Straight Talk - Optimizing the Home Internet Purchase Journey
Role: Sr. UX/UI Designer
Problem statement: Customers could purchase a Straight Talk Home Internet router before knowing whether service was available at their address. This led to customer frustration, unnecessary product returns, support calls, and operational costs. My role was to redesign the purchase journey to validate eligibility earlier, reduce costly product returns, and create a smoother customer experience while working within the existing business and technical constraints.
Project Evolution:
Initial launch: The product was introduced quickly to establish a market presence and gather real customer feedback.
Experience improvements: Early iterations focused on reducing ineligible purchases by improving how customers verified service availability.
Purchase journey redesign: My work centered on integrating address verification earlier in the digital experience, creating a more seamless purchase flow and reducing customer friction.
Context
This was an early product launch with a very aggressive timeline. To launch quickly, the team used the existing purchase experience instead of building a brand-new one. That meant customers had to verify service availability outside the normal purchase flow.
The solution was a QR code on the in-store display that customers could scan to check availability. The problem was that it took them to a separate landing page outside the shopping experience, and most people shopped the way they normally do—they picked up the router and headed straight to checkout without scanning it.
The key UX challenge was that customers had to remember to take an extra step instead of the experience guiding them naturally.
Key UX Challenges
The redesign focused on five key UX challenges:
Customers could purchase hardware before confirming service eligibility.
Address qualification occurred too late in the purchase journey, leading to unnecessary returns.
Multiple dead ends interrupted the purchase flow.
Walmart’s purchase experience limited where UX improvements could be introduced.
Customers outside the coverage area were left without a meaningful next step.
Design Strategy
Surface service eligibility as early as possible.
Reduce friction within Walmart’s purchase flow.
Validate eligibility across multiple entry points.
Eliminate dead ends with meaningful recovery paths.
Increase customer confidence before purchase.
Home Internet Landing Page With Success and Join Wait List Message
Integrated address qualification into the homepage, allowing customers to verify service availability before purchasing hardware.
Instead of presenting a dead end, we introduced a waitlist that allowed customers to receive availability updates while providing the business with valuable demand insights for future network expansion.
Customers attempting to purchase Home Internet could not proceed because the existing Plan Details Page only supported the Refill journey. The redesigned experience introduced a new purchase path, enabling customers to verify service availability, add a service plan, and then select a compatible router.
Legacy: The option to select “yes” (indicating a customer is new to Straight Talk) was omitted from this page because the technical infrastructure on that specific page couldn’t process a new customer.
New: Added a “Yes” option that launches real-time address qualification.
Result: Eligible customers can verify availability and continue directly to router selection without leaving the purchase flow.
Because we couldn’t modify Walmart’s purchase flow, we surfaced eligibility checks in the Item Details section and redesigned the mobile experience to guide customers through address verification before purchase.
Launch from Walmart
Verify Address
Confirm Eligibility
Return to Walmart
Although my focus was on the digital experience, many users originated from retail environments. Customers accessed the digital eligibility tool by scanning in-store QR codes or texting HOMEINTERNET to 611611, allowing them to verify service availability before buying.
Design Decisions
Our focus was to reduce friction while preventing costly customer mistakes.
Key UX principles included:
Keep customers within a single purchase flow.
Eliminate unnecessary redirects.
Surface eligibility early.
Provide clear guidance before purchase.
Offer an alternative path when service wasn’t available.
Results
The redesign produced measurable business improvements:
The redesigned experience reduced customer friction by integrating eligibility earlier in the purchase journey, creating a more intuitive experience that better aligned customer needs with business goals.
Business Impact
The project transformed a high-friction product launch into a scalable customer experience that reduced operational costs while increasing qualified customer acquisition. By improving qualification, education, and purchase guidance, the team significantly reduced avoidable returns and supported long-term growth for Straight Talk’s home internet business.
View the online experience