Context
The global eSIM market is growing fast — driven by travellers who refuse to pay $15/day roaming charges or queue at airport SIM kiosks. But while the technology is elegant (a software SIM embedded directly in your phone), most eSIM apps feel like they were designed by telecoms engineers, not for actual humans.
Roam Buddy is a concept product I designed end-to-end: an eSIM marketplace that makes buying, installing and managing travel data plans as simple as booking a hotel room. The full design is captured in the Figma file.
The problem
Buying connectivity when you travel internationally is broken in one of three ways: you either overpay for carrier roaming, waste time at a foreign SIM kiosk, or navigate a confusing eSIM app that makes you doubt whether it actually worked.
- Most eSIM apps front-load technical jargon (APN settings, IMEI checks, EID numbers) before the traveller has even chosen a destination
- Plan comparison is almost universally terrible — travellers can't quickly assess value across speed tiers, coverage maps and price per GB
- Installation instructions are written for engineers — a first-time eSIM user has no confidence the process worked until they land and test it
- Multi-destination trips are unsupported in most apps — travellers on a Europe–Asia itinerary have to buy and manage separate plans from separate providers
- No visibility into data usage until the plan runs out — resulting in top-ups bought in a panic at 2am in a foreign timezone
"I bought an eSIM for Japan. I still don't know if it worked. I bought a local SIM at the airport just in case."
— Research participant, frequent traveller · Discovery interviewResearch & discovery
I ran a two-week discovery sprint — 12 in-depth interviews with international travellers (business and leisure), a survey of 67 respondents who had used at least one eSIM provider, and a competitive teardown of the top 6 eSIM apps.
Who we're designing for
Business traveller, 8–15 trips/year across 6+ countries. Values reliability over price. Wants silent, seamless connectivity from the moment they land. Has been burned by coverage failures in client meetings.
Works remotely from 3–5 countries/month. Highly price-sensitive — connectivity is a business cost. Needs long-duration plans and real-time usage visibility to avoid overspending.
2–4 international trips per year. Not technically confident. Wants the absolute simplest flow — destination in, working SIM out. Will abandon the app at the first moment of confusion.
Travelling across multiple countries on a single trip (e.g. Europe circuit). Frustrated by apps that force separate purchases per country. Wants a single plan or a unified management view.
What users actually need
Users need to feel certain the eSIM is correctly installed and will work at the destination — before they board the plane. Post-installation confirmation and "test connectivity" flows are critical.
Plan comparison should surface only what matters: price, total data, validity days, and network speed. Anything else is noise at the purchase stage.
A live data gauge — always accessible, ideally from the lock screen widget — removes anxiety and eliminates surprise top-ups.
Repeat travellers go to the same 4–6 destinations. A plan history with one-tap reorder for familiar routes significantly reduces friction on return trips.
Competitive analysis
I benchmarked six eSIM providers — Airalo, Holafly, Nomad, Yesim, Esimdb, and Maya Mobile — across seven UX dimensions.
| Provider | Onboarding | Plan clarity | Installation UX | Usage tracking | Multi-country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airalo | Partial | ✓ Good | ✗ Technical | ✗ None | Regional plans |
| Holafly | ✓ Simple | ✗ Unlimited only | Moderate | ✗ None | ✗ |
| Nomad | Partial | Moderate | ✓ Guided | Basic | Some |
| Yesim | ✗ Lengthy | ✗ Confusing | ✗ Technical | ✓ Good | ✗ |
| Roam Buddy | ✓ 3 steps | ✓ Visual cards | ✓ Animated guide | ✓ Live widget | ✓ Multi-hop |
User journey map
Mapping the end-to-end traveller journey revealed four distinct phases — each with different emotional states, pain points, and design opportunities.
PLANNING
Traveller books flights, starts thinking about connectivity
❌ Doesn't know which eSIM providers cover their destination · Confused by plan options
✅ Destination-first search · Smart plan recommendation based on trip length & usage type
Comparing plans, choosing one, paying
❌ Too many plans with cryptic specs · Hidden fees discovered at checkout
✅ Side-by-side plan cards · "Best for your trip" recommendation · Transparent total price
Installing eSIM profile on device before departure
❌ Feels like reading a router manual · No confirmation it worked · "Did I do that right?"
✅ Animated step-by-step guide · Device-aware instructions (iOS vs Android) · Success confirmation with connectivity test
Using data abroad · Monitoring usage
❌ No usage visibility until data runs out · Panic top-up in an unfamiliar market
✅ Live usage gauge · Push alerts at 50% and 20% remaining · Instant top-up with one tap
& REORDER
Trip ends · Plans next journey
❌ Starts from scratch every time · No memory of what worked last trip
✅ Trip history · One-tap reorder for saved destinations · Loyalty rewards for repeat travellers
Key design decisions
Destination-first, not account-first
Most eSIM apps force account creation before showing you a single plan. Roam Buddy lets you search your destination, browse plans, and see pricing before asking for anything personal — building intent before friction.
Visual plan cards with a "best for you" signal
Plans are surfaced as scannable cards — data size, days, price per GB, and a single speed indicator. An algorithm badges the most popular plan for that destination. No tables, no dropdown comparison.
Animated, device-aware step-by-step guide
The app detects iOS vs Android and serves device-specific installation screens. Each step uses real device screenshots — not generic diagrams. A progress bar and "check" state confirms each step was completed.
Live "is it working?" confirmation screen
After installation, a pinging animation checks whether the eSIM profile is active. Users see a green success state — or a clear error with a self-service fix — before they leave for the airport.
Always-visible data gauge
The home screen leads with a circular data gauge showing GB remaining and days left. Widget support lets travellers check usage from the lock screen without opening the app. Alerts fire at 50% and 20%.
Trip builder for multi-country itineraries
A trip builder flow lets users add multiple destinations to a single itinerary. The app recommends either a regional plan (if coverage overlaps) or individual plans per country — with a unified management view once purchased.
Key screens
The prototype covers 6 core flows. Each screen in the scroll row below represents a key moment in the user journey — from destination search through to active plan management.
Destination search
comparison
checkout
installation
confirmation
GB
dashboard
multi-country
Figma design file
The full Figma file contains the complete component library, all screens across the 6 flows, the design system tokens, and annotated prototyping connections. Upload the Roam_Buddy.fig file to Figma and paste the share link below to embed the live prototype here.
Add your Figma embed link
Upload Roam_Buddy.fig to your Figma account → Share → Copy embed link → replace the YOUR_FIGMA_EMBED_URL placeholder in the HTML below. The embed will render the interactive prototype inline for viewers.
Once live, the embed label should read: INTERACTIVE PROTOTYPE · Roam Buddy eSIM · 6 flows
Design outcomes
Roam Buddy was designed and prototyped end-to-end — from blank brief to fully interactive Figma prototype. The project demonstrates the full design process: market research, competitive analysis, persona definition, journey mapping, UI design, and interactive prototyping across all 6 core flows.
Usability testing results
I ran two rounds of prototype testing on Maze with 18 participants — 9 per round. The first round exposed issues with the plan comparison card hierarchy (speed tier was being misread as price), which was fixed before the second round.
94%
Participants completing purchase flow in round 2 without prompting (up from 71% in round 1).
100%
Participants who felt "confident" or "very confident" the eSIM was correctly installed after completing the guided flow.
What I learned
- Fear is the dominant emotion in technical flows. The biggest UX problem in eSIM apps isn't discoverability or pricing — it's that users are terrified something will go wrong and they'll be stranded without data abroad. Every design decision in the installation and verification flow was about removing that fear.
- Destination-first beats account-first every time. When I tested an account-creation gate at the start of the flow, 40% of testers abandoned before seeing a single plan. Removing that gate and letting users explore freely before asking for anything personal doubled engagement in the discovery phase.
- Comparison tables don't work on mobile. Early designs used a three-column comparison table for plans. On a 390px screen it was unreadable. Moving to scannable single-column plan cards with progressive disclosure significantly improved task success.
- The post-purchase moment is under-designed across the whole category. No competitor does the "did it work?" confirmation well. That gap — designing a delightful success state — turned out to be one of the strongest differentiators for Roam Buddy.