Atla Auto
Your candid auto advisor
Product Design
Research
Branding
01The brief
Turn a one-time refinance into an advisor people come back to.
The client's business ran on single transactions: someone refinanced a car loan and left. The goal was a consumer product that could earn trust over the whole life of a car, from buying to financing, insuring and refinancing again.
From
A refinancing service people use once, often found through a referral site.
To
A candid auto advisor people open every month, and trust when the next decision comes.
Role
Product design across research synthesis, app architecture, UX, UI and the final brand system.
Timeline
Aug – Nov 2023
Team
Partnered with a research agency, alongside the client's product and lending leads.
Platform
iOS app, MVP
02Research
Before designing anything, we listened.
I partnered with a research agency on a three-phase segmentation and journey-mapping study. We started with qualitative listening, then validated what we heard with a national survey.
Phase 1
Immerse & hypothesize
Interviews, ethnographies and existing research, synthesized into insights and segment hypotheses.
Phase 2
Research & learn
A quantitative survey to validate attitudes, size segments and rank MVP features.
Phase 3
Define & activate
Design-target interviews, finalized journey maps and an activation playbook.
03Insights
Three truths that shaped every decision.
Each insight from the interviews became a product principle, an idea small enough for the MVP and a longer-term bet.
What we heard
A car is a lifestyle purchase people make in cycles. So is car finance.
—Monthly payments feel like a barrier to living well
—People want to see themselves in the advice they get
—Regret after buying starts the next search for a financial product
“The monthly payments were too high… I thought refinancing could be a ‘fresh start’.”
Consumer interview
Principle
Stay sensitive to each person's own picture of success.
MVP idea
Learn whether someone sees their payment as a barrier, and when.
Long term
Serve offers based on goals, barriers and trigger events.
Product starter ideas from the research readout
04Validation
The survey turned hunches into priorities.
About half of recent refinancers hit each of the same walls: missing options, unclear impact on credit and information scattered across calls and emails. That pointed the MVP at three problems: knowing your options, understanding your credit and keeping everything in one place.
0%
of recent refinancers are very or extremely likely to refinance again.
Refinancing isn't a one-off. It's a habit waiting for a home, which made a long-term relationship worth designing for.
Where refinancing hurts
Share of recent refinancers who called each a negative experience
Asked for personal information too early54%
Didn't know all their options beforehand53%
Hard to find the information they needed53%
Tracking details across email and calls53%
Didn't understand the refinance process50%
Unsure how it would affect their credit48%
What people valued most
Relative feature preference, where 100 is average
Make car loan payments264
Identity protection165
Apply refunds to a new loan124
Receive refunds when paying off early118
Itemized view of car and payments100
Get notified of a better loan deal85
Survey of 2,100 US adults responsible for vehicle finance decisions; refinance questions answered by 341 recent refinancers.
05Who we designed for
Different drivers, one product.
The research surfaced distinct mindsets, from people who want to do everything themselves to people who need reassurance from a human. The product had to work for both ends without feeling like two apps.
Segment hypotheses from the research readout. The names are working labels.
06Direction
From insight to four design principles.
I translated the research into a short set of principles to test every design against.
01
From: Self-doubt
Lead with the benefit
Every screen opens with what the person gains, such as the monthly saving, before rates, terms or IDs.
In the product Refinance offers lead with “Save $112/mo.”
02
From: Trust
Show the whole picture
Options, credit impact and paperwork are visible up front, so nothing feels hidden or salesy.
In the product Credit factors, utilization and application status in one place
03
From: Lifestyle
Meet the moment
The app reacts to life events, like a score climbing or a payment changing, instead of waiting to be asked.
In the product “We've approved you for 2 offers to refinance your car”
04
From: Trust
Keep a human in reach
A real advisor is one tap away at stressful points, never hidden behind a process.
In the product In-app advisor chat, explored in the early concepts
07Architecture
One hub, three ways in.
Instead of separate products for buying, insuring and refinancing, I mapped everything around a single hub. Onboarding asks for a goal, and every path returns to My Journey, where progress is visible.
From goal to funded loan, with the saving visible at every step.
Onboarding
Welcome
Join or sign in
Create account
Social or email
Secure
Face ID + PIN
Goal
Purchase
Negotiate at the dealer
Insurance
Compare policies
Refinance
Lower my payment
Hub
My Journey
Score, cars, offers
Sections
Credit
Score, factors, utilization
My cars
Value, balance, savings
Explore tools
Sticker scan, calculator
Applications
Status + next step
Outcomes
Fair vs. sticker
Market price range
Offers
Sorted by best fit
Apply
Pre-filled details
Messages
Approved, funded
Reconstructed from the final screens and prototype flows.
08On the lot
The moment that matters happens at the dealer's desk.
73% of people who financed a car bought it in person at a dealership. The research kept returning to one scene: an offer sheet, a finance manager and no way to tell if the deal is fair. I mapped what the buyer goes through, then sketched how Atla could help right there and turned the strongest idea into screens.
Redrawn from the sketches I put together while working with the Atla team: my direction, shaped by what we found in research. Prices and rates are illustrative.
09Exploration
Four questions before one answer.
The early wireframes explored different answers to one question: what would make someone open a finance app every month?
Concept A
Dashboard first
Can a summary of score and cashback be the reason to open the app?
Concept B
A human in reach
Where does a real advisor fit, and how present should they be?
Concept C
Insight led
Does a personal insight feed make credit feel less abstract?
Concept D
Goal first
What if the app starts by asking what you want to achieve?
The direction
A goal-led onboarding feeding one “My Journey” hub, where the score, the cars you own and the offers they unlock all live together and change as you make progress.
10Journey
Watch one person's score open new doors.
The refined wireframes followed a single user, John, from a 590 credit score to approved refinance offers. Step through the journey the way he'd experience it.
11Brand
A brand that sounds like a friend who knows cars.
I designed the Atla brand from the research up. People trust people and brands, not process, so it had to feel candid and warm, not like a bank: “The Candid Auto Advisor”.
Primary
Violete
Brand moments, primary actions and headers. Deep enough to feel premium, never loud.
Oct ’22
Territories
I explored three visual territories, then consolidated them into one direction.
Name
Atla
Selected through naming rounds and a consumer validation survey of finalist names.
Final system
Violete & warm neutrals
I built the final system: a calmer, more premium palette, an app-ready type system and the photography direction.
12Wireframe → final
Same bones, brand applied.
The final UI kept the structure the wireframes proved out, then added the Atla brand, real data and clearer hierarchy. Switch between stages to see what changed and why.
Wireframe · Welcome
1
Same structure, carried through
The layout, the headline and both actions stayed fixed from the first wireframe. Only the brand layer changed.
2
Brand enters through photography
The grayscale placeholder became the warm road-trip photography the brand guide calls for, with the violet wordmark.
13The MVP
The MVP, end to end.
From the first screen to a submitted application. Use the arrows, swipe on mobile or use your keyboard.
01 / 09
Welcome
The first screen sets the tone: the joy of the car, not the stress of the loan.
14Reflection
What I learned, and what comes next.
The MVP design centers on one loop: understand your credit, see what your car is worth to you, then act on a better offer. The next stage is making Atla anticipate those moments.
Trade-offs
One hub carries a lot of information, so tabs and clear section headers keep it scannable.
Asking for a goal first adds a step, but it personalizes everything after it.
What I'd validate next
Whether savings-first offers raise confidence, especially for cautious second-guessers.
How much human help people want, and at which moments.
Proposed roadmap
Offers that respond to life events and trigger moments.
Gentle interventions when a score dips or a payment changes.
An optional premium tier with a dedicated advisor.
Want to
see more?
Live sites I designed