Casestudy
How High-Trust Design Skyrocketed SingSaver's
Conversions by 17%
Client
Here's a factoid for you
Did you know, for the ninth time in eleven years, Singapore's been the most expensive city on Earth? As to why, there's a short answer and a long answer. The short answer is, “Rent,” and the long answer is, “We'll leave that for another case study.”
The point is, money doesn't go very far in Singapore…
… or at least it didn't go very far, until SingSaver came along.
Founded in 2015, their mission - should Singaporeans choose to accept it - was to help people in Singapore make their money go further by giving them the best deals on personal loans, travel insurance, credit cards, investments and saving accounts. Oh, and the cherry on top? Take out any of the above through SingSaver, and they'll throw in gadgets and cash on the house.
All devs, not much design
Since founding, SingSaver's taken off big time, growing into a 10-employee company, despite the fact their site was designed purely by developers. Suspecting they might be leaving a few Singapore dollars on the table, SingSaver reached out to us to see what design improvements they could make.
The secret sauce of B2C fintech design
Say the words, “Finance” or “Fintech” to someone, and they'll think, “boring,” “cold,” “analytics” and “statistics.” But design-wise, nothing could be further from the truth. B2C finance design - the type SingSaver relies on - is all about emotion. Specifically, trust.
To convince someone you're the right company to take out a 4, 5 or 6-figure loan from, they've got to trust you. Can't build that trust, because something's “off” about your site? You blow the sale.
Complexity = the conversion killer
The amazing thing about SingSaver was that they allowed Singaporeans to compare thousands of financial products side-by-side. The less amazing thing about SingSaver was that.. well, they allowed you to compare thousands of financial products side-by-side.
Choice, you see, is a double-edged sword. Yes, more choice means you'll probably find a better product. But it also makes it more likely you'll walk away with no product due to overwhelm.
Selling Standard Chartered
When they reached out, SingSaver was in talks with Standard Chartered bank to develop an API - a deal which was riding on good design. If the design gave off a vibe which Standard Chartered didn't want to associate themselves with, it wouldn't go through.
The Matching Criteria
(1) A fintech specialist
who'd produced classy, high trust designs for similar companies before.
(2) Razor-sharp UX skills
to take SingSavers upside - 1000s of options - and make it child's play to choose from them.
(3) Living in Asia
because SingSaver needed a culture fit who'd visit their office in Singapore.
The Match
We found SingSaver four fantastic UX (?) designers to choose from. A few days later, they went with Jihyun, a fintech designer in Malaysia with 8 years experience who'd done amazing design work for data-heavy projects just like this one.
Time to hire
The Design Work they produced
(in less than 6 months)
The design audit
SingSaver's entire platform was audited, highlighting two huge ROI projects: personal loans and travel insurance.
Regaining lost trust with loans
In the audit, the designer discovered that comparing loans was fairly tricky & click-intensive, with a non-intuitive application process. Further, users could end up successfully qualifying for a loan on SingSaver, only to be rejected on the bank's website, wasting their time and burning trust in SingSaver.
Jihyun re-designed the loan interface and user journey to make comparing and applying for loans a breeze. When SingSaver saw the results on their bottom-line, they hired an additional two designers.
Transforming the Travel Insurance journey
Likewise, the Travel Insurance user flow was revamped, making travel insurance much easier to compare side-by-side, and purchase.
A high-trust API for Standard Chartered
showing prospects and the bank that there's nothing to fear.
What the design did for SingSaver
# of loans processed soared
Thanks to an attractive, easy to use loan page.
17% increase in travel insurance conversion.
When travel insurance is easy to compare and easy to buy, more people do.
Standard Chartered bank landed as a partner
With a high-trust API, Standard Chartered were happy to partner with SingSaver.
Where SingSaver are now
Monthly visitors
Monthly growth rate
Partnered with more banks including HSBC
Launched a travel insurance partnership with Allianz
The PMF pivot
The designers uncovered that SingSaver had two main groups of prospects, each of which came to the site for something different. The “deal-hunters” came to look for deals, and were drawn to loud, in-your-face promos. The “product-hunters” were the opposite: they knew which product category they were after, and wanted a calm, relaxed environment to choose. Armed with this research, the designers changed the main landing page to appeal to both groups.
How SingSaver saved megabucks with DesignMatch
Recruiting, like anything else in Singapore, costs a small fortune; hiring talent in Singapore involves forking out 19% to the recruiter, along with paying a whole host of compliance fees.
By hiring designers from Design Match, SingSaver were able to save...
32 hrs
Reviewing
portfolios
5 hrs
Interviewing candidates
50,000 SGD
Paying
recruiters
20,000 SGD
National payment compliance
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