LTV calculator (Habito)
Habito
Habito is a digital mortgage broker, home-buying service and lender. Users complete a series of fact-find forms, before being paired with a mortgage expert, who assesses their needs and recommends them a mortgage.
The proposal
Loan to value (LTV) is a familiar concept in the mortgage industry. There are lots of articles on it, and lots of tools that work it out for you. However, these two things are generally kept separate. Articles give lots of information on LTV, but don't include a calculator, and calculator tools let you easily work out your LTV ratio, but don't provide information on what LTV actually is, or what it means for your mortgage. We wanted to create a tool that did both.
From our initial research and discussions, we identified three key benefits in creating this calculator:
As another way of bringing new users into the journey, either via the Habito homepage, or via an external search engine with the help of SEO
As an additional way of cementing Habito as a friendly, advice-giving expert in the mind of the user — not only providing the tool to calculate LTV, but also giving the context and breakdown behind it
As of way of improving customer retention, by giving users a tool they could use multiple times, and at multiple stages in their journey (for example, before applying for a mortgage, but also three years into their five-year fix, where a good knowledge of LTV and overpayments could mean getting into a better band, with better rates, by the time they remortgage)
Considerations
There were lots of things to consider in the initial research, wireframe and design stages:
• How many versions of the calculator tool do we need? Do we need one with more content for users who want more information, and one with less for those who just want to know their LTV band and see live deals? How will we know where on the scale each user falls?
• Will we need a different calculator for users who are remortgaging versus buying for the first time?
• There are only two ways for a user to improve their LTV ratio — by buying a cheaper property, or by increasing their deposit. How do we tackle this? Users that are yet to find a property will have more flexibility. Users that have found a property will only be able to improve their LTV band by putting in more money. How do we communicate this and remain helpful without being insensitive to those who can't? Is it appropriate?
• How do we communicate the user's current LTV? The user might have worked hard to improve it, and may be looking for a celebratory tone. However, another user using the same calculator may be in a much poorer position, with little flexibility to improve. With such a variety of use cases, how do we meet user needs in terms of content and tone with just one (or even two or three) calculators?
• LTV works backwards, in the sense that the lower your band, the stronger your position. Do users understand this concept? What sort of infographic would be best to communicate this? Is starting from 100% confusing for the user?
• Where might the user want to go from here?
• How will this calculator link to the rest of the product?
Where we are now
The LTV calculator is currently an ongoing project. Our designer, user researcher and I have built the above prototype, and are looking to take it into the initial stages of testing.