Designing for Trust: How Creditly Used Progressive Disclosure to Boost Loan Approvals

Design · 6 min read

Creditly's application flow initially asked for exhaustive financial and personal details up-front, triggering anxiety and abandonment. Users often didn't understand why certain data was needed or how it impacted loan terms. Product design partnered with legal and underwriting to redesign the flow around progressive disclosure: reveal only necessary fields tied to a visible approval path and explain the reason for each ask with concise microcopy.

The redesign included incremental eligibility checks that gave users quick, non-binding indications of approval likelihood, plus inline examples for fields like 'monthly obligations' to reduce confusion. Designers emphasized plain-language explanations of fees and terms before any hard credit checks and added a 'why we ask this' tooltip for sensitive data. UX writing focused on verbs and outcomes over form jargon.

Within two months, application completion rates rose 23% and approvals increased by 8%, largely because applicants supplied cleaner, more accurate information. The project demonstrates how design and compliance teams can collaborate to create transparent, humane financial experiences that both improve business metrics and protect consumers.