Designing Confidence:
A New Kind of Finance Experience

As Ford prepared to launch a new generation of electric vehicles, the need for a streamlined, digital-first finance experience became critical. Customers increasingly wanted to configure, apply, and complete purchases online, without having to visit a dealership.

This presented Ford Credit with a pivotal opportunity: regain ownership of the product, redesign the journey around user needs, and prove that design-led product thinking could deliver measurable impact.

Organisation

Ford Credit

Duration

6 Months

In-House Role

Lead Product Designer

Challenges

The existing journey was complex, data-heavy, and prone to dropouts. Customers couldn’t save progress, existing users couldn’t pre-fill known details, and there was limited guidance or feedback throughout the process.

Customers often abandoned the digital experience and went offline for help, undermining confidence in the system.

Organisationally, Ford Credit faced challenges too:

Legacy systems and governance slowed iteration
The tech transformation (“Alfa”) was still in early stages
There was no established in-house product or design capability yet, just two UX leads working to build it from the ground up

“We weren’t just redesigning a form, we were redesigning trust.”

Goals

Reclaim ownership of the finance application from Ford Motor Company
Create a simpler, faster, and more flexible experience for customers
Improve transparency, control, and confidence throughout the journey
Demonstrate that Ford Credit could design and deliver its own digital products
Establish a model for future product development and design collaboration

Discovery

We began by consolidating everything we already knew, reviewing legacy research, analysing analytics, and speaking with customers, dealers, and internal stakeholders to uncover the core issues.

Our process included:

Strategy Workshop: Aligning around the shared vision and business objectives
Legacy Research Review: Synthesising existing data to identify gaps and opportunities
Customer Principles Creation: A set of eight guiding themes that became the lens for every design decision
Stakeholder Mapping & Interviews: Capturing perspectives from across Ford Credit and Ford Motor Company to identify alignment opportunities and friction points
Customer Interviews: Gaining qualitative insight into how customers felt during the application journey, their motivations, frustrations, and mental models
Competitor Benchmarking: Reviewing best-in-class experiences both within and outside automotive finance

These efforts revealed a clear picture: customers wanted speed, control, and reassurance, the ability to make confident decisions without feeling sold to or overwhelmed by complexity.

Dealers, on the other hand, wanted visibility and smoother handovers when support was needed. Our research summaries and dealer perspective maps visualised this beautifully and became touchstones for design discussions.

Define

Through synthesis and opportunity mapping, we identified several key focus areas:

Enable pre-qualification and pre-approval earlier in the process
Simplify forms and reduce data entry
Allow customers to save progress and return later
Introduce clearer help and live-support options (chat, guided assistance)
Make monthly costs more visible and reduce friction in decision-making
Improve the signing and ID verification process
Ensure a consistent and “warm” experience that reflected Ford’s values

We prioritised opportunities based on user value, business impact, and technical feasibility, balancing ambition with the realities of legacy systems and the evolving Alfa tech stack.

Develop

Working within a lean setup, I conducted multiple design sprints to rapidly explore, prototype, and test new ideas. Each sprint involved stakeholders from Ford Credit, dealers, and engineering to build shared understanding and momentum.

Key improvements included:

Completely redesigned application flow with fewer steps and clearer progress indicators
Save and return functionality for in-progress applications
Pre-populated forms for returning customers
Inline help and live chat, enabling faster support without leaving the page
Improved ID verification and document upload process
Contextual education moments for first-time users, helping them understand finance terms and next steps
Full mobile optimisation, ensuring accessibility across devices
Collaborative work with an external agency on the evolving Ford design system, extending it beyond marketing use to handle product-level complexity

“Every improvement reduced cognitive load, increased confidence, and reinforced that Ford Credit was listening to its customers.”

Outcome + Impact

The new finance application launched successfully in the UK and subsequently

rolled out across the wider EU5.

While infrastructure and EV rollout delays meant long-term metrics are still emerging, the redesign achieved:

Significantly reduced dropouts during testing and early post-launch analysis
Higher completion rates and better user satisfaction scores
Strong positive feedback from dealers and leadership, who praised the new clarity and usability
A visible proof point that Ford Credit could design, build, and own its own digital products

This success helped secure confidence (and funding) for future product initiatives, effectively paving the way for the creation of the broader Product Organisation and Design Team that followed.

“It proved Ford Credit could do it, and it set the foundation for everything that came after.”

Reflection

This project was about more than a form; it was about ownership, credibility, and transformation.

As one of two UX leads in the early days, we helped build the design discipline while designing the product. Resources were limited, and the process could be slow, but collaboration, persistence, and vision made it possible.

By focusing on people, both customers and colleagues, we helped Ford Credit take its first major step toward becoming a design-driven organisation.

“Looking back, this project was the spark, the proof

that design, when done right, can reshape how a

business works.”

“Dominic helped us reframe our challenges and introduced a new, collaborative way of working that brought focus and momentum to the team. His ability to guide us through co-design and rapid iteration not only delivered a new experience at speed but fundamentally changed how we think about design within the business.”

Edward Davies - Group Product Manager

Designing Confidence: A New Kind of Finance Experience