Improving how applicants apply and get approved
Over three years, I worked on Capital One’s card experiences, from the credit card application itself to the launch of the new Savor product.
+3%
credit card application rates
+47%
card design selections
How do you make applying for a credit card, one of the most personal financial decisions people make, feel simple and trustworthy?
Senior Product Designer, 2017–2020. Below are a few projects from that time.
Savor: a playbook for new kinds of partners
Savor, a dining and entertainment rewards card, relied on traditional partnerships with large national brands, which limited what the card could offer. I led design strategy and ran workshops with business, brand, and product teams to build a digital partnership framework, a toolkit partner teams used to evaluate and pitch new brand partners. The framework was used to pitch multiple partners, leading to an official partnership with an entertainment brand.
Redesigning the application for a pandemic
When the pandemic hit, Capital One’s credit card application faced new risks: credit bureau data was going stale, and unemployment was rising fast. I found the application gave little visibility into whether an applicant’s job was stable, which left the business exposed to higher underwriting risk.
I redesigned the occupation field, replacing open text with a category-based typeahead. It made the question easier for applicants to answer and gave underwriting more accurate data. We rolled it out gradually, from 50% to 100% of traffic, to watch for any drop in completion.
3% higher application rates across all Capital One cards
Fewer drop-offs at the occupation step
General Motors: choosing your card design while you apply
GM credit card customers could only choose their card design by phone. That frustrated customers, led to unnecessary card reissues, and missed a chance to make the card feel personal. As the acquisitions designer, I added card design selection directly to the application, so every applicant could choose a design while applying.
47% more card design selections
54% of customers chose a non-standard design
Application completion stayed stable, showing personalization added engagement without adding friction
