Redesigning onboarding and subscriptions for an online therapy platform around trust
An online therapy platform connecting people with licensed psychologists over chat and video: no waitlist, no commute, about half the cost of traditional therapy.
- Overview
- 2 years 3 months · Junior → Product Designer · agency client project · Sole Designer
- Live markets
- Germany and Austria (DE / AT)
- Contribution
- Sole designer across five product areas: landing, patient app, psychologist workspace, corporate role, admin dashboard, on web and mobile (Flutter), localised for German and English. Reverse-engineered the live product into a reusable UI kit from zero, redesigned onboarding around emotional safety, and rewrote subscription and cancellation logic for transparency over pressure.
- Team
- Project managerProduct designer (me)Business analysts (x2)Development team (Flutter / web)QA team
Background
Pinga connects patients with its own vetted, licensed psychologists via chat and video: no waitlist, no commute, at roughly half the cost of traditional therapy.
When I joined, the platform already existed. People could register, chat, book sessions. But something wasn’t working: users hesitated, dropped during registration, and weren’t sure what they were paying for.
In mental health, hesitation means leaving.
For more than 2 years as the sole product designer, I covered the full product: landing page, patient platform, psychologist workspace, corporate role, and admin analytics dashboard.
Problem
Pinga was already live, but people hesitated at every step before their first conversation with a psychologist, often right after they had finally decided to ask for help.
- 1
Registration asked for too much, too soon.
People had to give a lot, including their name, before seeing anything of the product, and many dropped out right there.
- 2
People didn’t know what they were paying for.
Unclear limits, hidden cancellation and too many plan tiers made payment the second place people stopped.
- 3
The tone was transactional.
Registration, plans and payment read like a sales funnel, in a domain where people arrive anxious.
- 4
Between sessions, Pinga was just a chat.
Patients had little to work on between sessions, and psychologists had few tools to prepare or follow up.
The product asked for commitment before it had earned trust.
What made it harder: no source files or design system, legacy code, two languages (German and English), and no dedicated research time.
Process
Read the metrics rather than the research. With no dedicated research time, I worked with heuristic analysis, competitive benchmarking, and close collaboration with the PM and business analysts to understand where users dropped off and why.
I tracked the full journey and targeted each friction point in turn: Visitor → Registration → Trial → Payment → First Chat → Ongoing Sessions → Retention.
The map showed where people stopped: at registration, before they had seen anything of the product, and at payment, where plans and limits were hard to read.
Those two points became the focus of the redesign.
Advocated for users in every sprint. Without a researcher, I flagged dark patterns, pushed back on pressure-driven decisions, and consistently argued for trust over conversion, especially critical in a mental health context.
Built the foundation from scratch. No source files, no components. I reverse-engineered the live product and built a full design system from zero, covering web and mobile (Flutter), localised for both German and English.
Solutions
A way in without commitment. Anonymous Mode lets people start without giving their name. Fewer required fields get them in faster, and a short wellbeing check-in leads straight to psychologist matching. Trial and cancellation rules are shown upfront.
People can meet a matching psychologist before they commit their money or their name, so the first step feels safe enough to take.
A subscription people can trust. Rewritten plan comparison, visible usage limits and a simple cancellation flow.
People pay knowing exactly what they get and how to leave, so paying stops feeling like a trap.
A calmer tone on every decision screen. Registration, plans and payment were rewritten to sound calmer, clearer and more human. At the moments people decide whether to trust Pinga, it talks to them like a person, not a sales funnel.
Beyond the first session. Patients got audio messages, files and therapist-assigned exercises (relaxation, reflection, meditation). Psychologists got private notes, session planning and reusable welcome templates. Therapy carries on between sessions: patients have something to work on, psychologists can prepare and follow up, and both have a reason to stay on the platform.
Results
The problem was that people hesitated at every step before their first conversation with a psychologist, and weren’t sure what they were paying for. Here’s what changed, problem by problem.
- A faster, safer path to the first conversation. People can start anonymously, with fewer required fields, and reach psychologist matching before paying.
- A subscription people understand. Simplified plans, visible limits and an honest cancellation flow, all clear before payment.
- A calmer, more human product at every point where people have to decide something.
- An ongoing support environment. The chat grew into a place where therapy continues between sessions, for patients and psychologists.
- Live at pinga.app across Germany and Austria, with 5 product areas designed solo on a scalable design foundation across web, mobile and two languages.
Reflection
Trust turned out to be a retention strategy. The hardest conversations on this project weren’t about layouts. They were about whether to make cancellation easy, whether to show the real limits of a plan, whether a person in distress should have to give their name before they get any help.
Every time we chose transparency, the product converted more slowly. It also kept more people.