Authentication
A unified, secure, and effortless login experience for millions of users worldwide
Project Overview
The My Vodafone App (MVA) is Vodafone’s main self-service tool, but login was a major pain point. Forgotten passwords, inconsistent flows, low biometric use, and confusing recovery led to high abandonment. As Lead Designer, the goal was to redesign authentication to be fast, secure, and consistent across markets, creating Vodafone’s global login standard.
Challenge
Login friction caused frustration and churn, high support costs, and inconsistent security across markets. Users faced frequent password resets, unclear errors, slow screens, and underused biometrics. Competitors offered smoother, faster, and clearer experiences, highlighting a gap that needed closing. The redesign had to improve access speed, reduce errors, boost biometric adoption, and unify authentication globally.
Research & Design Approach
The redesign combined research insights and principled design: Research & Insights: Methods included analytics, user interviews, heuristics, benchmarking (EE, O2, banking apps), and workshops with customer service and engineering. Key findings: 30% first-attempt login failure, low biometric adoption (40%), clarity and simplicity improve trust, competitors had stronger recovery flows, and users struggled with memory load, fallback options, and account lockouts. Design Principles: Frictionless Access: Enable quick login via header enrichment, SMS, or biometrics. Progressive Security: Request extra authentication only when necessary. Empathetic Recovery: Turn errors into clear guidance and reassurance. Implementation included clean login screens, contextual biometric prompts, soft login, inline error guidance, and Vodafone’s digital assistant, Tobi, to make the experience human and reassuring.
Outcome
The new login experience delivered strong results: Login success rose from 58% → 82%. Biometric adoption increased 25% → 40%. Average dashboard load time dropped 21s → 9s. Password reset requests fell 28%. Transactional NPS rose +12 → +30. Strategically, Vodafone achieved unified global authentication, reduced support calls, closed competitor gaps, and built a scalable foundation for future methods like Passkeys. Users gained speed, clarity, and trust, transforming login from a barrier into a confidence-building moment.