Global acuquisition redesign: Rebuilding trust and conversion for 13 million users

Global acuquisition redesign: Rebuilding trust and conversion for 13 million users

Global acuquisition redesign: Rebuilding trust and conversion for 13 million users

YEAR

2020

COMPANY

The Flutter Group

ROLE

Lead UX Architect

Clarity

Research

Influence

Systems

Leadership

INDUSTRY

Online Gambling

SUMMARY

To redesign the end-to-end acquisition journey for one of the world's largest online gaming platforms — improving conversion, rebuilding trust, and creating a scaleable experience across multiple markets.

device

Mobile / Desktop

PLATFORM

Mobile App / Web

💡 Overview

To redesign the end-to-end acquisition journey for one of the world's largest online gaming platforms — improving conversion, rebuilding trust, and creating a scaleable experience across multiple markets.

Results:

  • 80% improvement in ease of use score

  • 70% increase in task completion rate

  • Mobile-first design delivered across all markets

  • First unifed component library in the business

  1. The challange

The problem

PokerStars had 13 million users and an onboarding journey that was losing them. The site hadn't been updated in years, rendered poorly on mobile, and wasn't optimised for conversion or accessibility. A previous redesign had stalled due to long-term illness, leaving minimal documentation to build on.

Goal

To rebuild the acquisition journey from the ground up — increasing first-time deposit conversion, maximising offer redemption, and delivering a responsive, accessible, mobile-first experience that could scale across markets and regulatory requirements.

My Role

As Global UX Lead Architect, I led the project from discovery through to delivery - directing cross-functional teams across product, engineering, marketing, content, and brand, while mentoring a Junior Designer and Graduate throughout.

  1. Reserach and discovery

Analytics across all regional sites pointed to the same two drop-off points: bonus code entry and deposit. Usability testing confirmed it — users were frustrated, distrusted the look and feel, and couldn't navigate errors.

"I do not trust this site, it looks so old. Is this real?" — Participant quote

I looked beyond gaming to Revolut, Monzo, and Starling Bank — brands handling similar data collection requirements with significantly higher trust. Their flows directly informed the design principles I took into ideation.

  1. Key design decisions

I inherited high-fidelity screens but no journey maps or decision points. I re-mapped the entire flow with the Product Owner — surfacing duplication, inconsistency, and missing error paths. Three different payment error page designs existed, none with a clear recovery path.

The most complex challenge was the bonus page — allowing users to select a welcome offer or enter their own code on a single screen. I worked with the Brand Team to introduce a dedicated bonus colour, defining active states and visually separating bonus content throughout the journey. Progressive disclosure, contextual CTAs, and progress indicators were added — none of which existed in the original flow.

  1. Key design decisions

I inherited high-fidelity screens but no journey maps or decision points. I re-mapped the entire flow with the Product Owner — surfacing duplication, inconsistency, and missing error paths. Three different payment error page designs existed, none with a clear recovery path.

The most complex challenge was the bonus page — allowing users to select a welcome offer or enter their own code on a single screen. I worked with the Brand Team to introduce a dedicated bonus colour, defining active states and visually separating bonus content throughout the journey. Progressive disclosure, contextual CTAs, and progress indicators were added — none of which existed in the original flow.

  1. Testing and iteration

I ran usability tests at each design stage — mobile and desktop — ranking issues by severity and tracking ease-of-use scores across rounds. To manage the legacy tech constraints, I created a phased design iteration roadmap prioritising changes by expected impact. Presenting this to the Product Owner and Development Team secured buy-in and aligned the team on a clear path forward.

  1. Delivery and operational impact

I delivered the end-to-end prototype with a Junior Designer — covering all payment options, currency selection, and error states. We built the business's first reusable component library, designed mobile-first and shared with the wider Design Team to reduce rework across the organisation. Design guidelines for all new pages and overlays gave the Development Team clear direction on hierarchy and content structure — the first time this had been done in the business.Using divergent and convergent thinking, we generated a wide range of ideas before narrowing down to the strongest solutions.

  1. Learnings

This project taught me how to lead through ambiguity — taking something stalled and undocumented and delivering it at scale. The lasting impact wasn't just the redesign, but the component library and guidelines that changed how the business thought about design consistency. That kind of operational legacy is what I aim for as a design leader.