Rebuilding Naranja’s Digital Lending Experience
Transforming a Branch-Dependent Loan Process into a Cash-Accessible, Trust-First Digital System
Naranja X is one of the biggest financial institutions in Argentina and the largest credit card issuer in Latin America (9M+ credit cards issued, 5M+ active clients at the time).
I led the end-to-end redesign of the digital personal loans experience.
Personal loans were a core revenue driver, yet customers preferred physical branches over digital channels.
I defined a new product vision, re-architected the journey around personalized loan simulation and trust-first design, and led the strategic shift enabling ATM cash withdrawal, eliminating the need for a bank account.
The result: +38% digital conversion in 3 months, 48% migration of non-bancarized users to digital, and a scalable foundation for digital lending in a cash-based economy.
Business Context
Despite Naranja’s scale, digital adoption was critically underperforming:
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Only 20% of loans were originated online
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Just 5% of users who started the loan flow completed it
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Physical branches processed loans in 6x the time required digitally
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A key competitor had already reached 50% digital loan adoption
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Estimated multi-million dollar monthly revenue opportunity
Structural Constraints
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Non-bancarized majority → No default digital disbursement path
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Cash-first economy → Digital trust deficit
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Low digital literacy → High cognitive sensitivity
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Low-end devices → Performance-driven design constraints
My Role
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Drove alignment with product, engineering and leadership around a north star vision.
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Influenced roadmap prioritization through impact/opportunity framing.
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Helped define a phased MVP strategy balancing technical feasibility, business goals and user needs.
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Reframed the experience from a system-driven flow to a human-centered financial model grounded in research, data, and organizational constraints.
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Partnered through delivery to ensure quality execution and measurable outcomes.
Research: Rebuilding from First Principles
Over 2 weeks, I led a mixed-method research effort combining in-branch observation, stakeholder and user interviews, funnel analysis with a data partner, and competitive benchmarking.
Critical Insights
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System-driven flow: The flow mirrored backend logic, not user mental models.
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Trust over speed: Clarity and reassurance mattered more than reducing steps.
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Infrastructure gap: Non-bancarized users couldn’t receive funds digitally.
Strategic Direction
I reframed the experience around three principles:
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Cognitive Simplification: Translate the flow into a simple navigation.
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Financial Empowerment: Give users visibility, control, and personalization.
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Inclusion by Design: Allow non-bancarized users to access digital loans.
Behavioral North Star
Research revealed two core behavioral states the product needed to support:
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Acceleration Mode: Fast, low-friction borrowing for users prioritizing immediacy and relief.
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Reassurance Mode: Transparent, information-rich exploration for users prioritizing clarity, control, and reduced perceived risk.
Tradeoffs
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ATM withdrawal vs. full wallet integration
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Design simplicity vs. feature richness
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Lightweight build vs. visual sophistication
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Reassurance vs. shorter flows
We optimized for accessibility and trust over aesthetic complexity.
Early Structural Exploration
I started on desktop to validate the core architecture of a cross-platform experience. I prototyped and tested hierarchy, logic, and progressive disclosure without spatial constraints. In a low-trust environment, reviewing financial information on a larger screen also increased user confidence.
Once the structure was validated, the experience was optimized and scaled across both desktop and mobile.
Loans Simulation Engine
I included a loan simulation flow to make repayment implications understandable.
Users could dynamically adjust installment scenarios while receiving recommendations based on their payment capacity, reducing ambiguity and perceived risk.
The system was designed to support borrowers needing control and reassurance before committing.
Loan History & Repeat Borrowing
Research revealed that many customers were taking recurring loans, often selecting the same installment structure each time.
I redesigned the loan history section to include a one-click repeat option, allowing returning users to reinitiate a previous configuration without restarting the process. This reduced friction for high-frequency borrowers while maintaining full visibility into terms, balancing efficiency with transparency.
Loan History & Repeat Borrowing
Research revealed that many customers were taking recurring loans, often selecting the same installment structure each time.
I redesigned the loan history section to include a one-click repeat option, allowing returning users to reinitiate a previous configuration without restarting the process. This reduced friction for high-frequency borrowers while maintaining full visibility into terms, balancing efficiency with transparency.
Contextual Assistance
To reduce uncertainty among first-time digital borrowers, I introduced contextual assistance accessible throughout the flow. Instead of redirecting users to static FAQs, it provided step-specific guidance, designed to replicate the reassurance of an in-branch agent. The assistant was intentionally humanized to evoke familiarity and trust, reinforcing psychological safety within a low-confidence digital environment.
The Strategic Breakthrough:
ATM Loan Withdrawal
The core barrier to digital lending was disbursement.
Over half of our users did not have a bank account, which meant digital approval still required a physical branch visit to receive cash.
To remove this structural dependency, I partnered cross-functionally with engineering, operations, and ATM infrastructure teams to enable secure loan withdrawal directly from ATMs. Users could complete the loan digitally, receive a unique withdrawal code, and extract funds using their Naranja card, without stepping into a branch.
This required coordinating backend loan systems, ATM authorization logic, security protocols, and operational workflows. It was not a UI enhancement it was a new distribution mechanism.
The impact was immediate:
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Eliminated branch dependency for non-bancarized clients
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Reduced operational load and cost associated with in-person servicing
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Increased digital adoption, engagement, and conversion
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Shifted digital lending from supplementary channel to viable primary channel
This was the inflection point that made digital lending scalable within a cash-based economy.
Outcomes (Within 3 Months)
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+38% digital conversion
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+37% user satisfaction
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+43% perceived usability
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48% of non-bancarized clients adopted digital lending
Digital lending became viable for a population previously excluded from it.
Impact
This project helped expand access to credit by:
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Translating financial infrastructure into human mental models
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Designing for distrust in a cash-based economy
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Balancing business ambition with socioeconomic constraints
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Aligning cross-functional teams around pragmatic strategy