Business case · UX/UI · Mobile app
SuperEnalotto app
Sisal asked for a restructured home screen for the SuperEnalotto app. The usage data said the actual problem was elsewhere: seven users in ten open the app only to check whether they won. So I designed for that visit first, and made opening an account the obvious next step from it.
- Type
- Self-directed business case, a brief taken on during a design selection process and run with my own method
- Scope
- Expert review, problem reframing, wireframe, UI
- Constraints
- Hybrid app, iframed bet slip, audience aged 35 to 65
- Tools
- Paper, Sketch
The brief
SuperEnalotto has been played in Italy since 1997 and carries some of the largest jackpots in the world. The app is the digital front door to a business whose centre of gravity is still physical: tickets bought over a counter, in a tobacconist, in cash.
The stated task was to simplify entering the game and opening a game account, restructuring the home screen so that customers arriving from a retail context could reach an online account with the Sisal.it retailer.
Constraints handed down with the brief
The app is not native. The bet slip and the receipt are delivered as iframes and are shared with the Sisal.it portal, so they were out of scope. The average retail player is between 35 and 65, an audience with less tolerance for gestural, discoverable interfaces.
The process, and what was real
This was a selection exercise, so I had the app, the brief and three usage figures, but no users. Below is the full process with the honest split between what I produced and what I would have run with access to players.
Empathise
Partly delivered- Expert review of the live app
- Constraints and usage data from the brief
- Interviews with retail players (proposed)
- Session recordings and funnel analysis (proposed)
Define
Partly delivered- Top five usability and accessibility issues
- Reframed problem statement
- Success metrics agreed with the business (proposed)
Ideate
Delivered- Solution set per criticality
- Navigation model: persistent tab bar
Prototype
Delivered- Hand wireframe, current vs. proposed
- UI screens for the new home
Test
Method proposed- Moderated test with players aged 35 to 65 (proposed)
- A/B on the account-opening entry point (proposed)
Expert review of the live app
Delivered
The preliminary task was to find and describe the five most serious usability and accessibility problems in the app. I walked the main journeys on device and annotated the screens directly.
- The primary action sits where the thumb cannot reach
“Conto online”, the entry point to the whole online business, is parked in the top bar: one of the hardest zones to reach one-handed on a modern phone.
Thumb zone and reachability - The most common intent has no home
70% of app users are there to check winnings without opening an account. Nothing in the layout acknowledges that, so the majority journey competes with promotional content.
Match between system and real world - The shortcut carousel hides its own content
The central row of shortcuts gives no signal that there is more to see left or right, and the arrows stay visible even when you have reached the end of the set.
Visibility of system status - The draw-count slider gives away control
In “Quick plays” the number of draws is set with a slider, which makes precise choices hard on a small screen. The pattern repeats elsewhere in the app.
User control and freedom - The login form confuses three different users
Registered players, unregistered visitors and people activating a betting-shop account all meet the same screen, and the ways out are labelled inconsistently: “Close” in one place, “Done” in another.
Consistency and standards
Reframing the problem
Delivered
Three numbers came with the brief, and read together they change the job:
- 30% of online SuperEnalotto play comes through the app.
- 70% of app users open it to check winnings, without an online account.
- The jackpot amount and the time left until the draw are the information users come for.
“Restructure the home screen” is a layout request. What the data describes is a conversion problem with a retail-shaped funnel: most visits are verification visits, and the account is being sold to people who are not in a buying moment. Designing the account CTA to shout louder would have made the majority journey worse and converted nobody.
Problem statement I worked to
Serve the winnings-check visit properly, keep jackpot and countdown as the emotional anchor, and place account creation where a retail player naturally arrives, not where a marketing brief would like it.
Design decisions
Delivered
- A persistent tab bar at the bottom
All main sections move into a fixed bottom bar: reachable one-handed, always visible, and conventional enough for an audience that has already learned the pattern from banking apps.
Fix
Home, Draws, Scan, My tickets, Top 10. Five destinations, no hidden carousel. - “Check slip” in the centre of the bar
The single most frequent task gets the single most reachable position on the screen: the middle of the tab bar, where scan-style actions are expected.
Fix
Scan becomes a first-class action instead of a shortcut buried in a carousel. - Account creation in context, not in the corner
The CTA moves out of the top bar and into the flow, right under the jackpot block, wrapped in a line that explains what an account gets you.
Fix
“Not registered yet? Open your online account”: a question and an answer, placed after the user has seen the prize. - Explicit quick-play rows instead of a slider
Each combination becomes its own row with its own price and its own button, so choosing is tapping rather than dragging.
Fix
Precision restored, and every option becomes independently tappable at 44px. - Notifications get a fixed home
An alert icon in the top right collects notifications, including the responsible-gaming messages that are a regulatory requirement in this category.
Fix
One predictable place for anything the operator must tell the player.
Wireframe: current vs. proposed
Delivered
I sketched both states side by side on paper. Drawing the current screen next to the proposed one is the fastest way to make a layout argument to a stakeholder who is attached to the existing design, because the differences become countable.
Interface
Delivered
The interface keeps SuperEnalotto’s existing colour and type. This was a restructuring exercise, not a rebrand, and every change on screen traces back to a finding above.
Looking back
Method proposed written now, looking back: what I would keep and what I would do differently with the experience I have today
The reframing still holds up. This is the case study I would use to explain what design leadership means, because the value came from arguing with the brief rather than from the screens.
What I’d do differently: I never validated the tab-bar assumption with the actual 35 to 65 audience, and that age band is exactly where I would expect a five-icon bar to need bigger labels or fewer destinations. Today I would spend a day on five unmoderated tasks (“check whether this ticket won”) before committing to the navigation model, and I would ask for the funnel data behind that 70% rather than accepting the number as given.