Vodafone Paper Bill


This was a concept design for the Vodafone leadership team to try and figure out how we can reduce the negative impact that they were getting from their paper bill.

I conducted research into the pain points of their customers upon receiving their bill.

  • Extensive use of the colour red elicited emotions of negativity and alarm as it is typically associates with such things; however on the Vodafone bill this was not necessarily the case as it was used all over for branding purposes 
  • The total price was presented in a very large font size which made it clear but also added too much emphasis on this especially when the amount was high

1 – Date
I adjusted the hierarchy of the date information to better support the users in locating desired documents within a filing system. From testing it was clear that users spoke about bills within the specific month they occurred in- suggesting that this was the most crucial piece of date information (followed by the year). I therefore increased the size of the font for the month to make this stand out: the colour was changed to get the balance right and ensure that it didn’t overwhelm the other, also important information around the page heading, such as the account number.


2 – Bill total
Removal of the use of red to reduce any alarming a negative emotions that were originally associated with the receipt of the bill.

The font size was greatly reduced to also lessen the negative emotions felt when this figure was high. This was done while still ensuring that it was the largest on the page to ensure it was still clear.


3 – QR code
This was a new feature that was added into this concept to try and increase digital adoption- bear in mind this was 2012 when people were still more reliant on physical printed bills. The QR code was chosen as it was a soft way to encourage digital platform use rather than forcing this change on people suddenly.


4 – Plan list
Previously each plan was only mentioned on its own billing page. To increase the customers’ understanding and reassurance of what was included a summary of the different plans within the bill was added to the initial page so the customer could easily know what they were looking at. This was shown to be particularly helpful for people who had multiple bills coming out on different dates so that they could easily identify what bills they were looking at quickly and immediately.

Throughout the bill, on the relevant summary pages the plan in question is highlighted so that the user easily knows which plan they are looking at. For consistency this element remains in the same spot on these pages to again increase scan-ability and easy interpretation.

5 – Positive pay-off
I added a positive pay-off with the addition of some text. The idea of this was to try and change the mood from the negative feel that had when seeing the bill. Again, the green was continued here to keep a more friendly colour palette. Our research said that the Vodafone red brand colour and negative connotations such as anger and warning.


6 – Monthly charge summary: 
The chargeable and discount elements of the bill were originally dispersed throughout the pages, causing a great deal of confusion when users were trying to understand what they were actually paying for. Therefore the summary table-like layout was used to bring all this information into one location showing the association between the elements and clearly illustrating how they made up the total cost for that plan. The information associated to each item was also reviewed and condensed to ensure each fit within one line to maintain the digestible layout.

7 – Usage charts: One of the biggest pain points was customers not understanding whether they were within or over their data plans. Back in 2012 data plans were a lot more limited on minutes, texts and data: going over these limits could cause quite an exurbanite cost so understanding this was of great importance to the customers. The charts were designed to show, at a glance whether you were within or over the plan usage limit. The ones shown here are all within- hence the use of the colour green with the percentage to show amount used. However once over the limit the percentage increases above 100% and the colour changes to red. Although this doesn’t visually show within the circle, how much they went over, the colour change allowed for the immediate understanding and expectation that a higher charge was present and where.