Impulse

Subscription Cancellation Redesign

Project Overview

Impulse is a brain-training and cognitive development app that offers mini-games and exercises designed to improve memory, focus, and problem-solving skills. It promotes mental fitness through daily challenges, progress tracking, and personalised training plans.

Statistic

4,7

worldwide rating

7

million users

30+

countries use

Existing Interface

My Role

I conducted the UX research and design process, identifying user pain points within the subscription cancellation flow and proposing an improved and accessible experience. I was responsible for conducting usability testing, synthesising findings, creating user flows, and developing low-fidelity sketches for the redesigned feature.

Design Toolkit

Improved Interface

Design Thinking Process

Design thinking helped me approach the Impulse case study systematically by empathising with users, defining their pain points, ideating solutions, and designing improvements to create a more intuitive and user-friendly cancellation experience.

Empathise Phase

What Do Users Say?

  • “I decided to take a little quiz that they were offering, but... to get the results, you had to pay a small fee. I thought I was careful that I was ONLY paying for this one service. 7 days later, the $40 subscription fee came. Never saw an email, never knew I even had an account bc it went to SPAM. No refund. Such a scam.”

  • “Confusing payment model, unclear subscription processing, slow or no response from customer service.”

  • “Surprise charges… payment process is not fully transparent… cancellation links do not work… hidden fees caught me off guard too.”

  • “No chance to unsubscribe within 24 hours. The subscription is not on the list of subscribed app… there is also no button to unsubscribe.”

Key Pain Points

Subscription cancellation is confusing, nontransparent, and sometimes seems impossible causing reputation risk, and users feel trapped, complain, and ask for refunds.

Flow fragmentation: in many cases users are forced outside the app (email, iOS settings pages, Play Store) to cancel

Distrust perceived as “trap”: users feel misled or surprised by charges because cancellation is difficult or hidden

Visibility of the cancellation option: users can’t find it as it’s hidden

Lack of transparency around the timing, rules, and constraints: users feel unfairness and confusion

Problem Statement

John is a busy university student who needs a simple and direct way to cancel his Impulse subscription because the current process is confusing and hidden behind multiple steps.

JBTD Framework

When I realise I no longer want the subscription, I want to cancel it quickly, confidently, and without undue friction seeing a clear “Manage subscription” option inside the app, so I can avoid unintended charges, be done with the service, and feel assured I’m not trapped.

Usability Testing

Goal

To evaluate how easily users can locate, understand, and complete the subscription cancellation process in the current Impulse app, and to identify usability barriers

Questions

  1. Can users easily find where to start cancelling their subscription within the app?

  2. Do users understand each step of the cancellation process and receive clear confirmation that it’s complete?

  3. What improvements could make the cancellation process more transparent, intuitive, and trustworthy?

Key Insights

Cancellation entry point is hard to find

Users felt misled by the label “Subscription Terms”

Reliance on email to cancel creates low confidence and distrust

Participants described this way as time-consuming and as sending a request “into the void”, with no guarantee or immediate effect.

Lack of confirmation and transparency

Participants wanted reassurance about whether they’d still be charged, when the subscription ends, and that cancellation was successful

Solutions

Make cancellation accessible directly within Settings or alongside subscription information

Provide an in-app one-tap cancellation button (or, at least, a clear guided link to Apple/Google settings) with instant confirmation

Add a confirmation screen + follow-up email that states cancellation status and end date

Define Phase

Goal Statement

My Impulse app redesign will let users cancel their subscriptions quickly and directly within the app, which will affect subscribers who feel frustrated by the current hidden cancellation process by making the experience clear and transparent, helping them feel in control and confident that their subscription has ended. I can measure effectiveness by tracking task completion rates, time to cancel, and user satisfaction scores from post-test surveys.

Ideate Phase

User Flow

Click here to view the full version

Design Phase

Low-fidelity Wireframes

I created several low-fidelity wireframes for the Impulse subscription cancellation feature, experimenting with different layouts and interaction patterns to find the most intuitive and accessible solution. Each version explored alternative placements and visual hierarchies for managing subscriptions. A full set of sketches with annotations is available here.

Current Impulse interface

Impulse interface with new feature

High-fidelity Wireframe

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