TitleMax Online Express Application
Scan the ID. Skip the form
Background & Problem
TitleMax lends against vehicle titles. Approval depends on verified identity, so the online application collects the same fields a branch would: legal name, date of birth, address, and driver's license details — the last one keyed in digit by digit from a card sitting on the desk.
On mobile, that's 8 fields before an applicant sees any indication they'll be approved. People arrive needing money quickly, and the form asks them to prove patience first.
Applicants abandon the online application during manual entry of personal and license details, delaying decisions and pushing volume back into branches. Every field typed by hand is a field that can be typed wrong — and a reason to close the tab.
I replaced that with camera.
Exploration
Constraint worth stating
Scanning can fail bad light, worn cards, out-of-state formats. The design could not treat the camera as the only path. Manual entry had to survive as a first-class route, not a hidden fallback.
Mapping the journey to find where a scan would actually help
I built a customer journey map covering how applicants discover, evaluate and use the online application. The point wasn't to document the current flow — it was to locate the moments where a scanning feature would change someone's decision to continue.
Design Experience
Four decisions that shaped the flow
Sketches went into Figma as low-fidelity wireframes, then tightened with motion and copy written alongside the marketing and product teams. The wireframes matter less than what they resolved:
TENSION
Leading with a camera permission request is the fastest path, but a permission prompt before any explanation reads as invasive on a lending site.
DECISION
Explain the trade before asking. A single screen states what scanning does and what it saves, with "Enter manually" given equal visual weight — so the camera is an offer, not a toll gate.
TENSION
Not every applicant uses a driver's license, and picking the wrong ID type mid-scan meant restarting.
DECISION
ID type is switchable from inside the scan screen and after a result, without losing progress — the change users most often needed to make became the cheapest one to make.
TENSION
Auto-filled fields feel like magic until one character is wrong, at which point the applicant distrusts every other field too.
DECISION
A review step, not a submit step. Scanned values land in editable fields the applicant confirms. Filled fields are visually marked as scanned, so it's obvious what came from the card and what didn't.
TENSION
A failed scan is the highest-risk moment: the applicant has spent effort and received nothing.
DECISION
Failure states name the cause and the fix — glare, edges out of frame, unsupported ID — and always surface manual entry, so no applicant reaches a dead end.
Usability testing
3 participants worked through mobile prototypes while thinking aloud. Three tasks: complete an application using the scan, switch ID type partway through, and recover from a scan that fails. Sessions were unmoderated, remote.
Feedback from testers:
“Have to go back to change the ID type”“This was quick and easy to scan the license”“Have to exit from camera to switch the ID”“It was easier to change the ID from camera screen”“Time saving process to scan ID”
Final Prototype
Based on feedback from qualitative test, the decision was made to push the new Scan ID experience to 100% titlemax.com users on Oct 2023.
Bounce rate: 18% decrease
Conversion rate: 4% increase
Client Review
"During our time working together, Shreya was nothing short of fantastic. She consistently produced excellent, well thought out designs, all within the tight deadlines imposed by our client. Aside from the great design skills, Shreya projects an understated maturity and confidence when speaking or presenting, which I think is key to getting satisfaction and buy in from all stakeholders. I would recommend Shreya to anyone looking for a top tier UI/UX professional."— Trevor Ferguson, Tech Lead @ TitleMax