The application launched in March 2026. Applicants check eligibility, provide business and personal details, create an account, and verify their email. After identity verification and a credit check, eligible applicants see a preliminary funding amount. They then connect their bank or upload statements before reviewing and submitting their application. The confirmation explains that bank data is being analyzed and a final offer will follow by email. Business-lookup failures, verification errors, and decline states were also designed so the experience accounted for more than a successful walkthrough

The business needed earlier eligibility screening, better application data, and a bank-connection option. Account creation and email verification added more work for applicants. The requirements needed to be organize to design a manageable flow. Using competitive examples and secondary research, I compared delaying demanding requests, introducing them early, and staging them throughout the application. With early eligibility screening established as a requirement, I focused on sequencing the remaining steps. Applicants who did not meet the initial criteria could exit before providing a Social Security Number (SSN).

The explanation beside the Social Security number (SSN) field lets applicants know the credit inquiry will not affect their score, with consent copy reviewed through compliance. Before connecting their bank, eligible applicants can see how much funding they may qualify for and decide whether to continue. A note clarifies that the amount may change after verification, setting expectations before they share financial information.

Device tracking showed that more applicants used phones than desktops, making mobile the starting point for the layouts and interactions. Key selections used bottom sheets, panels that slide up from the bottom of the screen. These gave options more room and larger areas to tap than compact dropdown menus. Named phases and previews of the next step helped applicants understand where they were and what came next. Research into endowed progress informed the chunked percentages, with the intent of creating a sense of advancement early. Those percentages represented stages rather than time remaining. I explored layouts and interactions through code mockups with Claude, then used it to write Figma Make prompts. Refining those generated screens in Figma reduced the manual work of recreating layouts and left more time for interaction details. Without access to small business applicants before launch, I used synthetic scenario reviews in Gemini to explore possible friction. These flagged finding an Employer Identification Number (EIN), switching apps for email verification, and seeing completion signals too early. The findings were hypotheses for follow-up, not evidence that real applicants would complete the flow. After launch, I used Lookbook to define reusable fields, buttons, and interaction states for engineering. These gave developers consistent references for implementation and helped address visual inconsistencies across the application.