UPS App Redesign

Client
UPS
Agency
AKQA
Role
UX Director
CHALLENGE
The engagement began as a redesign of a major feature within the UPS mobile app. During the discovery and pitch process, the opportunity expanded into a complete redesign of the experience. Over the following year, our team reimagined the product around the evolving needs of consumers and small businesses, simplifying complex shipping workflows while creating a more intuitive, scalable foundation for one of the world’s largest logistics networks.
APPROACH
As UX Director, I led the experience strategy and concept development for the redesign, partnering closely with UPS stakeholders, product teams, and a second UX Director responsible for production and implementation. My focus was on defining the product vision, shaping the experience architecture, and building confidence around new ideas throughout the engagement.

UPS came into the project with extensive internal research, customer insights, and data gathered from consumers and small businesses. Rather than starting from scratch, I translated those findings into strategic product concepts, helping identify opportunities that balanced business objectives with customer needs.

To communicate those ideas, I developed a presentation framework that combined research insights, competitive analysis, emerging interaction patterns, and future-looking concepts into a clear narrative. Each concept was presented alongside evidence, industry examples, and a strategic rationale before evolving into wireframes and prototypes. This approach helped align stakeholders around new directions and created a shared understanding of why each feature mattered before execution began.

The redesign also shifted the role of the mobile app itself. Rather than treating it as a destination users visited only when they needed to ship a package, we explored a more proactive experience through contextual interactions, widgets, and one-tap actions that surfaced information when it was most relevant. The result was a product vision that felt simpler, faster, and better integrated into customers’ daily lives while remaining flexible enough to support the complexity of UPS’s global logistics platform.
OUTCOME
The redesigned UPS mobile app launched successfully following an extensive beta program, transforming what began as a feature redesign into a completely reimagined mobile experience. The work established a scalable foundation for future product development while simplifying complex shipping workflows for millions of users.The redesign was recognized with a Webby Award for Best User Experience and contributed to a dramatic improvement in customer perception. During the engagement, the app’s App Store rating improved from approximately 2.8 stars to over 4 stars, ultimately reaching its current rating of 4.6/5 from nearly one million reviews.
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