UX/UI design · Strategy
Zip Co
Overview.
Buy now, pay later: redesigned
Codelab303, an agency I'd worked with before, brought me in when Zip Co needed a fast turnaround on their app. Zip's own team had already built the functional screens, but the brief was blunt: it didn't feel like the bold new brand they were about to launch. They wanted a reskin, and they wanted it in a weekend.
Once we got into it, a straight reskin wasn't enough. We ran a quick discovery sprint auditing Quadpay and the competitive landscape, then pushed past the visual brief into real UX work. We redesigned the home screen, reimagined the purchase flow, and reworked onboarding, all built around the new brand system Koto had just defined for Zip globally.
The work.
Finance
Retail
Technology
Industry
Lead UI/UX Design & Strategy
Role
2021
Timeline
Strategy
UX/UI design
Services
Tools
Design Sprint.
With the discovery work done, we moved into a focused design sprint. Over the weekend we built out five key flows for UX updates and screen redesign, along with an updated brand application, a digital style guide, and a UI kit to apply consistently across the app. Everything went into working interactive prototypes, so Zip Co could actually feel the new direction, not just look at static screens.
New User Experience.
A new user's first second in the app is the perfect moment to "wow" them with a surprise and delight moment. Before anything else loads, that opening screen is already setting expectations for everything that follows. We wanted it to feel like something fast, energetic, and exciting.
The sequence puts the Zip mark front and center. The animation leans into the name itself, building a quick, confident entrance that communicates speed and personality before the first functional screen appears. We weren't interested in safe or polished. The goal was to give people a reason to feel something about the app experience before even using it.
Purchase Flow.
Zip's virtual card is what makes the whole product work at merchants that haven't integrated Zip natively. Shop normally, reach checkout, and Zip generates a one-time virtual card covering your total. Paste the card details in like any other card, split the repayment into four installments, and you're done.
The UX challenge was making that feel simple. Rather than front-loading a tutorial, the flow surfaces guidance at each step as users need it. Each moment shows only what matters right then, keeping the mental load low even when the underlying mechanics are doing a lot of work.
End to end.
The purchase flow was the critical conversion moment, but it lives inside a larger app. We redesigned the home screen around a personalized discovery feed, giving users a reason to open Zip when they aren't actively buying.
Onboarding makes the model clear before the first purchase, and the repayment screens give users visibility into what they owe and how close they are to done. Every screen extends the same energy through the full lifecycle of the product.
Results.
Despite our best efforts, Zip passed on the pitch. After a sleepless weekend sprint, real work, and a lot of fun with the Codelab303 crew, Zip admitted that they loved the work, but ultimately went in a different direction.
This project felt like being back in agency-mode with a late-night client ask that came out of nowhere. Quick decisions, genuine creative pressure, and a completely unrealistic deadline. As the saying goes, pressure makes diamonds.
Looking at Zip's app today, the style and experience share a lot with what we built that weekend. I'd love to know if any of it carried through. What I do know is that the Zip team are top-tier designers, and getting to work alongside them, even briefly, made the whole sprint worth it.
Thanks to Codelab303 for bringing me into this one, and the bottle of whisky that arrived shortly after!