VirtuRoam is an eSIM management app that eliminates the need for physical SIM cards and prevents the hassle of excessive data roaming charges when travelling.
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VirtuRoam is an eSIM management app that saves the hassle of excessive data roaming charges when travelling, allowing users to store and manage multiple eSIM profiles on their devices, eliminating the need for physical SIM cards.
80 hours
Sole UX/UI Designer
Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop
Travel & Lifestyle Industry
Do you know that nightmare scenario everyone jokes about—what if one day the Wi-Fi just stops working and everyone is forced to actually 'go outside' and look up to the sky away from our phones for once?
Yes, well, that happened to me, except I wasn't dreaming.
On Friday, July 8, 2022, I experienced something that I never expected to see in my lifetime. For a whole 19 hours, if you were a customer of the most popular cell and internet company in Canada, Rogers Communications, you were without both a wireless and internet connection.
There was no way to call 911 or any emergency services, no way to report to work or school, nothing. This caused countrywide havoc among the 11.3 million Rogers customers in Canada. If I had known what an eSim was back then I wouldn't have spent almost 24 hours in a coffee shop working stressed. This unforgettable situation inspired VirtuRoam.
We live in the golden age of convenience and have the ability to do almost anything at our fingertips. We're past the times of having to go buy calling cards or download unreliable apps to speak with whomever we please across the globe.
The Global System for Mobile Communications predicts there will be 850 million eSIM smartphone connections globally by 2025, growing to 6.7 billion by 2030.
We've popularized free-texting apps reliant on the internet instead of prioritizing enhancing our stable mobile connection infrastructure. I live in Canada with some of the highest wireless costs averaging $144 in comparison to 40 other high-paying countries in 2021 and still experienced limited connectivity as proven in my story above.
The opportunity to create a product that enhances wireless connectivity standards arose. And with my inspiration in mind, the research for VirtuRoam began.
The research goals were:
The research investigates insights into the ways eSim companies incorporate communication, information access, navigation, productivity, safety, and social interaction.
Market research was carried out on VirtuRoam's direct competitors to optimize the user experience for VirtuRoam.
Direct competitors:
Some strengths seen from competitors that were implemented were:
Direct competitors:
Some weaknesses seen in competitors that were avoided were:
Direct competitors:
A series of in-depth interviews were then conducted to identify users' mobile usage patterns, attitudes, experiences, and challenges related to mobile network connections.
To understand, we interviewed users who:
90% of users expressed concerns about how unreliable their mobile connection can be when travelling.
50% of users feel unsafe when accessing Wi-Fi that is not their home network.
100% of users mentioned they were unsure of how exactly eSims works. As it is a relatively new technology.
60% of users were frustrated with the current pricing of both their phone plans and access to data when travelling.
After gathering insights about VirtuRoam users' characteristics, goals, needs, and pain points directly from the source, their needs were refined into point-of-view reflections and "how might we" questions to better understand how to solve them.
As a business looking to adopt eSIM technology amongst all our employees who are often on business trips, we require dedicated support.
How might we ensure clear instructions for businesses looking to recommend or enforce our eSIM app to their employees?
Answer: The first time the app gets downloaded, there is brief information on what VirtuRoam provides and how there are ways to get support before users even get to create an account.
As a first-time eSIM user, I need a user-friendly and intuitive activation process to feel confident in adopting this new technology.
How might we simplify the process of activating an eSIM for our first-time users?
Answer: VirtuRoam has a device compatibility checking tool, data usage push notifications, dedicated live chat support, a FAQ section, and an installation guide after purchase.
As someone who travels very often, I’m looking for cost-conscious data plans that fit within my budget.
How might we make our eSIM plans affordable?
Answer: VirtuRoam interviewed people from 3 different continents to compare various types of mobile carriers' pricing from all over the world.
Based on research from the market analysis, these were the features that would bring the best user experience.
Allow users to assign custom names and labels to their different eSIM profiles (e.g., "Work," "Travel," "Home").
With usage monitoring alerts, set your daily, weekly, or monthly usage limit. VirtuRoam will send out push notifications when users are almost at capacity and top-up data if needed.
Depending on which country the eSim's plan is activated in, information is provided on that country's EMS Services and embassy information.
Video tutorials are available on the app so customers know exactly how to download our eSims in addition to being emailed instructions.
Three main user personas emerged out of the research and interviews that would best benefit from using VirtuRoam.
Now that VirtuRoam has its target users, I drafted up how they would use our platform.
This is the task flow created for VirtuRoam's prototyping process. It is from the POV of a campaign manager signing a new gaming content creator/influencer to a new sponsored partnership deal to stream a specific game.
This is the sitemap created for Gametrix's prototyping process.
These are the low-fidelity wireframes created from the task flow.
The goal of VirtuRoam's design system was consistency with uniquely crafted iconography, reusable components, a balanced colour theme, and seamless typography.
Gathering insights I got users to test the high-fidelity prototypes to receive feedback.
After feedback from VirtuRoam users, the following iterations were made for a better user experience.
BEFORE ITERATIONS
This is the home page before iterations.
AFTER ITERATIONS
A neomorphic theme was added, better display hierarchy and additional text for clear and concise navigation of the home page.
BEFORE ITERATIONS
This is the regional data plan search page before iterations.
AFTER ITERATIONS
A neomorphic theme was added and the button imagery was changed to monochrome so there wasn't too much of the primary colour displayed and used darker colours for easier readability.
These are key features for VirtuRoam.
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As I completed VirtuRoam, these are the things I've learned.
VirtuRoam was a special project for me because I saw this as an opportunity to better an already successful market. It allowed me to explore the travelling and lifestyle industries. I was satisfied with the feedback given by frequent travellers, especially user testing played a pivotal role in refining our app. Valuable feedback from testers led to iterative improvements, enhancing the app's usability and addressing user pain points. Insights from user testing informed both UI/UX enhancements and backend optimizations.
My eSim app met its goals and exemplified technology-transforming mobile connectivity while ensuring data security and privacy. It served as a valuable learning experience, reaffirming our dedication to innovation, user-centricity, sustainability, and excellence in the ever-evolving mobile technology landscape.
INDUSTRY COMPLEXITIES
With industries as complex as telecommunications and travel, a lot of success relies heavily on the community trusting your product and its reliability. Travellers are open to trying new things if it brings them convenience, and they will take your product into their community and expand it organically if they like it. Because of such complexities, user interviews were extremely highlighted.
The next steps, with the limited time for this project, would've been more research into identifying if and why people are hesitant to try eSims and more pain points when it comes to eSims in general.
NEXT DESIGN
The flow that was designed focused more on our game developer/publisher user personas. The next design process would focus on expanding the EMS and embassy information feature and displaying how that information would be relayed. I would have loved to research different countries' safety information and precautions, as this is a feature I felt stood out from other eSim apps. I would have loved to design this if given more time on this project.
