Designing a scalable telecom application across 5 countries
Axian Group · 2024 · Telecom Consumer 0 to 1
Role
Lead Product Designer
Timeline
1 year
Region
TZ, TG, MG, KM, SN
PLATFORM
iOS & Android
Background
Yas Digital Self care is a telecom self-service mobile application designed to provide users with full control over their mobile services, including data usage, recharge, plans, and support.
Originally launched in Madagascar with limited functionality and a basic interface, the product needed redesign and to evolve into a scalable, multi-country platform supporting Tanzania (Tigo), Madagascar (Telma), Comoros (Telma), Senegal (My Free), and Togo (Togocom) all in one consistent, localised experience.
Problem
When I joined, Yas Digital Self-care was a basic app in Madagascar with limited features like balance check, top-up, and bundle purchase. It lacked a clear UX, visual consistency, and scalability.
Axian Group aimed to scale this into a unified self-care platform serving 2M daily users across markets by 2025.
Users needed a simple, all-in-one app to manage connectivity and offers, while the business relied on recharge and bundle purchases as core revenue drivers.
“We needed a single app that could feel local in Tanzania, Madagascar, Comoros, Senegal, and Togo, simultaneously. No team had done this before.”
Roland Rakotodrambe: Head of Production, Axian Group.
Project goals
Product Experience
Redesign the telecom self-care app to simplify key tasks like balance check, recharge, plan management, and support across all markets.
Scalability
Establish a scalable design system that enables consistent rollout and localization across 5 countries.
Accessibility & Performance
Optimize the experience for low-bandwidth conditions, multiple devices, and diverse literacy levels to ensure seamless usability.
Customer Satisfaction
Improve overall user satisfaction by delivering a more intuitive, fast, and reliable self-care journey.
Customer Support
Establish a scalable design system that enables consistent rollout and localization across 5 countries.
Accessibility & Performance
Optimize the experience for low-bandwidth conditions, multiple devices, and diverse literacy levels to ensure seamless usability.
My Role
As Lead UI/UX Designer, I spearheaded the entire design process focusing on simplifying experience of the core user cases, add new features that generate revenue and scaling product to 5 countries.
- Led client communication and requirement gathering
- Translated business needs into product and design solutions
- Defined UX direction and interaction patterns
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams (Product, Engineering, Marketing, Stakeholders)
- Iterated designs based on feedback cycles
- Ensured design quality during development through detailed reviews
- Maintained consistency between Figma designs and final implementation
Team Structure
Process
We followed a flexible, need-based process, prioritizing decisions at each stage based on project requirements rather than a rigid structure.
01
Roles & Goals
Identify key stakeholders and unify on goals and objectives
02
Story mapping
Identify end to end feature map and then slice an MVP
03
Journey maps
Outline key journeys based on MVP and verify with customers
04
Inclusive design strategy
Develop design framework for low-literacy and first-time telco users
05
Key screens
Design the key screens for MVP’s golden path with Icon driven UI, Multilingual interface, simplified flows
06
Test & Iterate
Test the design flows with stakeholders, low latency customers and internal team
07
Edge cases
Identify edge cases and develop flows and designs
Research & discovery
We conducted extensive research across Madagascar (personally visited), Tanzania, Senegal, Togo & Comoros, to understand the unique challenges of bringing Telecom services to diverse communities with varying different cultures, levels of digital literacy and connectivity.
Thanks to teams of Senegal, Tanzania, Comoros and Togo for conducting research and sharing insights.
User exploration
I sat down with the team and asked, “We need to filter out different types of users who will be using this application”.
Who are the different types of users?
- Prepaid users
- Postpaid users
- Hybrid Users (Prepaid + Postpaid)
- New Users / Onboarding Users
- Support-Seeking Users
- Low Digital Literacy Users
- Business/Corporate Line Managers
Who are primary users??
- Prepaid users
- Postpaid users
- New / Onboarding Users
Pain points
I worked closely with the project coordinator Nawel Elazzouzi at Axian Group to uncover and validate the key pain points users were experiencing.
Frustrating Onboarding & Login
- Repetitive OTP verification or account re-logins.
- Users don’t remember PIN or login credentials.
- SIM-based login doesn’t work reliably across dual SIMs or eSIM.
- New users feel lost without a guided first-time experience.
Poor Information Architecture & Navigation
- Key features like recharge, usage, and billing buried under multiple taps.
- Inconsistent navigation across Android/iOS or device types.
- Cluttered dashboards with low-priority cards up front.
- Frequent back-and-forth to complete tasks.
Recharge & Payment Friction
- Failed transactions with no clear error messages.
- No retry or alternate payment method prompt.
- Confusing prepaid bundle options and unclear validity.
- Users don’t trust the app for payments (go to retailers instead).
Fragmented Plan & Offer Discovery
- Users can’t understand the difference between bundles/plans.
- No personalization, same offers shown to all.
- Offers don’t match user behavior or needs.
- Lack of clarity on activation status or plan expiry.
Lack of Real-Time Usage Visibility
- Delayed or inaccurate balance/data usage updates.
- No usage breakdown (voice/data/SMS).
- No daily or historical usage trends.
- Postpaid users surprised by overage charges.
Inaccessible or Unresponsive Support
- Users struggle to find customer support.
- Chatbots are slow, irrelevant, or loop users in circles.
- No easy escalation to human agent.
- No support ticket tracking inside app.
Performance & Reliability Issues
- App crashes or freezes on low-end devices.
- Long load times on poor connections (rural users).
- App updates break functionality or force logouts.
Excludes Low Digital Literacy Users
- Over-reliance on icons without labels.
- No support for regional languages or voice input.
- Overwhelming number of features on home screen.
User Personas
Then I got some user personas from the 5 regions from Customer experience teams that embodies the traits of the target audience to understand the kind of audience with different use cases who uses the Self care app.
Juma Mwinyi
Age: 32 • Motorcycle Taxi Driver (Boda Boda)
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Goals
- Learn how to recharge step-by-step
- Avoid making mistakes
- Use mobile money seamlessly
Frustrations
- Learn how to recharge step-by-step
- Avoid making mistakes
- Use mobile money seamlessly
“I need someone to guide me through every step so I don’t make a mistake.”
Context: First smartphone user, relies heavily on visual cues
Juma Mwinyi
Age: 32 • Motorcycle Taxi Driver (Boda Boda)
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Goals
- Learn how to recharge step-by-step
- Avoid making mistakes
- Use mobile money seamlessly
Frustrations
- Learn how to recharge step-by-step
- Avoid making mistakes
- Use mobile money seamlessly
“I need someone to guide me through every step so I don’t make a mistake.”
Context: First smartphone user, relies heavily on visual cues
Juma Mwinyi
Age: 32 • Motorcycle Taxi Driver (Boda Boda)
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Goals
- Learn how to recharge step-by-step
- Avoid making mistakes
- Use mobile money seamlessly
Frustrations
- Learn how to recharge step-by-step
- Avoid making mistakes
- Use mobile money seamlessly
“I need someone to guide me through every step so I don’t make a mistake.”
Context: First smartphone user, relies heavily on visual cues
Juma Mwinyi
Age: 32 • Motorcycle Taxi Driver (Boda Boda)
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Goals
- Learn how to recharge step-by-step
- Avoid making mistakes
- Use mobile money seamlessly
Frustrations
- Learn how to recharge step-by-step
- Avoid making mistakes
- Use mobile money seamlessly
“I need someone to guide me through every step so I don’t make a mistake.”
Context: First smartphone user, relies heavily on visual cues
Audience segments
Everyday Users
Frequently check balance and data usage. Prefer quick and simple interactions.Heavy Data Users
Actively monitor data consumption. Frequently purchase or switch plans.Low Digital Literacy Users
Need clear navigation and guidance. Benefit from simplified UI and strong visual hierarchy.Multi-Sim / Multi-Region Users
Require consistent experience across regions. Expect predictable flows regardless of country.Competitor analysis
I reviewed existing telecom selfcare applications across similar markets to identify common patterns and gaps.
Critical research findings
Performing this thorough research helped me and team to deeply understand the gaps, patterns, pain points and given us a clear direction of what we are going to do next.
Thanks to Usman Gillani for supervising this research and Kanza Akhter for support me.
Digital Literacy Gap
45% of users were first-time smartphone users with limited understanding of digital interfaces. Many struggled with text-heavy screens and complex navigation patterns.
Impact: 38% abandonment rate on text-heavy registration flows
Connectivity Challenges
Rural areas experienced frequent network interruptions. Users needed offline capabilities and clear indicators of connection status to avoid failed transactions.
Impact: 38% abandonment rate on text-heavy registration flows
Language Accessibility
While French is official, 65% of rural users preferred Malagasy. Financial terminology in French created confusion and trust barriers among local communities.
Impact: 38% abandonment rate on text-heavy registration flows
Trust & Financial Literacy
Many users were unbanked with limited exposure to formal financial services. Clear visual feedback and agent support were crucial for building trust and confidence.
Impact: 38% abandonment rate on text-heavy registration flows
Action / Impact Analysis (Feature prioritisation)
From there, I with stakeholders plotted each of these features/use cases on a Impact/Effort Matrix to gauge the features/use cases that were most pertinent and viable for both user value and organization efforts.
Insights: Core user value comes from enabling fast transactions (top-ups, plan activation), transparent usage visibility, and simple self-service support (FAQs, chat support, service status tracking).
Information architecture
I redesigned the information architecture to prioritize visual clarity and offline-first functionality, ensuring users with varying digital literacy levels could navigate confidently even with poor connectivity.
Before: Text-Heavy & Complex
French-first interface, nested menus, connectivity-dependent
Goals
- Text-heavy labels confused low-literacy users
- French-only interface excluded Native speakers
- Deep menu structures required multiple taps
- No offline mode caused transaction failures
- Unclear connection status led to double payments
- No visual feedback for pending transactions
Before: Text-Heavy & Complex
French-first interface, nested menus, connectivity-dependent
Goals
- Large icons with minimal text for clarity
- Full French & Native language support
- Flat navigation with 1-2 tap access to features
- Offline transaction queue with auto-retry
- Persistent connection indicator at top
- Clear status updates with progress tracking
Redesigned Navigation Structure
Home
Visual dashboard with quick actions
Home Mobile money Buy bundle Support Account
History
Transaction tracking with visual status
All Transactions Pending Receipts
Services
Icon-based service categories
Recharge Bundles Refer & Earn Spin & Win Roaming Quiz & games
Account
Profile and settings management
Profile Language Security Help
Wireflows
To begin, wireframes with flows were created to identify any missing components for screens. These screens were created digitally and prototyped to conduct cognitive walkthrough tests and to reiterate the design before moving onto high fidelity mockups.
Key screens
I designed key screens for Digital Self care that provides users with the ability to get onboarded into the application, interact with main dashboard, recharge, purchase bundles, view usage history and much more
Insights: After iterating and feedback from different stakeholders, we come to identify key screens and the flow for MVP, some of the features get de-scoped from release due to limited timeline and resources.
Results & Impact
The product was scaled from a single-country app to a multi-market platform across five countries with a consistent UX. The redesign improved clarity and accessibility of telecom services, making core actions like balance checks and recharge faster and easier, while also improving cross-functional collaboration between design, product, and engineering.
| AREA | BEFORE | AFTER |
|---|---|---|
| Market Coverage | 1 country (Madagascar only) | 5 countries across sub-Saharan Africa |
| Design System | No system; screen-by-screen design | Unified 60+ component library in Figma |
| App Features | Balance check and top-up only | Full selfcare suite: billing, plans, usage, support |
| Handoff Process | Informal, undocumented | Structured Figma handoff with dev specs |
| Client Approvals | Reactive, post-development feedback | Structured review cycles before dev |
| Front-end Accuracy | No QA process; visual drift in prod | Design QA reviews before each release |
Learnings
This project was my first experience applying a full UX process in a hybrid environment, which pushed me to improve how I collaborate and move quickly using structured frameworks. Working remotely also helped me adapt to asynchronous communication while staying aligned with cross-functional teams.
A key challenge was designing and scaling a digital self-care application across multiple markets, something that was new for all of us. During the process, I also explored the work of Axian’s branding team to ensure the product aligned with the broader brand identity.
While not all business goals were fully defined, it reinforced that making informed assumptions is sometimes necessary to move the design forward.
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