At Quicken Loans, we love trying out new ideas. Our latest and greatest is an approach using an ATM style. That means large type, one question per screen, and big easy to click buttons, all on your computer screen.

Right now, the Easy Mortgage Expert is live and available to anyone to use on QuickenLoans.com. But the prototype I described above would be the next phase of the Easy Mortgage Expert. It’s not super difficult to use right now, but it could be easier and that’s always our goal.

3 buttons - shown at actual size

The first thing that means is bigger buttons and bigger text. I can’t tell you how many times people have told me that their eyesight starts to fail them as they get older and things are harder to see. Even younger people sometimes complain that small text on a computer screen is difficult to read especially if they’ve already been sitting at a computer screen at work all day.

So far, we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback. It’s not live yet, but when it is, I’ll be sure to let all of you know.

When we first put the new Quicken Loans wholesale mortgage site in front of users, no one new what a wholesale rate was. I had everyone take a stab at it; once before showing them the site and once while viewing the site. This was especially important because if a visitor to a site can’t figure out the reason the site might be useful, they’ll have no reason to stay and investigate.

Issue:

Before viewing the site, a few people were close, but most admitted they didn’t know and they took a wild guess.

While viewing the site, users were frustrated with the lack of a clear definition. They visually scanned the entire homepage but felt like there was no clear-cut answer. Only after viewing the How it Works page did users start to understand what a wholesale rate actually is.

Feedback in Action:

We gave users what they asked for! We adjusted the bullets in the gray area to better describe the value of a reverse mortgage. We also changed the orange sign to direct people to the How it Works page. This way, users are immediately directed to the page that proved most informative during user sessions.

Check out mortgagewholesalerate.com to find out exactly what a wholesale mortgage rate is and how it can benefit you.

On the new Wholesale Rate site, the pre-production calculator fields asked for “Your Loan Amount” and “Monthly Payment”.

Issue:

This language didn’t resonate with users and several people were confused by it. They weren’t sure if the calculator was asking for the amount they currently owe on the loan or their original loan amount.

Feedback in Action:

We changed the fields altogether and made the language clearer. Now they read “Current Loan Amount” and “Cash Out”. Hopefully this makes more sense and is easier to understand.

We’re always looking for different ways to gather feedback on QuickenLoans.com and our other sister sites we help manage.

So do us a favor and take our 5 second test. You’ll be shown an image for 5 seconds then asked a simple question. Easy for you and informative for us.

Shout out to @tigerfork who tweeted about this site.

In the Easy Mortgage Expert, we provide you with a loan result including a closing cost estimation.

Recommendation:

You suggested we provide a breakdown of the closing costs associated with each loan result.

Feedback in Action:

Now, when you hover over Closing Costs or click Loan Details, you get a full breakdown of the estimated closing costs, line-by-line.

See it live by trying out the Easy Mortgage Expert.