This portfolio is a work in progress
Role: Lead Product Designer, Three
Helping Customers Choose Better Value at Three
Simplifying top-up journeys to increase data pack adoption
Three offered customers multiple ways to add value to their Pay As You Go accounts, including cash credit and data packs. While data packs typically offered better value, many customers continued purchasing cash credit instead, leading to frustration when credit was used up quickly and increased demand on customer support channels.
I was asked to investigate why customers were making these choices and identify opportunities to improve the experience. The goal was to help customers make more informed decisions while increasing adoption of higher-value data packs.
+52%
Successful registrations
£109k
Monthly operational savings
My role
I led the review and redesign of the Pay As You Go top-up experience, working with product, analytics and customer support teams to understand customer behaviour and identify opportunities for improvement.
This included:
Conducting an end-to-end review of top-up journeys
Mapping information architecture and decision-making paths
Identifying customer pain points through research and operational insight
Developing future-state concepts and recommendations
Presenting proposals to senior stakeholders
Supporting implementation across the product
The challenge
Customers could purchase either cash credit or data packs, but the experience made it difficult to understand the differences between them and which option offered the best value.
A review of the journey identified several problems:
Overcomplicated pages that were difficult to scan
Important information hidden within popups
Unclear distinctions between cash credit, data packs and add-ons
Limited guidance on available options and their benefits
Poor visibility of expiry dates and pack behaviour
Success screens that failed to support onward journeys
Discussions with call centre staff reinforced these findings. Many customers contacted support after purchasing cash credit when a data pack would have better matched their needs.
The challenge was not simply to increase conversion, but to help customers make better-informed purchasing decisions.
Understanding customer decision making
An end-to-end review of the top-up ecosystem highlighted several points where customers lacked the information needed to make confident choices.
Journey mapping exposed inconsistencies in information hierarchy, unclear product distinctions and friction throughout the purchase process. Operational insights from customer support teams provided additional context, revealing that many complaints stemmed from confusion rather than product suitability.
Together, these findings highlighted a gap between the value Three intended to offer and the value customers actually understood.
Clarifying customer choices
A key issue was that customers struggled to understand the difference between cash credit and data packs.
The redesigned experience introduced clearer hierarchy, simpler messaging and more visible comparisons between available options. The aim was to make value easier to understand and help customers identify the most suitable product for their needs.
Recommendations also explored how dashboard personalisation could surface more relevant options and support decision-making earlier in the journey.
Simplifying the purchase journey
The existing journeys required customers to process large amounts of information before making a purchase.
Future-state concepts focused on reducing friction, simplifying navigation and presenting information in a more structured way. Separate recommendations were developed for both cash credit and data pack journeys, ensuring each experience better supported customer needs while aligning with business goals.
The proposals connected user research, operational evidence and commercial objectives into a clear roadmap for improvement.
All recommendations were approved and implemented.
The impact
The redesigned journeys successfully influenced customer behaviour towards higher-value products while creating a clearer purchasing experience.
Customer impact
Improved understanding of top-up options and product differences
Reduced confusion between cash credit and data packs
Helped customers make more informed purchasing decisions
Business impact
Data pack adoption increased from 59% to 73%
Cash credit purchases decreased from 41% to 27%
Delivered a 14 percentage point shift in customer behaviour within five days of launch
Improvements were sustained beyond launch, demonstrating lasting behavioural change