Tomás' UX Portfolio

UX Portfolio

Rapid Prototyping leading growth: Identity Theft Monitoring for Psafe

User Research, Qualitative Research Methods, Quantitative Research Methods, Usability Testing, Android, iOS| Senior Mobile UX Designer @ Psafe | 2018

1. Context

App Type: 📱 DFNDR Security Android App

Target Audience: Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Security and Privacy App

Role: I served as the Lead UX Designer for the DFNDR Security App, collaborating closely with a Product Manager (PM) and Lead Developer.

User Base: The app boasted an impressive 15 million monthly active users and successfully protected over 300,000 users against phishing attacks daily.

Company Objective: The primary company goal was to expand its presence in the US market.

2. UX Problem

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📉 User Attrition from Ad-Based Experience: "Users are leaving the app due to dissatisfaction with the ad-based experience. We need to identify and address the reasons behind this attrition."

👾 Feature Redundancy with Antivirus Industry: "The app's features seem to overlap with established antivirus protection solutions in the industry. We should explore how to differentiate the app's offerings and provide unique value to users."

3. UX Goal

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💸 Subscription Tier Launch: "Create and launch a subscription tier from scratch with robust security features."

💭 Mobile Security Discovery: "Begin a discovery process by exploring the question: 'What are the current demands and needs of users in the field of mobile security?'"

4. UX Process

Commencing Research Through Daily User Discoveries

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I have initiated our research process by actively engaging with our users on their privacy-related experiences, concerns, and issues. We've employed a combination of methods, including SurveyMonkey surveys and UserTesting.com audio recordings.

Research Methods Utilized:

In-App Research: Conducting investigations after users perform specific actions within the app to gain insights into their real-time experiences.

Quantitative Data Analysis: Analyzing quantitative data to identify trends and patterns in users' privacy and security behaviors.

Qualitative Discoveries: Employing qualitative research methods to unearth nuanced insights and gather in-depth feedback on user concerns and fears regarding mobile security and privacy.

Evaluating Significant Opportunities

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In an effort to provide a balanced perspective, I have constructed a weighted word map. This map serves as a means to distill and consolidate the various research topics mentioned, facilitating the development of hypotheses in collaboration with relevant stakeholders. This approach has proven effective in our strategic thinking process.

Hypothesis Refinement through Customer Panel

After compiling the team's hypotheses, I devised specific questions for each one, intending to validate these hypotheses by engaging recruited users from our customer panel. Notably, these panel members were willing to engage in conversations via WhatsApp, making it feasible to delve deeper into the hypotheses with their valuable insights.

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Process Overview:

Measuring User Needs: As an initial step, we gauged user needs and concerns.

Creating Targeted Questions: To validate our hypotheses, we formulated precise questions.

Reaching Out via Customer Panel: We approached users from our customer panel for their participation.

Refining Hypotheses: With the feedback and insights gathered, we refined our initial hypotheses based on real user experiences and perceptions.

Unearthing Deeper Insights: Informing Our Hypotheses

As I delved deeper into our research, I unearthed genuine narratives that served as the foundation for our hypotheses. This allowed us to integrate qualitative and quantitative data, enhancing our understanding of the primary issues at hand.

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Key Uncovered Stories:

"They opened a company in my name with all my data. Today, I have a debit that I did not make."

"I downloaded a fake app, and two days later, my credit card was hacked, resulting in several unauthorized purchases."

"They hacked my social networks and impersonated me."

Notable Quantitative Findings:

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Rapid Prototyping and iterating with real user data

I crafted lo-fi prototypes and started to test then, so I could rapidly adjust then and sending them again to seek validation, in a continuous UX iteration process.

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Usability Testing Methodologies driving growth

In our pursuit of refining user experiences, I employed diverse testing methods to eliminate guesswork, reduce accessibility friction, unearth opportunities, and identify elements that capture the most attention. Ensuring the right focus in each instance was paramount. To achieve this, I utilized several techniques, including preference tests, first-click heatmaps, and the "5 seconds read" test, among others. Each of these tests played a crucial role in enhancing our understanding of user behavior and preferences, and the results were effectively shared with stakeholders to inform the latest UX solutions.

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First-Click Tests

For instance, we conducted "first-click tests" to explore users' immediate responses to specific tasks, asking questions like, "What would you do to accomplish this objective?" These tests were instrumental in fine-tuning our interface designs.

Validated MVP: Identity Theft Protection

After analyzing our research findings, I initiated a hands-on collaboration with our development team to launch a highly streamlined Minimum Viable Product (MVP) titled "Verify your accounts for breaches."

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Immediate Impact (KPIs)

Within just a month of its release, we observed significant results:

Over 150,000 users tried the new feature.

An impressive 40,000 users initiated a 7-day trial subscription due to this innovative addition.

Moreover, the introduction of this MVP had a substantial positive impact on premium conversion rates:

Our premium conversion rate surged from a mere 0.3% to a remarkable 1.5%.

This achievement demonstrates the power of data-driven decisions and the effective implementation of a validated MVP in enhancing our user experience and business outcomes.

Developing a premium strategy and tracking important flows for improvements

Analyzing the performance and attrition rates of critical screens shed valuable insights on how we could enhance the user flows.

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Enhancing the protection experience further

Incorporating extra research insights, we evolved the initial release into a holistic Identity Theft Monitoring concept. This enhanced the premium user's security with Breach Alerts, multi-account support, breached data visibility, and App Privacy Scan.

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UI and Animations designed for this project

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5. Product Outcomes

Premium conversion went up to 15%, being completely motivated by Identity Theft Monitoring and its new features such App Privacy Scan.

In 3 months, 75k+ people now had their accounts informed of data breaches that occured in that timeframe.

200k+ people were now protected over Identity theft online and informed about App Privacy risks everyday, satisfying customer needs.

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Psafe board decided to launch Dfndr Security on iOS, with Id. Theft Monitoring as the main drive for UX in a new strong market for subscription.

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Android⁠

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6. Key Learnings and non-tangible effects of this project

🤔 The conversation grew around user data instead of our last processes based on lots of back and forth, expensive launches based on opinionated design.

📊 The UX design team now has valuable information to make and present decisions, and a process for new initiatives, gaining the trust of other teams.

⭐️ Why this project was so important to my career? I believe this project was crucial for my growth as a UX Designer and Researcher. It aligned closely with the concepts I later encountered in the book '

Shape Up⁠

' and followed best practices for software development. I'm genuinely grateful for the support my teammates provided, enabling me to lead this project, which became one of my most successful UX cases.

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