text+ is a messaging and calling app with over ten years in North America. The brief: rebuild the Store so more free accounts move to Premium.
text+ monetises through three channels: the Premium subscription, calling credits and the ads shown to free accounts. The Store is where the three converge.
The team wanted to give more weight to the subscription, that is, to the paying user over the freemium one. Ad monetisation is a valid way to generate revenue, but users who pay directly, whether by buying credits or subscribing to Premium, tend to bring more value over time: they are more engaged, have a higher lifetime value (LTV) and, ultimately, are the ones who sustain the app’s growth.
The first problem was the fork between Refill and Subscribe. Two blocks of the same size and the same weight forced a choice of billing model, credits or subscription, before a single price was shown. And both doors led to two versions of the same Store, with the same Premium card in each. It was not only an architecture problem: the purple and teal gradients did not belong to the brand, white text on them failed contrast, and the whole created confusion about what was being bought.
Inside the Store, the problem was one of hierarchy:
Too many decisions at once: cognitive load, confusion about what is being bought, and the focus meant for Premium spread across everything else. The work was to simplify: two add-ons, Remove Ads and Keep My Number, with the same payment options for both, and the period, monthly or yearly, chosen afterwards.
Each problem in the Store answers to a known mechanism. These are the six that best explain what was happening, under the names product psychology gives them:
Earning credits cannot weigh the same as buying them: those who pay are the ones who sustain the rest.
A benchmark of apps in the category confirmed two things. The reference apps do not put “earn credits” at the same level as buying them; they nest it one step down, so the problem was hierarchy, not lack of space. And they resolve the subscription with a single plan card and the benefits listed, a pattern users already recognise without explanation.
The previous Store highlighted three things at once. Now there is one action colour and it appears once per screen; everything else steps down, and the ad and the notifications bar leave the store.
Yellow appears once, on the Stellar plan button.
A price without context can only be compared with not paying. The four benefits come first and the price after, at a readable size. “As low as” becomes “From”: it says the same without sounding like hidden terms.
Four benefits with a check, then “From $5 / MO” at normal text size.
Product and billing period used to mix into six options. Now there are three identical rows, and monthly or yearly is chosen afterwards. The legal terms move to the payment step, where they matter.
Three rows identical in structure and a single decision at each step.
The minutes equivalence sat in a footnote. Now each pack carries it on the main line, and the four scale in the same proportion, from small to large.
Each pack says how many minutes it is, and you can see them grow from small to large.
I did not remove it: ads are revenue. It stops being a third path on the first screen and moves to the end of the credits flow, where those who want it will find it.
The option stays without taking visibility from what is paid for.
Two unlabelled icons for a single intent. Market and Credits merge into Shop, and the freed space gives every tab a name.
Market and Credits merge into Shop and the bottom bar gains labels.
The new Store is a single column on a cream ground with one argument at the top: the Stellar plan card. Name, four benefits with checks, “From $5 / MO” and a full-width yellow button. What it is, what it includes, what it costs and what to do, in that order and in one block.
The button says “Go to Stellar Plan”, not “Subscribe”. Tapping charges nothing: it leads to the plan screen. Naming the destination instead of the transaction takes the fear out of tapping.
Below it, the “Get Credits” row and the add-ons under the heading “Alternative Single Add-ons”: Ad-Free, Unlimited National Calling and Keep my number, each with its price and a “Choose plan” chip. The section name already says they are alternatives to the plan, not competitors.
The credits screen opens with the state, “Credit Balance · 6,000 Credits · up to 30 minutes”, continues with the four packs counted in minutes and ends with “Earn credits”. What I have, what I can buy, what I can earn.
Every colour has one job: cream for surfaces, white for cards, yellow once per screen for the primary action, green for anything positive and grey for the secondary. No gradients, no blue blocks.
What remains open is what an existing Premium user sees on entering: the plan card is designed for someone who has not bought yet.
The redesigned Store is in production on Android, delivered with a prototype and a handoff to development.
The MVP that shipped is a three-branch flow out of a single screen. From the Store, the Stellar plan leads to its plan screen and payment; the credits row leads to the credits flow, with balance, packs and, at the end, earning credits; and each add-on leads to choosing a period, monthly or yearly, before payment. Legal terms appear at the confirmation step.
Before launch I defined the metrics: taps on the Premium button, drop-off at each funnel step, and the revenue effect of having demoted “earn credits”, the riskiest decision and the one I most want to see measured.
What comes next was documented during research: the free trial with its timeline and the introductory price. They stayed out because they touch the business model, not the screen, and need a decision that was not design’s to make.
What I take with me: in a store, design is above all a distribution of emphasis. Almost all the work was deciding what shows first, what steps down a level and what leaves, and being able to explain each of those three things.
A store with three doors does not sell three times as much: it sells less, because nobody knows which one to walk through.
Do you have a product that needs to scale with purpose?
Let's talk. hola@franmarrero.com