Vayana LOS - Self-Serve Loan Origination for SME Borrowers
A self-serve loan origination journey simple enough for a non-expert SME owner to complete alone, recover from, and manage across the life of the loan.
- Role
- UI/UX Designer (end-to-end)
- Client
- Vayana
- Type
- Product · B2B FinTech (SCF)
- Platform
- Web application (desktop-first)
TL;DR
Supply chain finance lending starts with an SME owner who has no credit team and needs working capital with the least possible friction. That owner has to supply a dense credit file (entity details, KYC, co-borrowers, shareholding, bank and financial detail) alone, recover cleanly when the lender's underwriting flags a problem, and then manage the loan across renewal and limit changes, not just at the moment of applying. The design problem was: sequence a genuinely dense application into something a layperson can complete unassisted, turn a rejection into a precise, actionable fix rather than a dead end, and carry the borrower's relationship with the loan past approval.
My role & contribution
- Owned UI/UX end to end as the sole designer, working from Vayana's own lending business requirements.
- Designed the dynamic form logic that changes what a borrower sees by entity type and loan amount, rather than showing one static form to everyone.
- Designed the discrepancy loop that turns a lender's rejection into a precise, actionable fix instead of a dead end.
- Designed the borrower dashboard and the guided flows for renewal, limit enhancement and queries across the life of a loan.
Motivation
An SME owner applying for working capital has no credit team standing behind them, so the application itself has to do the work a credit team normally would: sequence a dense form into something completable alone, adapt to who's actually filling it in, and never let a rejection be the end of the conversation. Working from Vayana's own lending business requirements, the brief was to design the origination journey as a system that carries a non-expert through a genuinely complicated financial process, then keeps carrying them through renewal and limit changes once the loan is live.
The core challenges
- 01A layperson has to complete a credit file alone - business proofs, KYC, co-borrowers, shareholding, bank and financial detail, sequenced without a credit team to help.
- 02The form has to change shape by entity type and amount - the right proofs, fields and shareholding rules had to render dynamically rather than showing one static form to everyone.
- 03Recoverable failure states - KYC gaps, invalid documents and discrepancies are exactly where SMEs abandon; each had to resolve to a concrete next action.
- 04Fast re-entry for a known user - a returning borrower needed an OTP-only path back in rather than starting over.
- 05Money-moving actions need their own certainty - enhancing a limit or resubmitting a section had to be OTP-gated and unambiguous, not a silent form save.
- 06Lifecycle beyond approval - real loans renew, enhance limits and get queried; the design had to carry a borrower's relationship with the loan past the moment of applying.
Design solutions
A four-step application that makes a credit file completable
The origination flow sequences a dense credit application into a completable, tabbed journey: Business Entity Details, KYC Details, Loan Details, Bank & Financial Details, each with clear next/back and a persistent "get assistance to apply" lifeline.
Business Entity chunks the load into legible groups: entity type (auto-verified), business proofs each with explicit format and size hints, operational address, and authorized signatory with co-borrowers and shareholding (guided by rules like "shareholding above 51%"). The system sequences it, validates inline, and shows exactly what's outstanding.
From naming the business to previewing the file exactly as the lender will see it.
Swipe to see the next step →
A credit file made completable by an SME with no credit team, because the system sequences it, validates inline, and shows exactly what's outstanding.
The discrepancy loop, turning a rejection into a precise fix
This is where self-serve origination is won or lost. When the lender flags problems, the application doesn't die, it returns in a discrepancy state that makes recovery concrete: an "Invalid Documents" callout lists exactly which files were rejected, the specific fields are highlighted in red, and the affected tab carries an alert dot.
The borrower is guided straight to "re-upload these three things," not left to guess why they were declined. That recoverable, precise failure state is exactly what lets a non-expert SME get through real-world KYC variance without abandoning.
A rejection returns as a to-do list, not a dead end.
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A non-expert SME can act on a precise instruction; a vague decline, they abandon.
A borrower dashboard that manages a loan across its life
Origination is only the start. The dashboard gives the borrower a portfolio view of every loan by anchor, mapped program, applied date, amount, tenure and status, with statuses that tell the truth (Discrepancy / Pending / Active / Closed).
Per-loan actions cover the real lifecycle: View & Edit, Renew Application, Enhance Limit, Renew & Enhance, Raise a query, each with its own guided flow and OTP confirmation where money or limits change.
The loan across its life, not just at application.
Swipe to see the next step →
Enhancing a limit or renewing moves real money or terms, so each gets its own guided flow and confirmation rather than a silent edit.
Reflection
- The discrepancy loop is where self-serve is really won. A non-expert SME will abandon a vague rejection and fix a precise one, and I'd instrument every discrepancy state and every "get assistance" tap from day one.
- Dynamic, entity-type-driven logic is what keeps one form from becoming unusable for everyone. I'd push that further: surface why a field appeared or disappeared, so the form teaches the borrower about their own application.
- OTP-gating every money-moving action earns trust in a self-serve product. I'd extend that certainty into proactive status nudges, not just confirmation at the moment of action.
- Lifecycle beyond approval is underrated scope. Renewal and limit enhancement, designed as first-class guided flows rather than edit forms, is what makes the dashboard a relationship, not just a receipt.
Visuals are recreated / sanitised representations for portfolio use and contain no real client data. Anchor / brand names appearing in screens are placeholder.