Faster loan review
Improved table organization reduced the effort needed to find, scan, and evaluate loans.
TL;DR
Led the UX/UI redesign of Bid Desk, a loan bidding platform used to view, search, filter, bid on, and pair out loans, aligning the product with Rocket's design system while improving usability, consistency, and task clarity.
The Problem
As Bid Desk grew in usage and complexity, the platform struggled to keep up with how teams actually worked. Users were managing multiple loans, rates, and scenarios at once—but the interface made it difficult to quickly understand, compare, and act on that information.
The Details
Role: Senior UX Designer
Timeline: 4 months
Team: Product, Engineering, Sales stakeholders
Platform: Web (Internal Tool)
Impact / Efficiency
Improved data discovery, multi-select bidding, and contextual bulk actions reduced friction across everyday Bid Desk tasks.
Quicker data discovery
Enhanced filtering, searching, and sorting helped users narrow large datasets more efficiently.
Greater confidence
Clearer loan details, summaries, and bid states helped users confirm decisions before submitting bids.
Faster multi-loan bidding
Users can select and place bids across multiple loans with less effort.
Streamlined bulk actions
Clearer selection states speed up updates across multiple loans.
Discovery
understanding employee workflows, pain points, and technical needs to build tools that increase efficiency and adoption,
RESEARCH
Gathering Insights:
I began by reviewing the legacy Bid Desk experience, mapping the core workflows users relied on to manage loan requests. Because the product handled dense financial data, the research phase focused on understanding how users reviewed request activity, located specific loan packages, interpreted loan volume, and took actions such as bidding, uploading files, and pairing out/off loans. These insights directly informed the redesign approach.
Stakeholder and user interviews
Existing product audit
Workflow review
User/task analysis
Pain points from internal users or product owners
RESEARCH
From discovery, several themes emerged:
- Inconsistent patterns.
- Too much data was presented at once, with little visual hierarchy.
- Comparing multiple loans or scenarios required mental effort instead of visual clarity.
- Poor scalability
- Outdated UI and and inconsistent design direction.
- Identifying friction points during high-volume tasks
UX Goals
Here is where I focused on progressive disclosure, clear hierarchy, and repeatable patterns.
UX GOALS
Goals That Guided the Redesign:
My goal was to improve the overall user experience by making the platform more intuitive, efficient, and scalable. I focused on creating clearer workflows, stronger visual hierarchy, and a structure that could better support future Bid Desk needs.
- Improve scalability of loan request data
- Clearer hierarchy between page context, filters, summary information, and table content.
- Align the product with Rocket's design system and brand guidelines.
- Reduce visual clutter in row-level actions.
- Make request activity easier to understand at a glance.
- Create a more scalable dashboard structure for future Bid Desk workflows.
Design Approach
Here is where I focused on progressive disclosure, clear hierarchy, and repeatable patterns.
UX APPROACH
Design Strategy:
My approach focused on auditing the existing experience, mapping key workflows, improving the layout structure, redesigning core interactions, applying the Rocket design system, and refining the solution through feedback and iteration.
Step 1: Audited the existing experience
Reviewed the old interface to identify usability, hierarchy, and consistency issues.
Step 2: Mapped core workflows
Focused on key actions like reviewing loans, filtering/searching, selecting multiple loans, bidding, and pairing loans out/off.
Step 3: Explored wireframes
Created early layout ideas to improve structure, hierarchy, and task flow before moving into high-fidelity design.
Step 4: Applied the design system
Used Rocket's design system and brand guidelines to modernize the interface and create consistency.
Step 5: Refined dashboard interactions
Improved filters, table layout, status visibility, bulk actions, and bidding flows.
Step 6: Validated with feedback
Used stakeholder or team feedback to refine the experience and make sure the design supported real workflow needs.
Information Architecture
Here is where I focused on progressive disclosure, clear hierarchy, and repeatable patterns.
Bid Desk Pipeline
1.0
Dashboard
2.0
Request ID's
2.1
Bids
Commitments
File manager
Market
3.0
New Request
4.0
Edit request
5.0
File uploads
Ideation
Here is where I focused on progressive disclosure, clear hierarchy, and repeatable patterns.
V.1
- Rocket Mortgage design system alignment
- Standardize actions and components across flows
- Grouping related data into scannable sections
- The dashboard has several large sections competing for priority
V.2
- Quick actions are more prominent
- Better card structure
- Learning resources are easier to discover
- The hierarchy prioritizes support content over work content
V.3
- Better hierarchy overall
- Pipeline Requests is finally the focal point
- Quick Actions are present without taking over the page
- Cleaner separation of primary vs. secondary content
- The KPI feels slightly disconnected from the pipeline
Final Designs
Before & After
understanding employee workflows, pain points, and technical needs to build tools that increase efficiency and adoption,
Before / After comparison
| Area | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Page structure | Table-first experience | Dashboard-style workspace |
| Summary Insights | No KPI summary layer | 7 KPI summaries surfaced |
| Data views | Single table view | Table and grid options |
| Time controls | Basic date range and icons | Date module, change period, weekly/monthly toggle |
| Row actions | Multiple visible icons/actions | More centralized zones and improved spacing |
| Visual hierarchy | Minimal separation between content areas | Clear content zones and improved spacing |
| Brand alignment | Legacy Mr.Cooper styling | Rocket Mortgage design system styling |
| Scalability | Minimal separation between content areas | Better foundation for future workflows |
Takeaways
Final thoughts and takeaways
This project reinforced the importance of clear hierarchy, scalable design systems, and confident bulk-action workflows in data-heavy financial tools. By simplifying the structure and aligning the experience with Rocket’s design system, the redesign created a stronger foundation for users to review and manage loans more efficiently.
Next Steps
With more time, I would validate the redesign through usability testing and continue refining the dashboard hierarchy. I would also explore the implementation of quick actions for common tasks like bidding, pairing out loans, and accessing learning tools. To support new users, I would add learning resources, documentation, support, tooltips, and help links to reduce confusion and improve confidence.