Commercial Mortgage Origination Platform

Project Background

This project was for a financial services client specialising in commercial mortgage origination and closing.

The client’s legacy processes relied heavily on manual workflows and spreadsheets, which caused:

• Inefficient tracking of loans across multiple departments.
• Delays in reporting and funding.
• Compliance risks due to lack of transparency and auditability.

The client needed a centralised digital platform to:

• Track loans through six stages (from application received → funding).
• Support the securitisation process with automated reporting.
• Integrate with loan servicing vendors for data and pricing feeds.
• Generate data extracts (“tapes”) for credit rating agencies.

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My Role

I was brought in as an external consultant and the sole UX/UI designer on the project. My responsibilities included:

• Defining the UX strategy and aligning it with regulatory and business requirements.
• Conducting stakeholder interviews and workflow analysis with loan officers, underwriters, and operations staff.
• Mapping out the six-stage loan lifecycle to ensure end-to-end visibility.
• Designing wireframes and interactive prototypes to validate workflows.
• Delivering high-fidelity UI designs and specifications for development.
• Iterating based on feedback from pilot users.

My role required balancing complex financial logic with a clear, intuitive user interface that worked for both back-office staff and management.

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Project Objectives

🎯 Streamline Loan Tracking

• Replace spreadsheets and disconnected tools with a single source of truth for loan origination and closing.

🎯 Support Securitisation

• Build features for automated and on-demand reporting and credit rating agency extracts.

🎯 Improve Data Integration

• Enable pricing imports and data feeds from loan servicing vendors.

🎯 Enhance Transparency & Compliance

• Provide clear visibility across all six loan lifecycle stages.

🎯 Deliver a Scalable Platform

• Ensure the system could scale with new reporting needs, additional vendors, and regulatory changes.

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Research

Since direct customer research was limited due to confidentiality, I focused on:

• Stakeholder Workshops – with loan officers, analysts, and compliance managers.
• Process Mapping – documenting current loan workflows, bottlenecks, and pain points.
• Competitive Benchmarking – reviewing existing mortgage servicing and loan origination tools.

This revealed critical issues:

• Users struggled to track loan status across teams.
• Reporting was time-consuming and error-prone.
• Interfaces in competitor products were cluttered and non-intuitive.

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Design Process

Information Architecture

Mapped the loan lifecycle into six clear stages to ensure progress was transparent and trackable.

Wireframes & Prototyping

• Built low-fidelity wireframes to validate flows.
• Iterated with stakeholders in design review workshops.
• Created interactive prototypes to simulate complex workflows (loan approval, pricing imports, report generation).

UI Design & Design System

• Developed a component library for tables, dashboards, and status tracking.
• Created visual indicators (progress steps, status badges) for each loan stage.
• Designed reporting dashboards with drill-down functionality.

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Key Features

• Six-Stage Loan Lifecycle
  Transparent tracking from application to funding.

• Automated & On-Demand Reports
  Reduced manual reporting workload for operations teams.

• Vendor Data Feeds
  Integrated pricing and loan servicing data directly into workflows.

• Securitisation Support
  Generated credit rating tapes with flexible export options.

• Role-Based Dashboards
  Tailored views for loan officers, underwriters, and compliance.

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Project Impact

The redesigned platform:

• Replaced manual workflows with a centralised digital system.
• Reduced loan processing and reporting time by significant margins (exact figures are confidential).
• Improved compliance readiness with better audit trails.
• Enabled the client to scale securitisation operations more efficiently.
• Provided a modern UI that simplified highly complex financial tasks.

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Lasting Legacy

This project demonstrated how UX and UI design can unlock efficiency in a highly specialised financial domain.

By focusing on clarity, transparency, and integration, the platform not only streamlined operations but also laid the foundation for future automation and digital transformation within the client’s lending business.

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Key Takeaways

• Simplifying complexity is key in enterprise financial systems.
• Clear visualisation of multi-stage processes improves adoption and compliance.
• Vendor and data feed integration is as much a UX challenge as a technical one.

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