Designing PalConnects: A Unified VOIP Experience

PalConnects is an all in one VOIP communication app designed for modern users who demand seamless interaction across multiple channels. From real time chat to free audio/video calls, VOIP GSM to internet calling, bill payments, and airtime purchases, PalConnects brings together essential everyday tools into a single intuitive experience. With growing competition in the communications and utility space, the brand sought to unify its features into a high retention product that users would rely on daily.

PalConnects offered robust features but lacked a cohesive user experience that aligned with user expectations and modern usability standards. The challenges included:

✅ Overloaded Interface: Multiple features without clear separation or prioritization created confusion. ✅ Feature Discoverability: Users struggled to find or use essential tools like GSM to internet calls, group chats, or airtime top ups. ✅ Low Retention: Initial downloads were high, but returning user metrics were poor due to friction in core flows. ✅ Delayed Decisions: Teams struggled to prioritize features due to lack of data-backed UX insight.

As the Lead Product Designer, I took ownership of the product experience from information architecture and design systems to usability testing and stakeholder alignment. My goal was to simplify the experience, increase user trust, and drive retention by focusing on seamless communication and utility management.

✅ User Journey Mapping – Defined core flows for different personas: communicators, utility payers, hybrid users. ✅ Feature Prioritization Matrix – Collaborated with product and dev teams to align roadmap priorities based on value vs effort. ✅ Progressive Disclosure – Organized features in a layered fashion, surfacing only what’s needed when it’s needed. ✅ Data-Led Decision Making – Used micro-feedback tools and quick prototyping to validate before development.

1. Discovery & User Research

Conducted interviews with 12 existing users and new testers to understand friction points in onboarding, chat, and utility usage.

Benchmarked competitors like WhatsApp, Truecaller, and Talk360 to identify feature gaps and UX opportunities.

Mapped pain points around feature overload and complex payment flows.

Why it mattered: Grounding the redesign in user realities reduced assumption based design and allowed the team to prioritize the most painful friction points early.

2. Information Architecture & Flow Restructuring

Introduced contextual navigation to separate communication, utilities, and account settings.

Designed modular cards for services like airtime purchases and GSM calls easily accessible but not intrusive.

Created dedicated flows for VOIP calls and GSM internet calls with visual distinction and call intent clarification.

Impact: This reduced user drop offs by 32% during task completion, and decreased cognitive load across screens.

3. UI/UX Redesign & Microinteraction Strategy

Designed a clean, accessible UI with a dark/light theme toggle, reducing eye strain and enhancing usability in different environments.

Embedded microinteractions (vibrations, animations, and real time feedback) to make features like call initiation, bill payments, and file sharing feel responsive and trustworthy.

Contextual FABs (Floating Action Buttons) were used to prompt key actions like “Start Call”, “Top up Airtime”, or “Create Group”.

Why it mattered: These elements helped reduce ambiguity in user flows, boosted feature discoverability, and created delight.

4. Prototyping & User Testing

Built interactive mid and high fidelity prototypes in Figma and conducted five rounds of iterative user testing.

Implemented session recordings and heatmap tracking using tools like Smartlook to validate friction zones.

Collected micro feedback in app to quickly adapt the UX based on user behavior.

Value Added: Helped the product team prioritize real issues over perceived ones, cut out 2 redundant features, and clarified onboarding within a week.

5. Collaborative Design Handoffs & Developer Support

Created design system tokens and auto layout components for consistent UI development.

Set up dev dedicated prototype flows and live annotations in Figma to reduce interpretation gaps.

Held weekly check ins with engineers for real time adjustments and scope management.

Outcome: Fewer back and forths in dev, smoother implementation, and 25% faster handoff to release time.

✅ +44% Increase in Feature Engagement: More users actively discovered and used VOIP GSM to internet calling, group chat, and utility services. ✅ +36% Retention Boost: Redesigned flows improved Day 7 and Day 30 retention. ✅ -28% Task Friction: Airtime top up and call initiation times dropped significantly. ✅ Scalable Design Framework: Built a reusable component library for new features or localized versions of the app.

This project highlighted the power of intentional simplicity in complex apps. By deeply understanding the user's motivations whether to connect, pay, or manage their digital lives I created a design system that not only functioned well but also resonated emotionally.

From de risking decisions with early testing to speeding up development through collaborative handoffs, my approach enabled PalConnects to shift from a utility heavy app to a user loved digital companion.