Rogers Mobile Usage Redesign

Speed Pass was the business programme that allowed Rogers customers to purchase additional mobile data before incurring overage fees. Introducing that capability created an opportunity to redesign how usage was presented across Rogers digital channels. Customers needed to understand their current status, recognize emerging risk and decide whether buying more data was the appropriate next step.

The resulting mobile usage redesign covered every major surface that displayed data consumption, including desktop and mobile dashboards and the Rogers apps for iOS and Android. The initiative built on context I had gained as a designer on the original 2016 Data Manager programme. By this stage, I was leading as a UX manager and design lead, using research strategy, people leadership and design direction to define the experience around the new business capability.

I led five designers who reported directly to me and partnered with a UX researcher. I proposed the generative study, secured support for the investment, set the design brief and connected the findings to the Speed Pass product opportunity. The researcher owned the detailed study plan, fieldwork and reporting. The designers developed the usage experience across platforms, while I contributed concepts, reviewed the work and approved the overall solution direction.

My accountability extended beyond the screens used to purchase additional data. I had to give the team a shared evidence base for the complete usage lifecycle, keep platform variants coherent and help stakeholders make decisions before detailed design created sunk cost. Designers retained autonomy within their surfaces while I held the cross-channel experience together.

The Speed Pass proposition depended on customers recognizing when they were approaching an overage and understanding the value of purchasing additional data. Existing usage interfaces had been designed primarily to report consumption. They did not provide a consistent experience for moving from monitoring to interpretation and, when necessary, to action.

The team had traditionally used analytics and stakeholder feedback to frame problems, then brought customers into the process to validate screens after design was underway. That sequence left the broader usage journey largely untested. Customers were also dealing with delayed or incomplete data, uncertainty about their billing position and the possibility of an unexpected charge. The redesign needed to support a consequential purchase decision without implying precision the underlying systems could not guarantee.

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Stakeholders were wary of the time and value involved in an unfamiliar research approach. I made the commercial case that understanding the full usage lifecycle would improve the Speed Pass experience, reduce speculative design work and create a reusable model for every channel that displayed mobile data.

Frame the lifecycle before the interface

I asked the team to study how customers monitored, interpreted and responded to usage over an entire billing cycle, including the conditions that could lead them to purchase additional data. This shifted the unit of analysis from a dashboard visit to a sequence of decisions and allowed us to examine triggers, mental models, coping strategies and movement from passive monitoring to action.

Earn support through risk reduction

I used trust built through earlier delivery to position the research as a practical way to reduce downstream cost. The case centred on decision quality: if we could agree on the right customer problem early, product and design teams could make fewer speculative changes later. That framing secured space for the researcher to plan and conduct the study before wireframes began.

Create one usage model across every channel

The experience needed to work across desktop, mobile web and native apps, with enough flexibility for different layouts and technical constraints. I treated the shared behavioural model as the source of coherence. Each surface could adapt its presentation while retaining the same usage states, information hierarchy and relationship between status and the Speed Pass purchase action.

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The researcher used a diary-style approach to capture customer behaviour across the billing cycle. Participants described when they checked usage, what prompted concern, how they interpreted changes and what they did when their allowance felt at risk. This generated a richer view than point-in-time usability testing because it revealed changing information needs, emotional states and readiness to act.

Customers needed orientation before detail

People first wanted to know whether their usage required attention. Detailed consumption data became useful after that orientation. The experience therefore needed to answer a status question quickly, then support investigation and a purchase decision as risk increased.

The journey had meaningful states

Customer needs clustered around three conditions: on track, warning and action needed. Each state carried a different hierarchy, level of urgency and relationship to Speed Pass. That insight gave the team a durable UX construct for content, visual emphasis and calls to action.

Technical uncertainty had to be visible

When data was delayed or incomplete, the experience needed to communicate that condition clearly. We avoided presenting uncertain information with the same confidence as a confirmed status. This decision supported trust and prevented the interface from implying accuracy the underlying systems could not guarantee.

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The team translated the research into a three-state usage model. On Track emphasized reassurance and a concise summary. Warning surfaced the changing condition and provided context. Action Needed increased urgency and made the option to purchase additional data through Speed Pass prominent. Customers could scan their status quickly, investigate the detail and act before an overage occurred.

I reviewed the work across channels as a connected system. We aligned state definitions, terminology, hierarchy and action patterns, then allowed each platform to resolve responsive and native interaction details. I also approved the broader design direction and contributed ideas where the model needed to reconcile business requirements with the research.

The reusable state logic separated the customer experience from one screen composition. It supported multiple brands and platforms while remaining recognizable to customers moving between them. It also clarified where the Speed Pass action belonged in the hierarchy and which usage patterns required design-system consistency.

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Post-launch research in May 2019 produced an 8 out of 10 ease-of-use score. The measure directly evaluated customers' ability to interpret the redesigned mobile usage experience and identify when action was required.

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The organizational outcome was equally important. The mobile usage redesign established a credible precedent for generative research at Rogers. UX initiated research to discover the problem, used the findings to define the experience architecture and carried that model through several product surfaces. The approach later informed how I framed other high-volume journeys, including Billing and Payments.

The 2016 Data Manager launch remains useful background, but it is separate from this case's outcome. Rogers reported 85,000 activations in the first two weeks of that earlier programme. I include it as evidence of the domain's strategic importance and the experience I brought into the later mobile usage redesign.

The mobile usage redesign expanded the role UX could play in a product programme. Speed Pass supplied the business capability and commercial context. UX defined how customers would understand their usage, recognize risk and reach the new purchase option across channels.

For my leadership practice, the case demonstrated how to combine management and design direction while protecting the team's ownership. I set the research strategy, secured stakeholder support and held the cross-platform model together. The researcher and designers retained authority over their specialist work. The result was a stronger usage experience and a repeatable operating pattern for research-led product decisions.

The ease-of-use score comes from Rogers UX research conducted after the mobile usage redesign launched in May 2019. The 2016 activation figure comes from Rogers' Q3 2016 earnings transcript and refers to the earlier Data Manager programme. Company-level self-serve and churn results are excluded because the available public reporting does not establish direct causality with this redesigned experience.