Context

Etisalat is one of the two major telecommunications service provider companies in the UAE. It offers many phone plans and SIM card types. My role was to review, assess and redesign/improve their website’s UX for prepaid users.

Current Homepage

• Website isn’t practical. It’s complicated with irrelevant distractions, so it takes users time and several clicks to find what they need.
• Website’s copywriting isn’t optimized, and is somewhat confusing, misleading or ambiguous.
• Users are bombarded with random offers, ads, and deals instead of clear shortcuts that take them to the sections they’re looking for.
• There is no clear hierarchy and focus.
• Branding is weak compared to competitors.
• Website loads very slow.
• Website is quite frustrating.

Current Prepaid Plans Page

• You can navigate to this page by accessing Mobile > Prepaid from the main menu. Users expect to be able to recharge their prepaid plan from here but it turns out that this page only sells new prepaid plans.
• The layout of the plans isn’t practical because users have to scroll to compare them all.
• There seems to be no option to change plans anywhere on the site.
• Website and its offerings are frustrating.
• It’s confusing to figure out how Etisalat’s prepaid plans work, especially if you’re used to a different system or mobile provider.

I researched, analyzed and tested the following similar/competitor websites in order to compare them with Etisalat’s website:
• Du (UAE)
• STC (KSA)
• Zain (KSA)
• Vodafone (Qatar)
• Vodafone (UK)
• MTC Touch (Lebanon)
• Alfa (Lebanon)

The Challenge: How can the website be improved so that prepaid users can quickly, easily, and smoothly recharge their plans, compare plans, change their plans, or buy new plans?

As a sample user persona, I chose Jane, a foreigner who recently moved to Dubai for work. She belongs to the low income target audience segment.

I tested these wireframes on a group of potential users and got good feedback on them. Luckily no adjustments were needed, so I developed the UI based on them.

The new proposed redesign received a lot of positive feedback, and users agreed that the website was now way more intuitive, and the user journey and experience was now much better. It was now very practical and easy for them to compare and buy prepaid plans through the website.