🟠 Context‍

Emcash, a peer-to-peer lending Fintech, proposed a challenge to improve the registration stage for new users interested in real estate financing. In addition, the app's rating in stores was less than 3.5 stars.

This data, combined with the emotionally sensitive persona of the real estate loan borrower, highlighted a central pain point: the onboarding experience was technically flawed, emotionally frustrating, and commercially ineffective.

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🔍 Problem Discovery

I collected and analyzed over 30 reviews from app stores, looking for patterns of complaints. Here are some of them:

There were recurring comments mentioning errors when sending documents, problems with camera validation, failures in receiving the SMS code, and inefficient or absent support.

I also conducted 7 interviews with users: 4 who abandoned the registration and 3 who managed to complete it.

With this, I identified three major frictions:

1. Excessive data required right at the beginning (e.g.: photo of documents before creating an account).
2. Technical errors and validation failures that blocked progress.
3. Lack of support or feedback to the user at critical moments.

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📲 Previous Flow

For a better understanding of the individual registration flow, here is the previous registration flow:

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🧠 Strategic Thinking

My approach was based on:

• Reducing emotional friction with a two-phase onboarding process.
• Mapping frontstage and backstage failures using Service Blueprinting.
• Benchmarking leading fintechs to identify best practices.

This would help balance regulatory needs with user empathy. Here are some of the methods that i used:

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💡 The Solution

1. Initial Signup: only basic info required (CPF, name, email, phone, password), followed by verification.
2. Progressive Data Collection: triggered when the user starts the loan simulation. Each piece of sensitive data comes with clear context and rationale.

Interfaces were redesigned with better error handling, smoother flows, and humanized messaging.

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🟣 Expected Outcomes

We aimed to cut abandonment by at least 50%, improve app store reviews, and reduce support tickets. Though we didn’t reach the rollout phase, early usability tests with 3 users showed increased clarity and trust, especially around when and why data was being collected.

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Takeaway

This case was a reminder that UX isn’t just about UI. It’s about narratives, emotions, and removing obstacles in moments that matter.