User Experience Considerations For Subscription Platforms

Ever felt surprised by subscription renewals or hidden costs? Let's talk about designing user experiences that avoid these surprises! In this post, we'll dive into the essential principles that shape Ethical UX Designs, ensuring users' journeys are both enjoyable and ethical! 1️⃣ Notify Me, Don't Surprise Me - Keep users in the loop about subscription renewals and give them the power to cancel hassle-free. No more credit card requests for free trials! 🙅♂️ 2️⃣ Highlighting the Whole Picture - let's spill the beans on both the pros and cons. Empower users with critical info before they decide, ensuring well-informed choices. 🏡 3️⃣ Defaults for Freedom - Let's respect users' autonomy by ditching those pre-selected options that might not align with their desires. Choices should be as individual as a thumbprint! 👍👎 4️⃣ User Experience First - Remember, happy users are loyal users. Prioritize features that genuinely enhance their experience, even if it's not a cash cow today. 🚗💨 5️⃣ Price Clarity, No Surprises - Show the total bill upfront, including sneaky taxes and fees. Building trust with upfront honesty makes for happy wallets! 💰 6️⃣ Spam Begone! - Let's respect users' precious time and sanity by limiting notifications to the relevant stuff. Decluttering is the new black! 📵 7️⃣ Privacy Unveiled - No more hiding in the fine print. Lay the cards on the table about data collection and usage. It's all about respect for the user's data! 🔍 8️⃣ Honesty is Chic - Say goodbye to shady sales tactics. Welcome users with arms full of genuine offers and promotions. Trust is the foundation! 🛍️ 9️⃣ Cancellation Made Easy - No more mazes to escape subscriptions! A simple 'cancel' button should do the trick. Goodbyes should be as easy as hellos! 👋 🔟 Permission First - Knock before entering! Always ask for user consent before touching their data. Transparent communication is the key! 🔒 ✨ Imagine a world where notifications aren't a nuisance, cancellations aren't a puzzle, and data isn't a mystery. We're here for that world! By respecting users' time, choices, and privacy, we're creating digital experiences that shine. Follow & Connect - Rohit Borachate #EthicalUX #userexperiencedesign #UserFirstApproach #ethicaldesign #userjourney #UXPrinciples #DesignEthics #usercentricdesign #uxresearch

Le Figaro has pulled off a tour de force: halving the time it takes to take out a subscription, from 50 to 25 seconds. Behind this improvement lies a mammoth project dubbed "AMEX" ("Amélioration de l'Expérience Utilisateur"), launched four years ago to internalize and modernize the entire subscription conversion process. 1. Redesign of subscriber account space: total overhaul of the “My account” space, unifying six different spaces (print + digital from the group’s three titles: Le Figaro, Gala and Le Particulier) into a single one 2. New acquisition tunnels: tested on a part of the audience in November 2024 before generalization in December 3. Migration of digital subscribers: gradual switch to Chargebee, replacing GLI for B2C digital subscribers in early 2025 4. Integration of a new customer service tool: late but essential integration of Salesforce in five months, with an MVP “on the bone” to meet the December 2024 deadline 5. Overhaul of accounting and data flows: upgrade of accounting flows and synchronization of data with a future group CDP project (Treasure Data). 6. Simplified user experience > Mobile first: 80% of visits are made on mobile, so priority has been given to ultra-optimized design > Fewer offers, greater clarity: rather than inundating the user with choice, a single offer is highlighted, with a price variation based on different criteria > Payment rethink: change of payment gateway from HiPay to Stripe, with solutions to reduce involuntary churn, such as the ability to update expired blue cards Today, the benefits are clear: > Subscription time halved: 25 seconds instead of 50 to take out a subscription > Transformation rate increased from 0.7% to 0.9% > Launch of an offer in a few hours, compared with several weeks previously > A flexible subscription tunnel: allowing upsell, cross-sell and the addition of new payment methods on the fly > More efficient customer service: it previously took three weeks of training and three months to build the skills of a new advisor. Now, thanks to the new unified interface, a call center agent is up and running in just two days Out in English & French on The Audiencers: https://lnkd.in/eB__SkH2 Congratulations to Benjamin Lupu, Valentin Jubert, Sandrine Crozat & the team for this work!

Subscription merchants preparing a payment optimization strategy for 2025 should focus on three critical pillars: 1. Develop a robust data environment. A deep understanding of payments and customer data is critical for performance monitoring and improvement. - Build dashboards, reports, and alerts to automate insights and reveal optimization opportunities. Consider solutions like Pagos or Optimized Payments if you don't have the resources to do this yourself. - Use granular filters (e.g., customer cohorts, products, PSPs, acquiring entities, BINs, card brand, card type, billing frequency...) to analyze data effectively. - Employ A/B testing to assess the impact of changes. 2. Fine-tune the customer experience. The payment experience starts when customers first encounter your brand, not just when their card is charged. Poor experiences lead to higher churn. - Ensure explicit consent for subscriptions to reduce fraud, chargebacks, and refund rates. - Clearly disclose terms during checkout, in receipts, and emails. - Offer easy controls like cancellations or pauses. Proactively suggest pauses for inactive users to build trust and prevent churn. - These steps enhance customer satisfaction and approval rates. 3. Maximize payment environment best practices. Once your data and customer experience are solid, focus on refining your payment environment. - Use payment orchestration platforms, either proprietary or third party (e.g., IXOPAY, Spreedly, Gr4vy ) to optimize routing and retries at the BIN level. - Implement tools like Butter Payments or FlexPay to improve retry logic and recapture failed payments. Your in-house logic isn't going to keep up with changes in the ecosystem without considerable overhead internally. - Make sure your retry strategy and other payment practices aren't harming your merchant integrity with issuers, leading to lower approval rates - Use account updater tools and migrate to network tokens as they become available. - Offer the right payment methods and authorization currencies globally - Mitigate fraud with comprehensive tools, as high fraud rates harm approval rates. Use tools from Verifi Inc.and Ethoca to reduce your chargebacks, but keep on eye on your fraud notifications too (are you even ingesting this data?) - Share enhanced data with issuers (e.g., American Express, Capital One) - Use correct MCCs for your business. Good luck optimizing, and give me a shout if you want a second pair of eyes on your strategy.

As a UX/UI designer, there’s always something to learn from well-established platforms like Medium. Here are some key takeaways from a detailed UX breakdown that really stood out: 🔹 User Control & Discovery Balance: Medium offers tabs like Home, For You, Following, Featured, and New to balance algorithm-driven recommendations with curated content, empowering users with choice in how they explore. 🔹 Visual Cues for Membership Value: A simple yellow icon signals member-exclusive content, communicating value clearly without clutter or heavy labeling. 🔹 Strategic Color Usage: Minimal use of color elsewhere makes green badges and action buttons pop, guiding attention exactly where it matters. 🔹 Negative Feedback via Microinteractions: A minus button allows users to dismiss unwanted content, improving recommendation algorithms without overwhelming settings. 🔹 Content-First Design: Clean typography, subtle metrics, and minimal distractions let the content shine front and center—exactly what a content platform should do. These principles remind us how thoughtful UX design can quietly elevate user experience through simplicity and smart details. #UXDesign #UIDesign #UserExperience #MediumUX #ProductDesign #Microinteractions #VisualHierarchy #DesignThinking

If I were starting to work on a new subscription app today, here are five things I'd be sure to focus on. After working on monetization for dozens of apps—from early MVPs to 7-figure ARR—I’ve learned what actually drives upgrades, retention, and LTV. Most of these lessons came from failed tests, leaky funnels, and trial-and-error pricing. 1️⃣ Seasonal apps need seasonal pricing psychology. Insight: For apps with peak seasons (e.g. Dec-Jan), retention plummets in the off-season—but perceived value doesn’t have to. Takeaway: Experiment with short-term plans or in-app purchases to match user behavior, not just subscription cycles. 2️⃣ A paywall is a landing page—optimize it like one. Insight: If users drop-off even after tapping “Start Trial.” That’s a trust gap. Takeaway: Test copy, proof, risk reducers, and benefit framing like you would in paid ads. 3️⃣ High refund rates often mask deeper trust issues. Insight: A 3%+ refund rate isn’t just about price. It’s often tied to unmet expectations, vague trial terms, or unclear cancellation flows. Takeaway: Improve how you set expectations—before you try to improve how you monetize them. 4️⃣ Don't split personas by demographics—split them by intent and usage. Insight: For travel apps, “trip planners” and “professional drivers” may both be 45+ and in the US, but their motivations differ dramatically. Takeaway: Segmenting by usage frequency and purpose leads to sharper messaging, better feature prioritization, and smarter monetization. 5️⃣ Cancel reasons are gold mines, not graveyards. Insight: Users who cancel and say the app wasn’t “needed.” That’s not churn—it’s unmet value. Takeaway: Use cancellation reasons to build smarter winback campaigns, improve onboarding, and reshape feature messaging. I share practical growth lessons from the field—no fluff, just findings. Let’s connect or drop a comment with your biggest growth “aha moment.” Follow me 👉🏻 Alice Muir Kocourková #SubscriptionOptimization #SubscriptionStack #Subscription #PLG #MobileGrowth #Monetization

I swear… The New York Times’ UX team never misses. Was going through the New York Times onboarding experience, and instead of the usual “Subscribe to unlock more stories”, it said “Support our journalists.” And I literally went “Wait… that’s actually genius.” They’re not selling features. They’re showing what you’re contributing to. It’s more transparent, more human, and suddenly you feel like you’re part of something bigger. At first glance, it’s just a line of text. But look closer, and it’s a masterclass in emotional-based UX. 1) They lead with the human story. An impactful image of Mexico City bureau chief Azam Ahmed reporting as migrants make their way from Arriaga to Chahuites. Not a generic stock photo. Real journalism, real hardship, real stakes. 2) Then they reframe the ask entirely. Headline: “Support our journalists” Subheading: “Over half of our business is powered by subscriptions. They help us break the stories that change the world.” This isn’t about unlocking articles. It’s about funding the work that matters. That shift in framing changes everything. 3) They make the action feel transparent. Primary CTA: “See subscription options” Secondary CTA: “Continue without subscribing” No guilt-tripping. No dark patterns. Just honest options. That builds trust. This is what I love about design. Sometimes the smartest things aren’t UI makeovers or flashy features. They’re tiny shifts in language that understand what users actually care about. NYT didn’t change their paywall structure. They just changed how they talk about it. And that one shift turns a transaction into a contribution. #userexperience

I cancelled 4 subscriptions last month. Not because they were bad. But because they stopped making sense for my life in 2025. Here’s what I let go—and why: MyFitnessPal: My fitness routine changed. The habit broke. RunKeeper Go: Loved the guided runs once, but usage dropped. Apple One Plan: Needed more iCloud storage—but bundling unused services made no financial sense. None of these cancellations were about poor quality. They were about relevance. And none of these brands tried to understand why I was leaving. Here’s the real truth in 2025: Retention ≠ Lock-in. Retention = Relevance. Every subscriber is a human being—evolving, re-evaluating, moving on. And most subscription models haven’t caught up. What should brands be doing? Here’s a 3-part framework I see smart brands use to stay indispensable: R.E.F. = Relevance. Emotion. Flexibility. Relevance – Evolve with the user’s context Example: Spotify sends genre-specific winback nudges if your playlists go dormant Emotion – Trigger value they can feel Example: Duolingo reminds you with streaks, mascots, and celebration moments Flexibility – Let users leave easily, return even faster Example: Netflix allows quick pauses, re-entries, and plan adjustments If Apple had offered a partial Apple One plan with only iCloud and Podcasts… If RunKeeper had nudged me toward a lighter tier… I might’ve stayed in their ecosystem. What’s one subscription you’ve stuck with—and one you walked away from? What made the difference? Let’s unpack what loyalty looks like in 2025. #SubscriptionModel #RetentionMarketing #ConsumerBehavior #CustomerExperience #D2CIndia #ProductThinking #CXDesign #MarketingIn2025

I've been providing digital businesses with analytics to help them make better decisions for over a decade now. And one stat consistently shocks me more than any other: Most consumer subscription services lose over a quarter of all New Subscribers in month 1 and over half of them by month 6. Sure, you expect some immediate churn. After all, Marketing's job is to bring in new users. Not all of them will fall in love with the product. But... over a quarter canceling immediately... how have we normalized this?! And this isn't a one-off phenomenon. It exists across: – Cohorts: loyal vs. disloyal users – SKUs / plans: ad-free vs. ad-supported – Promotions: promotional vs non-promotional sign-ups – Industries / categories  [not pictured but trust me] Netflix spent ~$3B on marketing last year. Given that type of spend, you'd think this would be everyone's number one "hair on fire" problem to solve. The solution: the user's day 1 and month 1 experience should be SPECIAL. This is universal. All of us have had experience with various digital & physical goods / services: they spend endless effort bringing you in and, once you're there, immediately forget about you. No one feels special when treated like this. In product lingo, this is the job of the new user experience ("NUX") team. That team should be much more powerful than they are. Potential even direct report to the CEO/CPO/CMO. A couple obvious ways to make the first moments special: – Personalization: Any product does different "jobs" for different user personas. The entire new user experience should be crafted around the job we think our product does for you. – Registration walls: Sometimes it's hard to know who you are. A little friction can be a good thing. Collect the information you need to do the above. And not with a gimmicky "select your interests" menu. This isn't 2015. – Leverage market data: It can still be hard to know your users on day 1. Luckily, their entire digital history is accessible (in a privacy-centric way). Find the data, bring it in at the right time, and voilà! – Leverage social graphs: Recommendations hit a lot harder coming from friends, not faceless email listservs. I'd love to see more non-social products leverage social graphs for this purpose. – Native product integration: There are times to hit users, and times to let them do what they want. Bland lifecycle marketing emails accomplish neither. Find native product integrations to make the experience special. This all sounds obvious but, again, think about your most recent experiences. Was the experience highly personalized? Did you feel special? The data would indicate that users do not and, therefore, quickly churn. Consumer subscriptions have a lot more work to do. We shouldn't normalize losing a quarter of new users in the first 30 days.

A subscription box company approached me last month with a counterintuitive problem: their customers loved the products but weren't renewing subscriptions. The issue wasn't product quality or pricing. It was their unboxing sequence. I've been studying how e-commerce design strategy extends beyond the website into physical touchpoints, and the psychology of anticipation continues to fascinate me. Every layer of packaging is either building excitement or diminishing it. Their original design treated unboxing like unwrapping a gift - everything revealed at once. But subscription customers aren't opening birthday presents. They're engaging in a monthly ritual that needs to feel fresh every time. We redesigned the experience around discovery phases. First layer: a personalized note acknowledging their subscription journey. Second layer: featured product with clear explanation of why it was selected for them. Third layer: complementary items that created a cohesive story together. Most importantly, we added a preview element for next month - not revealing everything, but creating enough curiosity to bridge the gap between shipments. Renewal rates increased 42% within two quarters. E-commerce design strategy isn't just about optimizing conversion funnels. It's about engineering experiences that extend far beyond the digital transaction, creating physical touchpoints that reinforce why customers chose you in the first place. The most successful subscription brands I work with understand that retention happens in the unboxing moment, not just the checkout process. From my perspective, great e-commerce design strategy treats every customer interaction as part of a continuous conversation, not a series of isolated transactions. What physical touchpoints in your e-commerce experience create the strongest emotional connection with your customers?

A product can have all the right functionality—but if it's hard to use, it won't sell. Let me tell you a story. We partnered with a benefits enrollment platform that was struggling to close deals. The software had the right features—but the user experience told a different story. The platform looked outdated. But worse, it felt outdated: ▪️ Confusing navigation ▪️ Clunky workflows ▪️ Inconsistent design ▪️ Frustrating interactions Sales meetings weren’t the problem—they had plenty. But the moment HR teams saw the UI, interest evaporated. The reaction? “Yeah… we can’t roll this out to our employees.” We helped them reimagine the entire experience. We conducted user research, streamlined the workflows, and redesigned the interface to be simpler, more consistent, and intuitive. We didn’t just make it look better. We made it feel better. The result? ▪️ 400% increase in sales pipeline ▪️ $4M in new business—within 3 weeks of launch Improving the user experience doesn’t just make software more attractive. It makes it more valuable. More usable. More sellable. So if your product isn’t closing deals, don’t just ask: “Does it look good?” Ask: “Does it feel effortless?”