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Redesigning Northern Ireland's public transport homepage.
3 Mobile — App Prototype to Production
A 4-week sprint to build a fully interactive prototype that secured internal funding and became the basis of the new 3 Mobile app.
- Role: Lead UX Designer (MMT Digital)
- Scope: End-to-end prototype, flows (billing, data, offers), stakeholder demo
- Timeline: 4 weeks
High-fidelity prototype
No dead-ends
Animated interactions
Figma
💰
Funding secured
⭐ 4.4
App Store rating
95K+
Ratings
#27
Utilities chart
01The Challenge
- Poor reviews & low adoption: The legacy app was on old tech and under-delivered; customers weren’t using it for simple tasks.
- Operational strain: Call centres were inundated with tasks that should be self-serve in-app.
- Funding required: Leadership needed a compelling prototype to unlock internal investment.
- Multiple agendas: Marketing needed a platform for offers; customers needed billing & data control.
02Objectives
- Deliver a full interactive prototype with realistic animated flows
- Ensure no dead ends across key journeys (payments, upgrades, contact)
- Prioritise billing & data essentials (bill amount, pay now, usage) to reduce calls
- Balance customer tasks first, offers second
- Secure internal funding and move to production
03My Approach
-
Audit the existing app
Reviewed infrastructure, flows and pain points to identify where the app under-performed; mapped real customer intents to screens: see bill → pay now → receipt, check data → allowances, change plan/upgrade.
-
Build a realistic Figma prototype
Single handed end-to-end build in Figma — with animated interactions and production-like navigation.
-
Design for business & customer value
Essentials first on the dashboard (bill, usage), then contextual offers; removed decision dead ends by adding back paths and confirmations.
-
Validate internally
Ran internal sessions to ensure the prototype behaved like a real app before the stakeholder demo.
-
Present to leadership
Demoed the full journey without dead ends to de-risk investment concerns and align stakeholders.
04Challenges
- Time pressure: 4 weeks total; data & research only arrived near end of week 3.
- Stakeholder risk: Interim PM was nervous about limited early artefacts.
- Tooling leap: First complete, interactive Figma app build at this fidelity.
- Technical realism: Animated transitions and guardrails to avoid dead ends.
- Prototype-level guardrails: Every path had a next step or safe return (e.g., payment → receipt → dashboard), eliminating dead ends seen in the legacy flows.
05Outcomes & Impact
💰
Funding secured for rebuild
🚀
Launched on iOS & Android
⭐ 4.4
App Store rating (95K+ ratings)
#27
Utilities chart position
Operational impact: surfacing bill amount and usage on the home timeline reduced routine “how much is my bill/usage?” support calls.
06What shipped from the prototype
- Timeline-style dashboard surfacing offers, alerts, and essentials.
- Clear billing card with amount due and Quick Pay entry point, with confirmation and return to the dashboard.
- Usage & allowances redesigned for scannability.
- Guardrails in navigation to avoid dead ends.
- Siri Shortcut concept for “How much is my bill?” (reads amount + due date).
07Reflection
“Under extreme time pressure and without early data, I delivered a fully interactive prototype that unlocked real business impact. A complete Figma build, and it helped me grow credibility with both 3 Mobile and MMT.”
- Personal growth: End-to-end, high-fidelity Figma app prototype.
- Agency impact: MMT won further work and provided dev services.
- Next: Extend flows (upgrades, add-ons, support) and align with web journeys.
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