A challenger that reshaped the Italian mobile market.
Iliad entered Italy in 2018 with a transparent, no-hidden-costs approach that reshaped industry standards. The Iliad Group, rooted in the French company Free Mobile founded in 2007, quickly gained millions of users with radically simple mobile plans.
After a few successful years, the company launched their native app to reach a broader audience, improve user engagement, and provide a more seamless experience compared to their existing web platform. I led the UX/UI design process — from low-fidelity wireframes to a high-fidelity prototype — and defined the design direction and Figma-based UI Kit.
The numbers that followed.
The app ranked #1 among free apps in Italy on both the App Store and Play Store in February 2025, establishing itself as the most downloaded and widely trusted solution by users.
What this project taught me
Building the Figma UI Kit with variants and variables before development made handoff consistent at scale. Investing in structure early reduces design debt later.
The main challenges — Multi SIM and data abroad — were problems of perceived complexity, not missing features. Simplifying the existing experience had more impact than adding new ones.
In a commoditised sector like telco, #1 in the app store and a 4.5/5 rating prove that user experience can be a real competitive advantage, not just a requirement.
The goal was to improve on the existing web platform, not replicate it. Thinking native-first from wireframe stage prevented dragging wrong patterns into the final product.