Case Study 1: Credit Report Re-design
Create and validate concepts for re-imagined printed credit reports to reduce cognitive load, increase customer understanding and goodwill, and reduce disputes of non-consequential data.
Experian’s primary goal of initiative was to reduce the amount of report disputes, especially via phone. These were both a huge expense and generated bad will as many of the reasons for disputes could not be resolved or have no impact on credit scores.
Experian had heard countless complaints from many report recipients that the information was difficult to parse, full of legalese, overwhelmingly data-dense, and physically difficult to read.
Experian expressed that a nice-to-have effect of the redesign was for a reduction in page count as a cost-savings measure.
Our heuristic evaluation of the printed credit report uncovered a wealth of problems. Of course we’ve seen our credit reports in the past but these were often situations where they were a step towards a personal goal – applying for a mortgage, buying a car, applying for a job — and we would look at them no longer than absolutely necessary.
But now, examining them much more closely and without the weight of whatever consequences hinged on its contents, we could more objectively assess these documents.
We interviewed about a dozen consumers from a variety of backgrounds and credit scores who had ordered credit reports within the past few years. As expected, they had little praise for the reports (regardless of their score).
We repeatedly heard that most of the content was either too difficult to read or didn’t make much sense if they did put in the effort. They were challenged when asked to find particular sections or ratings. Many couldn’t understand why sections were where they were or what many of the abbreviations meant.
One of our favorite activities with the research subjects was cutting up the pages of a report and letting them put it in the “right” order. These validated many of our hypotheses and greatly informed our design.
We introduced a “packet cover” with the mailing info and USPS-required barcodes for display through the envelope window. This cover unfolded to a tabloid-sized mini poster to reveal a casual but informative overview of the report within. Think of a USA Today-style front page with simple infographics, easy to read tables, and rich color-coded lists highlighting important accounts and data from your credit report.
Moving on from the cover to the primary contents, rotating the report presentation from landscape to portrait guaranteed that all lines of text were always a natural length as well as encouraging comfortable reading conditions. We unified page templates and increased the margins and borders giving more white-space to the document. This made the report possible to actually skim and more pleasant to read.
Despite its friendly and casual presentation, the information within the 1-pager proved sufficient for several of the testers, some of whom wouldn’t have even read the full report unless they expected unpleasant results.
We maintained the spirit of the many of the tabular timeline diagrams in the document but greatly improved the spacing and fixed legibility and accessibility issues by replacing the original white-on-light color scheme with white-on-dark and dark-on-light. We also finessed the shapes, proportions, and spacing to look more intentional than an Excel export.
We also replaced the giant overwhelming legend block from the beginning of the document with friendly introductory content. Instead of the big legend, we made a more compact legend with each diagram that was limited to the much smaller subset used in that specific diagram – usually no more than 5. This both ensured each diagram was explained in situ without having to search around for the key without any extraneous chart-junk muddying the water.
We did several rounds of explorations of different type families and combinations but (as expected, sigh) were inevitably restricted to Experian’s corporate brand guidelines. With that settled, we forged ahead with their fonts and built a strong typographic system with a clear hierarchy to use throughout the entire report.
We made the information easier to read by increasing text sizes across the board. The clear hierarchy gave us the ability to maintain a high density of information (not AS high, mind you!). Sub-section heading blocks with iconography and clearly labeled made it possible for people to actually scan the document for crucial data.
Even the finest typography is meaningless if the words aren’t worth reading. We worked diligently with our content strategist and Experian’s legal team to make the report easier for regular folks to understand. We pointed out what was important and how they might impact credit score. We highlighted what was good news and what was bad news.
Opaque legalese was rewritten wherever possible, finance-wonk jargon was forbidden, and copy was clarified to ensure a legitimately helpful report for our reader. Most importantly for our client, consumers who understood their report was far less likely to call and dispute its contents.
As with the typography, we were bound to the brand guidelines. So we made sure to restrict chromatic type to the darkest of the palette to ensure legibility with sub-optimal printed output while also using lighter tints of those colors as field backgrounds. We banned the white-on-light pattern from the headlines and diagrams in order to maximize contrast and readability.
Our improvements to layout, language, and readability came at a cost. Experian’s original type sizes, jargon and abbreviations, minimal white space, and maximum density did allow a lower page-count but also ensured reduced confidence, comprehension, and trust in the report. This is what results in more phone calls with questions and disputes.
Research informed the design and strategy of our solutions. And the user testing showed that our decisions and recommendations created a report that was understood and pleasant even if there were a slightly thicker envelope in their mailbox.