Projects
SMS Campaigns
User Research
UX
UI
Created at KOMI
KOMI is an all-in-one platform designed to help creators, such as influencers, musicians, and podcasters, grow their income and engagement. It offers tools like a mini-site builder, monetization hub, and email/SMS marketing features. KOMI enables creators to centralize their offerings, connect with fans, secure brand partnerships, and sell digital products. Trusted by prominent names like Jessica Alba and Usher, it supports a global community of creators, helping them maximize their commercial potential and manage fan relationships effectively.
Project background
Our users expressed the need for an SMS campaigns feature, as they have consistently been experiencing a much higher ROI on SMS messaging, compared to email campaigns. With our MVP launch, we targeted the US and Canada, where 70% of our users’ audience was based. That approach ensured we could focus on delivering value to as many users as possible. However, it soon became clear that we had to support more countries, especially in Europe. Adding global support posed several challenges, including regulatory compliance, timezone management, and communicating cost variability across regions.
I was the lead & sole designer for the CRM product and this project and was responsible for collaborating with product and engineering on defining the requirements as well as executing on user research, UX and UI.
The problem
Users wanted to be able to send SMS campaigns to fans in a reliable way, especially considering the high costs associated with this messaging method. They quoted that a lot of the solutions on the market were either too expensive, didn't cover enough regions, or provided poor deliverability. However, additional country support for the SMS feature presented some challenges:
Regulatory complexity: SMS campaigns have strict compliance requirements, including “quiet hours” regulations, prohibiting messages during certain hours to avoid legal penalties.
Timezone challenges: Managing global timezones is complex. Messages sent at the same time globally might reach fans during prohibited hours in certain regions.
Cost transparency: SMS costs vary significantly between regions, requiring clear communication to users.
Number procurement: Sending SMS messages at scale in different countries required procuring local numbers and / or alphanumeric sender IDs. Some countries are notoriously strict when it comes to procurement rules and regulations as well as sending marketing messages.
There also were two scheduling options to consider: global and local. "Global" meaning most customers would receive the campaign at the same time, but fans that are within quiet hours would get it the next day. If we were to go for the "local" approach, every fan would receive the message at the same time in their timezone, e.g. 6 PM GMT, EST, PST, etc. Early discussions with users revealed the importance of prioritizing a “global delivery” option over a “local delivery” model due to their specific campaign needs.
Project objectives
Considering the complexity of creating a global SMS product, we decided to split the release into several phases. The first version needed to accomplish the following goals:
Increase fan coverage from 70% to at least 85%, by adding more countries to the supported list.
Ease of use: Create a user interface that simplifies phone number procurement for different regions and the management of timezones and SMS costs.
Scalable solution: Ensure that the experience is designed in a flexible way and would support our vision to expand globally.
Competitive advantage: Offer industry-leading guardrails to differentiate our solution from competitors.
User requirements
From user research, we uncovered a list of features that were really important to our users.
Number customization: Branded sender IDs can be easily customized, but we didn't have support for toll-free phone numbers, which were used in the US and Canada. Users mentioned that being able to request vanity phone numbers (e.g. (855) KNG - LEON) was crucial, so they could incorporate them into promotions and music releases.
Pricing transparency: Since SMS costs vary greatly between regions, users wanted higher transparency on pricing, especially around total campaign cost.
Design process
Since this project was highly technical, I worked in close collaboration with the PM, engineering, as well as our 3rd party partner that provided the SMS services.
We ran a few manual tests with clients, provisioning the phone number for them and helping them send campaigns. The tests helped us solidify the flow and the necessary functionalities that we needed to include into scope. It also helped us understand what information we needed to provide to our users, based on the questions we received. In addition to that, I did a round of extensive desk research and analysis of competitor offerings.
There were two parts of the product that needed to be updated: Settings and Campaigns. In Settings, we added a way for users to request custom toll-free phone numbers to send messages in the US and Canada (including vanity numbers) and add branded sender IDs for European countries. For this release, we focused on markets that didn't require any additional registration. In a future release, we were going to add a business registration form, so that customers could self-serve to register for messaging in countries with stricter requirements, which included France, Italy, Australia and New Zealand.
In the Campaigns flow, I added a country dropdown in the preview window, to make it country-specific. That's because different number types have different opting out requirements, so the message might look different to different fans, depending on where they're based. I also added a preview of the estimated cost based on message length and selected customer segments.
I also made changes to scheduling. Users needed to be able to schedule their campaign in any timezone, so I added a timezone selector. Because of the quiet hours legislation and us introducing new regions, there'd be a higher chance for users to not be able to find a good time to send and hit all of their fans at the same time. To help them understand the best time to send, I added an indicator next to each time slot, showing how many fans in selected segments would receive the message immediately instead of the following day.
In order to reduce the cognitive load, I initially hid some additional information, like the quiet hours requirements, behind a tooltip. However, a usability test revealed that users wanted to see the regulations right away, as they had a direct impact on the best time to schedule. An info box was received a lot better, and users appreciated the transparency, especially since the restrictions came out of regulations, not limitations of the product. Users mentioned that made them feel like they could trust the product, since there were actual safety guardrails in place.
To ensure transparency, I added a review screen at the end of the flow, to give the user the opportunity to do a final review of the campaign, especially the cost. During the usability test, users commented that even though this step made the flow longer, it helped mitigate errors, especially when it came to costs.
Summary
The design process was grounded in user-centered design principles and emphasized transparency, compliance, and ease of use. By addressing the critical components of settings, message cost, and scheduling, we delivered a feature that met user needs, reduced operational risks, and positioned our product as an industry leader in SMS campaign functionality.