TDC
All case studies

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking

Loan Digitization Application — approvals, pipeline management and real-time data sync, unified in one interface.

Role
Product & UX Designer, Consultant
Timeline
May – October 2024
Sector
Financial services, AI
Platform
Web, tablet and mobile
Location
New York, NY
The SMBC loan platform on a laptop and surrounding screens: a portfolio management dashboard with an approvals donut chart, the GBR approval sync state, and borrower information panels.

1.2M+

users across the banking, trading and wealth management platforms.

25%

reduction in onboarding time.

40%

less QA and development rework, from mapping decision logic and edge cases up front.

45%

increase in accessibility compliance.

01 — Overview

Unifying loan approvals, memos and portfolio data in a single interface.

The SMBC Loan Digitization Application is a platform built for Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation to facilitate loan approvals, synchronise data, and deliver real-time credit and financial operations updates. By bringing the crucial workflows together in one place, teams handle approvals, memos and portfolio data more efficiently — and with far more insight into what is actually happening across the pipeline.

I worked as the product and UX designer on secure, AI-driven banking, trading and wealth management experiences, designing to WCAG 2.1 and to FINRA and SEC compliance requirements.

What I did

  • User journeys, high-fidelity prototypes and interactive flows
  • Decision logic and edge-case mapping
  • Scalable design system and reusable UI components, web and mobile
  • Accessibility and inclusive-design advocacy across the lifecycle
02 — Opportunities

The questions the platform had to answer.

  1. 01How might we make authentication feel effortless without weakening security?
  2. 02How might we make one interface work equally well on a trading-desk monitor and on a phone?
  3. 03How might we introduce a complex platform to someone opening it for the first time?
  4. 04How might we keep approvals, memos and portfolio data in sync, and visible to everyone who depends on them?
  5. 05How might we surface outdated or missing data before it reaches an approval decision?
03 — Approach

Six areas of design work.

01

Authentication & security

  • Clean login interface with password-strength feedback
  • Guided account recovery
  • Enforced strong password policies
02

Responsive & scalable

  • Fully responsive across desktop, tablet and phone
  • A flexible design system built for future expansion
03

Onboarding & visuals

  • A trial landing page introducing the platform’s capabilities
  • Custom illustrations for empty states, guiding the next action
04

Everyday experience

  • Simplified dashboard with a categorised sidebar — Deals, Approvals, Portfolio
  • Clear visual hierarchy and iconography
  • Straightforward account and preference management
05

Approval workflow

  • A GBR approval section tracking loan progress, roles and responsibilities
  • Real-time sync alerts notifying stakeholders of key updates
06

Pipeline management

  • A high-level view of application status, roles and authority levels
  • Built-in checks that resolve outdated or missing data
  • Sync indicators for data consistency and transparency
04 — Outcomes

Faster to process, harder to get wrong, ready to grow.

Operational efficiency. Processing time and manual errors both came down, with user engagement up 30% over the course of the work.

Stronger security. Authentication and account protection were tightened without adding friction to the daily path.

A scalable framework. The design system is prepared for further workflows and broader adoption rather than being tuned to one release.

The platform gives SMBC a sleek, user-first foundation for its credit and loan operations — emphasising automation, real-time insight and simplified workflows so the bank can deliver financial services that are efficient, secure and scalable.

05 — Walkthrough
01 Pipeline details — the deal record itself
02 The dashboard, with its filters open
03 Borrower information, question by question
04 Transaction background — write-ups beside evidence
05 Assumptions, with the argument kept beside them
06 Irreversible actions, named as irreversible
07 Files, with upload state made visible
08 The conclusion step, deliberately spare
09 Sign-in — the one screen every session starts on
10 The whole credit memo as one list — the rail collapses, the order never changes
11 The book of deals, sortable — and filtered by how recently anything moved
12 Approvals as a queue you can read — who holds it, at what authority, and since when
13 The bank’s approval ladder, written into the interface rather than into a policy document
14 Notifications carry the approval code, not just the noun — so the state is never ambiguous
15 Access granted per person and per department — and visible to the admin who owns it
16 The type scale underneath all of it — documented, and stress-tested before it shipped
17 Four ramps, every step tokenised — with WCAG 2.2 contrast built in, not checked afterwards

01 / 17

01 / 17

Next case study

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield

Broker Online Services 2024–2025

Let’s connect.

If you made it this far, get in touch! I would love to hear from you.

crawford.todd30@gmail.com

LinkedIn Résumé (PDF) Contact form