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Klarna is one of the biggest ‘buy-now, pay-later’ services in the world, and you’ll probably have seen their logo in a few familiar places, like ASOS, Topshop and Wayfair.
The idea is that you can buy something from one of their participating retailers, receive the item, and pay for it through Klarna later on.
And it seems to be working well. As I write this, Klarna is a $10 billion company, and they claim to process more than a million transactions every day.
So, you can imagine how meaningful a 1% improvement in their customer retention would be. Even 0.1% would be noticeable.
Well, let’s explore the UX mistakes that Klarna are making, and ultimately how they could improve their product fairly easily.
🎯
Recognising event-driven behaviour.
🍯
How not to ask ‘are you sure?’.
⛳️
The irony of saying something is ‘easy’.
🗺
Always include a way back.
💬
Avoid content echos.

A behind the scenes look at how I redesigned the Built for Mars sign-up flow, and iterated from early feedback.
The two "obvious" fixes that did nothing
Why you shouldn't always force an input
Why limiting the user's choices can be beneficial
Hinge built its reputation on a single promise: it's the dating app that wants you to leave. This is a breakdown of how the interface is actually engineered to make sure you don't.
How dating apps keep you engaged (not romantically)
The design equivalent of clickbait headlines
How Hinge leverages social scarcity
The challenge for a navigation app isn't to efficiently show you the best route, it's to make you believe that you've found the best route.
How strategy influences design
Waze is cornered, and slowly shrinking
What Apple's strategy appears to be

From rat mazes to coffee apps: why the motivation to reach a reward increases the closer your users get to their goal.
How to use the Goal Gradient Effect
Spinning the flywheel of purchases
Why your rules need to be clear
Sometimes, the best onboarding is no onboarding, and simple products get bogged down with unnecessary explanations. This case study on Waitrose, Sainsbury's and Asda demonstrates when to just let the user try it for themselves.
Sometimes the best onboarding, is no onboarding
“Show, don’t tell” often beats education
Data can’t always tell you when onboarding is wrong

An analysis of Monzo’s 1p challenge, focusing on the middle slump, where progress slows and motivation quietly fades.
Delight can replace progress, but only temporarily
"The middle" is the real retention problem
Motivation needs contextualised reference points
Klarna is one of the biggest ‘buy-now, pay-later’ services in the world, and you’ll probably have seen their logo in a few familiar places, like ASOS, Topshop and Wayfair.
The idea is that you can buy something from one of their participating retailers, receive the item, and pay for it through Klarna later on.
And it seems to be working well. As I write this, Klarna is a $10 billion company, and they claim to process more than a million transactions every day.
So, you can imagine how meaningful a 1% improvement in their customer retention would be. Even 0.1% would be noticeable.
Well, let’s explore the UX mistakes that Klarna are making, and ultimately how they could improve their product fairly easily.
🎯
Recognising event-driven behaviour.
🍯
How not to ask ‘are you sure?’.
⛳️
The irony of saying something is ‘easy’.
🗺
Always include a way back.
💬
Avoid content echos.

A behind the scenes look at how I redesigned the Built for Mars sign-up flow, and iterated from early feedback.
The two "obvious" fixes that did nothing
Why you shouldn't always force an input
Why limiting the user's choices can be beneficial
Hinge built its reputation on a single promise: it's the dating app that wants you to leave. This is a breakdown of how the interface is actually engineered to make sure you don't.
How dating apps keep you engaged (not romantically)
The design equivalent of clickbait headlines
How Hinge leverages social scarcity
The challenge for a navigation app isn't to efficiently show you the best route, it's to make you believe that you've found the best route.
How strategy influences design
Waze is cornered, and slowly shrinking
What Apple's strategy appears to be

From rat mazes to coffee apps: why the motivation to reach a reward increases the closer your users get to their goal.
How to use the Goal Gradient Effect
Spinning the flywheel of purchases
Why your rules need to be clear
Sometimes, the best onboarding is no onboarding, and simple products get bogged down with unnecessary explanations. This case study on Waitrose, Sainsbury's and Asda demonstrates when to just let the user try it for themselves.
Sometimes the best onboarding, is no onboarding
“Show, don’t tell” often beats education
Data can’t always tell you when onboarding is wrong

An analysis of Monzo’s 1p challenge, focusing on the middle slump, where progress slows and motivation quietly fades.
Delight can replace progress, but only temporarily
"The middle" is the real retention problem
Motivation needs contextualised reference points