NFCC

National Foundation for Credit Counseling

The National Foundation for Credit Counseling has served as a pathway for millions of people to overcome their financial struggles. This organization provides money management expertise solutions accessible to all that better equip Americans with the tools they need to manage their financial health, and in turn, create a stronger economy for future generations to come.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the unemployment rate increased from 3.5% to 14.8% in April 2020, the highest since 1948. The total U.S. consumer debt amount increased by $800 billion. This was a 6% gain over the previous year, the highest yearly growth rate in more than a decade. In turn, household debt in the United States reached a new high of $14.6 trillion in the spring of 2021.

Even though the reasons for these figures vary, a common thread among affected consumers is a sense of hopelessness, loss, shame, and frustration.

People who are in debt frequently avoid seeking debt relief assistance out of "fear," preferring to keep their debt problems private rather than being proactive and risking being embarrassed or shamed.

Design Process

In this case, I opted to adopt a 4-stage process according to time and budgetary constraints, as well as an atomic design system concept:

  1. Discovery - User Research

  2. Define - Identify the challenges and pain points

  3. Design

  4. Implement

We were unable to incorporate a testing phase in this particular instance, but it was suggested and taken into account in order to iterate future versions and continuously improve the website.

ROLE:

UX Strategist and Designer.

  • Research analysis & strategy

  • Wireframing

TOOLS:

Figma, GSuite, Pen & Paper

How can the NFCC provide the best help to their consumers?

UX AIM

The goal of the NFCC is to provide a platform that will successfully and efficiently, aid people in finding the right solution to help them manage their financial futures.

KEY INITIAL CONCERNS

  1. The current website can feel overwhelming, causing consumers to experience information overload

  2. Unclear messaging

  3. Website seems outdated and thus is not connecting with consumers, resulting in lack of trust and reliability

  4. Millennials, as well as Gen Z, want services that are immediate, reliable and convenient.

Leading sources of debt among consumers in the United States

  1. Mortgage

  2. Credit Card Debt

  3. Car Loans

  4. Education Loans

  5. Medical Expenses

Debt by Generation

Qualitative Research-Moderated

We asked subjects to:

  • Describe and recount the overall experience from discovering and acknowledging they were in debt, to seeking help, the process and emotions throughout the experience.

  • Explore the site and think aloud; express their questions and what they thought the site could do, how could it help, what they liked and disliked about the experience.

  • Complete a task:

    • Where to go to find information?

    • How to go about starting the process of getting help?

Interviews and Focus Groups Key-Takeaways:

  1. Improve navigation to aid website wayfinding

  2. Clearly define industry areas of the site to reduce confusion

  3. Rename call to actions and navigation items to wording relevant to the industry and recognizable to the consumer

  4. Sections need clearer labeling

  5. Promote more help resources 

Findings:

  • In their initial interactions with the website, subjects appeared to be confused, overwhelmed, and unsure of how to begin the process of seeking assistance.

  • Users struggled to clearly define the beginning and end of the overall experience, and in several cases stated that they did not recall using the website in the past, despite the fact that our data showed they had.

  • According to the subjects interviewed, one of the best features of the website is the vast amount of information pertaining to multiple subjects. On the negative side, it was confusing to accurately access the information; it was more of a trial and error.

Accessibility assessment, concerns and recommendations

When evaluating the overall brand, and the original website, one of the biggest concerns was accessibility, which prompted me to evaluate it for accessibility. According to the results, I provided actionable recommendations and discussed with the development team ways we could continue to improve accessibility.

  • Adjusted color palette to allow for optimal color contrast

  • Improved keyboard accessibility functionality

  • Eliminated marquees and other effects that would interfere with readability

  • Improved navigation

  • Increased text sizing

  • Added alt text to all images

Key changes and updates

  • Overall website re-structure and content prioritization

  • Clear and improved navigation

  • Eliminated outdated content

  • Landing page is more vibrant, and interactive and shows more content options. 

  • Clear website structure

  • Improved CTA’s, content categorization, and tagging, which in turn improved SEO and content finding.