
1. Owned UX/UI strategy for the MVP feature, conducting market research, mapping user journeys, and designing mockups.
2. Partnered with engineers and PMs to translate designs into 30+ actionable tasks, improving alignment and delivery speed.
3. Developed design system components, applying information architecture to ensure consistent cross-platform experiences.
The comments used in the story are screenshots from a real monster-catching game hosted on Steam today, which not only shows the prevalence of misogyny and racism in gamer culture, but also the lack of content moderation on mainstream game marketplaces.
03
Product Glimpse
The comments used in the story are screenshots from a real monster-catching game hosted on Steam today, which not only shows the prevalence of misogyny and racism in gamer culture, but also the lack of content moderation on mainstream game marketplaces.
04
Process Overview
Through the span of the project, I followed the double diamond design process.
The comments used in the story are screenshots from a real monster-catching game hosted on Steam today, which not only shows the prevalence of misogyny and racism in gamer culture, but also the lack of content moderation on mainstream game marketplaces.
05
Defining the Scope
Discussing with project stakeholders, we defined the purpose, considerations, and abilities of the communication feature.
Feature Purpose
Allow loan originators and participants to communicate with each other, all within the Marketplace, in order to centralize all Deal related questions and information in one place for traceability and visibility.
Considerations
- Messages may range from simple questions or might be much longer (in the way an email may be)
- Communication while looking at deal information is critical, so it can be referenced or copied into the message
- Anyone from an institution on the deal should be able to view the full message history that anyone else from their institution sent
- Anyone from an originating institution on the deal should be able to view the message history with each participant, at a deal level
- Knowing when a response to a message comes in will be important, since decisions might be made based on answers
Info/Functionality to Include
- Compose a new message
- Add a subject to the message
- Open text field for the message
- Text formatting such as bullet points, bold, italics
- View the message that was sent
- Respond to an individual message
- Threads at one level deep
- Use wider screen to compose a longer message
- Ask questions in the moment while looking at Deal info
- Quickly see if new communication has come in
- Avoid the need for multiple systems (e.g. email, phone)
The comments used in the story are screenshots from a real monster-catching game hosted on Steam today, which not only shows the prevalence of misogyny and racism in gamer culture, but also the lack of content moderation on mainstream game marketplaces.
06
Exploring Analogous Platforms
Next, I gathered insight from popular communication platforms, which provided new ideas and helped me identify best practices.
The comments used in the story are screenshots from a real monster-catching game hosted on Steam today, which not only shows the prevalence of misogyny and racism in gamer culture, but also the lack of content moderation on mainstream game marketplaces.
07
Where does the communication feature live?
After discussing inital findings with the team, we decided to explore two diverging design options.
01
Integrate into Timeline Feature
Allows users to comment directly on
loan servicing actions.
02
Separate Messages Page
Designated place for all deal-related
communications.
The comments used in the story are screenshots from a real monster-catching game hosted on Steam today, which not only shows the prevalence of misogyny and racism in gamer culture, but also the lack of content moderation on mainstream game marketplaces.
08
Scenario Mapping
To better understand the user journey for each option, I compiled several scenarios related to loan communications.
The comments used in the story are screenshots from a real monster-catching game hosted on Steam today, which not only shows the prevalence of misogyny and racism in gamer culture, but also the lack of content moderation on mainstream game marketplaces.
08
Lofi-Prototyping the two options
I wireframed select user flows to visualize both options. The pink annotations explain features and ideas, helping teammates understand the designs when I'm not presenting.
Option 1: Integrate into Timeline
Goal: allow users to comment on loan processing events and send general messages in the timeline.
Option 2: Separate Messages Page
Goal: allows users to quickly access send messages without cluttering the timeline.
The comments used in the story are screenshots from a real monster-catching game hosted on Steam today, which not only shows the prevalence of misogyny and racism in gamer culture, but also the lack of content moderation on mainstream game marketplaces.
09
Which solution won?
After much team discussion and internal testing, we were certain that putting messages in their own tab was the best option. With the high quantity of messages sent in the duration of a participation loan, a separate place to keep all communication ensured easy access and that no messages were buried in the timeline.
The comments used in the story are screenshots from a real monster-catching game hosted on Steam today, which not only shows the prevalence of misogyny and racism in gamer culture, but also the lack of content moderation on mainstream game marketplaces.
10
Planning & Iteration: the MVP feature
As the first version of Lamina was to be released at the end of my internship, I was tasked with planning and designing
the minimum viable communications feature. Below are my plans for iteration.
Iteration
1. Omit active typing tracker, edit message button (replace with delete perhaps), threading, uploading attachments, group messages, global messaging, and replying to specific items/events from V1
2. Combine the broadcast channel with the direct message channel on the participant side to consolidate communications from the lead. Design a way to denote that a message is a broadcast that was sent to all participants.
3. Show which team member sent a message. Replace the institution name with the sender’s name above each message.
4. Notifications: Tracking activity per individual user. We would track the time when a user opens a message channel to determine unread messages. Notifications will clear upon opening a message channel; there will be no “mark as read” option.
5. Dot to show unread messages, possibility of counting unread messages also. Show unread dot on the messages tab to show there are new messages.
6. Add internal channel/workspace for each team to collaborate with their own members on a deal.
7. Channel description disappears after first message is sent. Tighten up design.
8. Match timestamp format to what we have in timeline (ei. Fri, Nov. 17th 2023)
9. Having a button that reads "send message" that needs to be clicked rather than the ability to press enter
10. Show “your sent messages” in a different color than the hover state blue
11. Design a “not able to communicate” state
The comments used in the story are screenshots from a real monster-catching game hosted on Steam today, which not only shows the prevalence of misogyny and racism in gamer culture, but also the lack of content moderation on mainstream game marketplaces.
11
Final Designs
After implementing feedback, here are the final desings. MVP features include channels for each deal participant, a notification system, and a new announcement button for sending group messages through a modal.
The comments used in the story are screenshots from a real monster-catching game hosted on Steam today, which not only shows the prevalence of misogyny and racism in gamer culture, but also the lack of content moderation on mainstream game marketplaces.
12
Takeaways
I am grateful for all the wonderful mentors I had the opportunity to know at West Monroe. From collaborations and conversations, here are the top 3 things I learned during my internship.
Design to Development
I shadowed 2 wonderful project managers, learning how to align design and development. I wrote over 30 user stories and translated designs into actionable tasks for the developers on my team.
All about Finance
Stepping into a completely new industry felt daunting at first, but after many conversations with our banking stakeholders, I began to feel like a finance bro.
Figma Slides
The newest and brightest - FIGMA SLIDES- was dropped during my internship, so of course, I had to learn it immediately. I jumped in and used it to make my final presentation to West Monroe leaders.
(I also became dodger's fan this summer - team bonding)
From toxic forums to trusted feedback: my human-centered design theis project.
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