Led accessibility-focused user research for the new Smart WiFi (Telefónica) onboarding, prepared all testing materials, and delivered inclusive final designs. Improved usability and ensured compliance with accessibility standards across the entire onboarding flow.
My role
I worked on both iOS and Android versions of the app, focusing on improving its usability and designing new features to enhance the overall user experience and product value.
Skills applied
Research, UX/UI Design, Accessibility standards, Interactive-Visual Design, Testing.
Overview
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User Research & Data Analysis:
Conducted qualitative and quantitative research to identify user pain points, including in-depth analysis of behavioral data and app usage metrics. -
UX & UI Design:
Designed new user flows, wireframes, and high-fidelity prototypes in Figma, focusing on usability, consistency, and accessibility for both iOS and Android. -
User Testing:
Ran moderated and unmoderated user tests to validate design hypotheses and gather insights on user behavior during critical journeys, such as onboarding and feature setup. -
Accessibility Design:
Ensured compliance with European accessibility standards (WCAG). Designed flexible, scalable layouts that adapt dynamically when users increase text size, and integrated features like voice command support and improved screen reader compatibility. -
Design QA & Implementation Oversight:
Beyond design delivery, I was also responsible for the design QA process — reviewing pre-production builds, identifying UI/UX bugs, and verifying the correct implementation of design specifications. This close collaboration with developers helped guarantee pixel-perfect implementation and high-quality user experience in the final release.
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Design System Development:
Contributed to the creation and definition of new components and UI elements for Telefonica’s Design System, ensuring consistency, usability, and scalability across products. Collaborated closely with UX/UI designers and developers to standardize visual language and interaction patterns, reduce design inconsistencies, and accelerate product development.
Problem
Context:
One of the most critical journeys in Smart WiFi is new user onboarding, as it sets the tone for engagement and retention. When users first open the app, they encounter a series of screens designed to explain the app’s main features and guide them into the experience. However, this step proved to be a significant barrier.
The problem:
During the discovery phase, data revealed a critical issue:
High Onboarding Drop-off
Almost 45% of new users abandoned the app during the onboarding process, never reaching the home screen. This indicates a need to improve the onboarding experience to increase completion rates and user retention.
Diagnosis:
Through data analytics and usability testing, several causes were identified:
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The onboarding experience felt lengthy and mandatory, with no option to skip.
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The user had no visible progress indicators or clarity about how many steps remained.
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The overall tone and design lacked motivation and failed to clearly communicate the app’s value early on.
Design Procces
& Solution
To address these challenges, we redesigned the onboarding flow from the ground up with a focus on user control, clarity, and accessibility.
Key improvements included:
- New Carousel Experience
• Introduced a cleaner, more modern onboarding carousel that presented the app’s key benefits in a concise, visual format.
• Used stronger visual storytelling and simplified messaging to highlight the core value propositions. - Persistent Call-To-Action (CTA)
• Added a CTA button visible at all times, allowing users to skip or proceed directly to the app without viewing every slide.
• This gave users more autonomy and reduced friction — one of the main reasons for abandonment. - Progress Indicators & Microinteractions
• Added clear step indicators and subtle animations to guide users smoothly through the onboarding process.
• Refined the microcopy to be more conversational, focusing on reassurance and quick value communication. - Accessibility Enhancements
• Designed the carousel with dynamic layouts that adapted when users increased their system font size.
• To ensure visual consistency, we developed a dynamic height system: each carousel slide automatically adjusted to accommodate longer text while maintaining consistent visual balance and spacing.
Accessibility &
Dynamic Layouts
To make the Smart WiFi app truly accessible, we redesigned the onboarding with a UX-first approach that went beyond simply meeting WCAG guidelines.
One of the main challenges appeared when users increased text size through their device settings. The original fixed-height screens caused overflow and truncated content, breaking readability. We rebuilt the onboarding using flexible, responsive containers that adapted smoothly to text growth, keeping hierarchy and clarity at any scale.
I defined a standardised behaviour for carousel components, maintaining a consistent maximum height across all cards. This avoided visual jumps when content scaled and ensured a stable, predictable UI.
Beyond text resizing, we improved other essential accessibility aspects:
• Meaningful sequence: ensuring the reading flow remained logical even as layouts expanded.
• Focus order: refining navigation so screen readers and assistive technologies followed a clear, intuitive path.
• Target size: guaranteeing all touch elements remained comfortable to interact with across devices.
• Adaptable structure: eliminating fixed positioning, so screens behaved consistently under different accessibility settings and languages.
We validated each screen during design QA. The result is a more inclusive, reliable, and user-friendly onboarding experience that stays clear and functional for everyone.
User Testing Results
To validate both the proposed designs and their implementation, we conducted a user test with three distinct participant profiles. The goal was to understand how effectively the onboarding flow and interaction patterns reduced friction while maintaining clarity and control.
Objectives and Focus Areas
- Ensure that users clearly notice and understand the “Empezar / Start” button as a way to begin the experience without unnecessary friction.
- Users who proceed without viewing the educational carousel may miss some initial context, but the impact is minimal. The app includes in‑app introductory and explanatory onboardings that appear at key moments, ensuring they still understand core features and possibilities even if they start directly with “Empezar / Start.”
Key Insights from Participants
Each participant brought a different perspective shaped by their expectations and digital habits:
- User 1 — Values frictionless access
Appreciated being able to start immediately without searching for documents, passwords, or setup codes. The streamlined entry reinforced a sense of simplicity and ease. - User 2 — Values control and visual agility
Responded positively to the clarity of the interface and the ability to quickly understand available actions. The visual hierarchy supported their preference for autonomy and fast comprehension. - User 3 — Values speed and efficiency
Highlighted how quickly they could begin managing their devices. The reduced cognitive load and direct access to core features were particularly well received.
The results were notably positive across all profiles. Participants validated the design decisions, confirming that the onboarding flow successfully reduces friction while preserving clarity and user control. The combination of an optional educational carousel and contextual in‑app onboardings proved effective in balancing speed with comprehension.
User interview transcripts
Outcome & Impact
After deploying the redesigned onboarding flow, we monitored user behavior and engagement over several months.
The results were remarkably positive:
- Onboarding completion rate increased from 45% to 87%.
- User engagement during the first session rose significantly.
- Drop-offs during onboarding decreased by nearly 70%.
- The new design achieved higher accessibility scores and received positive feedback from users with visual and cognitive impairments.
- Stronger collaboration between design and engineering through design QA
The proposal led to the company-wide adoption of dynamic layouts, ensuring that the interface adapted correctly when users increased their text size. This prevented layout breakage and improved readability across devices.
These improvements were incorporated into the internal developing team, reducing future inconsistencies and helping development teams implement accessible patterns more efficiently.
Thanks to the rigorous design QA process through Test Flight and QA environments, implementation issues were identified and resolved before launch, ensuring a smooth, high-quality rollout across both iOS and Android environments.
Key learnings
This project reinforced the importance of:
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Early user involvement and data-driven decision-making.
Designing with accessibility as a core principle, not as an afterthought.
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Maintaining tight collaboration with development teams to ensure high-quality execution.
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Treating design QA as a fundamental part of the design process to preserve the intended user experience in production.
Final Thoughts
The Smart WiFi redesign not only solved a major conversion problem but also set a new design standard for Telefónica’s digital ecosystem. It demonstrated how research-led, inclusive, and quality-focused design can deliver measurable business impact while creating a more engaging and accessible experience for all users.